Port Esbjerg News Brief - October 2022
Dear Reader
Port Esbjerg is an international market leader in offshore wind, and with that accolade comes responsibility. We must contribute to resolving the massive capacity challenges we face in the green transition.
That is why the last few months at the port have been exceptionally intense and exciting. What they have in common is that international relations and collaboration play an ever-greater role and are crucial to our work.
To be a little blunt, our focus has now shifted even more away from Denmark and towards the world outside. We have to do that to resolve our capacity challenges.
This is evident in a number of areas.
One of the stories in this newsletter is about a unique alliance we have forged with Europe’s leading offshore wind ports to optimise our skills, capacity and access to quay space. We will try to create a new paradigm where ports share assignments to make the best use of capacities across borders. In this way, we will capitalise on each other’s strengths and ensure that all available space comes into play. Rather than nominating one project to one port, it may be more efficient if two ports share a project.
These initiatives and collaborative efforts are of course about ensuring that we get the right jobs at all levels. However, even more so, it is about making sure that we have the necessary capacity to achieve the ambitious and entirely necessary targets for the deployment of renewable energy. We need to achieve these targets simply for the sake of the green transition and our security of supply. The new geopolitical situation and global uncertainty leave us no alternative.
Make no mistake, we face a massive capacity challenge if we do not act – so we will act!
In this newsletter, you can also read about Danish embassies using Port Esbjerg as a prime example of green transition, and we hope that our actions may inspire others.
Another story we would like to share with you is that Vattenfall has just commissioned its new warehouse at the port, and quoting Vattenfall’s comments on the occasion, this makes Esbjerg the logistics capital of northern Europe.
Most recently, we have just announced that we are building a huge facility at the port, where offshore wind components may be assembled and stored. At the same time, the construction of our largest ever port expansion is in full swing; stage 5 is now beginning to take shape, totalling 500,000 m2.
We anticipate having to handle increasing quantities of offshore wind turbine components going forward and have therefore invested in a new LHM 800 harbour crane. With it, Esbjerg will be the western European port that can perform the heaviest lifts. In future, the port will be able to load two ships with heavy wind turbine components simultaneously.
Esbjerg Mayor Jesper Frost also took an international perspective when he addressed Congress in Washington a few weeks ago. As the first speaker after the Danish Prime Minister, Frost had the opportunity to speak about the port’s role as a leading supplier in Europe.
This is all related to the plan Port Esbjerg has drawn up for large-scale offshore wind; it will require major investments in the years ahead to support the development of offshore wind in the North Sea and the production capacity at the ports.
Honestly, it is enough to put your head in a spin. But it is all good. All offshore wind ports are shouldering a great responsibility in these years, because we can easily end up being bottlenecks in the green transition. At Port Esbjerg, we have demonstrated over the last few months that we are doing everything we can to avoid becoming a bottleneck.
Hope you enjoy the read!
Dennis Jul Pedersen, CEO
