The Coordinated Development of Offshore Energy Infrastructure: Legal Challenges and Possible Solutions

There will be an enormous growth of offshore wind energy generation in the North Sea if current plans are given effect. Standard practice for wind farms constructed to date has been to provide each wind farm with a dedicated 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. However, national regimes currently focus on the installation of radial connections and do not promote the coordinated development of offshore infrastructure. The purpose of this article 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 introduce the required coordination between wind energy generation and infrastructure development.