Heike Winkler, Managing Director of Offshore Wind Kommunikation and EUUSEW Digital Ambassador, talks about how offshore wind and green steel are interdependent for a sustainable transition.
The North Sea Energy Cooperation (NSEC) North Sea Summit was held in Germany at the end of January this year. Europe’s offshore wind potential is at the heart of efforts to achieve climate neutrality, affordability and energy independence in a turbulent geopolitical context.
This is an important advance for energy-intensive industries such as the European steel industry, both in terms of affordable green molecules and electrons, and also for the EU wind industry market. Offshore wind energy requires green steel, and the steel industry needs the lowest, most reliable energy costs possible.
Building a North Sea power hub to harness Europe and the Baltic Sea’s wind power potential for resilience and competitiveness
As part of the North Sea Energy Cooperation, NSEC energy ministers, the European Commission and stakeholders met last year to set an agenda for the next 15 years of cooperation. Building on the Esbjerg and Ostend Declarations, the energy ministers of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom signed a joint declaration in Hamburg, setting out an ambition of 300 GW by 2050 and inviting tenders for up to 15 GW of European installed capacity per year between 2031 and 2040. 100 GW of cross-border cooperation projects and NSEC initiatives for the North Sea.
Eight Baltic Sea TSOs organized under the Baltic Sea Offshore Grid Initiative: 50Hertz (Germany), AST (Latvia), Elering (Estonia), Energinet (Denmark), Fingrid (Finland), Litgrid (Lithuania), PSE (Poland) and Svenska kraftnät (Sweden) will be offshored ahead of the NSEC Summit. The system study and coordinated marine spatial planning will add approximately 13 GW of new interconnections and up to 50 GW of offshore wind power compared to 2030, potentially making it an energy hub by 2040.
Clean industry agreement takes shape
Offshore wind energy is of great importance to Europe. It is cost-effective and cheaper than building new fossil fuel power plants. Highly efficient, one offshore wind turbine can power 16,000 homes. The company is based in Europe and employs 100,000 Europeans. Realizing the potential of offshore wind energy in the North Sea and Baltic Sea will create jobs, supply energy and boost industrialization in Europe. Building on the unique potential of the North Sea, the North Sea Summit Investment Agreement will mobilize €1 trillion of economic activity to Europe by 2031 and create around 91,000 additional jobs. So far, so good. Additionally, offshore wind provides energy with the power plant characteristics needed to transform energy-intensive industries and stabilize power grids.
Moving to the steel industry, another short intermediate step is required. This includes building a robust investment framework for offshore wind energy through targeted mechanisms such as long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs), including cross-border PPAs. PPAs allow energy-intensive companies, such as steel producers, to avoid price fluctuations by locking in prices as electricity consumers. This requires an electricity market design that targets renewable energy so that PPAs can be used in the proposed manner. This can be converted into green hydrogen. And that quickly leads to bidding standards and the Net Zero Industry Act. First, let’s look at the steel industry using Salzgitter AG as an example.
Transforming energy-intensive industries using steel as an example
As an example of a European steel company, Salzgitter AG entered into strategic partnerships with offshore wind energy developers and operators at an early stage and secured PPAs with offshore wind farms in the North Sea and Baltic Sea.
Example 1: Salzgitter AG and Ørsted are working toward a closed value chain in their business relationship. In addition to the supply of offshore wind energy and the use of renewable hydrogen, this also includes the production of low carbon steel and its use in components of Ørsted’s offshore wind farms. There are also plans to recycle scrap from windmills dismantled during the steel manufacturing process.
Example 2: Vattenfall and the steel group pursue a common goal of decarbonizing industrial production processes. The new PPA stipulates that fossil fuel-free electricity from the Nordlicht 1 offshore wind farm will be available for steel production from 2028.
Example 3: Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH and Iberdrola Deutschland have signed a long-term power supply contract for 2023. Power will be provided by the Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm in Germany’s Baltic Sea. With this PPA, Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH secured the supply of 114 MW of green electricity for 15 years.
There are other European steel producers that are undergoing sustainable transformation and need green power and green hydrogen to do so. A competitive European steel industry creates jobs in Europe and is necessary for a resilient transition to a sustainable energy supply.
It’s not a one-way street here
Ilsenburger Grobuch GmbH, a subsidiary of Salzgitter AG, and wind turbine manufacturer Siemens Gamesa signed a deal last year to supply around 25,000 tons of planks for the construction of 36 wind towers. The so-called “Siemens Gamesa GreenerTower” has CO2 equivalent emissions of less than 700 kg per tonne of steel per tower. RWE has tested these CO2-reducing towers on half of its offshore wind turbines at the Danish offshore wind farm Tor, reporting at least 63% CO2 reduction in the steel plates of the towers compared to conventional steel. In this way, the European steel industry is reducing the carbon footprint of European offshore wind farms.
Further aspects of decarbonization through offshore wind power generation for Europe
Green hydrogen generated from offshore wind power generation is extremely important for decarbonizing not only the steel industry but also industrial sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as the chemical industry, cement industry, shipping industry, and transportation industry.
Amazon plans to launch more than 230 wind and solar power projects in 13 European countries by the end of 2025. Once operational, all projects are expected to provide 9 gigawatts of clean energy capacity. This is enough to power more than 6.7 million households in the EU for a year. Demand is high. This is especially true for AI and data centers in Europe.
Why the Clean Industries Agreement will protect Europe
To achieve the overarching theme of the 20th European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), a clean, safe and competitive energy union, fair competition and Europe’s cross-industry led markets must be able to grow, as mentioned above.
The Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and NZIA focus on resilience and climate protection and are integral to this within the framework of the Clean Industries Agreement. In this way, industrial transformation to strengthen climate protection can simultaneously achieve energy independence, value creation potential and increased employment, thereby increasing Europe’s prosperity. Achieving all this will require a level playing field protected from price dumping, skilled labor, European technological development, production capacity and accelerated infrastructure expansion. The necessary regulations for green hydrogen and floating offshore wind energy will accelerate the above developments. In this way, the Clean Industries Pact will lead to greater sustainable value creation, especially within Europe.
This opinion editorial was produced in collaboration with European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), the largest annual event dedicated to renewable energy and efficient energy use in Europe. #EUSW2026 marks its 20th year, once again bringing together a community of people interested in building a safe and clean energy future for future generations.
Check out current calls and join.
Useful links
https://windeurope.org/data/products/europes-wind-energy-workforce-report/ https://wfo-global.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/WFO_Global-Offshore-Wind-Report-2024_final.pdf https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32025R1176&qid=1751460704291 https://sustainable-energy-week.ec.europa.eu/news/2-1-carbon-footprint-quality-criterion-nzia-solve-sustainability-and-resilience-together-2025-04-30_en https://www.offshorewindfoundations.eu/resources
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Neither the European Commission nor its representatives accept responsibility for the use of the information in the article. The opinions expressed are those of the authors only and should not be considered to represent the official views of the European Commission.
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