Security of power lines and wind farms in the North Sea will be one of the key topics to be discussed at the European North Sea summit in Ostend on Monday. Government leaders from seven European countries will meet to discuss how to use wind energy to make the North Sea Europe's largest power station.
Next Monday, heads of state and government from Denmark, Germany, Norway, France, the Netherlands, the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg and Belgium will arrive at Ostend for the North Sea Summit. It’s a European summit at which the North Sea countries want to explore how to make the most of the North Sea's potential to make it Europe's largest power plant by 2050.
"Late February was a stormy month," outlines Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Flemish liberal), "the North Sea then accounted for 15 per cent of our country's electricity. At the summit, we want to put our heads together to explore how we can make even better use of renewable energy at sea. The ultimate goal is to make Europe less dependent on fossil fuels, such as natural gas, oil and coal."
Expertise on security at sea
That the summit is taking place in Ostend is no coincidence. The port city is a base for a lot of companies with a lot of experience in installing and maintaining wind turbines at sea. "Companies like Deme and De Nul are absolute world players", says Mayor Bart Tommelein (Flemish liberal and a former Minister for the North Sea). "That concentration of knowledge and experience in turn attracts other companies from the same sector and that makes Ostend one of the most important European cities around renewable energy at sea."
Prime Minister De Croo agrees: "There are other important European centres. Denmark, for example, is a leader in the manufacture of wind turbines, but when it comes to installing and maintaining offshore wind turbines, Ostend is at the forefront."
Another specialisation is gradually also being added: the security of those turbines. "Renewable energy is becoming increasingly important in supplying Europe," Prime Minister De Croo explains, "and we live in a world where not everyone has Europe's best interests at heart. The sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea is a clear example of this. But even apart from that, things are busy in and on the North Sea. There is a lot of economic activity, but there are also important pipelines on the bottom of the sea: gas pipelines, data cables, power lines and then about four hundred wind turbines. It is becoming increasingly important to protect them. And there too, we have a lot of expertise in our country, technologically especially, ranging from radars to underwater drones. We want to put that experience at the service of the whole world."