HOLSTEBRO: Sometimes you fish for one story and end up with one that is even better.
The port manager at Thorsminde Port smiles when I ask if the port has wild plans for wind turbines and PtX lying in the drawer like most other advanced ports. She gets up from the meeting table and shows a map of the whole of Thorsminde and points out a point on the map.
- We actually had plans for a 140-meter-high wind turbine here, and there was local support for it when we had a consultation meeting. There were a few who didn't want it, but the majority said: "Now you have to stop, we need the development," says port manager Lisette Sønderby, but that wind turbine plan has been shelved for now, because other and better plans got in the way.
Lisette Sønderby took up her position a little over three years ago with experience from the fishing industry. She knew little about wind power at the time. But the learning curve has been steep, because when the Danish Energy Agency announced the six possible consortia and companies to participate in the tender for Denmark's future largest wind farm, Thor, in early 2021, there was action in Thorsminde.
Good cooperation
- We invited all six prequalified parties to visit here at the port. We had them here individually. The board and the municipality were quick to form a team, and a consultant was hired on an hourly basis. It has been a close collaboration between the port, the board and the municipality, says Lisette Sønderby, about how ideas were translated into concrete action.
Where other municipalities might forget about their ports that are not close to the city hall, the 45 km from Holstebro to Thorsminde were no obstacle at all. And the close collaboration paid off.
- It meant that we could welcome each of the prequalified applicants so well, and we learned so much from it. What can and cannot be done here at the port. I learned a lot about our designs, says Lisette Sønderby and returns to the wind turbine, which was planned to be located not far from the city's heating plant on a promontory facing Nissum Fjord.
- One of the things we learned was that there is a need for a heliport, so that it is possible to fly back and forth by helicopter. The heliport was to be located next to the planned energy port. This would then again mean that the approach would be disrupted by the location of the wind turbine, says Lisette Sønderby.
She shows the curve that the helicopter must take to take off from the end of the energy port towards the northeast and past the planned wind turbine.
- That is why the wind turbine will not come to fruition now, because we are in dialogue with several players who would like to build the heliport. The heliport has a great importance, she says.
"Do you really believe that"
The energy groups RWE are coming with an O&M center for the Thor wind farm, while Vattenfall is on its way to the city with the construction management for the Vesterhav Nord and Syd wind farms. But last year, not many believed that the intensive lobbying and preparation work would bear fruit for the small fishing village on the west coast of Jutland. There was actually a bit of ridicule.
- When we said we wanted to be a service port, several people said: “Do you really believe that?”, says Lisette Sønderby with a satisfied smile.
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