Ørsted and ATP, who are planning to build a ‘North Sea Energy Island’ that will be a major hub for connections between offshore wind and the onshore grid, have announced an agreement with GlobalConnect to make it a ‘cross-border digital hub’.
Ørsted + ATP say the island will be a “future-proof and innovative piece of Danish infrastructure at the centre of the world’s largest offshore network of green energy”. The new agreement aims for it also to attract large-scale investments in digital infrastructure, including data centres.
GlobalConnect has more than 100,000 km of fibre across Northern Europe. It says increasing data consumption, as more devices connect to the internet, will require a capacity expansion of the data transport grid between the North Sea countries. The North Sea Energy Island would be “a natural intersection for this grid, while also being a reliable source of renewable energy to power the digitisation”. The companies say that could attract significant investments to the North Sea Energy Island and, consequently, to Denmark. Additionally, the smart energy island will become a central part in the next phases of the regional offshore wind build-out by enabling for example autonomous operations and further digitising offshore wi¬¬nd.
Rasmus Errboe, Head of Region Continental Europe at Ørsted, said: “The North Sea Energy Island offers Denmark a unique opportunity to become a hub for the key technologies of tomorrow, and thereby attract significant investments within both renewable energy and digitalisation.”
Claus Wiinblad, Senior Vice President at ATP, said:”We want to create a versatile and flexible energy island that will support the green transition, both now and in the years to come, as well as being a sensible risk-adjusted investment of the Danish pensions. In GlobalConnect we have a resilient partner in digital infrastructure to secure connectivity and growth.”