Germany seeks to set up new wind power network with its North Sea neighbors

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The German government said Monday that it wants to set up a new power line network to connect its own offshore wind parks with those of its North Sea neighbors in order to eliminate bottlenecks in the European energy market.

Governments in northwestern Europe are hoping that wind power at sea will provide a large share of their future clean energy needs. Germany in particular needs to boost offshore wind powered electricity generation to meet its ambitious goal of shutting down all coal powered plants and generating 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

One big problem at present is the lack of power lines, which results in bottlenecks that prevent wind park-generated electricity from reaching consumers and industries further inland.

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A boat passes along offshore windmills set up in the North Sea near Esbjerg, Denmark, on Oct. 30, 2002. Germany wants to create a web of power lines to connect the country’s offshore wind parks with those of its North Sea neighbors. (AP Photo/Heribert Proepper)

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Germany's economy minister, Robert Habeck, said that by building more interconnectors at sea, his country will be able to tap additional cheap electricity from offshore wind parks, including from European neighbors such as Denmark and the Netherlands.

This will also boost security of supply at times of high demand and allow Germany to export more renewable energy when it has a surplus, he said.

North Sea nations last year announced plans to massively increase offshore wind power in the coming decades as part of an effort to combat climate change and become independent of fossil fuel imports from Russia.