Designs have been unveiled to build Denmark’s planned world-first energy island in the North Sea in an environmentally friendly way based mainly on sand, with rock caps as coastal protection.

Using local resources, as sand is typically found in large quantities on the seabed, the design intends to create space for biodiversity by mimicking a natural encounter between sea and land, creating an artificial island that is part of the marine environment with beaches, dunes and underwater rock reefs that provide new habitats for flora and fauna.