Fifth Meeting of the Collaborative Framework on Ocean Energy/Offshore Renewables

The fourth meeting of the Collaborative Framework (CF) was organized on 24 June 2022. The objective of the meeting was to provide an overview of the Global Offshore Wind Alliance (GOWA), an initiative founded by IRENA together with Denmark and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC). The meeting also focused on engaging in an action-oriented discussion on the best practices in implementing enabling frameworks to accelerate the deployment of offshore renewables globally.

Some of the key points made by Members during the discussion were:

• In the context of ongoing national efforts to clearly set tangible offshore renewable energy targets to be achieved by 2030, Members highlighted the necessity to focus more on the development of advanced regulatory frameworks for spatial planning and to avoid conflict of use.
• It is important to develop joint projects that establish cross-border infrastructure – especially offshore grids.
• In the context of offshore wind, the private sector must be consulted for regulatory developments, especially in the context of tendering and permitting processes. This would facilitate the development of market potentials by catalyzing investments.
• With regards to readiness assessment plans, more efforts should be undertaken to ensure that all economic, social, and environmental safeguards are analyzed thoroughly – with relevant considerations reflected across the offshore project lifecycle.
• An innovative solution that gained traction in the discussion was the development of energy islands, such as those in the North Sea. It was highlighted that political backing, strong international collaboration, identifying niches in markets, and promoting public-private partnerships are integral to setting up such islands.

Members agreed that the 5^th meeting of the Collaborative Framework should focus on facilitating and expediting permitting processes for offshore wind farms and instruments to scale up investment in ocean energy technology.

On the basis of the feedback received from Members, the objectives of this 5th meeting is to collect inputs from IRENA Members on the two requested briefs:

1. “Enabling Frameworks for Offshore Wind Scaleup: innovation in permitting” prepared by IRENA and GWEC

2. “Scaling up investment in Ocean Energy Technologies” prepared by IRENA and Ocean Energy Europe

Meeting participation by invitation only.

For more information please contact CFoffshore@irena.org.