Ørsted suggests today in an article, published by the Danish newspaper Politiken, that the construction of a giant wind farm should take place just outside Roenne on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

At the same time, the world's largest owner of offshore wind turbines calls for political reflection when it comes to the visions of 'building an artificial island in the North Sea-area'.

“We support the proposal from Ørsted. We have built a 150.000 square-meter port area, which is ready for offshore wind activities and where the quays have a carrying capacity of up to 50 tonnes per square meter. We already established the appropriate infrastructure and we are ready to deliver exactly what the offshore wind market demands,” says Thomas Bendtsen, CEO of Port of Roenne A/S.

During the most recent Danish general election campaign, up to the general elections in June 2019, the political parties – The Social Demokratic Party, Radical Left, ‘the Unity List’, Socialist Peoples Party and ‘the Alternative’ – did agree on an objective of a 70 percent CO2-reduction in 2030 - the so-called ‘climate pact’. This has been noticed at Port of Roenne A/S:

“We have noticed the announcements from a large majority of the Danish parliamentary parties during the past parliamentary election campaign at June 2019 this summer. We have also noticed the ‘climate pact’ with the ambitions of a 70% reduction in greenhouse gases (CO2) in 2030 which the new government has entered into with its supporting parties. It is a very ambitious climate target. By spreading the offshore wind activities – in order to get all of Denmark involved - it will probably be more achievable to meet the goal of a 70% reduction by 2030,” says Thomas Thors, chairman of the board at Port of Roenne A/S.

Ørsted's offshore wind turbine manager, Martin Neubert, says to the newspaper Politiken that he thinks it strange to even consider building an artificial island at the Northsea-area when Denmark already has an island in the Baltic Sea, who has it all.

“Here you do not have to build and drain as in the North Sea. That is too expensive and takes too much time. Instead you should use Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, where the infrastructure is already in place and even long before 2030,” Martin Neubert tells Politiken.

At Port of Roenne, Thomas Bendtsen joins the announcements from Ørsted:

“We identified at an early stage the opportunities in the waters around Bornholm and the idea of ​​building a wind farm, with enough capacity to supply not only the Danish islands of Zealand and Bornholm, but also other countries. If it’s possible to establish a broad political support for this suggestion, it could mean that more jobs can be established as a direct result of green energy-solutions in the Baltic Sea. And then it is a little strange to even talk about building an artificial and expensive island in the North Sea-area when we already have an energy island – as Bornholm, which is situated on a lucrative position in connection to all the screened wind farm-areas in the waters around Bornholm,” says Thomas Bendtsen, CEO of Port of Roenne A/S.