COP 26 | Are energy islands the missing link to make Europe's 'net-zero continent' dream a reality?

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Denmark is on pole to build the first artificial energy island in the North Sea, but other nations are looking at the radical option to enable massive offshore green power expansion, writes Bernd Radowitz.

As individual nations line up to make pledges to the COP26 summit, the EU will come to Glasgow with a unique ambition to create the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

That will require huge amounts of offshore renewable energy, with Brussels targeting 60GW of wind in the seas off its member states by 2030 and 300GW by 2050. Outside the bloc, industry group WindEurope estimates the UK will contribute another 80GW and Norway 30GW.

Faced with such vast expansion – only 26GW was in place off the EU and UK midway through 2021 – plans for artificial energy islands off Europe have over the last few years emerged as some of the most ambitious in the global energy transition.

So far, most offshore wind arrays have been connected to the onshore power grid individually, or to an offshore converter station that bundles the power of three or four wind farms together via a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) link to shore.