A huge artificial island with its own airstrip and harbour could be built in the North Sea to power Europe by 2050, if plans are approved later this month.
The 2.5 square mile (6.5 square km) island could serve as a “crazy and science fiction-like” energy plant, which 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, if approved, 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.
Torben Glar Nielsen, Energinet’s technical director, told the Independent: “Maybe it sounds a bit crazy and science fiction-like but an island on Dogger Bank could make the wind power of the future a lot cheaper and more effective.”
Dutch power grid operator TenneT announced last week that Energinet was the first partner for its plan to create the offshore energy hub.
TenneT says that the large European electricity network is based on a “hub and spoke” principle, and was designed to help the European Union to meet targets for cuts in its carbon dioxide emissions.
TenneT will formally sign a deal with Energinet on March 23.
“Discussions with other potential partners are ongoing, which not only include other North Sea transmission system operators, but also other infrastructure companies,” TenneT said in a statement.
Energinet’s CEO, Peder Østermark Andreasen, said the project has the potential to lead to a “further reduction in prices of grid connections and interconnections.”
An artist's impression of the island 