While gas guzzling defeatists moan that we don’t have enough electricity supply to switch to electric cars, and ask AI when best to buy Bitcoin, etc, et cet era, et cynical era… Denmark plans to create the world’s first energy island to generate clean power, blazing a trail for European wind expansion ambitions.
The project will create two hubs to provide electricity to 5M+ households. One, a new artificial island in the North Sea for wind farms supplying 3-4 GW of energy with potential expansion to 10 GW. The Danish Island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea will serve as a second island for offshore wind farms off the coast supplying 3 GW of energy. The Danish Energy Agency is leading the project.
Wind turbines near the North Sea island with generate 3GW; double the entire current wind power capacity of Denmark.
Wind generators 15km south of Bornholm’s coast will also generate 3GW, routed to Zealand and nearby countries.
The latest research phase of this project explored the benefits of generating electricity a shorter distance from the coast, and given the disadvantage of conveying electricity a long distance through the sea, a better option would be to transport in the form of hydrogen. Det Norske Veritas (DNV) suggests oil pipelines could be repurposed for the required hydrogen infrastructure.
Following Denmark’s lead, eight other European countries have expressed their enthusiasm for expanding wind power capacity in the North Sea: The UK, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Luxembourg. Ursula Von der Leyen remarked that the North Sea was to become “the powerhouse of Europe”.
Sources
European Countries Pledge Huge Expansion of North Sea Wind Farms, The Guardian, 2023-04-24
How to connect energy islands: Trade-offs between hydrogen and electricity infrastructure, Applied Energy
Denmark’s Energy Islands, Danish Energy Agency
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