North Sea Wind Power Hub Gets Royal Treatment

The King of the Netherlands Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima have reviewed the concept and plans for the North Sea Wind Power Hub (NSWPH) as part of the German-Dutch trade delegation meeting.

At the meeting, held on 6 March in Bremerhaven, TenneT CEO Manon van Beek presented the vision and current plans for the hub based on an interactive virtual model.

“We are especially pleased and honoured by the interest of the royal couple in the energy hub,” said Van Beek. “Joint visioning and concept development such as this one are necessary to create sustainable possibilities for achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement to reduce carbon emissions in Europe. This requires international cooperation and coordination, political momentum and courage and the support of non-governmental organisations.”

The NSWPH Consortium partners Energinet, Gasunie, Port of Rotterdam, TenneT Netherlands and TenneT Germany have committed to investigating the potential of establishing a large-scale offshore wind collection hub in the North Sea until mid-2019 by studying technical, environmental and market perspectives.

The hub would include the construction of one or more Power Link Islands that would accommodate a large number of links to wind turbines and/or offshore wind farms and facilitate the distribution and transmission of electricity to the Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, Norway, Germany and Denmark.

The envisioned power capacities are from 70GW to 150GW by 2040 and up to 180GW by 2045, TenneT said.

A first Cost Evaluation of North Sea Offshore Wind Post 2030 study has already been conducted on behalf of the consortium.

Besides investigating the perspectives of the hub as a staging point for offshore wind, the consortium is examining the development of electricity storage and conversion, including offshore-based Power to Gas.