An offshore wind farm lined up to power one of Europe’s pioneering green hydrogen projects risks being delayed by a bureaucratic tangle over how bats are counted.
The 250MW Aflandshage wind farm in the Oresund strait off Denmark, was granted a permit last year by the Danish Energy Agency but has now had that revoked by the nation’s Energy Complaints Board following an appeal, said HOFOR, the Copenhagen utility developing the project.
"We can ascertain that it is, among other things, a changed practice by the authorities regarding the counting of bats, which has triggered the rejection in the appeals board,” said HOFOR.
Aflandshage – which is currently due online in early 2026 – is slated to provide part of the power for the electrolysers of Green Fuels for Denmark, the Orsted-led consortium that aims to spur large-scale production of hydrogen to in turn produce sustainable heavy transport and aviation fuels for Danish capital Copenhagen.
A HOFOR spokesperson told Recharge that while discussions with Danish authorities over the revocation are still ongoing, changes to rules over bat counting could force the developer to revisit elements of the environmental process – with potential knock-on effects for the entire project.
“It’s definitely a risk that it could be delayed,” she said. “We might have to do some more investigations, which might delay us. That’s what we’re looking into now.”
Aflandshage is due to be part of the 100MW-electrolyser second phase of Green Fuels for Denmark, one of Orsted’s flagship power-to-x projects whose other partners include shipping giant Moller-Maersk, airline SAS and Copenhagen Airport.
The project’s base will be Avedore Power Station in Copenhagen, which will also supply biogenic carbon for producing e-methanol and e-kerosene.
When fully developed by the end of the decade Green Fuels for Denmark is due to feature around 1.3GW of electrolyser capacity.
Asked by Recharge about any possible knock-on effect of a delay to Aflandshage on the wider project, Lars Hansen, head of Orsted P2X in Denmark said: “We continue to work closely with HOFOR about the delivery of power to Green Fuels for Denmark, and we hope for a swift decision, so that both of these large energy projects can move forward and contribute to the green transformation of Denmark.”
HOFOR’s difficulties with bats reflects wider issues over consenting facing the offshore wind industry across Europe, with major North Sea projects such a Orsted’s 2.6GW Hornsea 4 suffering delays over seabird impacts.
Denmark’s climate and energy minister Lars Aagaard told the WindEurope conference in Copenhagen earlier this year that red tape was causing too many delays to offshore projects.
The minister said “if our rules keep us from rolling out massive offshore wind capacity, there won’t be much of an ecosystem left to protect in the future to come”.
