GROW campaign Voor de WIND!

To celebrate the success of collaboration and innovation in offshore wind and to emphasise that we still have challenges ahead, GROW started the campaign Voor de WIND! The campaign highlights that the 2013 Dutch Energy Agreement for offshore wind has been a success. The targets have been met, and offshore wind costs have fallen dramatically.

The success factors were:

• good coordination between the government and the wind sector
• reducing risks for companies by the government and TenneT
• government policy gave the industry confidence to invest in factories, ships and logistics
• innovations that increased the efficiency and size of wind turbines, allowing more wind energy to be generated at significantly lower costs

Innovation has proven to be essential to the current success of offshore wind energy, and it will continue to be necessary to achieve future goals. Innovation is crucial for developing new technologies that make offshore wind turbines' design, installation, operation and maintenance more efficient and cheaper. Innovations are also needed to integrate electricity generation into the energy system better and at lower costs. In addition, innovations are essential to minimise ecological impacts or achieve positive effects where possible.

Read the online GROW article Energising horizons - the success of offshore wind energy!