The story of Esbjerg’s evolution from Europe’s biggest fishing port, to Denmark’s oil and gas hub, to now being the world’s leading offshore wind port and future power-to-X hot spot, is a case study in the energy transition in action.
Enlit on the Road visited Denmark’s energy metropolis, on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula, to explore its remarkable, and constant transformation. What we found was a city that lives and breathes energy; and a municipality focused on leading Denmark’s energy transition.
A state-of-the-art district heating system, hyper scale data centres, carbon capture and energy storage solutions are all part of the future-focused city that is “turning the North Sea into a green power plant for Europe.”
Energy-focused strategy
“Esbjerg has been the energy metropolis of Denmark for the last 50 years. Around one-third of all private employees in this city is related to the energy sector,” explains Karsten Rieder, the CEO of Business Esbjerg.
“For many years, we have had a very focused strategy on the energy sector and the digital sector. We try to create even more attractive jobs in the [local] companies. We could attract all the best talents in Denmark and we will still need more. So we are also looking abroad, working with partners to attract young talents from elsewhere in the world.”
More from Enlit on the Road – Denmark:
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How design innovation adds ‘STEAM’ to Denmark’s energy transition
Evolving with Denmark’s energy transition
That energy transition is part of Esbjerg’s DNA becomes clear when Rieder takes a step back to reflect on the development of the town.
Said Rieder: “In the 1960s, we were the biggest fishing harbour in Europe. More than 600 fishing boats were laying at quayside, and then in 10-20 years they all disappeared and a lot of jobs in that sector disappeared with the fishing boats.
“In the 1970s, Denmark found the first oil in the North Sea, and Esbjerg became the turning point of all North Sea activities… for more than 50 years.
“In the year 2000, the world’s first offshore wind park was established in the North Sea. And it was out of Esbjerg. So from day one of the offshore wind adventure, Esbjerg has been part of that industry. So for more than 20 years, we have also now been the key point for the offshore wind industry.
“A lot of the companies who at one time were sub-suppliers for the fishing industry, turned themselves into sub-suppliers in the oil and gas industry and now work with the offshore wind or power-to-x industries.”
The next step: Power-to-X
Half of Europe’s offshore wind parks are supported by Esbjerg, and Denmark’s access to this green energy makes it the ideal location for the burgeoning power-to-X sector.
“We don’t have deep waters in the Danish part of the North Sea. So we actually we are in a good position to provide an interesting level of energy cost for the P-t-X industry,” explains David Dupont-Mouritzen, the Project Director at HØST PtX about their 800 megawatt electrolyzer and ammonia loop that is rooted in the North Sea.
Dennis Jul Pedersen, CEO of the Port of Esbjerg, the world’s biggest offshore wind port, says “there is a real push towards getting things done and getting it done now, not only for the green transition but also for the energy security of Europe.”
Esbjerg as European data hub
Esbjerg is also a data hub and the landing point for the world’s most important fibre-optics cables.
“The most important fibre cable between the US and Northern Europe lands in Esbjerg and the most important fibre cable to central Europe, to Amsterdam, is also out of Esbjerg,” says Rieder.
“Meta is planning to build quite an impressive hyper scale data centre in our city. I think Denmark is attractive because we have very stable power support – 99.9999% uptime – and that’s very important for that industry. We have a very well organized district heating system where we can reuse the exit excess heat from data centres and also from power-to-x companies in the future.”
The city’s mayor, Jesper Frost Rasmussen, explains how they’re taking their evolution to the “next level” as they integrate the power-to-x industry and sea heat pumps into the heating system.
“It’s not prototyping, it’s actually what we will heat up the city with in the future… not talking about the green transition, we actually doing it for a living,” said Frost Rasmussen.
The Esbjerg declaration
On 18th of May 2022, in Esbjerg, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, together with her colleagues from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands – in the presence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen – signed the Declaration of Energy Ministers on the North Sea as a Green Power Plant of Europe, commonly referred to as the Esbjerg Declaration.
In this declaration, the participating countries committed to establishing 65GW of offshore wind towards 2030 and 150GW by 2050. As regards the production of green hydrogen, the combined target was about 20GW of production capacity by 2030.
These already ambitious targets were adjusted during the recent second edition of the North Sea Summit, where the Ostend Declaration saw nine European countries committing to 300GW by 2050.
“That’s making the North Sea into a green power plant for Europe. And that was signed in Esbjerg because we are the leading port in Europe and in the world in offshore wind,” said Frost Rasmussen about the importance of the Esbjerg declaration.
“We’re not talking about the green transition, we actually doing it for a living. And that’s what they realised when they were here.”
