The long road to coordinated offshore grid development

Most North Sea states consider the expansion of offshore wind energy as substantially contributing towards their renewable energy targets. If current plans are given effect, there will be an enormous growth of offshore wind energy capacity. Standard practice for wind farms constructed to date has been to provide each wind farm with an individual cable connection to the onshore transmission system (radial connection). A more efficient approach would be to initiate coordinated projects that involve the clustering of wind farms and consequently allow for shared offshore assets. This could lower the costs and reduce the impacts on the marine environment. Although the legal regimes of most North Sea states currently focus on the installation of radial connections, they increasingly consider promoting coordinated development of offshore infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to identify the legal barriers to these coordinated projects and to explore what changes could be made to the current regulatory practices of the North Sea states in order to facilitate the required coordination between wind energy generation and infrastructure development