Posts Tagged ‘Bornholm’
Pilot project In Rønne, drones are pointing the way to safer shipping
The concept of a maritime pilot is simple: a local mariner boards a vessel that is sailing unfamiliar waters and steers it safely through. Two projects being run by Danpilot, the Danish state pilot agency, may redefine key aspects of that job description.
In the first, begun last month, drones are being used to assist pilots operating on the water in the Port of Rønne, sending live aerial video to give pilots a top-down view when steering ships. Rønne serves as the staging point for several windfarms being built in the Baltic, and it is just this type of bulky traffic requiring complex manoeuvring the drones are well-suited to help with.
VesCo, the DanPilot-owned firm that is conducting the project, is hoping it will result in a system in which drones can automatically follow vessels to improve situational awareness, cutting risk during heavy-lift calls and reducing turn-around time.
A separate project, being run together with Danelec, a maritime-safety firm, may take this idea a step further by keeping the pilot on land entirely and instead navigating using the video beamed down by drones.
Trials in Esbjerg, on Denmark’s North Sea coast, suggest that using drones in this way makes piloting safer and faster. For local firms, the test flights are an opportunity to push their expertise in robotics and autonomy. Pilots, meanwhile, will be finding themselves in unfamiliar job territory
Read MoreNew background analyses on the perspectives of Energy Island Bornholm
Baltic Energy Island has commissioned three analytical documents to serve as a foundation for discussions about the perspectives Energy Island Bornholm holds for Bornholm’s future development.
The studies follow up on a socio-economic analysis conducted by the Centre for Regional and Tourism Research (CRT) in 2023, which examined the local economic and employment effects of the Energy Island project.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 31 Oct
Read MoreLarge-scale order for Siemens Energy to realise Danish-German Bornholm Energy Island project
The joint Danish-German Bornholm Energy Island project is moving from the planning and development stage to the implementation stage. The two transmission system operators Energinet (Denmark) and 50Hertz (Germany) placed a joint order with Siemens Energy for the construction and turnkey delivery of four converter systems in total as well as other technical components on the Danish island Bornholm and the Danish island Zealand as well as on the German mainland. This marks the end of a six-month transition phase during which the joint project had to be paused due to the need for political regulation between the two countries involved.
The contract that is now concluded between Energinet, 50Hertz and Siemens Energy covers the design, the completion, transport, installation, testing as well as commissioning of the systems by the mid-2030s.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 4 Sep
Read MoreNKT awarded the power cable connection between Bornholm Energy Island and Zealand in Denmark
Energinet, the Danish transmission system operator (TSO), has selected NKT to provide the 525 kV high-voltage direct current (HVDC) on- and offshore power cable systems for the Danish connection to the Bornholm Energy Island. The contract has a value of around EUR 650m and comprises design, manufacturing, and installation of a power cable system comprising 200 km offshore route and 16.8 km onshore route.
– We are delighted and proud to continue the long-term collaboration with Energinet on this innovative and ambitious project strengthening the interconnection between Denmark and Germany. Bornholm Energy Island is a key project for Europe to enhance energy security and the exchange of renewable energy. With this award, we reaffirm our strong commitment to building the sustainable and secure energy infrastructure Europe needs, and demonstrate our proven high-voltage power cable capabilities, says Claes Westerlind, President and CEO at NKT.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 4 Sep
Read MoreCome back and stand by Bornholm’s home guard wants former members to rejoin
The home guard on Bornholm this week sent out letters to 250 of its former members, asking them to consider rejoining the volunteer force, which currently numbers 300. It is a mission that will not be hard to complete: concerns about Moscow’s next move after Ukraine has led to a surge in the number of home-guard members nationwide. Last year, the number of new volunteers increased 35% from the previous year, the most in over four decades.
More military spending will also help. Copenhagen has vastly increased its defence budget in recent years. Only a fraction of this will go to the home guard, but the money will be used directly on the types of things that matter most to soldiers: guns, body armour and sleeping bags.
For islanders, the big motivator is geography. Being far removed from Denmark proper and having been left to fend for itself in the past has left its mark on islanders, and their home guard unit can operate with a greater degree of autonomy than units elsewhere in Denmark. Some residents and military experts want the military to take it a step further and reactivate Bornholms Værn, a volunteer militia that had existed for 400 years until it was disbanded in 2000.
Prior to Russian invasion of Ukraine, the home guard was mostly tasked with helping civil authorities and the police. Today, support for the regular army is increasingly being added to those duties, and the local commander expects more missions of that sort in the years to come. To keep up, he must keep the home guard returning.
Read MoreBornholm’s bright idea for charging cars has proved its potential
An experiment in Rønne, on Bornholm, that has seen three streetlights doubling as charging points for electric cars since last May is being wound down after demonstrating its potential.
To date, there have been over 500 charging sessions. That, according to Beof, the island’s power company, is enough for it to conclude that the idea of integrating charging points into urban infrastructure is viable.
Beof and Spirii, which installs and runs charging kit, have been running the year-long project with the permission of the island council. Its members must now decide whether to make charging points a permanent fixture on street lights. Beof’s advice is that they should, since it would make it easy to build-out a charging network, without having to add new infrastructure to an often-cluttered cityscape.
For councils elsewhere considering something similar, the use rate is a good argument in favour of proceeding, but Beof underscores the need for clear guidelines and healthy portion of foresight. Without them, the idea is likely to short-circuit.
Read MoreNo time at the present Bornholm’s green industry estate on stand-by
Bornholm should table its proposed industry estate until Copenhagen decides whether it will go ahead with its plans to build the converter station for two off-shore wind farms that would power the facility, an island council committee says.
A vote will be put before the full council later this month, but Jacob Trøst, the mayor, believes the national government’s decision in January to wait until after the German federal election to make its final decision makes proceeding impractical.
It is hoped that Germany will purchase the majority of the 3 megawatts of electricity the wind farms would produce. The rest is expected to be sent to eastern Denmark, but Bornholm would like some of it to be used to power an industry estate that would act as a crucible for energy start-ups.
Island businesses want work on the industry estate to continue. Questions like where it would be placed and when it would come on-line may be unanswerable at the moment, but, argues Michael Almeborg, the chair of the local chapter of DI, that should not stop the council from lining up the firms who will want to hear the answers when the council finally has them.
Read MoreJacqueline Kristensen joins TASK Engineering
TASK Engineering continues to grow, adding an HR co-ordinator to its Bornholm organisation as its offshore wind activities expand.
Jacqueline’s role will be to optimise TASK Engineering’s HR structure in an effort to ensure that the the firm has a working environment that takes responsibility for its staff. She will help to create a support system for all the topics that matter to TASK Engineering employees.
Connect with Jacqueline on LinkedIn
Read MoreThis grid is an island A battery will help Bornholm get more out of renewables
One of the ironies of Bornholm’s power grid is that, even though most of the island’s electricity is generated on the island, it is not until the undersea cable linking it to Sweden cuts out that Beof, the local power company, goes into island mode. Sadly for the environment, this means decoupling the wind turbines that give the island most of its energy and firing up four diesel-powered generators. The thinking is that green ambitions are good, but the 25 megawatts of stable energy the generators can deliver are critical for keeping the grid stable.
In 2026, however, Beof will flip the switch on a 10 megawatt battery that will help maintain grid stability, and not just in the event of an emergency. Developed with Hitachi Energy, the battery addresses the fundamental challenge that arises when relying on unpredictable renewable energy to meet predictable demand. Since no-one is talking about going back to oil or coal, the only supply-side option is to come up with a way balance the two. The Bornholm battery will accomplish this by absorbing excess electricity when the wind is blowing, or the sun is shining, and then deliver it back when it is needed.
The battery’s importance extends beyond local energy needs. Energinet, the national grid operator, views such technologies as essential for future energy systems, and Bornholm could provide a model. In a world that is going green, island mode may soon become the new black.
Read MoreSwedes preparing to receive Bornholm refugees
Amid Swedish fears of Russian expansionism in the Baltic, local authorities in Ystad say they are preparing for a situation in which they receive refugees from Bornholm.
Ystad is a Swedish council, but it is the mainland port for the primary ferry serving the Danish island.
The Swedish military considers Bornholm, along with other Baltic islands, as targets of potential Russian attacks, and that has led Ystad council to include refugees from the island in its civil-defence planning.
Police on Bornholm are responsible for co-ordinating civil defence. In the event of an attack, they say their directions would come from Copenhagen, but Ystad officials have called for co-ordination at the council level with Bornholm.
Source: Ystad Allehanda / TV2/Bornholm
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