Denmark must expand its ambition in building offshore wind farms off its coast if it is to meet it “geographical responsibility” in helping decarbonise Europe, a senior executive in the country’s industry association has said.

Wind Denmark deputy CEO Camila Holbech stated the plans for three tenders to be completed between 2020 and 2030 – starting with the up-to-1GW Thor development – with a view to bringing new offshore wind capacity online between 2025 and 2027, are coming “too late”.

“We know that Denmark must build a lot more offshore wind than is currently planned and that there is a political will for more offshore wind,” she said.

“The first step for the Danish politicians is to advance the plans for the coming three offshore wind farms in Denmark. This will have a massive climate effect as well as leave room for additional offshore wind farms to be built in the years leading up to 2030.”

In total, the Danish energy agreement – a cross-party compact to accelerate a long-view expansion of offshore wind to drive the country toward a share of renewables of 55% in overall energy consumption – has laid out three offshore wind farms of 800-1,000MW to be installed in 2025 (Thor), 2027 and 2029.

Wind Denmark is pushing for the projects to be grid-connected in 2025, 2026 and 2027, “leaving room for additional wind farms later”.

“Offshore wind is vital to meet Europe’s decarbonisation targets and Denmark especially has a big role to play, as we as a country have geographical responsibility to utilise the wind that nature provides.

“It is not much different from Brazil who also has a big responsibility when it comes to protecting the Amazon rainforest as the world’s ‘lungs’,” said Holbech.

“We have to use all means necessary to produce as much renewables as possible factoring in the excellent wind resources and shallow waters that are available close to Denmark.”

A new report out today (26 November) from WindEurope calculates that offshore wind power could carry Europe to carbon-neutrality by mid-century, mushrooming to an installed base of 450GW and meeting 30% of the continent’s power demand — but to do so at lowest cost needs a “visionary” root-and-branch rethink of marine spatial planning.

Wind

Denmark has ‘geographic’ duty to boost wind-powered decarbonisation