We are chasing more global business

By Dennis Jul Pedersen, CEO at Port Esbjerg

Port Esbjerg has just provided docking facilities for the installation vessel Vole au Vent to load the last turbines for Vesterhav Nord and Vesterhav Syd wind farms, which are now ready at sea, awaiting the final technicalities to generate electricity in spades. We are pleased that Port Esbjerg participated in this project. 

However, it was the only Danish offshore wind project this year. A paradox, of course, in light of the ambitious targets for offshore wind power that have been agreed in Europe.

Fortunately, there are clear signs that we are about to witness the famous glass ketchup-bottle effect, as all the stops are about to be pulled out to realise these ambitions. 

At Port Esbjerg, our offshore-wind order book is full for the coming years, which will benefit both the green transition and the entire local and Danish value chain. We are in full swing making the necessary preparations.

Collaboration is critically important for us to succeed in the enormous transition that Europe and the world are undergoing. 

We are also very pleased that as part of our collaboration with the other major wind ports in Europe, we have just decided to coordinate our digital twins across countries so as to optimise our capacity even more.

Collaboration was also on the agenda when Australia’s “Mr Energy” stopped by recently. His real name is Alan Finkel and he is Australia’s leading scientist in the green transition. He was invited by the Danish government and visited Esbjerg, he said, to be inspired. 

Despite the great geographical distance, he believes there is sound basis for future collaboration between our countries, and we will obviously bring our skills and extensive experience to any such collaborative partnership.

We are also looking forward to a new EU project based in Esbjerg which will be exploring the possibilities of utilising both flying and sailing drones to optimise the green transition.

Even though our offshore-wind order book looks great, we are not putting our feet up at the port office. We are chasing more global business across different business areas. 

We receive, for example, positive signals from the North American continent, and we are welcoming increasing numbers of delegations from that part of the world. At the same time, we are also seeing an increase in visitors from India and the Far East, ranging from large commercial delegations, high-level political guests, such as ambassadors and ministers, and a wide range of company representatives.

At these visits, we naturally often talk about offshore wind. But we certainly also talk about other cargo categories that may be carried by RoRo vessels and general cargo ships. 

This is a major focus for us at Port Esbjerg right now, and it will remain so in the years to come. 

We see exciting growth opportunities in these areas, and we need to capitalise on them while Esbjerg continues to build on its position as a leading international wind port.