The European Commission has approved a €2.04 billion Belgian state aid scheme to support the construction and operation of the first offshore wind farm in the Princess Elisabeth offshore zone in the North Sea. The decision was announced on Tuesday, 10 November 2026.

The wind farm is expected to have a capacity of up to 735 megawatts and to generate up to 2.6 terawatt-hours of renewable electricity a year. The scheme will run for 20 years and was approved under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework, which the Commission adopted in June 2025.

What the scheme will fund

Support will be awarded through a competitive, transparent and non-discriminatory bidding process, with the tender result expected in the fourth quarter of 2027. Financial support will take the form of a monthly variable premium under a two-way contract for difference.

Under that mechanism, the wind farm operator will receive payments when the reference market price falls below the agreed bid price, and will make payments to the Belgian authorities when the market price rises above it. Compensation will be based on the wind farm's potential electricity production rather than its actual generation, so producers will not be paid for output during periods when the market value of electricity is negative.

Supply chains must diversify

The tender will also apply criteria from the Net Zero Industry Act requiring the diversification of wind turbine and key component supply chains, to reduce dependence on imports from outside Europe. The Commission concluded that the scheme is necessary, appropriate and proportionate to support the transition towards a net-zero economy and that it meets EU state aid requirements.

European Commission Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera said: "The energy we produce at home is energy we don't need to import." She added that the Belgian scheme "will deliver up to 2.6 TWh of clean electricity a year strengthening our energy independence while making progress towards a more competitive, decarbonised European economy."

Why a new scheme was needed

The new measure replaces a previous Belgian state aid scheme approved in 2024 under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, which was introduced to support the economy following Russia's war in Ukraine. Funding under that earlier scheme was not granted before its legal deadline of 31 December 2025, so Belgium notified the Commission of a new, larger scheme under the Clean Industrial Deal framework.

The non-confidential version of the Commission's decision will be published under case number SA.120400 in the state aid register on the Commission's competition website once confidentiality issues have been resolved. The approval confirms only that Belgium's scheme complies with EU state aid rules; the wind farm itself is still to be built, and a developer must first be selected through the tender.

For Belgium, the project is a step towards expanding offshore wind capacity in the North Sea and reducing reliance on imported energy. For the Commission, it is an early test of the Clean Industrial Deal framework, which is intended to support clean technology manufacturing and energy projects across the European Union.