Seabed security – and safeguarding all offshore energy infrastructure – was a major subject at several conference sessions and panels at OEEC’s The Stage with Paul Flos, Program Director of International Naval Materiel Cooperation at the Dutch Ministry of Defense contributing from the military point of view.
Flos said at a panel session on seabed security on The Stage that the knowledge and equipment the offshore energy supply chain has are much needed to protect subsea infrastructure. He further added that the civilian industry’s contribution was needed to help the Netherlands’ Ministry of Defense and NATO gain the upper hand.
At the conference session on supply chain, which discussed climate change, renewable energy targets and challenges in the supply chain, Paul Flos spoke from the perspective of the defence industry and said that, in terms of security, people still think from a point of view of what was ten years ago.
“[But] we need more mental flexibility on this now”, Flos pointed out. “We have to add more energy capacity and be more independent in energy production while protecting the energy assets we already have at the same time.”
Furthermore, a point was made during a session on opportunities in the Ukrainian wind energy sector that installing (offshore) wind turbines not only increases clean energy capacity but also makes it harder to significantly affect energy supply in war time.
Galyna Shmidt, International Director and Board Member at the Ukrainian Wind Energy Association (UWEA) said that if a power plant is destroyed, it creates a major problem but if a wind turbine is targeted and hit, there are many more that would continue generating power. It is much more complicated and expensive to even try destroying multiple wind turbines, Shmidt pointed out, so decentralized energy assets contribute both to the energy transition and security.
During OEEC 2024, UWEA signed a Memorandum of Partnership and Cooperation with the Dutch clean energy organization NedZero.
At a workshop on Dutch offshore wind, organized by the Dutch Government through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), security was also among the subjects as the Dutch Government is working on introducing new requirements in the next offshore wind tenders, including cyber security stipulations.
Eva de Leede, Head of Unit Offshore Wind (market policies) at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate, invited developers who plan to participate in the next offshore wind tender to diversify their supplier portfolio as the government is working on including some new measures such as those for cyber security.
When it comes to accelerating the construction and realization of renewable energy projects, the event brought to the foreground the concerns in offshore energy, and especially offshore wind, industry that revolve around the supply chain.
Are renewable energy targets for 2050, and especially for 2030, too ambitious with the supply chain being stretched already now? Yes and no, according to the conference sessions where the OEEC moderator Paul de Leeuw made a point of tapping into the opinions in a conference room.
The supply chain is indeed set to be under-capacitated as the work on many more projects is coming up soon. However, the appetite for finding innovative solutions and the agility across the industry are promising to deliver on the net-zero targets, provided all other factors are there.
