As part of the Danish climate agreement of June 2020, it was decided to build two energy islands, in the Baltic and North Seas respectively, linked to offshore wind farms that together can provide 5 GW. The engineering and consultancy company Ramboll has been awarded one of the first pilot climate and seabed studies for the coming energy islands.
The ‘energy island’ is a comparatively new concept, and refers to an existing island, an artificial island or a platform that functions as a hub for electricity production from nearby offshore wind farms, to be collected and distributed to one or more countries.
Energinet has now asked Ramboll to map and recommend possible submerged cable routes and landing locations for the export of power from a future energy island near Bornholm, to Denmark and an adjacent country.
”The project is of major strategic importance since the result will help form the basis for decisions about import and export of energy from the new energy island, as well as how renewable energy from the islands will interconnect the countries” said Mikkel Benthien Kristensen, Global Division director for Environmental Impact Assessments at Ramboll.
These projects are crucial for Denmark, because the green energy from the energy islands can meet the growing electricity consumption in a climate-friendly Danish society, but also for Europe in general, when the green power is exported and thus contributes to the European green transition. The planned energy island projects are anticipated to make Denmark a front-runner in the advanced utilisation of offshore wind.
This work creates the groundwork for subsequent investigations and approval of the project. The next step in the project for the energy island Bornholm will be to carry out the environmental feasibility studies to ensure that the energy island has as few negative consequences as possible for the marine environment.
