Germany and Denmark promote European offshore wind development

The energy hubs can increase supply of green power, green hydrogen and thereby promote Power-to-X technologies. In this way, both countries take an important step to fulfil the ambition enshrined in the EU’s Offshore Strategy on Renewable Energy to quintuple the capacity to 60 GW in 2030 and again to 300 GW in 2050.

Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy, Peter Altmaier stated:

"Joint offshore wind projects will make an important contribution on the way towards a climate-neutral Europe and are therefore a priority of the German EU Council Presidency. Now we must identify and promote concrete projects together with our neighbours. For me, it is important to have framework conditions that ensure that both countries benefit from cooperation. Joint offshore wind projects can also facilitate synergies for the development of green hydrogen.”

The Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities, Dan Jørgensen said:

“Last week, Denmark took the decision to phase out our oil and gas production by 2050. Today, Denmark and Germany are taking another leap forward by strengthening the cooperation to jointly develop and connect the offshore wind energy hubs. This will not only increase renewable power production considerably in both countries. It is also a prerequisite for Power-to-X technologies to produce sustainable fuels for shipping and aviation. To that end, Denmark is working to establish two offshore hubs with a capacity of five GW by 2030.”

The agreement between the two countries is the starting point for further cooperation to explore the design of possible joint projects. In this context, a possible cooperation on the energy hubs in the North and Baltic Seas will be discussed. Denmark plans to build two energy hubs in 2030 with a combined minimum capacity of five GW. In the long term, Denmark plans to establish energy hubs with a total capacity of twelve GW of offshore wind energy in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. The possibility to use the electricity from the offshore wind turbines for renewable hydrogen production will also be explored.

The two countries have been cooperating on offshore wind development for some time: In the North Sea Energy Cooperation and the Cooperation in the Baltic Sea, they are working together with other North Sea and Baltic Sea countries and the European Commission to promote offshore wind development. The bilateral agreement is an important step to explore concrete joint projects building on experience from the Kriegers Flak project in the Baltic Sea, which was the first of its kind. Both Jørgensen and Altmaier argued that in the long term, additional bilateral and multilateral cooperation projects are needed to achieve a climate-neutral Europe.

A video conference with the EU’s Energy Ministers as wells as a ministerial meeting in the North Sea Energy Cooperation also took place today. Prior to these meetings, conclusions on fostering cooperation on offshore and other sources of renewable energy as well as on the development of an EU hydrogen market were agreed under the German EU Council Presidency.