North sea wind power hub included on the 4th list of european project of common interest

The North Sea Wind Power Hub consortium is included on the fourth list of European Projects of Common Interest (PCI) as adopted by the European Commission. This underlines the value of the concept of the North Sea Wind Power Hub to combine grid connections of offshore wind farms with interconnection between North Sea countries. The PCI status enables the consortium to apply for funding from the Connecting Europe Facility for studies to develop the concept further and to bring a first hub-and-spoke project a step closer.

The Delegated Act containing the fourth PCI list adopted by the European Commission will be submitted to the European Parliament and the Council for a two-month non-objection period.

The first hub is envisaged at a central location in the North Sea. A location has not been chosen yet. The hub would play a role in the transport of offshore wind energy to shore and at the same time function as interconnection capacity for the connected countries. In addition, the consortium is exploring the use of power-to-gas solutions.

Analysis by the European Commission has shown that the hub-and-spoke concept provides significant cost savings compared with the current conventional approach with point-to-point interconnections and individual connections for offshore windfarms.

The consortium will continue its work towards the first hub-and-spoke projects. This will be done in close interaction with national authorities and other stakeholders involved. Depending on further decision-making, a first hub could be operational in the first half of the 2030s.

The North Sea Wind Power Hub consortium consists of electricity and gas TSOs from Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands (Energinet, TenneT and Gasunie).