What is Denmark’s artificial energy island project?

What is Denmark’s artificial energy island project?

Context:

The Danish government on Thursday approved a plan to build an artificial island in the North Sea as part of its effort to switch to green energy. The project is being called the largest construction project to be undertaken in Denmark’s history with an estimated cost of DKK 210 billion.

What is an energy island?

An energy island is based on a platform that serves as a hub for electricity generation from surrounding offshore wind farms.

The idea is to connect and distribute power between Denmark and neighbouring countries. Denmark has already entered into agreements with the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium to begin the joint analysis of connections in the energy island.

In June 2020, the Danish Parliament decided to initiate the construction of two energy islands, which will export power to mainland Denmark and neighbouring countries. One of these islands will be located in the North Sea and the second island, called the island of Bornholm, will be located in the Baltic Sea.

The move has come after the EU announced its plans to transform its electricity system to rely mostly on renewables within a decade and to increase its offshore wind energy capacity by over 25-fold by the year 2050.

The artificial island, whose construction was approved on Thursday, will be located about 80 km into the North Sea and the majority of it will be owned by the Danish government. Its primary purpose is to provide large-scale offshore wind power.

According to the Danish Energy Agency, as part of the Climate Agreement for Energy and Industry, Denmark wants to become the first country in the world to begin working on such energy islands with a total capacity of about 5 GW offshore winds. The construction of both islands is expected to be complete by 2030.

Source: IE

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