Denmark Pushes North Sea Energy Island Tender Back by One Year

The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has pushed back the start date for the tender to build the North Sea Energy Island (Energiø Nordsø) by up to twelve months, as the Agency wants to perform more preparatory work after receiving feedback through market dialogues.

The tender is expected to be announced in September 2023 and, in the meantime, DEA will hold several more market dialogues while also further analysing the market’s input and preparing the tender.

While the tender has been decided to be postponed, the Agency estimates that the time can be made up for later in the process and still aims at having the North Sea Energy Island starting to supply clean energy in 2033.

The Danish Energy Agency says it listened to the input from the private players who have participated in the two market dialogues held in 2021, when more than 20 private players and consortia have offered innovative solutions for how to best design the energy island in the North Sea and which business model best equips the concept for the future. 

Based on the input, the DEA and the state’s advisors have assessed there is a need for further tender preparatory work in order to reap Denmark’s offshore wind resources in an optimal way.

The further work with the island’s business model and technical concept will now focus on a flexible island concept, which allows to combine a dammed island with electricity transmission and energy conversion on platforms on the island, but without limiting the possibilities for innovative activities such as Power-to-X.

“With a flexible dammed island, we ensure a technical island design where the location of the electricity transmission equipment is not associated with unnecessary risks. The energy island will be built with both known technology, which means that it can be realized quickly, and innovative and flexible solutions that can show the way for the rest of the world,” Mogens Hagelskær, Deputy Director at DEA responsibe for the energy islands in Denmark.

The energy island will be offered as a so-called function offer which, among other things, sets requirements for the technical functionality of the energy island as a transmission link, so that the island fulfills the purpose of being able to facilitate the use and transmission of a total of 10 GW of offshore wind up to 2040 as a target. 

The business model for public-private partnerships will focus on renting out areas for Energinet’s activities, to ensure open and free competition for later offshore wind and related innovation opportunities, according to DEA.

The North Sea Energy Island will be an artificial island constructed 80 kilometres from the shore of the peninsula Jutland.

Around 200 wind turbines with a combined capacity of 3 GW are expected to be installed in the first phase of the project. At maximum capacity of 10 GW, the hub will be able to power 10 million European households with clean energy from its surrounding wind farms.

The Danish Energy Agency will offer co-ownership and the construction of the North Sea Energy Island in one large, combined international tender, in accordance with the political decision reached last year.

Energinet will build, develop and operate the energy island’s electricity infrastructure.

The energy island in the North Sea, including electricity infrastructure and associated offshore wind farms, constitutes the largest infrastructure project in Danish history, DEA says.

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