The ambitions of the Hamburg and the Marienborg declarations, establishing 300 GW offshore wind in the North Sea and 93 GW in the Baltic Sea, are important pieces in the puzzle for a secure, affordable and sustainable European energy system. Central to this enormous buildout are offshore energy hubs, that combine large scale offshore wind with energy transmission between markets and across borders.
The Energy Island Forum, in collaboration with RWE, have brought together stakeholders across the sectors that will potentially be involved in future offshore energy hubs. TSOs, developers, OEMs, ports, and consultancies. The focus was on offshore wind tenders and support schemes, such as the Danish capability-based two-sided CfD. The discussion concerned how learnings can be captured from the two recent tenders in Denmark and the upcoming tender for Bornholm Energy Island and be used for future energy hubs.
The complexities are high, and the timelines are ambitious, yet the group shared optimistic views on auctions for future projects. It was agreed that the current design for capability-based two-sided CfDs stipulates the market and balances the risks and benefits between states and developers. At the same time, the complexity highlights the importance of maintaining transparency, clear responsibilities and open dialogue to support successful projects.
Four central questions came out of the conversation and will be used by Energy Island Forum to establish a shared, cross-sector view on tenders of offshore wind for energy hubs:
- How do offshore energy hubs differ from radial parks in terms of risks and uncertainties, and how can tenders be designed to address these?
- How can tenders be planned and designed to deliver the certainty needed for the industry to invest in increasing their production capacities and thereby bringing costs down?
- How can risks, uncertainties and benefits be balanced while avoiding too complex tender designs?
- In what way should tenders address co-located energy consumption, conversion and storage?
Thanks to RWE, with a special thanks to Pernille Haaning and Matthias Phillipi, for hosting this meeting and for the lively discussion by all participants:
