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From Energy Islands Newsletter at Energinet.dk

How difficult can it be? To erect a large number of offshore wind turbines off Bornholm and make sure that the current can flow either to Denmark or a neighbouring country?

To many people, this probably sounds like a ‘let’s-get-started task’.

But for university people with deep insights into the technology needed, it is definitely not all that straightforward to construct the Bornholm Energy Island and transmit huge volumes of offshore wind power, via DC connections, to the AC grids in Denmark and a neighbouring country – or both countries concurrently. Currently, Energinet together with it’s German counterpart, 50Hertz, is investigating the possibility of connecting Energy Island Bornholm with Germany and it’s power system. 

And if it is also factored in that the very powerful DC connections must be connected to the relatively modest AC grid on Bornholm, so that green electricity from the offshore wind turbines can also benefit the local population and so that green electricity generated on Bornholm can be transmitted to other countries, this is, in fact, not a ‘let’s-get-started task’ at all. It is more like a ‘we-must-start-research-and-development-as-soon-as-possible task’.

In fact, no one has yet gone down this electrical path.