Danish fear Belgian submarine cable connection being ‘too expensive’

The planned connection between the Belgian and Danish energy islands will be postponed or canceled. The Danish Minister of Energy, Lars Aagaard, thinks the prestigious project to bring power from Danish offshore wind farms to our country via a submarine cable is too expensive.

Denmark plans to create two ‘energy islands’, one in the North Sea and the other in the Baltic Sea. The islands will become offshore power plants, collecting and storing renewable energy from hundreds of wind turbines in the area.

Connection with Germany?

The Triton Link, a more than 500-kilometer-long new submarine cable between Denmark and Belgium, would connect an artificial Danish island with energy infrastructure with a Belgian energy island. Construction of the Belgian island started this year.

Initially, the intention was to build the project without subsidies and with positive benefits for Belgium and Denmark. However, due to rising material prices and higher interest rates, the costs of that Danish energy island are much higher than planned, and Belgium is not willing to invest more.

Denmark is, therefore, looking at an alternative to connecting the energy island with Germany rather than Belgium. The timing for putting the energy island into use has already been moved from 2033 to 2036.