UK and the Offshore Energy in the North Sea

In this energy talk, Chris Fox, Head of Europe and Offshore at the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, discussed the challenges of integrating more offshore wind into the UK’s transmission network.

The talk also focused on how best to realise the potential of multi-purpose hybrid interconnector projects between the UK and its North Sea neighbours, as well as the key opportunities this presents and the impacts for the short-medium and longer term.

The UK have an ambitious target to increase offshore wind from 10 GW to 40 GW by 2030, and have launched a review into the way that the offshore transmission network Is designed and delivered.

“The analyses suggest that by 2050 coordinating our offshore transmission in a way that we haven’t done to date in the UK could deliver up to £ 6 billion in consumer savings through reduced infrastructure spending, and reduce the associated onshore landing points by around 50%.

“We saw this making a massive difference on the environmental and social impacts of delivering such large volumes of offshore wind as is required by the UK 2030 ambition, and looking ahead to 2050“, Fox said.

Fox was also a guest at the Energy Plaza, where he spoke about the challenges of the collaboration between countries.

Fox said the challenges mostly lie around ensuring that the compatible framework is in place, and the support of the development of the coordinated cross-border infrastructure, so that the private sector developers have appropriate regulatory routes through which they can progress their projects in the respective areas.