Denmark has postponed the tender for its planned artificial energy island in the North Sea due to high costs.
The island, which will gather the power produced by nearby offshore wind farms and distribute it to Denmark and neighbouring countries, is estimated to cost the Danish state more than $7bn, something the country’s energy ministry said is “far from being profitable”.
“At this point the costs and risks of the current project are too high,” the ministry said.
The project, first proposed in 2020, has already been delayed once. The government noted that it remains committed to the construction of the energy island but that it was necessary to explore alternatives that could make the project viable in light of current economic concerns.
The decision on how to push the project forward and the publication of the tender documents will be postponed until later this year. By 2033, the island is expected to have a capacity of 3 GW zero-carbon electricity, equivalent to approximately half of Denmark’s electricity consumption today. By 2040, this figure is expected to rise to 10 GW, enough to power 10m homes in Northern Europe.
