Vikinge Banke, Kadet Banke and Paludan Flak have now been formally shut down along with 27 other projects from the open door scheme. As EnergyWatch wrote earlier Tuesday, the Danish government has also chosen to reject the three remaining projects that were sent towards a transitional scheme this summer, while the remaining projects were closed down at the time.

”We have pressure-tested all options for adjusting the open door scheme so that it could contribute to ensuring more green power quickly and before 2030. This was the wish of the industry and the opposition when the scheme was put on hold,” says energy minister Lars Aagaard (M) in a statement.

”Unfortunately, this has not proved to be possible.”

Faster expansion not possible

However, it has not only been the opposition that has fought to keep at least some of the projects alive. As news outlet Zetland has described, the energy minister’s own party leader - foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen (M) - has also stepped in to ensure the continued existence of the projects.

In particular, the work has been based on what can be called the German model. This means that tenders were to be held for the three areas, but where the original applicants would have the opportunity to secure projects by matching the best bid. A model that Germany has used in several of its recent tenders, where areas that had also been tendered previously were in play.

Even though the Germans have not been given the EU’s blessing in this regard, the Danish ministry says that it has ”not proved possible to adjust the open door scheme within the framework of EU regulation in a way that would result in a faster offshore wind development”. Which is why all projects that have not already received permits have now been dropped and the scheme is to be completely closed to new ones.

However, the closure does not give the minister cause for concern about Denmark’s green transition.

”The green transition is underway. There is plenty of green power on the way,” Aagaard states.

”We are preparing the largest offshore wind tender in Danish history and have agreed on a new agreement on onshore energy farms that will contribute to quadrupling onshore wind and solar power, which is our goal.”

Few projects left, more are threatened

With the final rejection of CIP/Ørsted’s Vikinge Banke project of an estimated 1,137MW and Wind Estate’s two projects Kadet Banke and Paludan Flak of an estimated 760MW, there are now only nine projects left in the scheme with a total capacity of around one gigawatt. 

However, several of these projects, many of which have been in the pipeline for more than a decade, are also hanging by a thread. This applies, for example, to European Energy’s Omø Syd project, where the area applied for has been converted to nature conservation during the process, and Hofor’s Aflandshage, which had its establishment approval rejected earlier this year.