Denmark is planning on building three offshore wind farms with 200 turbines with a 3 GW capacity 100 kilometers off the coast in the North Sea. Later phases of the project include an additional seven wind farms with 470 turbines. On its completion, the entire project will have a capacity of 10 GW.
To manage and service these new wind farms, Denmark has decided to build an artificial island to serve as an energy hub 80 kilometers from the shore of the Jutland peninsula. The artificial island will be owned by a public-private partnership through the VindØ consortium.
From the Danish announcement:
The energy hub will serve as an offshore power plant gathering and distributing green electricity from hundreds of wind turbines surrounding the island directly to consumers in countries surrounding the North Sea. The island is expected to have a total area of at least 120.000 square meters and in its first phase, it will be able to provide 3 million European households with green energy. The project will be a public-private partnership between the Danish state and private companies. The State will own the majority of the island, but private companies will be crucial for the project to fulfill the potential as regards to innovation, flexibility, cost-effectiveness and business potentials….
The artificial island will offer the best opportunities to expand the project, for example by building a harbor and facilities for storage and conversion of green electricity from the nearby wind turbines in the sea. It is the long-term ambition to be able to store green electricity on the island, convert it to liquid green fuel, and send it via subsea cables to Denmark and neighboring countries.
With our great American wind belt running from North Dakota to Texas, land based wind farms are the way to go here.. Wind energy really shines in the cold winter months when variable costs: gas decatherm prices are @ their highest..