The Danish Energy Agency is now publishing the tender for the Anholt Offshore Wind Farm in Kattegat west of the island of Anholt.
All interested companies are invited to bid on the 400 MW offshore wind farm, which will be the biggest offshore wind farm in Denmark. The offshore wind farm shall be connected to the Danish electrical grid by 2012.
“This is a big step towards the realisation of the government’s vision for Denmark to become independent of fossil fuels,” says Connie Hedegaard, Minister for Climate and Energy “and it is an important measure towards achieving our ambitious target for renewable energy and CO2 reductions”
The offshore wind farm is part of the February 2008 Energy Policy Agreement between the Danish Government and all of the parliamentary parties, except the Danish Red-Green Alliance (Enhedslisten). When finished in 2012, the 400 MW offshore wind farm will deliver environmentally friendly electricity corresponding to the annual electricity consumption of 400,000 households. So far the world hasn’t seen an offshore wind farm of this size.
To advance the process and minimize the risk for the bidders The Danish Energy Agency has adjusted the previous tendering procedure, which was used for the tenders for Roedsand II and Horns Rev II, so that Energinet.dk (the Danish transmission system operator) has begun preliminary investigations on the site of the project. The preliminary investigations include an EIA and preliminary geophysical/geotechnical surveys of the seabed. This work and the subsequent public hearing will be completed and published before bids will have to be submitted. The deadline for the tender is 7 April 2010.
Energinet.dk is also responsible for financing and constructing the substation at sea and connecting the farm to the electrical grid on land.
Terms for the project are described in the tender specifications, which are available on the Danish Energy Agency's website (
www.ens.dk/anholt).
Facts about windenergy
Denmark has eight offshore wind farms operating with a combined electrical capacity of 424 MW. The world's first offshore wind farm was Vindeby, established in 1991. The farms first became large-scale with the Horns Rev 1 (160 MW) and Nysted (158 MW) projects. As Anholt offshore wind farm is developed, other work is well underway to set up offshore wind turbines at Horns Rev II, to be finished in 2009, and at Roedsand II, which is expected to be finished in 2010. Each of the two farms will have a capacity of 200 MW.
In 2007, 19.7 per cent of Danish electricity production was based on wind power. With the 3 large-scale offshore wind farms in the pipeline this percentage could increase by approximately 8 per cent point in total. The production from Anholt Offshore wind farm alone will correspond to approximately 4 per cent of the Danish use of electricity.
Contact:
Chief Advisor Ture Falbe-Hansen, Danish Energy Agency, tel: +45 3392 6856, e-mail:
tfh@ens.dk or director Hanne Windemüller, Danish Energy Agency, tel: +45 3392 6879, e-mail:
hw@ens.dk.