Source: UNITED
Introduction
The Middelgrunden offshore wind farm is located in Copenhagen (Denmark) and consists of 20 turbines of 2MW each, producing up to 100,000 MWh of electricity annually. The farm is located 3.5 km from the capital started operation in year 2000. The developers was “Københavns Energi” (owned by Copenhagen Municipality) and “Middelgrunden Vind “ - a private cooperative partnership consisting of 8000 owners.
The multi-use combines offshore wind energy production and tourism: within the offshore wind farms, tours are organised by representatives of the Middelgrunden cooperative, which also contracts the boat operator. Diverse types of visits are organized such as in-person tours (sailing around the farm), visits to the foundations, or climbing the turbines, lecturing, and even virtual visits. The Middelgrunden turbines can offer this unique tour since they are equipped with ladders and floor sections every 8 meters that allow visitors to safely climb up the turbine. In total about 50 tours are hosted annually, although interest is raising and in 2023 there were 95 tours.
The UNITED project aimed to address existing legal and insurance challenges, expand the tours by enhancing the boat service and explore new opportunities for multi-use, such as for example scuba-diving and fishing around the site.
Local citizens are part of the owners and turned out to be advocates and ambassadors for the project to their relatives and friends. The local engagement in the planning and layout of the farm ended up being the pre-condition for the acceptance and rollout of the multi-use. The fact that 10 of the turbines are owned by the cooperative makes it easier to have access to the turbine and develop additional related add-ons such as tours and educational programs.
The number of visitors in 2023 has been above 1600, making the number of guests in the wind farm since 2017 above 6000. Satisfactory surveys and feedback supply onsite are always positive, and prove it is a unique experience and way of learning about offshore wind, multi-use, renewable energy and blue oceans.
In case additional activities want to make use of the turbine’s foundations a permit -possibly under different governance regimes - is required for this activity. The safety zone also remains unclear and current safety regulations may be a barrier to conducting this type of activity in other countries.
Other challenges are related to insurance aspects since dedicated insurance coverage for climbing turbines does not exist – service providers do have safety equipment and standard working insurance.
Lessons learnt
- The tours have had positive effects on local businesses such as boat operators and local guides, providing an alternative source of income and a diversified local tourism offer.
- The tours and awareness raised through those tours have highlighted the role of offshore energy production and energy security in the context of climate change.
- The project has shown that regular rules for such activity do not exist but it is possible to establish using existings rules from other activities.
- The awareness has been increasing after boat operators have added the opportunity for climbing the turbines at heir own home pages.
Relevant links
The content of this page is based on :
Ocean Multi-Use Blueprints Collection.
UNITED Project - Danish pilot case page
Video “Tourists climbing offshore wind turbines near Copenhagen, Denmark”
Contact(s)
Hans Christian Sorensen: spok.consult [at] gmail.com (spok[dot]consult[at]gmail[dot]com)