In 2012, the Lindøværftet, which for almost 100 years had been one of Denmark's industrial prides and with 2,700 employees was also Denmark's largest private workplace, closed.
The closure of the large workplace naturally gave rise to concerns about whether the jobs would disappear. But those concerns have proven to be unfounded. Since the closure, the Port of Odense has taken over the area, which today is not only a shipyard, but also has over 100 companies centered around offshore wind and the off-shore sector.
A new count from the Port of Odense shows that 3,200 employees pass through the gates on a normal working day. This means that the Port of Odense has overtaken the old Lindøværftet for the first time, which was otherwise known as one of Denmark's largest private workplaces. The port states this in a press release.
- For us at the Port of Odense, this is a milestone that we are crossing. I remember the atmosphere surrounding the closure of Lindøværftet. If you had said back then that there would be more employees at the port today, it would have made people shake their heads. It is therefore a fantastic story that in less than 15 years the Port of Odense has been rebuilt from what some feared would become an industrial ruin to today being Denmark's largest production port for offshore wind turbines. This has happened thanks to brave and right political decisions, says Carsten Aa, CEO of the Port of Odense.
Expecting great growth as an offshore hub
Today, it is mainly a number of large and small companies in the wind turbine industry that dominate the activities at the Port of Odense. In just a few years, the Port of Odense has become a port with significant off-shore activities.
Over 100 companies of varying sizes are today making a decisive contribution to the green transition in the form of the production of parts for offshore wind turbines. The Port of Odense is currently Denmark's largest production port for offshore wind turbines and is thus, together with other Danish ports, an indispensable player in the green transition, which must be accelerated in the coming years.
The Port of Odense therefore expects to gain even more employees in the coming years. In 2030, the Port of Odense expects that around 6,000 people can be employed at the port, as there is a prospect that the demand for the increasingly larger offshore wind turbines will only go one way - namely up.
- We can easily deliver the wind turbines for the green transition of Denmark and Europe, but this requires that we here at the Port of Odense can keep up. Because we need space for both more and increasingly larger offshore wind turbines. The turbines are now so large that they can only be built at one port and shipped from here. The green transition is a societal task that we are ready to take on and that is why we have presented a plan for how the port can be expanded with more space over the coming years, says Carsten Aa.
However, in order to realize future port expansions, the director hopes for help from the political side.
- We cannot solve the entire capacity problem alone, but it will be a crucial step on the road for Denmark. We hope that a fast-track scheme for port expansions can be politically designed, which ensures that the green transition is not delayed due to a lack of offshore wind turbines, says Carsten Aa.
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