The Prospect Of A Large-Scale Wind Farm In The North Sea On Gas And Electricity Infrastructure Investments Towards 2050

The transition to a low carbon energy system is creating challenges in multiple fronts. In the electricity sector, this largely means accommodating a large share of Renewable Energy Resources (RES), while for the gas sector, it mainly involves re-routing gas in a short period of time to provide fast ramping response from gas power plants to RES fluctuations. This is especially evident in EU countries facing a major energy transition on its power system such as Germany and the UK, which are dependent on gas coming from the Norwegian continental shelf and are expected to have a large RES share. Even more so, if the European electricity grid faces difficulties in expanding cross border capacities, gas power plants could be the main flexible supply option between 2030 and 2045.