Posts Tagged ‘Bornholm’
Anders Wiberg named interim head of Destination Bornholm
Six months after joining Destination Bornholm, Anders Wiberg has been named interim head of the island’s publicly funded tourism-promotion agency.
Anders joined Destination Bornholm in August as the head of marketing and tourism information. He takes over the reins of the outfit after the unexpected resignation of its now-former director.
Anders will serve as interim head until February 2026.
Connect with Anders on LinkedIn
Read MoreLars Nordahl joins the board of Danish Ports
Danish Ports strengthens its board with Lars Nordahl, CEO of Port of Roenne, as a new member.
Lars, in his role as CEO of Port of Roenne, has been instrumental in consolidating the port’s position as a central part of Bornholm’s infrastructure and a key player in the green transition in the Baltic Sea. Port of Roenne serves as Bornholm’s primary supply port, a hub for cruise tourism, and an essential shipping port for the wind energy industry.
According to Tine Kirk, CEO of Danish Ports, Lars has transformed Port of Roenne into a vital player in the port sector. “Port of Roenne is a role model for green transition and has become a growth engine for Bornholm. We look forward to benefiting from Lars’s experience and vision in our efforts to strengthen Danish commercial ports,” she states.
Danish Ports is the trade organisation for Danish commercial ports, working to highlight the importance of ports in green transition, local development, and economic growth. With Lars joining the board, the organisation aims to continue emphasising the significant societal role played by ports.
Related article } The Bornholm advantage
Read MoreEnergiø Bornholm has every chance of becoming a good business for Denmark
Doubts have been raised about Energiø Bornholm’s relevance and economy, but the project has never been more important. Besides being a crucial project in the European fight against climate change, the energy island has every opportunity to become a good business for Denmark.
Read full announcement (external link)
Originally published on 15 Jan
Read MorePlanned departure Sole airline serving Bornholm considers breaking contract
As is the case with most islands, there are two ways to get to and from Bornholm. The vast majority travel by sea: the ferry service transports some two million passengers annually, a service for which the current operator receives 4bn kroner (€540m) from the Danish state over the course of its 10-year contract. The locals complain a lot, but the operator turns a healthy profit.
Not so much luck on either count for DAT, the airline that offers the only other regularly scheduled way to get on or off the island. Its service, flying 200,000 passengers to and from Copenhagen each year, is neither subsidised nor profitable. Indeed, its current loss of 1.5m kroner per month had Jesper Rungholm, its managing director, earlier in the year publicly mulling whether to just stop serving the route from one day to the next, in breech of the airline’s contract with the local hospital to fly those patients who are too frail to take the ferry and the connecting coach service to Copenhagen for treatment.
Mr Rungholm immediately thought the better of doing so, telling the press the next day that his firm wasn’t the type to walk away from contracts. But his bellyaching served as a reminder that the route is not commercially viable, and that, unless someone in the government listens to his repeated requests to subsidise the route, his airline plans to stop serving Bornholm when the contact expires at the end of next November.
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Mr Rungholm immediately thought the better of doing so, telling the press the next day that his firm wasn’t the type to walk away from contracts. But his bellyaching served as a reminder that the route is not commercially viable, and that, unless someone in the government listens to his repeated requests to subsidise the route, his airline plans to stop serving Bornholm when the contact expires at the end of next November.
What Mr Rungholm would like the government to do is to declare the Bornholm-Copenhagen route a PSO (short for public-service obligation). To date, Copenhagen as been unwilling to do so, on the argument that it would break EU rules—and, anyway, it says, it already spends 25m kroner annually running Bornholm’s airport, despite it too losing money, and that this constitutes a form of subsidy, albeit indirect.
Other airlines, primarily SAS and Norwegian, do occasionally fly to Bornholm, but typically only during times when there are lots of passengers, which only makes it harder for DAT to turn a profit and riles Mr Rungholm further.
Read MoreReimagining waste, redefining aesthetics
PROJECT ØDELAND INVESTIGATES how ceramic and glass waste, along with granite waste from a local stone quarry on Bornholm, can be recycled into new ceramic products. The project, initiated by artists Christina Schou Christensen, Thora Finnsdottir and Signe Fensholt, is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation and Nationalbankens Jubilæumsfond, and developed in collaboration with Bofa, Bornholm’s waste-management authority.
Read MoreAdrian Becke tapped to become TASK Engineering COO on Bornholm
Adrian Becke has been selected to head TASK Engineering’s operations on Bornholm. A 25-year veteran of the maritime industry, Adrian moved to the position on 1 October.
He comes to the position after two years working on Bornholm as site-team assistant for Vestas Commercial, where he co-ordinated construction of off-shore wind-energy parks Arcadis-Ost and Baltic Eagle.
In selecting Adrian as COO, TASK Engineering highlighted his wealth of experience in the wind-energy industry on Bornholm and in the Baltic Sea Region. It reckons this will benefit the development of the offshore-wind industry in the region and is pleased to have a permanent contact on Bornholm that can strengthen the island’s connection with the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Connect with Adrian on LinkedIn
Read MoreA more palatable way to raise prawns
It starts by feeding them their own excrement
Read MoreWrong time to find right place for industry estate
Local lawmakers on Bornholm have voted down a motion to begin the process of identifying potential sites for an industry estate that could serve as a crucible for energy start-ups once a planned converter station for off-shore wind farms comes on-line.
Tendering for the converter station on the southern coast and two wind farms capable of powering 4.5 million homes has begun. Collectively known as Energy Island Bornholm, it is due to begin producing power in 2030, and that, according to a majority of the environment, nature and planning committee, is too far off—and the outcome of the project still far too uncertain—to being looking for places to place an estate.
Helle Munk Ravnborg, the committee chair, told TV2/Bornholm, a local broadcaster, that identifying sites for potential development while the future of Energy Island Bornholm was unclear, and before the full council has decided to build an industry estate, would be an unnecessary worry for property owners in or near areas selected as suitable sites.
The council’s finance and climate committee is due to consider the same question when it meets on Wednesday. If it is approved, the proposal will come before the full council.
Read MoreOffshore The Bornholm advantage
Turning the Danish island into a converter hub would jump-start the local economy
Read MoreFantasy 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
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