Vattenfall Pushes Danish Nearshore Wind Farms Farther Offshore

Vattenfall has placed the wind turbines on the Vesterhav Syd and Nord nearshore wind farms as far from the Danish North Sea coast as possible within the two areas designated by the state, the latest design drafts show.

In the new drafts, the wind turbines are placed in rows approximately nine kilometres from the coast, doubling the distance compared to the location of the wind turbines closest to the coast proposed in the original designs.

“The new design drafts confirm that we have listened to local wishes and are investing in moving the turbines as far away from the coast as possible. The environmental assessment itself will be completed this summer, after which the Danish Energy Agency will ask the public for input on it,” said Jacob Nørgaard Andersen, Vattenfall’s director in Denmark.

The public consultation on the supplementary environmental assessment will be held in the summer of 2020, Vattenfall said.

Vattenfall had initially planned to start offshore construction on the two wind farms in 2019 and commission them in 2020.

However, in early 2019, the Danish Energy Agency started a new environmental impact assessment (EIA) process for the two projects due to a cancelation of a part of the construction licenses following several appeals.

Vattenfall has since requested that the deadline for the commissioning of the two offshore wind farms be moved to 2023, and has cancelled a number of tenders related to the projects.

Vesterhav Syd and Vesterhav Nord will comprise a total of 41 Siemens Gamesa 8.4MW wind turbines with a combined capacity of 344.4MW.