FoundOcean - Coast to Coast: Mapping Europe’s Offshore Wind strategies

Our Sales Director, Andy Venn, looks at some of the different offshore wind development strategies across Europe.

As the birthplace of offshore wind energy, much of Europe is already at a mature stage in its offshore wind development. Significant progress across many European countries has led to differences in approach when it comes to the legal frameworks required for planning and permitting. Some countries – such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, Romania – are still in the fairly early stages of offshore wind expansion, with promising pipelines, but not a huge amount of clarity on their systems and processes. Recently, various countries have begun to accelerate their offshore wind plans as they work to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and EU-wide targets, as well as their own national aims.

In this blog, we cannot touch upon every country in the continent, so we have focused attention on a few noteworthy ones.

United Kingdom

The UK is well established as a leader in offshore wind. The country’s wind strategy benefits from the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme which supports low-carbon electricity generation. CfDs set a ‘strike price’ between the government and renewable energy developers over a 15-year period. If wholesale prices are lower, the government pays a subsidy, if the price is higher, the developer pays back any surplus.

CfDs are an effective system for managing offshore wind development because they create certainty against the risk of volatile prices. Developers must offer a bid in a competitive auction to win a CfD.

In September 2024, the sixth Allocation Round took place, resulting in 9 offshore wind contracts being issued. 2 were brand new. 7 had been successful in previous allocation rounds but – as the prices were very low before – they were allowed to rebid for a portion of their capacity at a higher price. Another project was also awarded for the UK’s first commercial scale floating wind project – GreenVolt, a 560 MW windfarm planned off the NE coast of Scotland.

The European Union (EU)

Much of the expansion of offshore wind across Europe is driven by EU targets. The current aim is to have renewable energy supplying 42.5% of consumed energy by 2030.

Germany is continuing to build apace and is aiming for 70 GW by 2045. Denmark, a pioneer of offshore wind since the early 1990s, is planning for 100% renewable energy by 2050 – although a recent offshore auction saw no bids submitted for 3GW of offshore wind, hopefully only a temporary hiccup for their ambitions. The Netherlands, who only started building wind farms in 2017, have also rapidly expanded their offshore capacity, exceeding their targets in 2023. Their Hollandse Kust Zuid is currently the largest operational wind farm in the world, powering 1.5 million homes, and it is subsidy-free.

Current challenges across the continent are:

Slow and complex permitting processes
Supply chain delays
Availability and readiness of grid connections
Rising inflation
Pressure from international competitors
Skills shortages

However, the EU is working to overcome these challenges with updates to legislation. The Renewable Energy Directive has introduced systems to streamline permit applications and created the TEN-E (Trans-European Networks for Energy) framework which supports cross-border projects. The European Commission has also created an Action Plan for Grids. This reduces bottlenecks and speeds-up cross-border projects that are part of the ‘Projects of Common Interest’ list. These are infrastructure projects that connect energy systems across EU countries.

The Commission’s Green Deal Industrial Plan is a framework covering:

Overall strategy
Simplified regulation
Finance
Supply chains
Workforce

This plan is implemented by the Net-Zero Industry Act.

The European Wind Power Action Plan is another significant legislative development for European offshore wind progress. This is a revaluation of the European Offshore Strategy due to the energy crisis and should help to speed up permitting processes, improve tender designs and support developers’ access to finance.

France

France began their offshore wind journey in 2012. However, early projects faced delays due to permitting and tariff issues. These initial obstacles have caused significant legal and regulatory advancements over the intervening years.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, is eager for France to become an electric powerhouse and is aiming for 45 GW of wind power by 2050, with an intermediate target of 18 GW by 2035. France is a market for both fixed and floating projects, and it is highly likely that their future plans will favour further investment in floating wind.

The development process starts with a public enquiry and debate before going to tender preselection. Once selected, the applications for permits and authorisations begin. These first steps have been previously marred by delays. The French Government’s implementation of the APER Law and the Law on a Green Industry demonstrate their intention to increase offshore wind energy generation by streamlining the development process with measures such as:

Competitive dialogue process
Competitive bidding to begin before end of public debate
Appeal time decreased
An auction schedule published in May 2024 which clarifies timelines, identifies new sites and extends some existing sites
New simplifications to reduce overall build times

Changes to legislation with the intention to minimise delays means France is an attractive offering for developers. Their upcoming AO10 “mega tender”, due to launch in the first half of this year, will offer more than 9 GW of fixed and floating wind capacity across multiple sites.

Finland

Wind Energy Development in Finland is in its early stages with all announced wind projects still in the planning phase.

In 2024, the Finnish Government announced the Act on Offshore Wind Power in the Exclusive Economic Zone. This legislation:

promotes offshore wind power
makes project regulations clearer
ensures transparency when rights are granted

The act offers a measure of predictability for development, essential to avoid delays and stalemates as the industry progresses.

The Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) are areas where Finland’s state can ‘exploit’ resources economically. The government manages competitive bids in these locations.

The act took effect on 1^st January 2025 and it is expected that the first areas for tendering should be selected by Autumn 2025. EEZs enable the state to better monitor how maritime activities within a zone are being managed and ensure that the environment is protected. Previously, developers had selected the potential areas themselves.

The legislation sets out a 3-step tendering process. Firstly, the government selects potential areas, then the Energy Authority runs competitive bidding, and lastly the winner has exclusive rights to apply for an exploitation permit. Further licenses are still required to implement the project.

Italy

Italy currently has more than 15 GW of offshore wind projects in development and is considered one of the most promising markets for offshore wind energy in the world. However, despite a huge pipeline of planned projects, there has not been much movement in terms of their regulatory frameworks or in support for developers.

The country’s most significant legislative update on offshore wind power, the FER 2 Degree, came into place in August 2024. The Act supports electricity production from renewable energy plants with incentives to increase competition and support their 2030 decarbonisation targets. Companies must meet certain innovation and environmental criteria for renewable energy plants in order to access incentives.

This is like the UK’s CfD scheme. Areas for development will be awarded through public auctions between now and 2028. To participate in auctions, the projects ideally need a permit for construction and operation of the plant or, at the very least, a positive environment impact assessment. The scheme incentivises developments by protecting them from price volatility.

Spain

Previously, public policies in Spain have leant towards solar energy and onshore wind development, plus obstacles such as the depth of the seabed have historically delayed offshore development.

In 2024, the unveiling of regulatory framework in the Royal Decree 962/2024 was a huge step for Spain’s offshore wind development. The Decree sets out a competitive bidding process, similar to the Italian and UK systems.

The new process has the following phases:

Initial ministerial orders: general rules for auctions
Public consultation: comments and improvement proposals from the general public
Auction calls: first auction expected to take place in 2025
Awarding: authorities select winning bidders
Post-award procedure: winners apply for authorisations

Spain is also keen to install between 1-3 GW of floating wind capacity by 2030 and has implemented Maritime Spatial Planning encompassing 19 designated areas – including some in the Canary Islands.

Conclusion

The offshore wind sector in Europe demonstrates a diverse and evolving landscape, with countries tailoring their legal frameworks to accelerate their renewable energy goals.

Despite challenges such as permitting delays, supply chain issues, workforce shortages and regulatory complexity, recent legislative changes and strategic plans across a number of nations demonstrate Europe’s unified commitment to achieving climate targets and fostering a sustainable energy future.

For more information on FoundOcean’s experience and capabilities, contact the team on +44 1506 440330 or email info@foundocean.com