A broad majority of government and opposition parties in the Danish parliament has agreed that a planned “world-first” offshore wind energy hub in the North Sea will be located on an artificially constructed island with links to several European countries.

The Danish government will be the majority owner of the hub in the North Sea at some 80km off the peninsula of Jutland, with private companies holding a minority stake.

The hub with a potential capacity to be linked to 10GW of offshore wind farms, eventually will be able to supply 10m European households with renewable power.

“The energy hub in the North Sea will be the largest construction project in Danish history,” Danish Minister for Climate, Dan Jørgensen, said.

“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.”

10GW potential

Denmark plans the hub to serve as a giant offshore power plant gathering and distributing green power from hundreds of wind turbines surrounding the island directly to consumers in countries surrounding the North Sea.

The island is expected to have a total area of at least 120,000 square metres. In its first phase, the island will be able to provide three million households with green energy.

“We are at the dawn of a new era for energy. … The EU has set a goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and the Commission has set a target of 300GW offshore wind energy in order to attain this goal,” Jørgensen said.

“By constructing the world’s first energy hub with a potential capacity of 10GW, Denmark significantly contributes to this ambitious target.”

The artificial island will include a harbour and facilities for energy storage, as well as in the long-term be able to convert it to liquid green fuel, and send it via subsea cables to Denmark and neighbouring countries.

Tender for private partnerships

Details about the ownership of the island will still be specified in order for a tender for private partnerships to be opened.

The water at the site is about 25 metres deep, Thomas Dalsgaar, senior adviser at Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), told Recharge. CIP is managing the project on behalf of the VindØ consortium planning the construction of the island.

“This is a new, rather ground-breaking project that will take offshore wind to a new level in terms of scale. We believe this will be a new way to continue to reduce cost,” Dalsgaar said.

“The whole idea is that we can have a lot of offshore wind in this hub, and then distribute it to the markets in Northern Europe. We don’t need to have cables from each wind farm the whole way to shore.”

As well as energy storage, over time the island is also expected to host large-scale green hydrogen production, he added.

CIP has earlier said it is willing to finance the energy island project with an initial €50m ($60.7m).

The illustration of the energy island is a possible version provided by the Danish Energy Agency, but not necessarily the final version.

The VindØ consortium last month has provided a video with vision of a larger island, including trees and recreational areas. (Link here).

Wind

'Dawn of a new era': Denmark to build world's first artificial energy island in North Sea