Advances in renewable energy and the need for energy transition
Europe has made significant strides in renewable energy, with renewables accounting for 45.3% of the EU's gross electricity consumption in 2023, marking a record annual increase of 4.1 percentage points from 2022. Wind and hydro power were the dominant sources, making up 38.5% and 28.2% of total renewable electricity generation, respectively, with total wind power capacity reaching 240 GW in 2022, while offshore wind installations grew to 42 GW in 2023. Solar energy is the fastest-growing source, increasing from just 7.4 TWh in 2008 to 252.1 TWh in 2023. Countries such as Austria (87.8%), Sweden (87.5%), and Denmark (79.4%) led in renewable electricity share, whereas Malta (10.7%) and Czechia (16.4%) lagged behind.
Despite this progress, the transition to renewable energy remains a necessity to meet climate targets and reduce reliance on fossil fuels. The European Union aims for climate neutrality by 2050, but with renewables covering just 22% of the EU's gross energy consumption as of 2022, significant investment is still required2. Moreover, the energy crisis following geopolitical disruptions has underscored the urgency of reducing dependency on imported fossil fuels. Scaling up wind, solar, and emerging technologies such as green hydrogen is essential to ensuring energy security, economic stability, and long-term sustainability.
The European Union (EU) has established ambitious targets to integrate renewable energy sources into its energy mix, particularly focusing on offshore renewable energy. The Renewable Energy Directive set a binding target of at least 32% renewable energy consumption by 2030, with proposals to increase this to 40%. The REPowerEU Plan, introduced in response to the energy crisis, aims to increase the renewable energy target to 45% of total energy consumption by 2030, up from the previous goal. The revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) enhances permitting processes for renewable projects. Additionally, the Fit for 55 package includes policies such as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and stricter Emission Trading System (ETS) regulations, ensuring that industries transition to cleaner energy sources. These measures, along with national strategies, aim to accelerate decarbonization while maintaining energy affordability and security
Moreover, the EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy, published in 2020, outlines plans to increase offshore wind capacity 25-fold by 2050, alongside significant deployment of wave, tidal, and other marine renewable energy sources. The Maritime Spatial Planning Directive (2014/89/EU) provides a framework for organizing marine space to balance various activities, including renewable energy installations, ensuring sustainable use of marine resources.
Thus, offshore renewable energy can and should play a crucial role in Europe's blue growth strategy by contributing to both environmental sustainability and economic expansion. The EU, leveraging its vast maritime space, should further invest in offshore wind, wave, and tidal energy to transition away from fossil fuels while promoting sustainable economic activities such as maritime transport, aquaculture, and coastal tourism. By 2050, offshore renewable energy could supply up to 25% of the EU’s electricity needs, significantly reducing emissions and creating green jobs in the blue economy.
Challenges in renewable energy adoption and policy compliance
On the other hand, despite the supportive policy framework, achieving the EU’s ambitious renewable energy targets presents several challenges. First, the deployment of offshore renewable infrastructure must scale up significantly—by five times by 2030 and 25 times by 2050—to meet European Green Deal objectives.
This requires substantial investment in technology development, grid infrastructure, and supply chains, as well as addressing environmental and spatial planning conflicts between different maritime sectors. Moreover, permitting processes for offshore energy projects are often slow and complex, delaying progress.
Image: Project Review Tool – Wind Energy
Below, we have identified several challenges that can impede the advancement of marine renewable energy:
- Marine Spatial Conflicts: The overlapping use of marine spaces for activities such as fishing, shipping, and conservation creates conflicts with renewable energy installations. Balancing these competing interests within marine spatial plans is essential.
- Resource Assessment and Feasibility: Accurate data on wind, wave, and tidal resources are crucial for planning and investment. However, there is limited access to high-resolution, site-specific resource assessments, hindering effective project development.
- Environmental and Social Impacts: Concerns about potential impacts on marine ecosystems and biodiversity necessitate comprehensive tools for assessing and mitigating these effects to ensure sustainable development.
- Regulatory and Permitting Processes: Complex and fragmented regulatory frameworks can delay project approvals. Streamlining these processes with robust data and evidence is vital to facilitate timely development.
Addressing these challenges is crucial for achieving the EU's renewable energy objectives and ensuring the sustainable integration of marine renewable energy sources. Technologies such as digital twins of the ocean can play a pivotal role. By simulating marine conditions and optimizing site selection, digital twins can reduce project risks, enhance efficiency, and improve the environmental impact assessment of offshore renewables. Additionally, better maritime spatial planning and cross-border cooperation, facilitated by data-sharing platforms and AI-driven monitoring systems, can accelerate decision-making and integration of offshore energy into Europe’s energy grid. Strategic funding mechanisms, such as Horizon Europe and the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, are also essential to support research, development, and deployment of cutting-edge renewable technologies
Iliad Digital Twin Solutions
The following Iliad applications and services address these challenges:
Wind Energy O&M – Offshore Portugal
The application features high-resolution resource modeling for offshore wind energy, provides tools for maintenance planning and optimizing operational efficiency. Tools are integrated with spatial planning platforms to ensure compatibility with other marine uses.
The outcome of the application, i.e. the simulation results are displayed for the user, such that the information may be interactively organized and sorted under different criteria. The user may select different combinations of costs and thus have a more precise understanding of their relative importance.
Project Review Tool – Wind Energy
The tool enhances offshore wind energy planning by integrating real-time environmental conditions into a multi-physics simulation platform (Ceto®). The tool enables operators to refine mission strategies, optimize complex maneuvers, and de-risk offshore wind operations.
It achieves this by enabling:
- Mission Optimization: Simulates precise maneuvering, hydrodynamic coupling, and environmental interactions.
- Scenario Testing: Incorporates real-world conditions (currents, winds, sea-state) for risk analysis.
- Crew Training: Provides a collaborative VR experience for operational planning and execution.
- Regulatory Compliance: Aligns with EU offshore wind policies by validating safe operational windows.
Tidal Array – Edinburgh Tidal Energy
This tool simulates operation of tidal turbines, arranged in an array in Pentland Firth, Scotland, UK. Can be used for marine energy resource assessment, array design optimisation, array hydro-environmental impact assessment, and operation monitoring. The current system provides essential environmental, technical and modelling capabilities that are extensible and transferrable.
Hydrographic surveying of sea waves for Wave Energy Converters – Israel Wave Energy
Develops wave energy feasibility assessments, combining environmental and technical factors. Includes tools for assessing site-specific wave energy potential and optimizing energy extraction.
The tool also provides the possibility to study wave strength and assess risks at critical locations such as piers, bridges, offshore platforms, etc. and informs designers as well as public authorities mitigation actions to minimize said risks.
Iliad’s policy facilitation
Iliad DTOs offer a wide variety of functionalities that help public authorities and decision makers in their everyday tasks, contribute to data-driven marine planning and operations, as well as better preparedness to future developments. Below, we summarize the main contributions that the above-stated applications and services can contribute to European and global policy targets:
- Marine Spatial Planning Platforms: Iliad DTOs offer GIS-based tools that identify optimal locations for renewable energy projects while minimizing conflicts with other marine uses. These platforms integrate conservation and biodiversity data to protect sensitive ecosystems.
- Resource Assessment Models: High-resolution wind, wave, and tidal resource maps are provided, along with tools for predicting long-term resource availability and variability, aiding in accurate planning and investment decisions.
- Environmental Impact Assessment Tools: Predictive models evaluate potential impacts on marine ecosystems, and mitigation planning tools help minimize negative effects on biodiversity and fisheries.
- Stakeholder Engagement Platforms: Interfaces facilitate transparent communication and collaboration with local communities, industry stakeholders, and regulators, ensuring that feedback is integrated into project planning and permitting processes.
- Operational Risk Assessment & Mission Optimization: The Wind Energy Project Review Tool enhances decision-making by simulating precise maneuvering, hydrodynamic coupling, and environmental interactions, helping to optimize mission execution and reduce risk.
- Scenario Testing & Crew Training: Integrated what-if scenarios allow operators to validate operational strategies under realistic environmental conditions, while the collaborative VR experience prepares crews for complex offshore missions.
By leveraging these tools, policymakers and stakeholders can develop renewable energy projects that are efficient, sustainable, and compatible with broader marine governance goals.
