Ørsted has welcomed a newly signed Joint Offshore Wind Investment Pact for the North Seas, calling the agreement a major step toward accelerating offshore wind deployment and stabilising investment conditions in Europe’s core renewable power market.
The pact was signed at the North Sea Summit 2026 in Hamburg by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, and the United Kingdom, alongside offshore wind developers and transmission system operators. While the agreement is political in nature, Ørsted positioned it as a critical enabler for industry-led investment decisions in the coming decade.
According to Ørsted, the pact reaffirms the ambition to reach 300 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2050 and introduces a more coordinated deployment pathway through the 2030s. Signatories aim to smooth annual installation volumes between 2031 and 2040, targeting up to 15 GW of new offshore capacity per year across Europe, a level the company argues is necessary to restore supply-chain stability and bring costs down.
Ørsted said the agreement could help reduce the cost of electricity from offshore wind by around 30% toward 2040, provided governments deliver more predictable and de-risked investment frameworks. The company highlighted the importance of mechanisms such as two-sided contracts for difference (CfDs) and long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), including cross-border structures, to underpin project revenues and attract capital at scale.
Rasmus Errboe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ørsted, said the pact demonstrates political leadership in unlocking the North Sea’s offshore wind potential and signaled that the company is ready to invest under clearer market conditions. Europe remains Ørsted’s core market, accounting for roughly 90% of its operating offshore wind capacity, the company said.
The Danish developer also framed the pact as a response to Europe’s energy security challenge. With more than half of the EU’s energy currently imported, Ørsted estimates that delivering 300 GW of offshore wind in the North Sea could save Europe roughly €70 billion in fossil fuel imports, lower electricity prices, and cut European carbon emissions by around 15%. Offshore wind already employs about 100,000 people across Europe, a figure the company expects to grow as deployment accelerates.
The agreement reflects recommendations put forward by the offshore wind industry in 2025, including Ørsted’s own Offshore Wind at a Crossroads report, which warned that inconsistent auction schedules, rising costs, and policy uncertainty were putting Europe’s offshore ambitions at risk. Ørsted said the new pact addresses these issues by aligning governments and industry around build-out volumes, risk-sharing, and long-term cost reduction.
Ørsted has 35 years of experience in offshore wind and built the world’s first offshore wind farm in Denmark in 1991. The company has installed more than 1,600 offshore wind turbines in Europe with a total installed capacity of about 8.9 GW. Current construction projects include the Hornsea 3 offshore wind farm in the UK, Borkum Riffgrund 3 in Germany, and Baltica 2 in Poland, underscoring the company’s strategic focus on its European offshore wind portfolio.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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