"US President Donald Trump’s threats over Greenland have accelerated Europe’s push for energy independence, officials suggested, as European and UK ministers agreed to build a vast offshore wind grid in the North Sea.
EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen said the continent did not want to “swap one dependency with a new dependency”, as it tries to move away from Russian gas but becomes increasingly dependent on fuel shipped from the US.
He made the comments as nine countries with interests in the North Sea, including the UK, Norway, Germany and the Netherlands, said at a summit in Hamburg that they aimed to support a steady build-out of 15 gigawatts of offshore wind each year between 2031 and 2040. The EU wants to meet a target of about 300GW by 2050 — up from about 37GW at present.
As part of that goal, the countries have also agreed to jointly develop about 100GW of offshore wind projects by 2050, which would involve creating a grid in the North Sea with cables linking turbines to multiple countries.
The pledges are part of a push on offshore wind, which has intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In the lead-up to the war, Moscow started to cut flows of gas to the EU in retaliation for its support for Kyiv.
EU countries also gave the final sign-off on Monday to a total ban on imports of Russian gas by 2027."
https://www.ft.com/content/e9c90df9-ee03-4c51-bbd3-dad45e212961
#Europe #Greenland #Renewables #EnergyIndependence #OffshoreWind
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