News
On August 28th, NIRAS opened its doors in Esbjerg, Denmark for a delegation of Japanese mayors, regional government representatives and academic experts, who were in Denmark to learn about stakeholder engagement in offshore wind projects.
Understanding the stakeholder engagement challenges and solutions in offshore wind projects is a requirement for the Japanese authorities to initiate future auctions for offshore wind expansion. Therefore, the Japanese decision-makers decided to visit Denmark, a mature offshore wind market with long-standing and deep insights into offshore energy.
Seiko Toki, Senior Consultant and Business Development Director at NIRAS’s Taiwan office accompanied the delegation to Denmark. In Denmark, Louise Roende Moenster, Expertise Director Environment and Thor Ugelvig Petersen, Vice President Offshore Wind represented NIRAS at its Esbjerg office, which is located in a former parish hall.
Their presentation focused on the permitting process in offshore wind projects in Denmark, involvement of stakeholders, and typical issues of major environmental and engineering concern from constructing and operation of offshore wind farms etc.
With the launch of new tenders in Denmark enabling 6-10 GW of offshore wind NIRAS also presented solutions where the produced energy is used in P2X and highlighted the importance for the local municipality and utility companies taking an active part in the development plans.
“We were pleased with the delegation’s visit to NIRAS and the opportunity to discuss the processes for permits and approvals for offshore wind projects in Denmark, as well as the involvement of stakeholders in these processes,” says Louise Roende Moenster.
“The Japanese government aims to deploy 10 GW offshore wind by 2030 as part of their target to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, we are pleased to provide insights and learnings from our long track record in offshore wind, and hopefully enabling a more effective implementation of their projects,” says Thor Ugelvig Petersen.
Apart from NIRAS, the delegation also visited State of Green, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Copenhagen Offshore Partners, Vestas, FOGA ApS, the embassy of Japan, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), ports of Esbjerg and Grenaa, Vesterhav Syd offshore wind farm, Anholt offshore wind farm. The Royal Danish Embassy in Tokyo, Japan and State of Green coordinated the visit.