Nine countries join alliance to boost offshore windpower

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt -Nine countries including Britain, Germany, the United States and Japan joined an international alliance Tuesday at the UN COP27 climate summit, to encourage the development of offshore wind power.

The Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA), established to “remove barriers” to the energy, was set up by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Denmark and the Global Wind Energy Council.

Offshore wind can be deployed at large scale, in short timeframes and at competitive cost, GOWA said in a statement.

Other nations joining Tuesday were Belgium, Colombia, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands.

IRENA and the International Energy Agency (IEA) predict that offshore wind capacity will “need to exceed 2000GW in 2050, from just over 60GW today” to help prevent temperatures from rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.

To do this, GOWA aims to reach a total of “at least 380GW installed capacity” by the end of the decade.

Germany climate envoy Jennifer Lee Morgan, who said her country is the third-biggest offshore wind power producer in the world, said there were plans for huge increases.

“We now see an opportunity to leverage our know-how and skills in the offshore space and help other countries in building or increasing their own offshore wind power generation capacity,” Morgan said.

Belgian Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten said that the “North Sea will transform to a large sustainable power plant”, and that “with this green acceleration, we can replace gas and oil faster”.