Vattenfall wins both projects in Denmark's revamped offshore wind tender

Swedish utility Vattenfall has secured both projects in Denmark's reformed offshore wind tender, ending a dry spell after the 2024 round drew no bids.

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Denmark's offshore wind sector has found its footing again. Two years after a tender round closed without a single bid, the country has awarded contracts for two major projects, both going to Swedish utility Vattenfall.

The 2024 tender failed as developers grappled with rising costs, strained supply chains, and uncertainty over power prices, market development, and demand. In response, Copenhagen rebuilt the auction process around state-backed two-way Contracts for Difference, a mechanism that the European Commission cleared in March 2026.

Under that framework, Vattenfall's Danish unit won the Nordsøen Midt site with the lowest of two bids at DKK 504 per megawatt-hour, or roughly EUR 67.4. The project, located about 20 kilometers off the coast near Hvide Sande, is set to have a minimum capacity of 1,000 megawatts. The company also clinched the Hesselø site with the lowest of five bids at DKK 542/MWh (around EUR 72.5). Hesselø sits roughly 30 kilometers off North Zealand in the Kattegat and will have a minimum capacity of 800 megawatts.

Both projects are due to start generating by 2032 at the latest. The guaranteed tariffs will stay in place for two decades after commissioning. Combined, the two wind farms will add at least 1.8 gigawatts of capacity, enough to theoretically power more than 1.8 million households, according to the Danish Energy Agency. That would lift Denmark's installed offshore wind capacity by about 70 percent from the roughly 2.7 gigawatts recorded at the end of 2024. The calculation does not include RWE's Thor project, a 1,000-megawatt wind farm under construction off Jutland's west coast.

Before the contracts are signed, authorities still have to complete a formal review of the submitted documentation, a step that has not yet been finished.

Vattenfall's head of offshore, David Flood, said winning both projects "reflects our continued ambition to grow our offshore wind portfolio and support the electrification of industry and society."

Competitor Ørsted, which bid for Hesselø, congratulated the Danish government "on a successful, competitive tender process" in a statement to TV2. Kristian Jensen, managing director of industry group Green Power Denmark, also welcomed the outcome, saying Vattenfall has the experience and capability to build both sites.

The next tender, for the Nordsøen Syd site with a minimum capacity of 1,000 megawatts, is not scheduled until autumn 2028. The Danish result stands out against a tougher European backdrop: of 17 gigawatts of planned offshore wind capacity in 2025, only about 7 gigawatts were awarded, according to WindEurope, and several tenders across the continent failed or were cancelled.

Analyst Signe Tellier Christensen of Aegir Insights noted that Vattenfall's winning bids are on the low end of the scale.