Companies partner for 10GW wind energy island in Denmark

A consortium, consisting of three of the largest Danish pension and energy companies - PensionDanmark, PFA, and SEAS-NVE, is ready to finance and operate an upcoming energy island called VindØ to be located in the North Sea. In the long term, VindØ can be the base for up to 10-gigawatt offshore wind turbines, corresponding to approximately 25 traditional offshore wind farms.

The consortium is ready to finance initially with up to DKK 400 million (US$ 58.8 million) to develop the project. The government's ambition for an energy island in the North Sea can be financed entirely without government funding.

The collaboration is based on utilizing known technology within classic Danish positions of strength, but in an innovative concept that changes the approach to exploiting offshore wind. Significant expansion at sea also reduces the need for onshore wind turbines and solar parks, and the nuisances it can cause in the local areas.

VindØ is an island made up of concrete submersible boxes approximately 100 km out in the North Sea. The distance to the coast ensures that the wind turbines cannot be seen from the coast.

The state-owned company Energinet, which owns the overall energy infrastructure in Denmark, can buy part of the island to install transmission cable ashore to ensure public ownership of the transmission network.

Torben Möger Pedersen, CEO of PensionDanmark said, “An energy island in the North Sea is an important part of an economically sound expansion of offshore wind capacity. It also has the potential to become an export product to the parts of the world where the expansion of offshore wind will take place in the coming decades. Experience from the North Sea could be disseminated to the rest of the world.”

The partners are assisted by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, one of the world's leading green infrastructure investment companies with significant experience from major offshore projects worldwide.