Wind farm flop in Denmark: tender for largest marine park fails

Denmark makes a resounding flop in clean energy: the auction for the country's largest offshore wind farm fails. Europe's 'greenest' country has failed to attract a single investor to build blades in the North Sea. Is the wind energy bubble about to burst? The auction did not involve state subsidies, i.e. taxpayers' money.

In recent days, the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) announced that it had received no bids for any of the three offshore wind farms in the North Sea that had been put out to tender at the beginning of November: these were the first 3 Gigawatts of a larger project. Nobody came forward, not even Denmark's Orsted, the national wind power champion playing at home.

"This is a very disappointing result. The circumstances for offshore wind in Europe have changed significantly in a relatively short time, including large price and interest rate increases,' chewed bitterly Lars Aagard, the country's minister for climate, energy and utilities.

At the beginning of the year, Denmark had launched the largest tender for a marine wind farm in its history: a minimum of 6 Gigawatts of new capacity at six sites in the North Sea had been auctioned, with the option of over-planting to add 10 Gigawatts. Now, there is a risk that the whole mega-project will be skipped.

The auctioned project was to be built without state subsidies, which is why all private investors defected. In addition, an annual concession fee was required: for the next 30 years, the operators would have to pay the Copenhagen government for the right to use the seabed. Finally, the Danish state would be co-owner of each of the wind farms with a minority share of 20 per cent. The bankruptcy is a blow to the country's green energy policy, which to date has an installed capacity of 2.7 Gigawatts.