Baltic countries pledge closer collaboration to secure offshore wind

Their agreement – formalised in the Vilnius Declaration – comes after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sabotage to energy infrastructure in the Baltic. The signatories to the declaration have committed to deter possible malign activities against offshore and underwater infrastructure within NATO and EU.

Representatives of the eight Baltic countries, the European Union and of NATO, the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER), European transmission system operators and the European wind industry met in Vilnius for the Baltic Sea High Level Energy Security Meeting 2024 on 10 April.

Countries in the Baltic have embarked on a rapid expansion of offshore wind and transmission capacity. In 2023 Lithuania, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Sweden committed to increase offshore wind in the Baltic from 3.1 GW today to 19.6 GW by 2030.

The Vilnius Declaration reaffirms the countries’ determination to rapidly implement actions outlined in the EU Wind Power Package to unlock the Baltic’s ‘vast untapped resources of offshore wind.’ They also pledged to decarbonise their energy systems ‘as soon as possible’ and want to collaborate to phase out Russian fossil fuels and replace them with competitive and home-grown renewables.

The signatories acknowledged the ‘immense potential’ of offshore wind in the Baltic for decarbonisation, diversification, electrification and the production of renewable hydrogen. They want to develop a strong and resilient wind energy supply chain in the Baltic Sea countries to meet the expected increased demand for offshore wind projects. This includes investments in grids and port infrastructure. Renewables are now more than ever a matter of European security – both energy security and national security, they say.

The Vilnius Declaration points out that greater interconnectivity among the EU Baltic Sea countries will significantly increase Europe’s energy security. To this end the signatories want to enhance collaboration on jointly developed hybrid offshore windfarms, new offshore energy hubs and the development of an increasingly meshed offshore wind grid.

WindEurope chief executive Giles Dickson said, “Renewables are critical infrastructure. We must make them secure. The wind industry is already helping the military to protect energy infrastructure – and to support national security more broadly by exchanging data, hosting relevant technology and supporting the operation of radar. NATO is doing excellent work here already. We encourage governments to build physical, cyber and data security into their procurement of energy equipment, including the qualification criteria they apply to who can build windfarms.”

To strengthen Europe’s resilience against new forms of hybrid and cyber warfare, the Baltic Sea countries now want to increase the security of offshore and underwater infrastructure and deter possible malign activities against them within NATO and EU. 

NATO assistant secretary general for innovation, hybrid and cyber, David van Weel said, “The stakes for NATO are high. If allies take diverging directions adapting to the energy transition, some technologies might be incompatible and our military interoperability can be at risk.

“If we do not plan and secure the supply chains of critical raw materials and renewable energy technologies, we might end up with another energy dependency – this time China. NATO’s Energy Transition by Design is a massive challenge, but it is vital to meet it if we want our Alliance to be greener and stronger.”