The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) and Denmark’s transmission system operator Energinet have invited potential developers to examine seabed-data and to contribute with the formers’ assessment of whether the planned Hesselo offshore wind farm could still be established within the current framework set for the project.
A tender for Hesselo was put on hold earlier this year as the results of Energinet’s preliminary investigations had revealed soft clay formations 20-30 metres below the seabed at the planned project site 30 km north of Zealand in the Kattegat.
The DEA has just published the report and associated data from the preliminary geophysical investigations.
This will be followed by a draft report and data from the preliminary geotechnical investigations, expected to be published at the end of October.
The processing of data from the preliminary investigations has now reached a point where the DEA and Energinet can invite potential developers to a technical dialogue to discuss whether the seabed conditions challenges the establishment of Hesselo within the politically agreed framework – in relation to the subsidy scheme, target capacity of 800-1200MW and the planned timelines.
The technical dialogue will be virtual and take place from late October to late November.
Based on the input provided by the potential developers as well as further analyses, the DEA will assess whether the tender for Hesselo can continue under the current framework.
“If new political decisions are required in order to move ahead with Hesselo OWF, the parties behind the 2020 Climate Agreement for energy and industry must re-assess whether the Hesselo OWF site is still the preferred solution or whether the second OWF mentioned in the 2018 Energy Agreement should instead be established at an alternative site,” DEA said.