TotalEnergies exits Lillebælt wind project as critics hope it will be dropped

TotalEnergies has withdrawn from the LillebæltSyd offshore wind project between Als and Funen, prompting critics to hope the plan will be abandoned, DR reports.

The energy company owns 72 per cent of the project but has decided to sell its stake. TotalEnergies told DR that it no longer considers the Lillebælt project a meaningful investment and will instead focus on larger projects.

The project has been planned for years, and permission has already been granted to begin construction. Eleven offshore wind turbines, each 256 metres tall, are planned in the sea between northern Als and the Helnæs peninsula in southwest Funen. The distance between the two coasts is about 13 kilometres.

The planned turbines would stand close to a Natura 2000 area in the sea. Pauline Nielsen, who has a holiday home on the northern Als coast, said she was pleased at the prospect that the project might not go ahead. Critics have opposed the construction of large offshore turbines in Lillebælt since 2012.

Assens Mayor Søren Steen Andersen, one of the project’s prominent critics, said hopes that the turbines would be built had been fading but were now declining again because the likelihood of the project being stopped had increased.

However, Sønderborg Municipality and local utility company Sonfor have not given up on the plan. They have given themselves one year to find a new investor.

“I believe investors can be found who will enter this project. But it will be difficult,” Sønderborg Mayor Erik Lauritzen said.

Lauritzen said government support for large offshore wind projects made it harder to attract investors to smaller projects such as LillebæltSyd, which do not receive the same level of support. He hopes members of the Danish Parliament will provide more support for smaller projects.

Sonfor will take over most of the shares in September, while European Energy will retain its stake of just under 13 per cent. Sønderborg Municipality says it cannot keep the project alive indefinitely because there is a limit to the amount of risk it can take.