Denmark has been making waves recently because of their plans to build an epic energy island in the North Sea. A mega project that’s collosal both in ambition and scale. But Denmark is the European Unions largest oil producer, and number four in all of Europe. Plus we already have offshore wind turbines, so why is Denmark really building this, and does it even make any sense? Let’s dive in, I’m Ricky and this is Two Bit da Vinci.
When itcomes to the global carbon footprint, Denmark is hardly one of the major offenders.
A country of just under 6 Million people, the nation has already invested in cutting their emissions in half over the last few decades. [LINK]
The Danish parliament has issued a near-total ban on companies receiving new licenses to hunt for and extract oil, and phase out all oil and gas exploration contracts in the North Sea by 2050.
This is a bold choice, because as we mentioned, Denmark is the EU’s largest oil producer, and #4 in Europe. But to put that in context, they’re 49th in the world, and their production of around 64,000 barrels per day, pales in comparison to the oil producing juggernauts, with Suadi Arabia producing 145x, Russia 158x, and the U.S. producing 174x as much as Denmark each day. (Link)(google sheet)
So it’s not a massive amount, but The move to end oil and gas contracts by 2050 is estimated to cost Denmark $2.1 billion in revenue yearly. So it’s still quite bold for an oil rich country to make this move, so why do it?
The initiative is already set to be the largest construction project in Denmark’s history. But instead of investing in railways or roads, the nation is investing in this — Energy Island.
An island that will be at least 120,000 square meters. That’s about the size of about 22 American football fields! [LINK] And that’s just the preliminary plans, Eventually, they hope to expand the island to three times that size.
The island will either be made of watertight caissons placed on the sea bed and surrounded by a sea wall, or it will be build up with sand as an artificial island.
While the exact location is still being kept under wraps, it will likely be build about 50 miles (80km) of the coast of Thorsminde, west of the Jutland peninsula in the North Sea.
So… why are they building an enormous island in the middle of the ocean?
Well, the idea is for the island to act as a power hub, essentially a green power plant. See, the facilities on the island will be connected to over 200 giant offshore wind turbines, each approximately 850 feet tall — about 3x the size of the statue of liberty! .[LINK]
All this wind fuel will give the site an energy capacity of between 3-5GW — enough to power about 5 million households, about double the number of homes currently in Denmark. [LINK]
But, again, that’s just the beginning. Eventually, the plan is to expand to 600 turbines for a total capacity of roughly 10 GW, enough to power 10 million homes.
But wait — there’s more. A second island, in the Baltic Sea, is also being planned, though this one will be built on the already-existing island of Bornholm. This facility will provide an additional 2 GW of energy. My first question would be, why not focus on this already existing island project first?
That means, when these projects reach their full intended capacity, they’ll produce a whopping 12 GW of energy — equivalent to the entire current offshore wind capacity for all of Europe!
If the plant produced energy just 12 hours a day, that’s 144 GWh per day, or 53 TWh a year. Denmarks entire yearly usage is just 33 TWh, meaning they could sell the remaining 20 TWh or so. (link to calcs). More on why this matters in a bit.
But the plans go even further. Eventually, the goal is for the island to house energy storage equipment for when energy supply exceeds demand. Out in the ocean, the developers also hope to use the site to convert wind energy into other types of green fuel, like hydrogen, to act as a docking site for shipping, aviation, and heavy industry.
Speaking of refueling, is a perfect segue to our sponsor this week, Factor. (ad spot)
The exact specifications of the island, though, have yet to be finalized. While the project will be funded largely by government funding, private companies will also have an opportunity to invest and have a say in the islands development. One company, the VindØ consortium, has bid to include thermal energy storage, data centers, and accommodations for site workers, visitors, and researchers.
The system will also be designed with flexibility in mind, collecting and distributing power around the shared grid as demand dictates.
Now this is all great and all, but it doesn’t really answer the question of why build an island? We have offshore wind turbines today, we have energy storage on land, and we can produce hydrogen and other fuels anywhere and pipe it to ports. What makes this so important?
For one yes we do have offshore wind turbines today, but there’s a catch. As we discussed in our video on offshore wind turbines, which we’ll link here (LINK), the highest wind speeds are in deep waters farther out at sea. But traditional wind turbines are typically limited to about 50m sea depths, because of the steel monopiles that need to be driven into the sea floor to support their massive size.
So depending on the specifics if their energy island, it’s possible to position wind turbines in new ways that aren’t possible today.
And consider this, we in California are in a pretty serious drought, so there was a vote to build a new $1.4B desalination plant in the Southern California City of Huntington Beach, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles. And in a great victory and tribute to the efficiancy of government it passed and soon we’ll have lots of fresh water! No I’m kidding, The California Coastal Commission voted 11-0 to reject the proposal by Poseidon Water. Here’s the thing, with every great ambition or project, there’s comes a need for regulators and approvals. Sometimes the great challenges of our planet aren’t held up by the brilliance of scientists and engineers, its regulators and politicians.
Look I’m not trying to make this a thing, there are environmental challenges with desalination like the leftover brine, all of which I covered in my video, you can check out in the show notes (Video LINK).
By building a dedicated energy island, I believe Denmark can be much more nimble with future projects. No one wants to see beautiful ocean coastlines mared with the sight of wind turbines, but if they were all build in dedicated regions for just this purpose, you wouldn’t even be able to see them. Plus there’s a major sense of “not in my backyard” where people often vote down projects if they deem its too close to home. It’s all understandable, and I think Denmark might be paving the way to thinking about producing energy going forward.
It’s like when my kids as me if they can have a candy, and then a toy, and then go out to play. I less likely to say yes with each request, but if they instead just asked me if to go Sea World, odds are they, they’d get all three.
But there’s another question. Why is such a small country planning to produce so much power? Especially a country that, as we mentioned, already has such a relatively small footprint? After all, Denmark already gets about 52% of its energy from renewables.
The truth is, this project isn’t meant just for Danes. See, the hub will route power via underwater cables not just to Denmark itself, but to neighboring nations. While the specific countries have yet to be named, according to Professor Jacob Ostergaard of the Technical University of Denmark, countries like the UK and Germany could benefit.
Now — this ambitious projects comes with a hefty price tag — about 210bn kroner, or about $34bn US.
For decades, Denmark has been a climate leader in the EU. While countries like Gernany, the Netherlands, and Belgium have developed their own strong wind sectors, Denmark was the first to build an offshore wind farm nearly 30 years ago.
The Current price of electricity in Denmark is around 35 euro cents, or about 40 cents US. As we mentioned earlier, at max capacity, the two islands combined would produce 20 tWh more than the annual power consumed by the entire country.
If the Danes sold energy at just 6 cents / kWh, they would make nearly 3.2 Billion dollars US. Of that, nearly $1.2B would be excess energy they would export to other countries. But in Europe where stricter and stricter carbon reduction efforts are taking effect, they could likely sell this energy for double that price, and make over 6.4B in revenue, while still being 0 carbon, and likely cheaper than alternative forms of energy. This also means that this entire project could pay for itself, in between 5-10 years. Not bad.
Plus, by having an entire island dedicated to the production and proliferation of energy, we might see all sorts of technologies take hold. Like the Finnish Sand Battery we talked about in this video (link), or CO2 batteries, or cryogenic air battery storage. If the island was producing a ton of net energy, when demand was low, they could power large scale hydrogen generation via electrolysis, and then make even more money selling that to future hydrogen cargo ships. Honestly, the island is a giant renewable energy playground, and the options are pretty limitless.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen just how much of a vice grip oil-producing countries like Russia can have over Europe.
In 2021, two-fifths of the gas Europeans burned, and over a quarter of the EU’s imported crude oil comes from Russia — Making a renewable source like wind cheaper and more reliable could help many countries in the EU wean off of Russian dependency and create more autonomy and independence. While the two energy islands will not be a complete fix, they can provide a crucial step. [LINK] [LINK]
Plus, if proven successful, this project could inspire other nations to make these kinds of bold investments not only in themselves, but in the global community.
One question though that comes to mind is… Artificial Islands? Doesn’t that sounds a little… Lex Luthor? What kind of impact could this project have on the sealife and the underwater ecosystem?
Fortunately, this is something the developers of this project are already considering. Right now, various research projects are underway, studying everything from soil quality to envionmental impact to try to reduce as much harm as possible. Danish organization Energinet is conducting preliminary studies on the seabed around both Bornholm and the region in the North Sea where the artificial island will go. The goal of these studies is to ensure that both the islands and the wind turbines are placed in areas best suited for construction while also leaving the smallest environmental footprint.
Plus even beyond this energy island, if this proves successful, we could decentralize energy generation, and setup artifical islands, in areas with minimal impact to wildlife. It just comes down to planning and risk management.
Still, when we think of how these projects will impact sealife and ecosystems, its important to consider them n the larger conversation of climate change. While these projects will almost certainly have some impact on the environment, nothing could be more detrimental to our oceans than continueing to burn stuff
Right now, to meet its climate goals, the EU needs to implement a total of 300GW of combined offshore wind by 2050 — around 25 times higher than where it is currently.
Denmark’s energy island, when complete, will at least double current offshore wind production. While there is still a few unknown variables, this project seems to be a major step in the future not only for the EU but for developing nations throughout the world.
So that’s a look at Denmarks new insane Energy island megaproject, and why I think it’s pretty smart. Let’s identify one single place to do all our clean energy generation, rather than dozens of smaller projects that each need soil sampling and approvals.
Perhaps a megaproject like this, is EXACTLY what we need ,to make this other really promising technology possible. (Video LINK)
