The German Ministry of Defence has joined the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
According to the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, this accession underlines the massively increased importance of maritime security issues and the protection of critical maritime energy infrastructure.
Added to this is the need for increased cooperation between the private sector, military and security authorities to ensure this protection.
“Maritime infrastructures are becoming more and more systemically important. At the same time, we are seeing an increase in hybrid attacks by state and non-state actors,” says Michael Kniepen, who will represent the Ministry of Defence on the foundation’s board of trustees in the future. The protection of these critical infrastructures is increasingly becoming the focus of the German security authorities. The German armed forces are making an important and reliable contribution to this.
The Ministry of Defence and the Bundeswehr are involved in a wide range of protective measures both nationally and within the NATO framework. These include contributing to a multilateral and interministerial situation picture and increasing the presence in the North Sea and Baltic Sea for deterrence purposes. Another key element is increased cooperation with the civilian operators of these infrastructures, not least with regard to the “Operational Plan Germany”.
Security issues in the offshore industry
“Joining the Board of Trustees of the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation will further promote networking and structured exchange on safety issues between the offshore industry, operators and government departments. We are therefore delighted to have successfully joined and look forward to continuing our excellent cooperation with the foundation in this institutionalised way,” said Michael Kniepen.
The expansion of offshore wind energy from approx. 9 GW at the end of 2024 (approx. 1,600 offshore wind turbines) to at least 70 GW in 2045 will result in a substantial proportion of Germany’s climate-neutral electricity production in the country’s Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ, 200 nautical mile zone) over the next two decades. By then, offshore wind energy is expected to supply almost a third of the gross electricity generated domestically.
In combination with the no less ambitious expansion plans of the other countries bordering the North Sea and Baltic Sea (up to 300 GW of offshore wind in the North Sea alone), the plans for massive meshing of the European grids via offshore hubs and the vision for the industrial-scale production of green hydrogen at sea (along with the expansion of the associated pipeline infrastructure), the North European waters are set to become ‘Europe’s green power plant’ according to the declared political will of the coastal states.
Attacks and acts of sabotage
In recent years, the intensification of offshore expansion has come up against an increasingly tense geopolitical situation, which is also reflected in the North and Baltic Seas. In the recent past, there have been various attacks on or suspected acts of sabotage against maritime (energy) infrastructure, such as the Nord Stream pipelines in September 2022, Balticconnector in October 2023, fibre optic cables in November 2024 and submarine power cables in December 2024.
Fortunately, there have been no direct attacks on the offshore wind infrastructure in the North Sea and Baltic Sea to date, but according to research by various teams of investigative journalists (most recently “Russian Spy Ships”), it can be assumed that Russian naval units equipped with military technology and disguised as civilian ships have been collecting targeted information on offshore wind farms, pipelines and power and network cables for years. There have also been incidents of unauthorised entry of such vessels into the safety zones of offshore wind farms in various countries such as Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands.
Protecting critical maritime energy infrastructure is a priority
“The cross-sector networking of relevant stakeholders on topics of essential importance for offshore wind energy is a core task of our foundation. There are few topics where this networking is currently more important than in the protection of critical maritime energy infrastructure,” says Karina Würtz, Managing Director of the Offshore Wind Energy Foundation.
“Only intensified cooperation and a targeted exchange of information between security and business circles will lead to effective measures given the challenging conditions at sea and the complex responsibilities and constellations of players. We see the accession of the Federal Ministry of Defense as one of the central state actors in this area to our Board of Trustees as an award and confirmation of our work over the past three years and will continue to intensify it for the benefit of the entire industry.”