Bids ready for first offshore energy island

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Belgium’s DEME Group and Royal Boskalis Westminster of the Netherlands have joined a consortium to develop an energy island in the Danish North Sea.

They join contractors ACCIONA and MT Hojgaard International to form the NJORD Group, which has signed a partnership agreement with Denmark’s Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), a global fund manager focused on renewable energy investments. The Danish Energy Agency is currently in dialogue with potential bidders for the energy island tender, which is expected to be launched by Q3 of this year.

The island will be able to connect 10GW of offshore wind to Denmark and other neighbouring markets

The energy island will be located some 80-100km off the Danish west coast, where conditions for green energy production based on offshore wind are optimal. The island will be able to connect 10GW of offshore wind to Denmark and other neighbouring markets, host an innovation zone with potential for large scale energy storage and Power-to-X technologies, and provide accommodation and operation and maintenance services from onsite harbour facilities.

The signing of this agreement marks a significant step towards realising the world’s first energy island, a project conceptualised by CIP. CIP acts as project developer on behalf of an investor consortium composed of PensionDenmark and PFA, two of Denmark’s largest pension funds, and Denmark’s largest utility company, Andel. The grouping is collectively known as the Vindo consortium.

The realisation of offshore energy islands could herald an era of symbiosis and new opportunity for the four major global dredging contractors (DEME, Bosklais, Van Oord and Jan De Nul), all of whom have diversified heavily into marine offshore energy.

Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO of the DEME Group said: “We are proud to join CIP and the Vindo consortium, which gathers a core group of global leaders in maritime engineering solutions for offshore renewable energy production, storage and transmission. DEME Group has been pioneering the concept of energy islands off the coast and is currently involved in designing, planning and executing similar projects in different parts of the world.”

Royal Boskalis Westminster CEO Peter Berdowski added: “With our unique track record of creating new and climate resilient land development projects, together with our broad range of capabilities in the area of renewables, Boskalis is a logical contractor for the development of this innovative energy island. We look forward to taking the development of renewables further offshore to create a sustainable new horizon for millions of European households.”