50Hertz, one of the German Transmission System Operators (TSO), commissioned Ea Energy Analyses to conduct an analysis on the broader socio-economic benefits for offshore wind development in the Baltic Sea Region, which comprehends Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland.
The starting point working hypothesis was that socio-economic benefits of developing offshore wind in the Baltic Region are broader than what traditional cost-benefit analyses suggest. Broader socio-economic impacts, such as increased energy security, shared geostrategic advantages, and job creation are often overlooked.
To test the hypothesis, the project gathered comprehensive quantitative and qualitative foundations which will support dialogue among relevant stakeholders.
The project included an extensive literature review that mapped and investigated the different socio-economic benefits from offshore wind development. Interviews were conducted with market participants, interest organizations and authorities to determine the relevance of the identified benefits.
On the quantitative side, the project estimated the employment impacts of realizing the offshore wind ambitions of the Baltic Sea Region countries, including the development of Power-to-X and hybrid interconnectivity. In this respect, two alternative but complementary approaches were employed.
A bottom-up approach based on the direct job creation of developing, establishing, maintaining, connecting, operating, and decommissioning an offshore wind farm was complemented by a top-down approach. This top-down approach relied on a dedicated Input-Output analysis of the Baltic Region, based on detailed statistical information contained in the FIGARO tables produced by EUROSTAT.
One innovation of the analysis was estimating the employment impacts of Power-to-X and hybrid interconnector development. A second innovation was an analysis of the distribution of jobs in the region, based on a combined consideration of market structure and supply chain development.
Find information about one of our projects in Türkiye here.