Dutch royals learn about north sea wind power hub
During a German-Dutch trade mission on the 6th of March, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands visited Bremerhaven. CEO Manon van Beek of consortium partner TenneT presented the North Sea Wind Power Hub vision to them. By means of a virtual, interactive model, the royal couple learned about the vision and progress in the planning of the North Sea Wind Power Hub. This was received with fascination and interest, because of the inspiring international collaboration.
Royal visit
“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 nec-essary 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 Nether-lands 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 hubs 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.
