Denmark will review the energy island project in the North Sea because of the high costs. That is what the Danish government announced on Wednesday. “The project is challenging, the costs are too high, and the risks are too great,” the Danish Ministry of Energy explains in a press release.

“The island would cost the state more than 50 billion Danish kroner (about 6,7 billion euros), and that share of the total cost (almost 28 billion euros) was not known until now.”

According to the Belgian Federal Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Groen), Belgian projects, such as the Belgian energy island or the TritonLink, an underwater electricity connection with Denmark, will not be impacted. Belgian offshore development and interconnection projects “will remain on track”, she said.

‘Better and more affordable concept’

So now the Danish government wants to analyze more options for a “better and more affordable” concept. “We have to make sure that we choose the most responsible solution,” said the Danish Climate Minister Lars Aagaard.

The plans for the artificial energy island in the North Sea were launched in 2020. The idea was to build one of the world’s first energy islands, using the abundant wind energy sources in the North and Baltic Seas. It would serve as a hub for offshore wind farms with a total capacity of 3 GW and potentially up to 12 GW in the future.

These energy islands would form a crucial part of a hub-and-spoke grid, facilitating intelligent electricity distribution between regions across the seas. Denmark has a long history of exploiting the strong winds from the sea to produce electricity. The country constructed the world’s first offshore wind farm in 1991.