Denmark opens public consultation on Thor offshore wind farm

The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has launched an eight-week public consultation on the plan for the Thor offshore wind farm and the related Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the plan for the wind farm.

The public consultation runs from 1 February to 29 March, during which period around 5,000 local landowners, relevant organisations and local authorities will have an opportunity to provide their feedback on the plan.

For the onshore part of the project, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been carried out in parallel to the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the plan. The results of this EIA will be published in Spring 2021, with the Environmental Protection Agency being the responsible authority. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the offshore part part of the project will be available in the period 2022-2024, when the winner of the tender for the development of the Thor offshore wind farm is appointed.

In January, the DEA pre-qualified six consortia and companies to participate in the tender for the Thor offshore wind farm: Ørsted, Vattenfall, a consortium of Total and Iberdrola, Thor Wind Farm (owned by RWE), a joint venture of SSE Renewables and Thor OFW (owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure IV Thor OFW ApS and Andel Holding), and Swan Wind (a joint venture between Eneco Wind and European Energy).

The shortlisted developers now have until mid-March to submit their preliminary bids, and the negotiation process is set for the following month.

Located in the North Sea at a distance of a minimum 20 kilometres from the shore, Thor will have a capacity of between 800 MW and 1,000 MW.

Denmark plans to have the grid connection for the Thor offshore wind farm ready by 1 January 2025, and the offshore wind farm must be fully built and connected to the grid by 31 December 2027.