Energy Island Forum
Who we are and what we do
We are a partnership for international stakeholders engaged in energy islands, offshore energy hubs and grids.
We aim to identify research, innovation, and demonstration needs towards 2050 that will make energy islands more cost-effective, more reliable, safer, and more supportive to the future energy systems and thereby a central part of the European and global green transition.
Our goal is to pinpoint the necessary actions to ensure the first energy islands are established by 2030 or shortly thereafter.
While the actions towards 2030 will have a strong focus on demonstration and implementation, the actions towards 2050 will have a greater focus on research and innovation, test, and demonstration.
The North Sea Summit is an opportunity
Under the European Climate Law, the EU is legally bound to reach climate neutrality by 2050. The Esbjerg, Marienborg, and Ostend Declarations make it clear that this goal cannot be achieved without a massive and rapid expansion of offshore wind. As highlighted in the Draghi report, the energy transition is also central to Europe’s competitiveness, industrial strength, and energy security. However, continuing to develop offshore wind as isolated projects connected individually to national onshore grids is no longer viable. Europe’s onshore grids cannot absorb the volumes of power required, they lack the flexibility needed for a highly electrified system, and the overall approach is increasingly inefficient and costly. The upcoming North Sea Summit on 26 January provides a timely opportunity for governments and industry to strengthen regional collaboration and accelerate the planning and development of offshore energy hubs, ensuring that the North Sea becomes a central driver of Europe’s green transition.
Energy islands are essential
Energy islands, also referred to as offshore energy hubs, are therefore not optional; they are essential. By aggregating large volumes of offshore wind, interconnecting countries at sea, and linking electrons and molecules across borders, energy islands enable a truly integrated European energy system. They form the backbone of future European energy highways, offshore corridors that transport clean energy efficiently across borders and reduce bottlenecks on land. Energy islands are a prerequisite for achieving the EU’s target of up to 450 GW of offshore wind and for delivering power where and when it is needed.
The complexity of realization
Yet the scale and complexity of energy islands represent a fundamental system transformation. They require technological innovation in offshore infrastructure, grids, controls, cybersecurity, and digital system management. They demand new market designs that allow fast, cross-border optimization of electricity, hydrogen, and other energy carriers. And they require regulatory innovation to enable planning, permitting, investment, and operation across national boundaries. These challenges are too large for any single actor to solve.
Bringing people together
This is why the Energy Island Forum exists. EIF brings together industry, transmission system operators, universities, regulators, energy agencies, and public institutions across Europe to break down silos and create a shared vision for offshore energy hubs. Through a cross-sectoral and international partnership, EIF identifies the research, innovation, and demonstration needs required to make energy islands technically feasible, economically viable, and societally accepted.
Energy Island Forum serves as a platform to turn ambition into action, mobilizing innovation programmes, securing political support, and attracting funding to de-risk and accelerate development. The first energy islands will be live system laboratories, generating critical knowledge that will shape Europe’s energy future and ultimately the global energy system on the path to full independence from fossil fuels by 2050.
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