The final report of the CoBren project brings territorial evidence to facilitate effective cooperation between European regions and tackle potential sea-use conflicts when producing and providing Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) in support of reaching European climate and energy goals.

The report particularly sheds light on the following aspects:

• The potential to exploit the capacity and efficiency of ORE resources in light of sea use conflict and negative externalities of ORE developments and barriers as well as potential synergies with other types of ORE and sea uses offered through co-location.
• The role of Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) to enable ORE development in an integrated manner, solving sea use-conflicts, considering social, economic and environmental impacts of ORE developments and taking the positions of all relevant stakeholders into consideration.
• The importance of EU instruments such as sea basin plans and regional sea conventions as well as of EU cooperation mechanisms such as territorial cooperation programmes in supporting regional cooperation in relation to ORE developments.

The report addresses these topics through a comprehensive mapping of the use of European seas to assess the potential of ORE to contribute to the EU’s renewable energy goals. This analysis is complemented by a review of current maritime spatial planning practices and available EU instruments and cooperation mechanisms to assess their potential for unlocking the identified ORE potential. 

it also includes seven dedicated case studies to further illustrate concrete findings.