Germany and the Netherlands as part of the North Seas Energy Cooperation initiative are considering the development of cross-border offshore wind farms, the countries’ respective economics ministers – Peter Altmaier and Eric Wiebes – said in a joint declaration of intent after a meeting in Berlin last week.
“Within the context of the North Seas Energy Cooperation, several exemplary cross-border offshore wind projects have been identified where a more detailed assessment and greater cooperation could be beneficial,” the declaration read.
The German and Dutch economics ministries “will continue to look at these projects. They intend to jointly assess how these and other projects could contribute to further market integration and future sector coupling.”
The two countries, which share a sea border in the North Sea, didn’t specify which projects were being looked at.
Germany has the world’s second-largest installed offshore wind capacity and is about to raise its 2030 target for wind at sea to 20GW. The Netherlands has the fastest offshore wind expansion in the world on a per-inhabitant level, and plans to reach some 11.5GW in cumulated capacity by 2030.
The Netherlands last year were Germany’s biggest trading partner in the EU, and its second-largest world-wide, with a bilateral trading volume of €189bn ($207bn).
The two ministers in the declaration also said they want to support the European Commission in “assessing the need to update the EU regulatory framework in order to eliminate investment barriers and to facilitate the development of interconnected cross-border offshore wind generation projects.”
The energy transition declaration also stressed the potential role of hydrogen for sector coupling and the intend to carry out joint feasibility studies on the viability of future hydrogen applications, hydrogen production based on renewable energy for large scale-storage and transportation infrastructure.
