Can the Mediterranean become the new offshore wind powerhouse of Europe?

The expansion of the offshore wind sector in Europe is crucial for the green transition. It will not be possible to meet the climate and renewable energy goals set by the EU and its Member States if the development of offshore wind does not progress faster in the next few years. But there are a lot of techinal and policy challenges making this development difficult.

Alessandro Monti is heading a promising new research project that has received seed funding from the Crown Princess Mary Center that is trying to adress some of these pressing issues. We had a talk with Alessandro about how he ended up in energy law and why this project is so important.

Why do you think that this field of research is so important?

The field of energy law is a relatively new research area. Until recently, the energy transition was not the significant phenomenon that it is today. It was probably in the last 10 to 15 years that energy became such a crucial field for climate change mitigation, as new technologies have been developing quickly to produce green energy and reduce emissions. This has also led to a significant growth and expansion of energy law as an academic discipline.

While offshore wind in the Mediterranean is still a rather incipient market, the first offshore wind farm has been recently inaugurated in Italy, and there is great potential for expansion of this sector. 

How did you end up in this field?

My research spans across energy, climate, and economic law. As a lawyer, I wanted to contribute to the green transition, and I am eager to provide my contribution to this important challenge. I started looking into the field of energy law and wrote my PhD thesis on the interaction between climate and trade law for the promotion of renewable energy. I delved into this topic as there have been many disputes on the trade law for renewable energy, so it was an interesting perspective from which to examine the interaction between climate and trade law.

What does the WINDMED project specifically focus on?

The project focuses on offshore wind development in the Mediterranean region, a geographical area where the conditions are not quite as favorable as in Denmark and other North Sea countries. While offshore wind in the Mediterranean is still a rather incipient market, the first offshore wind farm has been recently inaugurated in Italy, and there is great potential for expansion of this sector. This prompted my interest to examine more closely what is going on in the Mediterranean and in Italy, in particular, and how to leverage best practices and synergies from Denmark.

How can the WINDMED project help tackle this challenge?

There is currently a gap in legal and policy analysis on the specific challenges for offshore wind in the Mediterranean. Against this background, the WINDMED project focuses on the Italian normative policy landscape for offshore wind and maps out the main challenges and how these can be addressed. At the same time, it also leverages cooperation with Danish stakeholders to benefit from the expertise and know-how that’s been developed in Denmark, looking at the way in which Denmark faced offshore wind challenges and which opportunities for cooperation might arise in the future.

What is the ultimate goal of the WINDMED project?

The goal of WINDMED is to map out barriers and opportunities to offshore wind development in Italy and in the broader Mediterranean region and provide actionable recommendations on how policymakers can enhance the promotion of offshore wind. This entails not only installing as many wind turbines as possible but looking at the entire ecosystem and the other challenges such as nature and landscape protection, impact on local communities, and connection to the grid.

What are your further ambitions with the project?

The project is called WINDMED because the ambition is to expand this study to other Mediterranean countries. We started with Italy because it made sense for many reasons. Not only because of my Italian background, but also because it is the country where the first offshore wind turbine has been installed in the entire Mediterranean. After interviewing relevant stakeholders, it became clear to me that many companies, also from other European countries, are increasingly investing in the Italian market. At the same time, other Mediterranean countries will also be very interesting to look at. We hope that going forward we will be able to expand the study and also look at France, Spain, Greece, and other countries.

What kind of impact are you hoping to get from this project?

We will publish a report that incorporates all these analyses and findings and present it to Italian, Danish, and international audiences. Hopefully, the report will be able to answer their questions and help them understand the challenges that the offshore wind sector is facing, especially with respect to the installation of floating technologies.
We will also provide legal and policy insights and raise awareness on the importance and challenges for developing this sector. The hope is that Italy – and Mediterranean countries – will be able to generate more energy from offshore wind, as this is important from both a climate change perspective and from a security of supply perspective.

The project has received a one-year funding through Crown Princess Mary Center's 'Seed funding' pool 2023. Read more about WINDMED here.