Scaling up offshore wind energy in Europe

Morten Helveg Petersen has served as a member of the European Parliament since 2014 as a Vice-Chair of ITRE, acting as Shadow Rapporteur on several key reports such as the European Energy Security Strategy, the implementation report on the Energy Efficiency Directive and more recently as Rapporteur on the regulation of Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). In the 2019-2024 mandate he continues his dedicated work on securing the green transition, where he has recently been appointed Rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy.

Before that, he served as a member of the Danish parliament from 1998 to 2009, after which he became the vice president of the association of Danish Media. In September 2013, the Danish Social Liberal Party nominated him their top candidate for the 2014 European Parliament election. He is also Chair of Energy Solutions, a cross-party European Parliamentary network which brings a holistic approach to EU Energy Legislation.

Catherine Banet (PhD) is Professor of Law at the University of Oslo, and Head of the Department for Energy and Resources Law, Norway. Her legal research activities focus on energy market design, energy transport infrastructures regulation, support schemes and financing models, focusing on renewable energy and notably offshore wind, climate change mitigation measures such as carbon capture and storage (CCS), and hydrogen regulation.

Prof. Banet has a background from the private law practice (Norway, France), the European Commission (DG ENV), U.S. diplomatic mission and academia. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Group of the Section on Energy, Environment and Infrastructure Law of the IBA, and Chair of the Board of the Norwegian Energy Law Association.

Professor Bert Willems, is a CERRE Research Fellow and a Professor of Economics at the Université catholique de Louvain where he studies and teaches energy management and environmental economics. He is affiliated with the Law and Economic Center at Tilburg University (TILEC), the Toulouse School of Economics and a board member of the Benelux Association for Energy Economics (BAEE).

Klaus is a senior economist for the Swedish Energy Markets Inspectorate, the Swedish regulator for electricity, gas, district heating and cooling. Before joining the inspectorate, he worked for many years at the Swedish energy agency in a variety of roles spanning the breadth of the energy system, most recently as chief economist. He holds a doctoral degree in economics from Gothenburg University and an undergraduate degree in business administration. He has been involved in a variety of international cooperations among others with IEA, WEC and others.

Nick Pittarello is in charge of connecting new interconnectors to the United Kingdom. Nick is putting in place the regulatory structures that will enable the sharing of renewable energy, which is essential to the net zero vision. He is currently assessing seven new interconnector projects and developing a first-of-its-kind regulatory framework that would apply to offshore hybrid assets (combining both interconnection and offshore wind). Nick has over 25 years of experience in the energy supply industry, including time spent with EON, National Grid energy System Operator, and Nemo Link (Anglo-Belgian Interconnector), as well as knowledge of interconnector regulation, operation, and trading.