The governments of Germany and Denmark stated they’ve paved a brand new regulatory floor with the signing of an settlement for a cross-border challenge that can join a number of wind farms through a single hub on the Danish island of Bornholm within the Baltic Sea.
The challenge, known as the Bornholm Power Island, is designed to ship three gigawatts of electrical energy onshore to be distributed to round three million properties and companies in Denmark and Germany. The challenge is owned by Danish state-owned energy and gasoline transmission methods operator Energinet and German electrical energy transmission system operator 50Hertz.
“Denmark and Germany have agreed on sharing the prices to finance the assist want for the offshore wind”, stated a joint assertion by the nations’ vitality ministries.
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“The challenge entails the primary instance of two nations sharing the assist wanted for an offshore wind farm and proves a landmark within the growth of European cross-border offshore cooperation”, the assertion added.
Energinet stated individually “the settlement gives better readability on the political and financial framework for planning and coordination throughout the border”.
50Hertz stated in its personal assertion the federal government settlement is the challenge’s “decisive constructing block”.
50 Hertz chief government Stefan Kapferer highlighted, “The settlement between Germany and Denmark has an influence on the offshore business throughout Europe, extending far past the Baltic Sea challenge Bornholm Power Island. It’s moreover a powerful European sign in geopolitically troublesome instances”.
An announcement from the European Fee, which final 12 months signed a grant settlement price EUR 645.2 million ($770.68 million) for the Bornholm Power Island, stated the settlement between Berlin and Copenhagen “marks a primary key supply of the Power Highways initiative set out as a part of the European Grids Package deal printed in December 2025”.
The challenge “will rework offshore wind vitality from a nationwide useful resource right into a shared European useful resource for electrification”, added the Fee, which has touted the challenge because the world’s first hybrid direct present interconnector.
Venture Progress
On September 4, 2025 Energinet and 50Hertz introduced an award to Siemens Power for the development and turnkey supply of 4 converter methods and different technical parts on the Danish islands of Bornholm and Zealand and the German mainland.
The contract “covers the design, the completion, transport, set up, testing in addition to commissioning of the methods by the mid-2030s”, stated a press release on 50Hertz’s web site.
With the contract, the challenge is “shifting from the planning and growth stage to the implementation stage” after a “six-month transition section throughout which the joint challenge needed to be paused as a result of want for political regulation between the 2 nations concerned”, the homeowners stated.
“These points included the query of legal responsibility in case no electrical energy can stream to Germany by means of a world offshore grid connection due to a disturbance or as a consequence of upkeep”, Kapferer stated. “Such a assure is the prerequisite for a profitable tender for the wind farm areas off Bornholm particularly and, extra usually, for an environment friendly offshore cross-linking between all nations bordering the North and Baltic Seas.
“The modification of the Power Trade Act (Energiewirtschaftsgesetz, EnWG) by the Federal Cupboard now additionally allows the connection of an extra wind farm in Danish waters to the German further excessive voltage grid by means of the Ostwind 4 grid connection challenge deliberate by 50Hertz”.
50Hertz already executed a framework settlement with Danish producer NKT late 2023 for the manufacturing and laying of the submarine and onshore cables between Bornholm and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
“Following a Europe-wide tender and the approval by the Danish authorities, Energinet was now additionally in a position to order the cable connection between Bornholm and Seeland from NKT”, stated the September assertion.
The assertion added the approval process in Denmark had been launched. Energinet and 50Hertz “are getting ready for public hearings of the Danish environmental company on Bornholm Island”, the assertion stated.
“The approval process for the cable routes by means of the Unique Financial Zone in Germany, the coastal waters in addition to on land has not began but”, the assertion stated. “Nonetheless, 50Hertz has began early public participation and knowledgeable the native inhabitants and the authorities of the deliberate location for a brand new substation with converter within the municipality of Kemnitz within the Vorpommern-Greifswald district”.
In its assertion on the federal government settlement, Energinet stated “technical preparations and regulatory processes” proceed.
To contact the creator, e mail jov.onsat@rigzone.com
