Two European energy companies are planning to build an island to act as a renewable energy hub for the North Sea’s growing population of wind farms.
The firms, Energinet of Denmark and the TenneT of the Netherlands, are hoping to sign an agreement at the North Seas Energy Forum in Brussels next week.
It is hoped that "Power Link Island" may one day connect as many as 10,000 wind turbines, generating up to 100GW of electricity.
Discussions with other potential partners are continuing with the aim of building a wider consortium.
The island is to be located on Dogger Bank, a shallow area of the North Sea about 100km from England’s east coast. Staff, components and assembly workshops can be stationed on the island, "optimising and simplifying complex offshore logistics".
Peder Østermark Andreasen, chief executive of Energinet, said: "Offshore wind has in recent years proved to be increasingly competitive, and it is important to us to constantly focus on further reduction in the prices of grid connections and interconnections.
"We need innovative and large-scale projects so that offshore wind can play an even bigger part in our future energy supply."
The firms say in a press release that the project will help European countries meet the 2050 climate goals formulated at the Paris Climate Conference in 2015.
Image courtesy of TenneT
