Holstebro: Planning is gold, and this applies in particular to renewable energy. The mayor of Holstebro knows something about this, and long-term planning may also have something to do with municipal political stability. For Holstebro, all of this actually began long before the world was in a state of energy crisis and before the green agenda had taken hold.
- This is my fourth term as mayor here in Holstebro and my sixth as a city council member. In my first term as mayor, we made a wind turbine plan back in 2013, says H.C. Østerby (S).
And from the very beginning, the work was systematic.
- We started by analyzing the entire municipality, and it was work that we spent years on. This resulted in us having ten areas designated, where 50 turbines with an output of 150 MW have since been installed, says the mayor. He sees good opportunities to upgrade these areas to new, larger turbines in the future.
Since then, two more areas have also been designated for wind turbines, and the method of analysis has had other advantages.
- There have been virtually no protests about that expansion, although there would certainly have been more complaints today than back then, explains H.C. Østerby, who also traces a slight change in the complaint trend in the little decade that has passed.
Thorsminde Port: Gateway to the Thors wind farms
At the same time, Thorsminde Port in the municipality has been chosen as the operations and maintenance center for German RWE when construction of Denmark's largest wind farm Thor begins. It is something that warms a town that has previously been dependent on fishing, which is dwindling.
- It is a huge golden egg for the small fishing camp with Thor 1. - which will be located 20 km out in the North Sea from Thorsminde. It will mean between 70-80 permanent jobs in the town, says H.C. Østerbye.
But the potential does not stop there for Thorsminde and Holstebro Municipality.
- There will also be a wind farm Thor 2. 3. and four, says H.C. Østerbye.
The enormous amounts of green energy that will come ashore fit perfectly into Skovgaard Invest's plans for no less than three GW PtX plants in Idomlund, located about seven km outside Holstebro.
A hub for green energy
Once the wind turbine power comes ashore in quantities that can feed a three GW PtX plant, there will be completely different possibilities.
- We have always known that it will be one of the major hubs for energy here, says Østerby.
It will make sense to have a hydrogen backbone from here down to the industry in Germany. This is of course even more true when Skovgaard scales up to the three GW. The mayor is certain that much, much more will happen in the municipality.
- I see the green transition as our Silicon Valley. It's like when the railway came, where towns arose around the development, says H.C. Østerby.
He also already sees that there will be a number of consequences.
- I know that there will be more pushback when Skovgaard comes to Idomlund, because we are already receiving inquiries now, says the mayor, although he cannot reveal which companies are involved.
Delighted with private initiatives
The location of Skovgaard's PtX plant far outside of buildings and residential areas may also mean an advantage for the municipality. But whether it means an advantage in the race with, for example, Esbjerg, as to which municipality will be first with PtX on a large scale, H.C. Østerbye does not speculate.
- The location is really good, because Skovgaard will not disturb any neighbors. At the same time, there will be a huge advantage, because a three GW PtX plant could supply up to around 300,000 households with district heating, says H.C. Østerbye, who also sees other advantages for the municipality.
- These projects will mean a significant reduction in our CO2 emissions. It is my hope that we will be frontrunners in this development, says H.C. Østerbye.
He is also particularly pleased about where the initiative for the green projects comes from.
- It is fantastic, private companies are coming and wanting to do this. As a municipality, we must ensure that we are a partner, concludes H.C. Østerbye.
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
