The energy islands are an entirely new concept, and it is among the first of its kind in the world. The Energy Island can become a significant part of achieving the government’s ambition of harvesting the offshore wind potential in Denmark – especially in the North Sea.
Because of the never-before-seen-nature of the concept, it is constantly evolving and the Ministry for Climate-, Energy- Utilities and the Danish Energy Agency along with the state’s advisors and other partners are continuously learning more about the different possibilities for realizing it. The Danish Energy Agency estimates that the bill for the project will be more than 50 billion DKK, which is far from the requirement of profitability that was set with the very first political agreement on the project.
Therefore, the Danish government will investigate and research more options to make sure there isn’t a better way of realizing an energy island in the North Sea and make it profitable. At this point the costs and risks of the current project is too high. This postpones the decision to open the public tender for the energy island until later this year.
“The North Sea has a massive potential for offshore wind – and the government still have the ambition to realize an energy island in the North Sea. The project is important for both the green transition and the energy security of Denmark and the rest of Europe. But when we’re planning projects of that size, we need to make sure we’re doing it right way and choosing the smartest solutions – and that’s exactly what we’re doing now,” says minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard.
According to the original schedule for the energy island, the tender was supposed to start in the spring of 2023. Now the decision to start the tender is delayed until later this year.
A delay of a few months to analyze if other options can make the project profitable does not change the fact that Denmark will have plenty of renewable energy in the years to come. Along with several political parties of the Danish Parliament, the government has recently paved the way for a massive expansion of offshore wind with upwards of 14 GW – or more if the market allows it.
Facts
- Energy Island North Sea will produce at least 3 GW in its first phase and 10 GW in its second as well as last.
- According to earlier political agreements the first phase must be completed in 2033 and the second phase in 2040.
- The final calculations on profitability were initiated after the latest political agreement was concluded in October 2022.
- An energy island is a hub for aggregation and distribution of largescale offshore wind. In a Danish context, an energy island also connects energy markets via an interconnector. An energy island is not a specific concept, for example, deviates Energy Island Bornholm from the concept of Energy Island North Sea. An energy island can e.g. also consists of platforms, which is one of the possibilities that will be examined in the coming analysis.