The Danish government will take a majority stake in a £25bn artificial “energy island” to be built in the North Sea, 50 miles (80km) offshore. The broad deal – involving the Social Democrat government and its support parties and the right-wing opposition – agreed to the state holding a 51% stake in the project. The private sector will have the remainder.
The artificial island will be located to the west of the Jutland peninsula. The first phase will have an area of 120,000 sq meters (or 18 football pitches). It will provide three million households with clean energy. High sea walls on all sides will protect it from North Sea storms. There will be a dock for service vessels along one side.
Denmark’s climate minister, Dan Jørgensen, said in a statement:
This is truly a great moment for Denmark and the global green transition. The energy hub in the North Sea will be the largest construction project in Danish history. It will make a big contribution to the realization of the enormous potential for European offshore wind.
The undertaking builds upon an inter-party deal on energy policy struck in June. They agreed to construct two wind energy hubs – one centered on the Baltic island of Bornholm (2GW) and the other an artificial island (3GW at first, then 10GW). The two hubs together will generate up to 12GW of electricity when complete. They will initially support 5GW of wind power – triple the country’s current installed offshore wind capacity.
Jørgensen told The Guardian:
This is huge for Denmark. We are taking a step into the next era of offshore wind. We were the first country in 1991 to build an offshore wind farm, and now we are taking the next step. When this is finalized, it will be producing far, far more clean energy than we can use as a country, so this is part of a strategy to help other countries meet their targets.
It’s yet to be decided whether the state will be involved in building an actual island and whether it will take a lead role in funding the project. Jørgensen said:
We were discussing whether or not we should make a platform construction, and we needed, for the decision to be final, to agree on whether the state should own a majority of the island.
Jørgensen labeled the 51% stake as:
…a perfect compromise [that would bring in private expertise and make it] a very lucrative business both for the private investors and for the Danish state.
For now, the government has committed to hosting discussions with wind farm developers and investors to develop a legal framework for tendering regarding the 49% public stake.
Construction will likely begin in 2026. The years up until that point will be spent signing up private sector partners, conducting environmental impact assessments on the sea bed, and landing deals to connect the two energy islands to the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.
Jørgensen said:
The economic feasibility of the projects is dependent on us making those connections because it’s far more than we can use ourselves.
It’s expected that the North Sea island might be too complicated to complete before 2033. However, the agreement’s text calls on the government to work with private sector partners as soon as possible to speed up the process so the project can be brought online earlier.
If the artificial island takes as long to build as predicted, it might not help Denmark reach its ambitious climate target of reducing emissions by 70% (from 1990 levels) by 2030.
