MMT wins survey work for Baltic Sea energy island

Denmark’s Energinet has awarded MMT with a contract to carry out cable route surveys at the planned energy island in the Baltic Sea and associated offshore wind projects.

The Energy Island, located on the island of Bornholm, some 15 kilometers offshore, will connect Germany and Denmark to an offshore hub with around 2 GW of offshore wind power capacity.

Energinet has also chosen Fugro to undertake cable route surveys for the North Sea energy island project.

Fugro’s dedicated survey vessels will mobilize to the site in March to begin the geophysical and geotechnical surveys. This will include remotely operated vehicle (ROV) inspections and shallow geotechnical investigations using its Blue Snake geotechnical system.

MMT was previously appointed for initial surveys of the seabed where the North Sea energy island will be built. The activities were scheduled to take place from May 2021 to September 2022.

Denmark approved the development of the Baltic Sea and North Sea energy islands back in June 2020, and Energinet was given the task of conducting feasibility studies for both projects. 

A year later, the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) gave its approval for the preliminary offshore investigations at the relevant areas in the Baltic Sea.

The Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities recently requested Energinet to expand the current feasibility study areas at the Baltic Sea site, which could allow for installing 1 GW of capacity more and be the new place where the Hesselø offshore wind project could be built.

Both energy islands are planned to be connected to other countries’ grids and completed by 2030. The ambition is for electricity from the offshore wind farms to be converted into other forms of energy, such as Power-to-X.