Energy Storage Governance in the Asia-Pacific through the Law of the Sea Convention: Exploring Bottlenecks and Enablers of Regulating Offshore Wind Combined with Energy Storage

Abstract

Following projections of high economic and demographic growth, the Asia-Pacific region is poised to take the lead in the global production of offshore wind energy. A critical barrier is the intermittency of renewables, increasing the need for energy storage capacity to conserve energy harvested from the ocean. The bankability of energy storage systems combined with offshore wind power remains low and depends on varied policy frameworks. Meanwhile, the potential of the Law of the Sea (los) Convention for storage governance is underexplored. This paper highlights current regulatory bottlenecks and enablers to energy storage based on the los Convention and comparative policy research. It focuses on hydrogen as an energy carrier to store offshore wind energy, demonstrating how energy justice and environmental stewardship can result from ocean-based storage capacity developments. Ultimately, it aims to facilitate access to financing to increase the storage capacity of the Asian-Pacific sustainable blue economy.