US to Tap Into Denmark’s Offshore Wind Know-How

The US Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke and Danish Minister of Energy, Utilities and Climate Lars Christian Lilleholt met on Thursday, 26 October, in Washington DC to discuss formal cooperation between the two countries and give a boost to US offshore wind.

The cooperation will include exchanging experiences and knowledge about how the US can expand its energy supply with new wind farms, which are today cheaper than ever and increasingly directly competitive with power plants based on coal or nuclear power, the Danish ministry said in a statement.

Lilleholt considers that it is a huge scoop that Denmark now has a formal collaboration with Trump’s administration, and that offshore wind could bring many advantages to the US with its shrinking prices, high security of supply and new jobs.

The Danish minister invited Zinke to visit Denmark in 2018 to witness the Danish offshore wind experience and solutions firsthand.

The Danish minister also met with Tommy Wells, the director of the District Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE), and signed a cooperation agreement in which the Danish Energy Agency will exchange the country’s district heating and energy planning experiences with Washington on energy planning, regulation, district heating solutions and the potential for offshore wind energy.

In September, the key leaders of the American industry launched an initiative to create offshore wind standards in the US, as the country prepares for the imminent development of large scale offshore wind projects. This set of national offshore consensus standards is an essential component to help accelerate commercial scale development of the US offshore wind industry.

MHI Vestas recently announced that its V164-9.5MW wind turbine, the world’s most powerful, will have all testing and verification of its gearbox and main bearings carried out at the Clemson University in South Carolina.

The company said that the turbine is most likely to be used for the first round of major offshore wind projects in the US.