First legally binding cooperation agreement in Europe on a joint offshore project under the EU Renewable Energy Directive RED .
On the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm, at least 3 GW offshore wind power generation capacity is to be connected on Danish territory by the early 2030s . The electricity is then to be transported via new grid connections to Germany (2 GW ) and to the Danish mainland (1.2 GW ).
The transmission system operators (TSO) 50Hertz and Energinet agreed in advance that they would each assume half of the infrastructure costs of the project. In return, the TSOs share the congestion proceeds from the respective lines to Germany and Denmark and each receive ownership of the (inter)connector to the respective mainland.
Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck: “I am very pleased that it was possible to agree on the first offshore cooperation project in Europe off the island of Bornholm with Denmark. The project creates the basis for future green electricity imports to Germany and will make our power supply cheaper, safer and less dependent on fossil fuels.”
The government agreement that Minister Habeck signed today with his Danish counterpart, Energy Minister Lars Aagaard, regulates that the renewable target quantities from the project can be shared and thus counted towards the German targets under the EEG and half towards the German and Danish contributions to the EU target under the EU Renewable Energy Directive RED.
In March, the member states agreed on a new EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED). This also includes cross-border projects. Accordingly, each member state must develop a binding legal framework for cross-border cooperation projects so that joint cooperation is strengthened. Denmark and Germany have already met this EU requirement with the signed intergovernmental agreement.
The Bornholm Energy Island project thus has character for future offshore cooperation projects with an even larger scope. In the future , up to 10 GW should be installed in another Danish energy hub in the North Sea. Offshore wind farms are connected to Germany and other countries via new power lines. Further cooperation projects are also emerging in the Baltic Sea.
A declaration of intent on basic cooperation with Denmark was signed in December 2020 and a more detailed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the cornerstones of the project was signed in July 2022. The transmission system operators Energinet and 50Hertz signed a cooperation agreement to implement the project in November 2022.
The legally binding government agreement signed today is the cornerstone for the implementation of Bornholm Energy Island. The project is also a milestone for the concrete implementation of the summit declarations of the heads of state and government of the North Sea countries of Esbjerg in 2022 and Ostend in 2023.
The agreement can be found here .
Source: Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action
