BRUSSELS- A huge artificial island with its own airstrip and harbour could be built in the North Sea to power Europe by 2050. The 2.5 square mile (6.5 square km) island is part of plans for a ‘crazy and science fiction-like’ energy plant that would be surrounded by fields of offshore wind turbines. The ‘North Sea Wind Power Hub’ would house a small team of permanent staff and generate power for more than 80 million people across Europe. The island would serve a vast network of solar panels and wind turbines spanning across Dogger Bank, a large sandbank 62 miles (100km) off the east coast of England.
It would supply energy to six European countries through underwater cables – Britain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Belgium.
Dogger Bank is relatively shallow with depths of between 15 and 36 metres, which is expected to reduce the cost of the project.
The Copenhagen Post reported that the island would cost just over £1.1 billion ($1.3 billion).
Energinet, the Danish state-owned energy operator, said it hoped that the offshore power plant would be completed by 2050.
The plans have been drawn by a series of energy companies from Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany, including Energinet.
Discussions with other energy companies and industrial partners, who together will pay for the project, are ongoing.
They are expected to be agreed in Brussels on March 23.