For an elusive troll, Bornholm’s Krølle Bølle is surprisingly easy to find. Pop into a tourist shop and you will see his likeness on any sort of merchandise imaginable. Originally a good-night story inspired by local legends and told by its creator to his children, Krølle Bølle was introduced to the rest of Denmark in print eighty years ago this year. Overuse led Krølle-Bølle to be associated with the sort of tourism no-one wants to be associated with, and, for the past few decades, the island’s tourism industry has excluded its most recognisable figure from its marketing. The low point came in 2008, when a dairy on the mainland bought the rights to the Krølle Bølle Is, an ice-cream novelty that came on the market in 1958.
These days, though, Krølle Bølle appears to have been rehabilitated. In 2023, Bornholms Ismejeri, a dairy, brought production of the ice-cream novelty back to the island—upgrading it to a premium-quality product in the process. That same year, the silhouettes of Krølle Bølle and Krølle Borra, his sister, were added to crossing lights at intersections in Rønne, the island’s administrative seat. This weekend, a partly-animated film featuring Krølle Bølle that is due for national distribution premiered in Rønne, marking the first time the figure has appeared on a screen of any sort.
Rumour has it Walt Disney had expressed an interest in co-opting the story for his studio in the 1950s. True or not, ultimately, it took a Bornholmer, Nina Lyng, a producer who was born on the island, to get it on the screen. Part of the film’s magic is the combination of live action and animation, another appears to be the spell it has cast on the local tourism industry: Destination Bornholm, which promotes the island on behalf of the council, describes Krølle Bølle as a symbol of Bornholm’s culture and identity, and is planning an advertising campaign in connection with the film’s national premiere. In other words, Krølle Bølle, is precisely the sort of marketing opportunity it wants to be associated with.
If someone out there was going to make artificial intelligence an integral part of its economy, a good bet would have been Estonia. Already one of the most digitalised countries, it is now looking to systematise its approach to the technology with the aim of increasing the size of its economy by half by 2035 (amounting to an extra €20 billion). Unveiled yesterday by Kristen Michal, the prime minister, and a group of the country’s all-star entrepreneurs, the Eesti.ai initiative will start by identifying the areas where AI stands to make the biggest impact. (The leading candidates are education, healthcare and security.) Once the areas are finalised, public-private partnerships will then be set up to develop applications that can increase productivity.
For a country in Estonia’s situation, such increases are not just nice-to-have. Its population is shrinking, and, all things being equal, when residents do not have enough babies, the labour force contracts. The result must either be fewer services or higher taxes. Immigration is one way to avoid having to make a that choice, but this option is becoming increasingly less viable; population declines are not unique to Estonia, and that is putting skilled labour at a premium throughout Europe. Another is to find ways for the hands that remain to do more work, and here, Estonia is hoping that, AI, in the labour market at least, will make its residents more productive.
Denmark and Germany say they are ready to split the cost of any public funding needed to make sure that Bornholm Energy Island becomes a reality. Essentially a set of offshore windfarms that would double Denmark’s offshore wind capacity, the project, if completed, would send power to 4.5 million Danish and German consumers via its namesake island. More than that, say boosters, it provides a model for other mega energy projects that lawmakers are more keen on than investors.
Locally, the news has been well received. Even the healthiest of economies would find it hard to be unhappy about being the focal point of a multinational project whose final tab is expected to be over €4 billion. Bornholm, meanwhile, is still striken from the implosion of its fishing industry in the 1980s. But while a project of this sort will be good for its budding offshore industry, particularly if an associated industry estate comes to fruition, local lawmakers are still treading carefully: energy firms have yet to deem the project worth putting money into, while those living near the 111 hectare converter station will need be placated (read as: compensated). . Beyond that, there is irony of spoiling a chunk of pristine coastline of Denmark’s most popular tourism destination in the name of clean energy. If being a Danish island is a challenge these days, being a green one is doubly so.
Fourteen countries bordering the Baltic and North seas are pointing the finger at Russia as the source of navigational-signal jamming and ship-identification manipulation that are making their waters increasingly dangerous places to sail. The countries now urge everyone that has anything to do with shipping—flag states, shipping companies and operators, to name three—to be aware of the risks Russian antics pose and ensure their vessels are prepared, should they be forced to make due without electronic navigation systems.
Although the start of Russia’s jamming coincides with its annexation of Crimea, in 2014, the problem grew significantly worse after the start of its unprovoked war against Ukraine, in 2022. Mostly, this has been a problem for its neighbours who are in Nato (Latvia says it saw the number instances of jamming rise to 820 in 2024, compared with 26 in 2022) but, by framing jamming in terms of maritime safety, they are making it an international issue. Up to now, countering jamming has mostly involved making sure that mariners have the skills to sail without satnav—and, most recently, giving them alternative, if lower-tech, systems they can use to navigate by. Coastal states, however, say they will require that vessels adhere to the vast body of international maritime-safety regulations. Call it a pretext for preventative action.
The board of BotH₂nia has chosen Sari Kola as its new chair. She has led the organisation’s activities since she was elected to the board last January.
Sari currently also serves as director of the EnergySampo ecosystem, which is tasked with creating carbon-neutral energy solutions for a sustainable future, particularly on the coast of Ostrobothnia.
Her areas of expertise include strategy-formulation and implementation, as well as the facilitation and orchestration of collaborative cultures and ecosystems. She holds doctorates in organisation and leadership and in industrial engineering and management.
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.
At 10:16 this morning, Bornholm lost power. The outage was immediately localised to the submarine power cable linking it with southern Sweden. Precisely 30 minutes later, Trefor El-net Øst, the TSO for the island, announced that the outage had been due to an overload caused by a technical problem; the cable was undamaged.
For the island’s 40,000 residents and its businesses, the three hours or so without power was a minor irritation. For those who are responsible for keeping the island running in the event of a situation of this sort, it was a golden opportunity: not knowing what the reason for the outage was, or how long it would last, emergency plans, including firing up the island’s backup power plant, were set into action.
The good news is that the initial reports seem to indicate that everything went mostly according to plan. More of a concern is the reason for the overload, and why it caused the entire island to black out. Call it an unknown known.
Bornholm is currently without power. Trefor, the island’s TSO, reports that it has traced the outage to the submarine power cable linking the island to Sweden. TV2 Bornholm, citing Trefor, reports the outage is due to an overload, and that the cable is undamaged. Sabotage at this point is being ruled out. “What we know at this point is that the problem is technical in nature. This isn’t a matter of an anchor damaging it,” Ann Katrine Warren, a Trefor spokesperson, told TV2 Bornholm. “We suspect that it was a error on our part that caused the outage.”
Technology specialist moves to Lithuanian TSO after a decade as telecoms CTO
On January 12, the board of Litgrid, the Lithuanian electricity transmission-system operator belonging to the EPSO-G group, appointed Andrius Šemeškevičius as CEO. He begins his five-year term on February 23.
Andrius has many years of experience in the field of technology. For the past 11 years, he served as CTO of Telia Lietuva. From 2023 to 2024, he served as an independent member of the Litgrid board of directors, where he was responsible for technology and digitalisation. Andrius holds a master’s degree in engineering informatics from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Vilnius Tech) and has completed leadership and business development programs at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Litgrid, the Lithuanian electricity transmission-system operator, maintains the stable operation of the country’s electricity system, manages electricity flows and facilitates competition in the open electricity market.
Connect with Andrius on LinkedIn
The board of Lithuanian energy group EPSO-G has appointed Rasa Kražauskienė as an independent member of its nomination and remuneration committee.
Rasa has more than 20 years of experience in human-resources management and organisational culture. She currently serves as the human-resources manager of Fazer Baltics and is a member of the board of Fazer Lietuva.
She holds a master’s degree in law from Mykolas Romeris University and a degree in nuclear law from the University of Montpellier.