In northern Europe, an artificial island project has been proposed by two companies from the continent. The goal ? Provide clean energy to approximately 80 million people.
In January 2017, the company Energinet (Denmark) and the TenneT group (the Netherlands and Germany) communicated about the construction of an artificial island with an area of six square kilometers in the North Sea. This is nothing but a huge renewable energy production unit.
This island will be planned to be equipped with many solar panels and surrounded by nearly 7000 wind turbines. The companies involved in this project want to install the famous island on the Dogger Bank which is nothing other than a large sandbank of 17,600 km² (average depth: 20 meters) located in a shallow region about 100 km east of the island. east of the British coast.
(Image credit: Public domain)
The Energinet company estimates that the artificial island will be able to supply green electricity for 80 million Europeans and will be connected to the networks of six different countries: Great Britain, Denmark, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
Mel Kroon, managing director of TenneT, says that “this project can make a significant contribution to the supply of renewable electricity in Northern Europe”comments collected by the British daily The Independent.
While the project is scheduled to be completed by 2050, the Danish daily Copenhagen Post said that the foundations of this artificial island should cost 1.2 billion euros without including the expenses related to the installation of the solar panels. and wind turbines. However, nothing is done since the states concerned must each give their agreement. For their part, TenneT and Energinet are currently trying to find economic partners.
“Offshore wind turbines have proven to be more and more competitive in recent years and it is important for us to go further in reducing their cost of connection and interconnection to the distribution network”, Peder Østermark Andreasen, CEO of Energinet, is optimistic.
Sources: We Tomorrow – The New Factory