Caspian Energy (CE): Denmark has for many years carried out a significant expansion of wind turbines and around 50% of the electricity consumption is covered by wind power. Why investing billions of dollars in building energy islands? Is it worth the costs?
Kristoffer Böttzauw, Director General of the Danish Energy Agency: It is correct that renewable energy the last decades has replaced fossil fuels and today almost half of the electricity in Denmark is generated by wind energy. Our latest projections show that before 2030, all electricity in Denmark will be based on renewables, with about 70 % wind energy.
However, we need wind energy to fulfill our climate targets in the long run, and to do so, Denmark has decided to expand offshore wind energy in Denmark even further. This will be done by, among other things, establishing two energy islands. The energy islands will be serving as hubs for electricity generation from the surrounding wind farms by collecting and distributing the electricity between countries connected by an electricity grid. The intention is to connect the energy islands to neighboring countries, step-by-step, along with increased energy demand.
The energy islands combined will initially have 5 GW of wind energy, potentially up to 12 GW and not only will the energy islands generate electricity; eventually they will produce e-fuels based on green electricity. The e-fuel will serve to enable a green transition of hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy transport, which is difficult to electrify, and change the fuels our trucks, ships and airplanes run on.
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