Industry: Offshore wind needs collaboration to accelerate development

Tuning in from the United States, Poland, Germany and Belgium, offshore wind industry experts have agreed that the market participants should learn from each other. Today’s OEEC 2021 Global Market Update session emphasized the importance of collaboration to accelerate global offshore wind development and reach the ambitious targets set worldwide.

The session gathered Brandon Burke, VP of policy and regulatory engagement at the U.S. Business Network for Offshore Wind, Rémi Gruet, CEO of Ocean Energy Europe, Heike Winkler, WAB managing director, and Piotr Czopek, director of Polish Wind Energy Association (PWEA).

The speakers noted that the international supply chain offers many opportunities for learning and collaborating, while Burke stated that the European offshore wind market is an inspiration to the United States.

“The fact that Europe has really advanced, offshore wind has been an inspiration to the United States, and the Netherlands specifically has a number of companies who are key market participants here in the US,” Burke said.

“From a larger perspective, one of the other models we have been considering is looking what Denmark has done in terms of having a one-stop shop for the permitting, grid connection, power contracts. Getting all those approvals at once helps enhance that market certainty and push back against that fragmentation that we see here in the political landscape in the U.S.”