The European Commission has approved a €2.04 billion Belgian state aid scheme to support offshore wind power, including the first wind farm in the Princess Elisabeth offshore Zone in the North Sea.
The scheme will run for 20 years and replaces an earlier measure approved in 2024 under the EU’s Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, after aid under that earlier scheme was not granted by the 31 December 2025 legal deadline, the Commission informed on Tuesday.
It said further that the new scheme is backed by the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework, known as CISAF, adopted on 25 June 2025.
The measure will support the construction and operation of an offshore wind farm expected to have a capacity of up to 735 MW and to generate up to 2.6 TWh of renewable electricity per year.
Aid will be awarded through what the Commission described as a transparent and non-discriminatory bidding process, with the result expected in the fourth quarter of 2027.
How the support will work
Support will take the form of a two-way contract for difference, or CfD — a mechanism that pays a top-up when market power prices are below an agreed “bid price”, and requires repayments when prices rise above that level, the Commission said.
Payments will be calculated monthly by comparing the bid price with a reference market price, weighted by the wind farm’s monthly capability.
The Commission said the tender will include prequalification criteria linked to the EU’s Net Zero Industry Act, including a requirement to diversify wind turbine and key component supply chains to reduce dependency on imports from outside Europe.
“The Belgium €2.04 billion scheme for lot 1 of the Princess Elisabeth offshore zone will deliver up to 2.6 TWh of clean electricity a year,” the Commission's Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera said.
