‘Future-gazing’: how floating offshore wind can revitalise European large energy-intensive industries

Julian Gregory

Chapter 18 in Are Low-Carbon Futures Decentralised?, 2025, pp 224-234 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Current net zero transitional pathways for large energy-intensive industries (LEIIs) in Europe impose costs on already commercially stressed firms, encouraging managements to either close, or transfer their European assets to less net-zero-strict jurisdictions. Consequently, such responses only leak carbon to other locations, requiring alternative solutions. By theorising that future floating offshore wind (FLOW) is not just decarbonising but also a disruptive technology that intermittently delivers super-cheap electricity, net zero can instead be an opportunity for LEIIs, not a burden. This chapter hypothesises that some energy-intensive firms in the future will be able to intermittently operate using intermittent super-cheap FLOW-generated electricity in a commercially advantageous manner. It summarises the mechanics that deliver intermittent super-cheap electricity; it explains how this can offer a disruptive competitive edge to European LEIIs if FLOW can be successfully deployed at scale; and finally, it discusses how to change the organisation and governance of electricity systems to support this outcome.

Keywords: Floating Offshore Wind; Large Energy-Intensive Industries; Industrial Decarbonisation; Net-Zero Transitions; Intermittent Super-Cheap Industrial Electricity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035355181
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