Biggest wind farms to get EU support in push for green power

Bloomberg

Developers for some of the world’s biggest wind farms are poised to get a boost from the European Union under a new strategy aimed at ensuring the industry makes a larger contribution to low-carbon power supplies.
Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said officials in Brussels are working on a package of measures that will help stimulate the offshore wind industry. It’s part of the Green Deal package, a far-reaching plan to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century.
The programme would help unlock the potential for wind farms sited in water, where more reliable breezes make the technology an increasingly cheap way to generate clean electricity. While politicians like turbines sited far from the eye of voters who object to wind farms on land, the industry has been hobbled by bureaucratic hurdles and competition for deals, which makes each project less profitable to build.
“We will have a strategy for offshore wind so that joint projects for big parks can be finalised,” Simson said in Brussels.
“From our side it means the solutions how we can support investments into grids, because offshore wind parks will be built in the regions where we don’t have any grid connections yet.”
In the coming months, the energy and environment departments of the European Commission, the EU regulatory arm, will jointly work to draft the strategy. It will focus on the maritime aspects such as how the wind farms can co-exist with shipping and fisheries.