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quietus [soylentnews.org] writes:

Belgium, Denmark, Germany, France, Ireland, Luxemburg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom have agreed 300 gigawatt in offshore wind generation capacity in the North Sea [windeurope.org] by 2050. Current offshore wind capacity in the North Sea is 37 gigawatt. Getting to the equivalent of 300 nuclear power plants, or 8 times as much as the current capacity, will require an investment of a trillion euro.

The governments of the North Sea countries promise investment guarantees to industry: if the wholesale price on the market drops beneath an agreed upon level, government will fund the missing part; if the wholesale price exceeds that level, the top-over will go to the governments involved. In exchange, the offshore wind industry and distribution net managers promise 91,000 additional jobs and agreed to a 30 percent price reduction towards 2040.

In 2023, the same governments already had agreed to 120GW by 2030. It turns out that aim is/was quite a bit overambitious.

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