AABENRAA: Aabenraa Municipality is buzzing with life and green change. In Kassø, just 14 km outside Aabenraa, Northern Europe's largest solar park is being built, and the green electricity will be used to produce 10,000 tonnes of green methanol via PtX for Mærsk's future methanol-powered ships. On the harbor site where the coal-fired power plant Enstedværket was previously located, Linde Gas has leased, because there are perfect conditions for PtX.
Normally, a mayor is very often a board member of the municipal port. It is a fat leg that is often contested when newly elected city councils are in constitutive negotiations. That was not the case for Aabenraa's newly elected mayor Jan Riber Jakobsen.
- It is normal for the mayor to sit on the board of the port, but I have chosen to have an arm's length for the port by not sitting on the board, says Jan Riber Jakobsen.
It is a choice for the city of Aabenraa and the port's development. He sees his role as mayor as the one who must have the long-term perspective for the whole of Aabenraa.
- We are faced with having to create an ownership strategy for the port. This means, among other things, that we plan that from 2035 there will be housing on the eastern part of the harbour. We have of course already let the companies know that, says the mayor.
He also thinks a lot about how climate change can affect both the city and the harbor with floods.
- We are very vulnerable because of the climate, and we think about that when we talk about ports, he says.
Here the discussed arms length comes into the picture again, as the conversation falls on the garden's managing director Henrik Thykjær.
- It is not certain that we have the same idea about where the port should be developed. That is why I have made the choice not to sit on the board, explains Jan Riber Jakobsen, even though the port's management is very satisfied.
- We have an extremely good dialogue between the port, the city and the municipality. We owe it to ourselves to develop the port's area optimally, because we are the gateway to Denmark, and through the port we receive bulk such as shards coming in from Norway, which are delivered all the way to Kolding, he says.
In the longer term, Jan Riber Jakobsen also sees the need for an expansion of the harbor to the east of the area where the Ensted Works was previously located. This will mean expansion in Aabenraa Fjord.
PtX, trucks and district heating
The location of the solar park under construction in Kassø has been chosen for a very specific reason in the immediate vicinity of the north-south power cable that connects Denmark with Germany and the nearby fiber network.
- It is placed here, because then the future PtX plant can get power from the cable at night, when there is no sun for the solar cells. The power is then supplied back during the day. The proximity to the fiber network in Hjordkær is also important for the location, explains Jan Riber Jakobsen.
He also already knows that the methanol, which will be produced at the PtX plant, must be transported further out into the world by trucks.
Aabenraa Municipality's central location also means that there are plans for methanol production in Padborg. Here is the road with the motorway, and the possibility that the trucks can fill up with methanol instead of diesel in the future.
With as many as three PtX plants on the way in the municipality in the future, there is also a possible loss of energy, but sector coupling has long since been part of the future.
- In all places where it makes sense, we put forward heating, says Jan Riber Jakobsen, who is already thinking about sector coupling and the utilization of residual heat from PtX.
The mayor also already has industry knowledge, because he is chairman of the board of district heating in his home town of Padborg.
Addition 17.03.22.
- I lie down flat. We have tenants on the eastern part of the harbor who have leases that run longer than 2035. Regardless of what we find out in the future ownership strategy, we respect the companies' leases. That's for sure. The mistake is mine with the year, says the honest mayor Jan Riber Jakobsen on a telephone connection from Aalborg.
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