Offshore wind companies partner with Carbon Trust to make industry more sustainable
Eleven global offshore wind developers are partnering with the Carbon Trust to make offshore wind more sustainable as it scales up in the future.
The collaboration, the Offshore Wind Sustainability Joint Industry Programme, will help to develop best methodology and guidance to measure and address the carbon emissions associated with offshore wind farms throughout their lifecycle, including emissions from the manufacturing of materials and installation of wind farms.
It is hoped that the work will help the offshore wind industry to scale as sustainably as possible.
Among the developers in the programme are bp, EnBW, Fred Olsen Seawind, Ørsted, Parkwind, RWE, Scottish Power Renewables, Shell, SSE Renewables, Total Energies and Vattenfall.
The companies, who operate across Europe, North America and Asia, represent a quarter of global installed capacity.
It is estimated that by the end of 2021, there was global offshore wind capacity of 55GW. However, the International Energy Agency estimates that an additional 70-80GW will need to be installed every year from 2030 in order to achieve Net Zero by 2050
Jan Matthiesen, director, offshore wind at the Carbon Trust said, “Global climate targets cannot be met without stepping up renewable energy generation, and offshore wind is particularly crucial to the world’s transition away from fossil fuels.
“Our experience working with the industry through various joint industry projects is proof that collaboration is key. Over the last fourteen years, we have been focused on scaling up the offshore wind market through our Joint Industry Programmes, such as the Offshore Wind Accelerator and the Floating Wind Joint Industry Programme.
“Now it’s time to turn our attention to supporting innovation and scaling up sustainably in order to create a more resilient and competitive industry. We are delighted to be collaborating with such a global set of developers, whose collective voice has the potential to take the industry to the next level.”
The Carbon Trust, which began as a UK government-sponsored organisation, now works globally with businesses, governments and institutions to help them accelerate their route to Net Zero.
