The bigger picture: Denmark's artificial wind island

The Scandinavian nation provides the most oil among all European countries but has promised it will be stopping fossil-fuel production within the next three decades. The island will be as big as 18 football pitches (120,000sq.m), but there are hopes to make it three times that size. It will serve as a hub for 200 giant offshore wind turbines and is the biggest construction project in Danish history, costing an estimated 210bn kroner (£24bn).

Situated 80km (50 miles) out to sea, the artificial island would be at least half-owned by the state but partly by the private sector. It will not just supply electricity for Danes but for other, neighbouring countries’ electricity grids, too.

Although those countries have not yet been detailed, Professor Jacob Ostergaard of the Technical University of Denmark told the BBC that the UK could benefit, as well as Germany or the Netherlands. Green hydrogen would also be provided for use in shipping, aviation, industry, and heavy transport.

Under Denmark’s Climate Act, the country has committed to a 70 per cent reduction in 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and to become CO2-neutral by 2050. Last December it announced it was ending all new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Green group Dansk Energi said that while the “dream was on the way to becoming a reality” it doubted the North Sea island would be up and running by the planned 2033 start date.