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Guest Column: Adam Middleton Siemens Energy
There are huge opportunities on the North Sea to generate large amounts of renewable energy. But then the Netherlands must quickly start cooperating with other North Sea countries, argues Siemens Energy director Adam Middleton. The climate crisis lacks urgency. Now that we are in an energy crisis, support for cooperation and new policies is emerging.
Solar power has a limited presence in our country. Solar panels are good for households, but provide too little power for industry, heavy transport and aviation. Wind power and hydrogen from wind, therefore, are the Netherlands' most important new energy sources. And who says wind, says North Sea. If the Netherlands wants to meet its sustainable targets, the North Sea must be Europe's largest climate-friendly energy plant by 2050.
Nowhere the wind blows like on the North Sea and the North Sea is therefore the place where the Netherlands can harvest real green energy. But the North Sea is not ours alone and this transition is so comprehensive, large and complicated that no one can handle it alone.
For that reason, rapid and intensive cooperation between the governments of the eight North Sea countries is required. This is the prerequisite for overcoming the obstacles so that industry can get to work providing households and industry with perpetual energy.
The North Sea region meets all the conditions to become a leading player in the energy transition. The technology is there and companies and governments want to invest.
We need to start working together for the long term, starting with the eight North Sea countries. Because only then can we harness the sustainable wind energy that the North Sea can offer us, when solar panels on roofs fall short. Those eight North Sea countries are, clockwise, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.
On the 18th of May 2022, at the North Sea Summit in Denmark, the Netherlands and our North Sea neighbours Denmark, Germany and Belgium, announced that they would substantially scale up North Sea wind power production to 150 gigawatts by 2050. This result is a good example of the necessary cooperation between all eight North Sea countries. It proves that it can be done – so now let´s move on.
Prosperous future
The North Sea played a leading role in Europe's fossil energy supply and growing post-war prosperity for decades, thanks to its oil and natural gas fields. Now the North Sea can help us deliver green electrons and molecules.
This can be done step-by-step, and it can be done quickly: • By accelerating the construction of wind farms far offshore, connected by interconnectors. • By running offshore hydrogen plants (electrolysis) on green wind energy. • By expanding the energy networks of the North Sea countries into a single network that can handle peaks and troughs. • By exploiting existing oil and gas platforms cleanly. • By storing carbon dioxide in empty gas fields (CCS Carbon Capture and
Storage, cf. Porthos CO2).
This way, we grow cleanly, preserving investments and having enough energy for a prosperous future.
The geopolitical tensions now speedup the processes and procedures. But out of necessity we also make odd choices: we are burning plenty of coal; nuclear plants are powered with Russian uranium and there lifetime is stretched; and there are calls to bring Dutch natural gas fields (´Groningen´) back to full capacity.
These are understandable necessities. What makes me positive about it is that these emergency measures have been taken in the same cooperation that is required to realise the energy transition to green electrons and molecules. I see a leading role for the North Sea and North Sea countries in this.
My appeal is to make a virtue out of necessity, to not lose momentum and work together permanently from now on, to persevere and make the energy transition a reality - asap. The Hague and Brussels are on the ball!
Adam Middleton
Managing director of Siemens Energy The Netherlands and VP for Western Europe.
