Princess Elisabeth Island, a pioneering electricity grid at sea, connects offshore wind farms to the mainland, and it also creates connections with neighboring countries.

The Princess Elisabeth Zone is a future 3.5 gigawatt (GW) offshore wind farm that will be in the North Sea, almost 45 km (28 miles) off the coast of Belgium. Belgian electricity transmission system operator Elia is developing what will be the world’s first offshore artificial energy island.

The island will act as a hub for electricity transmission, receiving power from the Princess Elisabeth Zone, which is the second Belgian offshore wind zone, as well as from interconnectors with other European countries such as the UK and Denmark.

The energy generated by the wind turbines will be transmitted to the island via undersea cables, where it will then be converted to high-voltage electricity and distributed to Belgian mainland and other European countries.

Elia announced yesterday that Belgian-based offshore construction companies DEME Group and Jan De Nul Group have formed joint venture TM EDISON in order to build Princess Elisabeth Island. Construction will start in early 2024, and completion is planned for mid-2026. It’s expected to be fully connected to all wind farms and the mainland by 2030.

The energy island is expected to play a major role in meeting Belgium’s renewable energy targets and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Belgian government award the project with a grant of around €100 million ($106 million). Check out the video about this amazing clean energy project here:

Read more: Siemens Gamesa spins up its most powerful offshore wind turbine

Photo: Elia

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