Sweco has been chosen by the Danish Energy Agency as technical adviser in the construction of the world’s first ‘energy island’. The contract will run for four years and has a value of approximately €6.7m.
Approved by the Danish government in February, the plan is to build a massive wind farm 80km offshore in the North Sea that will power 3 million households in its first phase.
To serve the wind farm, a 12ha artificial island with a harbour and storage facilities will be built to distribute electricity generated from hundreds of turbines.
With an estimated total investment of €28bn, the public-private partnership scheme has been billed as the biggest construction project in Danish history.
"In constructing the energy island, the Danish Energy Agency is facing a very exciting but also very complex task," said Mads Krogh, head of the energy islands programme at the Danish Energy Agency.
"In this context, we need specialised technical assistance, for example to establish functional requirements for the North Sea energy island. After an open invitation to tender for the role of adviser, the task was awarded to Sweco. We are looking forward to this collaboration."
The island will be able to serve offshore wind farms with a capacity of 3GW with the option of expansion to 10 GW at a later stage and will become the largest offshore wind farm in Denmark.
"We are proud, happy and humble to be assigned this historically large and ambitious public service project for Denmark. The energy island will form the basis for new green business activity in Denmark and will be a major contribution in the transition to green energy, both in Denmark and Europe, and hopefully an inspiration to the rest of the world," said Jes Hansen, Divisional Director of Infrastructure, Water and Environment at Sweco in Denmark.
Image: Artist’s impression of Denmark’s ‘energy island’ (Courtesy of Sweco)
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