Fantasy island Bornholm’s plans to power the Baltic are running headlong into reality

Bornholm is hoping that it can show the world what the future of wind power looks like. Its financing unfortunately resembles failed projects past

Ask any Dane what the island of Bornholm is known for, and two things will top their lists: holidays and herring. If all goes as Copenhagen plans, it will also be known as the hub of an energy network that will send electricity generated at an off-shore windfarm to eastern Denmark and northern Germany, and perhaps other countries in the Baltic Sea region.

Off-shore wind is nothing new, but, currently, the power wind turbines generate are sent to a country’s national grid. What the Danes would like to do is to be able to send their power directly to other countries. The solution is what they have dubbed the “energy island”. Whether natural (in the case of Bornholm) or artificial (in the case of a postponed North Sea project), these islands are converter stations that can pool power from multiple offshore wind farms and feed it directly to the grid that needs it most.

Due to be completed in 2030, the Energy Island Bornholm project calls for two wind farms capable of generating 3 gigawatts of electricity (enough to power as many as 4.5 million homes), a high-voltage direct-current converter station on the island itself and the cables needed to send the electricity away from Bornholm.

Locals are mostly rooting for the project. Homeowners along the southern coast where the converter station would be built are crying nimby. Most of the homes are second homes, and the complaints focus mainly on aesthetics, so little has come of the protests. And not even they are against it entirely: they are all for the windfarm, but they think the converter should be moved off-shore along with it. Aside from being irked about the prospect of having an eyesore as their neighbour, they find it unreasonable that Bornholm the converter will be placed on Bornholm, yet all of the power it collects will be sent elsewhere.

As far as local lawmakers see it, the energy island is away to amp up a moribund economy, even if it is only in the figurative sense. Construction and operation of the windfarms and the converter is expected to create a handful of jobs, but the real hope is that having an energy island will make Bornholm a greenhouse for energy technologies. This is something big energy players seem to share their belief in: Ørsted, a big wind-power company, has set up an association that brings together academia and industry to promote the current energy island and seeks to lay the foundation for more. The bigger benefit would be if some of the power the energy island pools can be used to power an industry estate that could serve as a crucible for energy start-ups.

SEE RELATED: Copenhagen to send 10mn kroner to Bornholm to promote energy jobs

Not everyone is looking at the energy island with rose-tinted glasses. A recent review, published by Kraka Economics, a think tank that is funded by big Danish businesses, titled “An accident in slow-motion” expressed worry that that Copenhagen has begun tendering the project, despite having only earmarked half of the 31.5bn kroner (€4.22bn) it is expected to cost. Danish lawmakers plan for some of the rest to come from licensing fees for other windfarms. It also hopes Berlin will chip in.

Echoing the Nimbys, Kraka Economics says it supports wind power, but it has trouble seeing how Energy Island Bornholm can end in anything but economic ruin. The North Sea energy island, it points out, was postponed indefinitely earlier this month because Belgium pulled its financial backing, making it too expensive for the Danes to fund alone. The Bornholm energy island, it reckons, would cost the Danish state relatively more per GW to establish, and that is even before it sorts out the rest of the financing. When it comes it to that aspect at least, the future is looking a lot like the past.