The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) and Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) have opened a five-week public hearing concerning environmental assessments related to the 800MW to 1200MW Hesselo offshore wind farm off Denmark.
The public, companies, authorities and other interested parties are invited to submit ideas on the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) for the plan for Hesselo and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the land-based part of the project.
The public hearing, which is an early public consultation in the scoping phase, runs from the 12 February to 19 March.
DEA and DEPA will decide what topics and environmental impacts to be included in the SEA and the EIA based on the ideas and inputs received during the consultation.
The results of the environmental assessments should be published and subject to a public consultation in the first half of 2022, they added.
DEPA expects mid-2022 to issue the EIA-permit for the land-based part of the project.
The EIA of the offshore-based part of the project is expected to be carried out in 2023-2024 when the winner of the tender for Hesselo has been found.
The scoping phase is expected to be in 2023 and the second public consultation on the EIA report is expected to be in 2024.
Later in 2024, the DEA expects to issue the construction license for the wind farm, provided that the EIA-process allows the project to be carried out.