While this has been noted in other studies of NSCOGI, what is
less accepted is just how difficult it is to change national subsidies
for offshore wind to facilitate a North Sea grid. What national
energy minister wants to explain why taxpayers’ money is subsidising
offshore wind farms to export electricity to neighbouring
states? Moreover, it is not just TSOs that are cautious here at the
regime level. Maximizing national ‘rents’ for offshore wind is a stable
business opportunity that could be disrupted by a North Sea
grid. One interviewee suggested that many British wind developers
were ironically “not looking to extend to Norway or Germany. . .their
core business model is selling wind electricity into the UK and gaining
premiums for that via CFD auctions”