Utilities Dong Energy, Vattenfall and ScottishPower; developers WPD and EnBW; and two consortia — one consisting of European Energy and Boralex, and another between Statoil and E.ON — will now prepare final bids for the giant Baltic Sea site.

Only one applicant of an original eight was rejected, on the grounds that, according to the Danish Energy Agency, it failed "to meet the criteria set out in the notice”.