BRUSSELS (Reuters) – EU regulators approved a 682 million euro ($756.54 million) Belgian state aid scheme to support renewable offshore wind energy, the European Commission said in a statement.
The measure will support the construction and operation of a wind farm in the North Sea that is expected to have a capacity of 700 MW and to generate at least 2.6 terawatt-hours of renewable energy a year, the commission said.
Europe has a target to obtain 42.5% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030, but the procedure for grid permitting has been sluggish and the zone’s power networks are being upgraded slowly.
The wind energy industry says there is a significant backlog for permits for projects, which could threaten to slow the move to green energy.
($1 = 0.9015 euros)
(Reporting by Marine Strauss and Makini Brice; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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