Here, energy companies will submit their envelopes with bids on whether and how they will build the largest tender for offshore wind turbines in Danish history. But until the last minute there will be nervousness about whether bids will be put on the table – or whether the prospect of a historic nine gigawatts of offshore wind will run out of steam.
For Green Power Denmark, which represents the energy companies, the time is filled with excitement.
- It is an enormously important tender. It is to produce green electricity, to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources, and to a large extent to support the Danish wind industry, says director Kristian Jensen.
The tender to build nine gigawatts of offshore wind was politically approved in May 2023. However, the design of the tender has since been the subject of great debate. The premise for the interested companies is that the energy companies must pay the state to produce the wind energy.
This is based on the experience from the previous tender for the Thor offshore wind farm, which marked a turning point for the wind market. The business model had become so good that they went from giving state support to the wind companies to collecting money from them.
Since then, however, the market has developed in a downward spiral, and interest rates have risen. Companies and organizations have therefore feared that, among other things, the requirement to pay the state will prevent companies from bidding on the large tender.
- I am not concluding anything in advance, but we are concerned about whether the market conditions match the Danish tender conditions, says Kristian Jensen.
The concern is whether there will be enough bidders to fill the entire ambition of nine gigawatts of offshore wind. The largest tender for offshore wind to date is the Thor tender of one gigawatt. Climate Minister Lars Aagaard has maintained throughout the process that state support for offshore wind turbines will be avoided.
But when it comes to infrastructure such as power cables and transformer stations for both Denmark and Europe, it may become necessary at a later date.
- The profits from building the projects are so spread out that the wind turbine owner cannot immediately cover the costs of the infrastructure, he told Ritzau at a wind conference last month.
- There may well be a point where we have to look at how we can finance it, and that then involves some form of state funds, which we then collect in Europe, and which can take the top, he continued.
jel /ritzau/
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