Context:

The North Sea region demonstrator encompasses 102 NUTS Level 2 regions across 5 countries – Norway, Denmark, Sweden, UK, Germany and the Netherlands – that border the North Sea.

The North Sea region is experiencing a rapid growth in wind energy production. Moreover, it plays a pivotal role in connecting the hydropower-dominated energy systems of Scandinavia, leveraging their large water reservoir storage capacities, to the rest of Europe. Beyond renewable energy, the North Sea region also provides Europe with a large share of its demand for oil and gas, and a significant pipeline infrastructure is in place. In the near term, the supply of oil and gas is important, but in the longer term, recognising the imperative of transitioning towards sustainable alternatives, a shift to hydrogen and more offshore is expected.

While previous projects have analysed the region in the past with a focus on offshore wind and offshore electricity grid development, a knowledge gap remains in the integrated multi-carrier planning covering electricity, gas and hydrogen infrastructures with higher geographical resolution than per-country.

Which scenarios will be demonstrated?

During iDesignRES, partners will define and demonstrate various scenarios to address the evolving energy landscape within the North Sea region. These scenarios include:

• Gas phase-out or strategies for gas-CCS.
• Comparison with previous studies on offshore wind/offshore electricity grid development.
• Time horizon analysis (2030, 2040, 2050): focus on offshore wind, gas pipeline transition from natural gas to H₂/CO₂, North Sea electricity grid buildout for resilient wind integration via market coupling or optimal use of hydropower.