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Third terminal’s a charm Baltic Hub posts third straight record volume
On Thursday, the Baltic’s largest container port reported the best year in its history—for the third year running. Last year, Baltic Hub, a part of the Port of Gdańsk, handled 23% more containers than it did in 2024. The increase is directly tied to the completion in June of T3, the facility’s third deep-water quay, which raised its capacity by a third.
The expansion of Baltic Hub significantly increases its competitive advantage in the region, and puts pressure on other ports to keep pace, but it should not take its edge for granted. Many of its competitors in Poland were already on the decline, due largely to a falling volume of coal shipments, and are making investments of their own in the hopes of reversing their fortunes. The twin port of Świnoujście and Szczecin, for example, is investing 10 million złoty (€2.4 million) in upgrades, including construction of its own deep-water container port. Its capacity will only be half of Baltic Hub’s, but it touts road and railway access, as well as its existing ferry and LNG terminals, as its strong suits. A port cannot thrive on containers alone.
Read MoreWhen, not if Bornholm Energy Island
The concept behind an energy island is easy enough to understand: connect offshore windfarms to a converter station that can transform the electricity they generate to high‑voltage direct current and export it to markets where it is needed.
Indeed, in the case of Energy Island Bornholm, the matter should be even simpler: the converter station can be built on the island of Bornholm, about halfway between northern Germany and eastern Denmark—two markets that have said they want to buy the three gigawatts of electricity (enough to power as many as 4.5 million homes) the windfarms would produce.
What has not been so simple has been getting lawmakers to find the money for a project that has nearly doubled in cost since it was proposed in 2020 and now stands at 31.5 billion kroner (€4.15 billion). Uncertainty about whether Germany would still support the project after its federal elections this past February led to negotiations being suspended until May, but now it appears Berlin is eager for them to draw to a close.
Stefan Rouenhoff, a spokesperson for the German government, told an industry get-together on Bornholm on Monday that his country was willing to shoulder the larger share of the bill, and that he hoped a deal could be reached in time for it be announced on 26 January, when Germany hosts a wind-energy gathering of its own.
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His comments echo earlier remarks from EU and Danish officials that an agreement is close. Other developments—from the EU’s pledge of €645 million as part of its wider energy‑security programme to the opening of public consultation in Denmark and Germany—suggest they are not exaggerating.
The industry appears to share their outlook. The meeting on Bornholm was the third of its kind, and, say the Danish hosts, the best attended, with representatives from all the key firms and agencies needed to bring Energy Island Bornholm on-line by 2030.
Also on hand were those looking for proof of concept for energy islands of their own, including one linking Åland, Gotland and Estonia’s Saaremaa. The real question, then, may be neither if nor when, but where.
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School-born Startup Joins Google-Funded Accelerator to Reinvent Learning Discussions have been increasing in Lithuania about how artificial intelligence will change learning – but BBright is already doing it. The team founded just a few years ago is now helping thousands of school pupils in Lithuania to learn maths more efficiently, and the Elicėjus platform they…
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