The UK today joined with nine of its North European neighbours in signing up to an agreement designed to accelerate the development of offshore wind farms in the North Sea, the Channel, and the Irish and Celtic Seas.
Meeting ahead of a summit of the Formal Council of European Energy Ministers, ministers from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxemburg, France, the UK, Ireland, Norway and Belgium signed a memorandum of understanding committing them to work together on the precise schedule for the development of an offshore transmission grid.
Under the terms of the deal, the nations will form three separate working groups made of up representatives of government and industry that will report to ministers twice yearly on how to address the technical, administrative and investment barriers faced by the ambitious project.
UK energy minister Charles Hendry welcomed the agreement as a significant milestone towards developing an international offshore grid capable of exporting energy from offshore wind farms.
(BusinessGreen)
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