New Delhi (NVI): The European Commission proposes to increase the offshore wind capacity in Europe from the current 12 giga watt to at least 60 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050.
Notably, the European Commission recently presented the EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy to help meet the European Union’s goal of climate neutrality by 2050.
The plan also proposes an additional capacity enhancement of ocean energy and other emerging technologies such as floating wind and solar up to 40 GW by 2050.
The EC also noted other technologies that are still in the early stages of development in Europe but could be promising for the future.
These include algal biofuels (biodiesel, biogas, and bioethanol), ocean thermal energy conversion, and floating solar installations (already deployed in landlocked waters but mainly at the research and demonstration stage at sea, with only 17 kW installed).
The Commission also highlighted the opportunities to install offshore wind projects across all of the EU’s sea basins, including the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the North Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Atlantic sea.
To achieve the 2050 target, the commission said that an investment of nearly 800 billion euros ($946.73 billion) is required.
Two-thirds of this investment will be needed for grid infrastructure, while one third will go towards power generation. Apart from that, it is expected that the majority of the cash will come from private investment.
-ARK
