Greenland Premier: 'Vast hydropower potential, ready to work with EU'

Greenland "has the potential to become a key partner of the EU in the field of renewable energy. Greenland's hydroelectric potential is vast and untapped". This was emphasised by Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, speaking at the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg. "Thanks to our abundant water resources, including glaciers and rivers," he continued, "we are an ideal location for large-scale hydroelectric projects. We have the potential to become a world leader in exporting green energy. This will create new sources of income for Greenland and make a difference on a global scale.

"We are actively seeking investors for these projects, which will be offered in tenders next year. The European Commission has already supported us in our first tender and we are ready to cooperate further," he concludes.

Nielsen also emphasised to the European Parliament that the EU must 'act faster' to develop extraction projects for the 'critical' minerals that Greenland is rich in, which, being 'capital-intensive' and high-risk, require public intervention to attract private investors.

"Our emerging mining sector," he says, "is set to become a key player in securing strategic and critical raw material supply lines for the EU and the world." Greenland, Nielsen recalls, "holds 24 of the 34 critical minerals identified by the EU.

The development of mining projects is, however, capital-intensive. If we want to be successful in the exploitation of critical minerals, we need to reduce the risk that investors take. This task of risk reduction has to be solved partly at the political level and not only by the markets. In 2023, the EU and Greenland agreed on a strategic partnership on sustainable commodity value chains'.