Can the North Sea Become Europe’s New Economic Powerhouse?
The continent’s most turbulent body of water is finding fresh uses.
The biggest bet is on a resource of which the sea has an infinite amount—awful weather. With average wind speeds of ten metres per second, the basin is one of the gustiest in the world. The day your correspondent visited Esbjerg speeds were twice that, enough to push the wholesale price of electricity down to nearly zero.
With a dose of strategic thinking, and a bit of luck, a string of Esbjergs could scale up into a new North Sea economy. This would help Europe meet its ambitious climate goals and rebalance its energy sources away from countries ruled by tyrants such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Its newly minted corporate champions could offer Europe’s best, and perhaps last, chance to stay globally relevant. And it could alter the continent’s political and economic balance by creating an alternative to the sputtering Franco-German engine.