Denmark has approved proposals to build an artificial energy island in the North Sea - a world first and thought to be the country's largest-ever construction project - to be used as a clean energy hub.
Denmark North Sea energy island hub
Credit: Danish Energy Agency
The planned island will initially cover an area of 120,000 square metres with a capacity of 3 GW from around 200 turbines. It will provide enough clean energy to power three million homes, as well as produce green hydrogen for use in industry, shipping, aviation and heavy transport.
In future, the hub's capacity could be expanded to 10 GW, which the authorities say could power 10 million European homes.
Located 80km (50 miles) out to sea, the €28 billion project will be at least 50% state-owned with some private investment and will also provide energy to neighbouring countries' power grids.
“It’s a new way of thinking about offshore wind because the usual way is you have one offshore wind farm that’s connected to land,” said Danish climate minister Dan Jørgensen.
“This is a way of creating a much more renewable energy than we've been able to do before offshore.
“It will make a big contribution to the realisation of the enormous potential for European offshore wind, and I am excited for our future collaboration with other European countries,” he added.
Plans for the project will now move ahead with the Danish climate department entering discussions with potential private investors, as well as beginning negotiations over conditions of the tender and environmental impact assessments being carried out.
The decision comes following the EU's announcement last November that is was planning for a 25-fold increase in offshore wind capacity to 300GW by 2050, with a five-fold to by 2030.
Read more: Berlin & Copenhagen agree closer offshore wind cooperation
Plans for a smaller 2GW energy island off Bornholm in the Baltic Sea are already being drawn up, with agreements for it to provide energy to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium having already been signed.
Denmark energy islands map
Denmark's energy island hubs on a map. To the east in the Baltic Sea is the smaller Bornholm project (highlighted in pink) announced last November. In the west in the North Sea is the larger hub announced last week. Credit: Danish Energy Agency.
Denmark is moving to position itself as a global clean energy powerhouse with the country's politicians voting for an ambitious 70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions when compared to 1990 levels, with a goal of CO2 neutrality by 2050.
The country announced last December that it would end all new oil and gas exploration in its North Sea waters by 2050 making it the first major fossil fuel producer to take such a move and putting pressure on others in the region - particularly Norway and the UK - to follow suit.
Read more: Denmark puts 2050 date on end to North Sea oil & gas extraction
Denmark has long been something of a pioneer in offshore wind. The country hosted the world's first wind farm in waters near the island of Lolland in 1991 which was commissioned by Orsted, formerly known as Dong Energy. Other Danish companies, such as Vestas are also major players in wind energy.
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