Europe needs to build energy islands
But what sort should it build?
By Ludwig Siegele
“Oblivion”, a film starring Tom Cruise and released in 2013, was quickly relegated to the fate of its title. Still, it was memorable for one thing: gigantic contraptions of alien origin called “hydro-rigs”. They hovered over the Earth’s oceans and sucked up water. Europe’s ambitious plans to build an archipelago of artificial “energy islands” in the North and Baltic seas evoke a similar sci-fi vibe. Some will be huge, the size of dozens of football fields, designed to collect the power generated by hundreds of surrounding wind turbines. In March 2024 Elia, a Belgian power-grid operator, will start building the first one 45km off the country’s coast. But does Europe require such pharaonic projects?
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition of The World Ahead 2024 under the headline “Power archipelago”
