Denmark’s biggest offshore wind farm will be located in the North Sea

1 March 2019

The signatory parties behind the Danish Energy Agreement, which was settled in June 2018, yesterday decided that Denmark’s biggest offshore wind farm will be installed in the North Sea. The giant wind farm named Thor, which will have a capacity of at least 800 MW, will be put out to tender in 2019. Thor will supply power to 800,000 households and create more than 8,000 jobs in the layout process.

Giant strides towards carbon neutrality

”Today, we are taking giant strides on the route to Denmark’s carbon neutrality. The coming offshore wind farm will be our far biggest and it will contribute significantly to local growth and to the green transition,” said Lars Chr. Lilleholt, Minister of Energy, Utilities and Climate in a press release.

”Offshore wind is a Danish specialty and the North Sea is well on the way to becoming a Silicon Valley for offshore wind – which is only stipulated today,” Lilleholt continued.

The location in the North Sea was chosen in strong competition with a position at Krigers Flak in the Baltic Sea where Vattenfall is currently installing a 600 MW Danish wind farm that will be connected to the grid in 2021. The North Sea won because the location 20 kilometres off the Danish west coast will provide Denmark most green energy for the money.

[caption id="attachment_92591" align="alignnone" width="450"] The development of Danish offshore wind turbines[/caption]

During the month of January 2019, the Danish Minister of Energy, Utilities and Climate has held meetings with mayors of nine Danish municipalities about the location of the offshore wind farm and in general there is good local support to offshore wind both in eastern and western parts of the country.

Wind energy is needed

”With a capability to cover 80 per cent of Europe’s energy consumption, offshore wind is one of the most important raw materials of the future. Now we will await the tender to see what it contains. If offshore wind is to become even more inexpensive it is crucial that the coming tender includes the price of grid connection. If we are to make it all the way to Paris [the Paris Agreement], we need wind turbines both on shore and off shore,” commented Managing Director of Renewable Energy at Danish Energy, Kristine van het Erve Grunnet in a Danish Energy statement.

Today, wind energy covers approx. 8 per cent of Denmark’s total energy consumption. With the energy agreement from June 2018, this share is expected to increase to around 18 per cent by 2030. The Energy Agreement of 2018 determined that three large offshore wind parks will be established in Denmark by 2030.