DENMARK – These energy islands will play a huge role in Europe’s future energy system.
WindEurope has announced that Europe’s 30 GW of offshore wind farms are nearly all connected to the energy system through subsea power cables that run from each individual wind farm back to the mother country. In the not-too-distant future, many of them should connect to new “energy islands” which will centralise the transmission of the energy they produce. Some of these islands should also connect to each other and help improve energy flows between countries in Europe.
According to WindEurope, Belgium will start building their island in 2024 – in the Princess Elisabeth Zone where they’re planning to build 3.5 GW of new offshore wind. The Belgian TSO Elia should build the island.
Denmark should run an auction in 2024 to decide who builds their North Sea island. They plan to have it up and running by 2030. And in the Baltic Sea, they want to make Bornholm an energy island with the same process and timescale. The two Danish islands should between them have 5-6 GW of new offshore wind farms connected to them.
The Netherlands and Germany are working on North Sea energy islands too. The Danish, Dutch and German TSOs want to build an island together on the Dogger Bank that’ll be operational in the early 2030s. They also want to connect this so-called North Sea Wind Power Hub to the UK, Belgium and Norway.
According to WindEurope, these energy islands will play a huge role in Europe’s future energy system.
“Energy islands will become a reality soon. And they’ll be incredibly useful in helping integrate offshore wind in the energy system and improving energy flows between countries. It’s great that Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are working to develop them and coordinating their plans, ” said Giles Dickson, CEO at WindEurope.
Source: WindEurope