PODCAST Planning for wind in the North Sea

North Sea countries want to build large numbers of wind farms at sea at the same time. But according to the sector that is responsible for this, it is highly unlikely that this planning will be achieved.

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The North Sea is an ideal terrain for the construction of wind farms. It is shallow water, with relatively high wind speeds, many ports and industrial consumers of wind power. All countries bordering the sea therefore have considerable ambitions. The joint ambition is to realise 300 GW of wind at sea in 2050, with an intermediate target of 120 GW in 2030. But these goals are unachievable, say people from the sector that have to build the parks, in a study commissioned by Arcadis. It is also questionable whether the sector can scale up in time and whether sufficient financing is available for this. Finally, the question is whether the wind ambitions fit within the ecological carrying capacity of the North Sea.

Energy reports are a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the energy transition. But where do you find the time to read those studies down to the footnotes? Energeia has the solution: Voetnoten, the podcast in which complex reports, studies and dry texts are discussed clearly and understandably by energy experts Laetitia Ouillet and Sabine Sluijters.

This podcast focuses on three different reports, each of which sheds light on part of the issues surrounding offshore wind: what bottlenecks occur in the supply chain for the construction of wind farms with the current planning, why there is insufficient financing for offshore wind and how monitoring of the ecological impact of offshore wind should be improved.