Wind farms threaten to speed up North Sea decommissioning

Oil and gas operators planning to prolong fields’ lifespan may find themselves increasingly in conflict with wind farm developers

The projected timeline for oil and gas decommissioning in the North Sea could be forced forward by spatial constraints created by offshore wind farm construction, according to the developers of a planned wind hub in the region. A consortium of Dutch, German and Danish companies wrote in a concept paper on 9 July that the North Sea Wind Power Hub (NSWPH) they are developing would have an estimated capacity of 180GW by 2045, providing clean power to "hundreds of millions of Europeans" in those countries and the UK. "To meet the ambitious targets as set in the Paris Agreement, a large-scale roll-out of offshore wind is required. Increased spatial use by offshore wind energy and transmission inf