06/01/2021

The Danish Energy Agency approves the Plan for Thor Offshore Wind Farm with associated Strategic Environmental Assessment report and publishes the site-boundaries

Based on the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of the Plan for Thor Offshore Wind Farm and the public consultation, the Danish Energy Agency concludes that the Plan for Thor can be realized in the dedicated site west of Thorsminde, and without significant impacts to the environment. At the same time, the Danish Energy Agency has narrowed down the site for the wind farm from 440 km2 to 286 km2 as a result of the site-investigations.

Image: Danish Energy Agency

Pursuant to the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the Danish Energy Agency has prepared a statement summarizing how environmental considerations have been integrated into the Plan for Thor Offshore Wind Farm.

The decision of approving the Plan for Thor Offshore Wind Farm is based on the SEA of the Plan for Thor Offshore Wind Farm and the public consultation. As part of the process, in the Spring of 2020 the public was involved in determining the content and level of detail of the environmental assessment. Results from this consultation are also included in the overall assessment.

The SEA Summary Statement can be found on the Danish Energy Agency's website.

The decision can be appealed to the Energy Board of Appeal for a 4-week period up to 28. June 2021.

The statement summarizing how environmental considerations have been integrated constitutes the first step in the environmental approval of Thor Offshore Wind Farm and sets, at the strategic level, the framework for the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the specific project at sea. The EIA with public consultations must be carried out by the future concession owner, and will, together with the associated license for construction, constitute the final step in the overall environmental approval of Thor.

Narrowing down the site for Thor

The result of the SEA process as well as the site-investigation and other considerations have led to the narrowing down of the site for Thor. The process of narrowing down the site has taken into account a number of factors, including visual impact, cumulative visual aspects, birds, stone reefs, raw materials, fishing interest and safety of navigation.

For more information about narrowing down the site for Thor, see separate report (in Danish)

EIA of the specific facility on land

In parallel with the environmental assessment of the Plan for Thor with the Environmental Protection Agency as Authority, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the specific onshore facility has been carried out, which is now in public consultation until 21 June 2021. This process is expected to lead to an EIA-permit for the landbased project to be issued by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in August 2021.