North Sea offshore wind pledge

This commitment was declared at the European Leader’s Summit last week in Port Esbjerg in Denmark, attended by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

“Obviously, we are tremendously proud that Port Esbjerg will host this historic summit, with such strong announcements about the ambitions for European offshore wind in the North Sea,” said chief executive of Port Esbjerg Dennis Jul Pedersen.

“These are large numbers and they underline, what we have already been saying. Port Esbjerg will have a lot to do in the coming years,” he added.

Esbjerg has one of the world’s leading ports within offshore wind has shipped more than 4,000 offshore wind turbines with an accumulated capacity of more than 22 GW. Even though the port and the rest of the value chain has been preparing for the growing demand of offshore wind, the ambitious goals still require much more infrastructure all over Europe, particularly port infrastructure.

“We simply need more space,” continued Dennis Jul Pedersen. “It takes time to build the necessary infrastructure. Therefore, it is essential that the ambitious goals are paired with a concrete plan for how to upgrade the port infrastructure of Europe, while giving the industry the necessary flexibility in tenders and more efficient project processing allowing the industry to meet the growing demand as effectively as possible,” he said.

Energy islands

“The Danish energy islands will be a leading example of modern production of sustainable energy, so it makes sense that Europe is looking to Denmark to find solutions. At the same time, it is very positive that there is an openness to looking at more flexible tender and review processes,” said Dennis Jul Pedersen.