Ambitious new £7.5billion plans to create Europe’s first “energy island” have been unveiled which will power millions of homes in Demark and Germany.
Bornholm Island in the Baltic sea is a Danish territory famous for its beautiful Nordic architecture and charming harbour towns and historic windmills.
Now the 227-square-mile landmass is set to capitalise on the wind just as it did in the past, but this time using the weather power huge electricity generating turbines.
- The aim is to build a massive network of wind turbines around the island in the hope of producing a hefty 3.8GW of electricity, which would be enough to power 4.5million Germand and Danish homes.
The new energy capacity would be transported to each of the European nations using a network of undersea cables in a method of power sharing which would be the first of its kind on the continent.
To put the project into context, according to the National Grid at peak times in the UK the entire nation as a whole uses around 61.1 gigawatts of power in a single day.
However, for countries around the Baltic Sea, including Germany, Denmark, Sweden and others, the overall aim is to eventually develop 30GW of electricity a day from wind power plants.
The Danish and German collaboration is part of a drive by countries to seek greener energy sources as well as finding ways of becoming less reliant on foreign fossil fuel imports, particularly in Germany’s case from Russia after the Ukraine invasion.
The power grid on Bornholm will be connected to the German national grid via a massive 290-mile-long undersea cable which will allow electricity to flow directly into the national system.
According to industry site Offshorewind.biz the Danish and German firms of Energinet and 50Hertz will have completed the wind farms in the next five years.
It said: “As a first step, the project will consist of offshore wind farms, which will have a total of 3 GW offshore wind capacity, located in Rønne Banke, connected to the AC substation at Bornholm Island.
“Additionally, HVDC interconnections running from Bornholm will connect to Zealand in Denmark and Germany, and potentially to more countries in the future.”
Wind turbines generate power by using the wind to drive the turbines which create electricity. As the wind blows, it transfers some of its kinetic energy to the blades, which turn and drive the generator, to produce electricity.
