The Danish Energy Agency (DEA) has extended the life of two offshore wind farms, which together have been in operation for almost 50 years.
The Agency has notified the owners of the Middelgrunden and Nysted offshore wind farms that it will be extending their permits for electricity production. This means that the two offshore wind farms can produce electricity for an additional 25 and 10 years, respectively.
The two offshore wind farms are some of the oldest in the country. Middelgrunden was originally granted an electricity production permit in 2000, while Nysted followed three years later.
The DEA required an independent analysis of the remaining life for the two projects, as well as an extended service inspection before granting the extension permits.
The Nysted offshore wind farm is owned by Orsted, PensionDanmark, and Stadtwerke Lübeck and consists of 70 turbines with a production capacity of 161MW, which corresponds to the electricity consumption of more than 130,000 households.
Middelgrunden, owned by HOFOR and the Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative, consists of 20 turbines that supply approximately 20,000 households with green electricity annually.
This move follows the extension of the production permit for the Samsø offshore wind farm earlier this month. The wind farm, which started producing electricity in 2002, has a 25-year production permit. The extension gave it another 10 years of production and will end in 2037.
The Danish Energy Agency is also processing electricity production permit extension applications for the Rønland and Horns Rev 1 offshore wind farms.
Denmark is considered a pioneer in the offshore wind world as its Vindeby offshore wind farm was the world’s first such project, constructed back in 1991. It was decommissioned in 2016.
The country is also the home to the oldest still-operating commercial offshore wind farm, Tunø Knob, completed in 1995. The wind farm celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2025.
