Skippers heading for the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea on their own keel will be presented with a completely new picture in the near future: To the south-west of the island, two huge offshore wind farms are to be built around ten nautical miles from the coast. With a rotor diameter of 236 metres, the individual wind turbines will reach a total height of 268 metres above sea level. In comparison, the pylons of the Öresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden rise to a height of only 206 metres.
150 of these installations are to be built, spread over two areas: Bornholm I and Bornholm II. The shipping corridor in between will be 12 nautical miles wide and 20 nautical miles long (see map for approximate position and extent).
Germany will also benefit
On completion, which is targeted for 2030, they will have a combined output of three gigawatts. Even more is possible. However, even the target value would correspond to around three times the output of all current German Baltic Sea wind farms combined and would be enough to supply 3 to 4.5 million households, depending on the figures.
Germany will also benefit from the energy generation off Bornholm: Contracts have already been concluded that not only provide for the connection of the Danish island of Sjælland to the Copenhagen metropolitan region by cable: A second route will come ashore in Lubmin near Greifswald and establish a connection to the German electricity grid.
The plan envisages that the two wind farms will be connected to a high-performance transformer station on Bornholm, which is planned for the south coast east of the capital Rønne and will then transmit the electricity via the two high-voltage direct current cables on the seabed. In the long term, however, wind power is just one building block in an even more comprehensive innovative strategy for the energy transition in Denmark.
More on the topic:
An "energy island" as a lighthouse project
The wind and sun-rich Bornholm is then to become one of the country's two so-called energy islands (the second is to be artificially created in the North Sea off the Jutland coast). The plans include the establishment of a national research centre for alternative energy and the production of green fuels (so-called e-fuels). Officially, there is talk of one of the largest infrastructure and construction programmes in Danish history.
The aim is to achieve greater security and independence in energy supply as part of the Europe-wide energy transition, on the one hand with regard to the ecological challenges posed by climate change, and on the other hand with regard to the new security policy realities in the Baltic Sea region - and in Europe as a whole. The project is also being followed with interest internationally, for example in Canada.
