Offshore renewable energy and grids – shared 2050 vision in the Northern Seas region

This study provides a synthesis of existing national and regional long-term analyses, assumptions and plans on offshore renewable energy and grids in the NSEC countries based on the existing literature and on contacts with stakeholders. This synthesis should bring a new level of understanding to the NSEC participants of their national plans and underlying assumptions.
All the relevant dimensions (including technical details, policy and market development assumptions) are identified and compared between countries and studies. Likewise, all the results in terms of technology deployment, provision of flexibility, market prices, etc. are compared.
The study identifies the common ground and diverging aspects of both aspects (assumptions, results), while also providing a qualitative discussion of the way the scenario-building and planning methodologies differ. The study supports the establishment of a shared vision for the development of offshore renewable energy and grids in the North Seas up to 2050. This study adds important value by enabling to identify a sound basis on which the NSEC can base its future work in all the workstreams in order to accelerate the deployment of offshore renewable energy technologies and grids.

The study is conducted by Artelys (lead) and DNV, with quality assurance by Trinomics.