Port Esbjerg News Brief - February 2023
Dear Reader
The green transition and Europe’s ambitious targets for installing offshore wind require huge amounts of space. In fact, the pace needs to accelerate five-fold relative to the last twenty years, and that cannot be done without innovation. There simply is not enough capacity.
Making efforts to alleviate the shortfall, Port Esbjerg has started collaborating with the five other major installation ports in Europe. We met with their representatives at Port Esbjerg on 18 January where we signed a declaration of collaboration, and we began our initial discussions. Together, we aim to contribute our insights and proposals on how to optimise capacity utilisation and strengthen partnerships across the value chain.
For that same purpose, we have also achieved a significant milestone, both for ourselves and for the wind industry, in that Port Esbjerg has had a digital twin developed, becoming the first offshore wind port in the world to do so. We have previously applied digital twins when designing cargo terminals, which increased capacity utilisation for RoRo terminals and produced competitive cost levels.
The new digital twin for offshore wind will enable us to triple our offshore wind capacity through computer simulation – from 1.5GW to 4.5 GW – by as early as 2024 and that without adding a single square foot of space. If using digital twins becomes the norm, the potential for Europe is huge.
Shortly before these two important events played out, Port Esbjerg got a special Christmas present from the EU when we received a DKK 211m grant to deepen the port’s fairway. That will enable us to comply with NATO’s requirements, if we are to support the alliance in future operations. It will also future-proof our infrastructure, and we will be able to continue to accommodate the shipping industry’s requirements across our business areas as vessels continue to increase in size. This is the case in the RoRo segment, for example, because if our port is able to accommodate larger RoRo vessels, it will also be able to attract new cargo routes.
Port Esbjerg’s position as an international installation port frontrunner and a significant player in the green transition was confirmed when in January, we welcomed 44 MBA students from Harvard Business School. The school reached out to us to gain knowledge about the specific processes of the green transition, and what better and more relevant place to experience that than at Port Esbjerg and the companies based at the harbour.
The year has only just begun, and we have already achieved a great deal. That is very reassuring for me, because we have a lot on our to-do list. I also believe that the above events demonstrate that we are off to a good start.
Hope you enjoy the read!
Dennis Jul Pedersen, CEO
