No one wants to give Denmark wind power shares
Denmark wants to multiply its electricity generation from wind energy. It has done the math without investors.
Denmark is the fifth largest offshore wind energy country in the world (after the People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands). The plan was to catch up with Germany.
(Image: fokke baarssen/Shutterstock.com (bearbeitet))
There are zero bids in the Danish tender for the rights to three wind farms in the North Sea. This was announced by the Danish Energy Agency Energistyrelsen on Thursday at the end of the tendering period. Lars Aagaard, the minister responsible for climate and energy, expressed his surprise and "great disappointment". Denmark currently has 16 offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 2.7 gigawatts. The three new ones should have more than doubled that.
Aagaard has now instructed Energistyrelsen to enter into a dialog with wind farm companies to find out why they are not interested in the investment opportunity. Three areas in the North Sea were advertised with the creative names North Sea I A1, A2 and A3. Providers had to commit to installing wind turbines with a capacity of at least one gigawatt in their area, or even more.
Videos by heise
There are no subsidies. Instead, bidders should submit the highest possible offer for 30 years of annual lease payments to the Danish state and commit to complying with sustainability and social responsibility requirements. In addition, they would have had to transfer 20 percent of the shares in the respective wind farm to the state. From an entrepreneurial perspective, this means 25 percent higher investment costs for each crown of profit expected. This requires impressive profit margins.
The project evidently enjoyed broad support in the Danish parliament. Politicians are now pinning their hopes on the second phase of the tender. Potential investors can vie for three coastal areas (Hesselø, Kattegat and Kriegers Flak II), each of which should also have a capacity of at least one gigawatt. The total of six wind farms would be an elementary part of the plan to multiply offshore electricity capacity and make the Scandinavian country CO₂-neutral by 2045. The submission deadline for the second phase is April 1, 2025.
(ds)
