Fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) was quick to respond to the high offshore wind goals pledged by four EU countries this week, proposing today to build an artificial island for green hydrogen from offshore wind in the Danish part of the North Sea.
On Thursday, CIP also said that together with Allianz Investment Management (AIM) it will conduct a feasibility study into an artificial energy island in the German North Sea.
The Danish project CIP is proposing is called BrintO, or Hydrogen Island in English. It will be an artificial island dedicated to large-scale hydrogen production, located on the Danish part of the Dogger Bank area in the North Sea. The island is intended to be connected to 10 GW of offshore wind and to be in production by 2030. CIP’s vision is that over time BrintO and other adjacent energy islands will produce a lot of green hydrogen for export through offshore hydrogen pipelines to countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
BrintO will have the capacity to produce around 1 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year, which is about 7% of the EU’s expected hydrogen demand in 2030, CIP said. The firm is cooperating with consultancy COWI on this initiative.
Regarding the German project, the plans are to connect power and green hydrogen from the energy island to the public grids in Germany to contribute to domestic energy production and security of supply. CIP and AIM would like more German stakeholders to join the potential development of the energy island and the associated offshore wind.
According to the Danish fund manager, energy islands present one of the best avenues to ensure speed, volume and renewables production on a large-scale that can be integrated into existing energy grids.
“The Danish, German, Dutch, and Belgian ambitions for the North Sea show the rest of the world how the green transition can be turbocharged if you dare to think big, internationally and in integrated systems,” commented Thomas Dalsgaard, partner at CIP.
At the North Sea Summit on Wednesday in the Danish port of Esberg, Germany, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands committed to pursue a tenfold rise in the installed wind capacity in the North Sea to at least 150 GW by 2050.
Denmark is working on plans to build an artificial island in the North Sea surrounded by 3 GW and potentially up to 10 GW of offshore wind turbines. In late 2021, CIP announced an intention to bid in the upcoming energy island tender together with consortium partners.
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Image by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) on LinkedIn.
