Denmark and Germany will develop the 3 GW Bornholm energy island

Denmark and Germany have signed a legally binding agreement to cooperate on the development of the Bornholm energy island project, which involves the construction of at least 3 GW of offshore wind capacity in the Danish Baltic Sea. The agreement builds on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed by both countries in July 2022. The project is expected to be completed in the early 2030s, when the offshore wind capacity from the Bornholm energy island should be connected to the Danish grid. Subsequently, power will be transported via new grid connections to Germany (2 GW) and to the Danish mainland (1.2 GW).

The implementation of the Bornholm energy island project is a milestone for the offshore wind targets declared by the North Sea countries in the Ostend declaration of 2023, with nine European countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK) targeting 120 GW of offshore wind in the North Sea by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050; of this capacity, Germany targets 26 GW of offshore wind by 2030 (up from 7.8 GW in 2021), while Denmark targets at least 5.3 GW (2.3 GW in 2021).