Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth Island has reached an important construction checkpoint: the final concrete caisson planned for the 2025 offshore campaign was installed in the North Sea in mid-September 2025. The event marks the end of that campaign—not completion of the artificial island, connection to the electricity grid, or the start of power production.
What milestone was reached?
DEME reported that the last caisson scheduled for the 2025 offshore works had been installed by mid-September 2025. The offshore campaign then ended, with work expected to resume in spring 2026, weather permitting. More than 300 people and 15 specialised vessels were involved in that campaign, according to DEME’s 2025 update.
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Caissons are large concrete structures that form the island’s perimeter and are filled with sand. Installing the final unit for a season establishes another section of the physical platform, but it does not mean the island is finished or ready to carry electrical equipment.
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Princess Elisabeth Island is a planned artificial electricity hub about 45 kilometres off Belgium’s coast in the North Sea. Its role is to collect and route electricity from the future Princess Elisabeth offshore wind zone to Belgium’s onshore grid. The island may also host interconnectors to Great Britain and Denmark, allowing electricity to move between national systems.
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The planned electrical-infrastructure area is approximately six hectares. The island itself will not generate wind power: the separate offshore wind zone is planned at 3.5 gigawatts of capacity, a figure reported by DEME in 2023. That number describes the future wind zone, not present output from the island.
How the hub is designed to work
Caisson-built platform
Large prefabricated concrete caissons are placed offshore and filled with sand to create a stable artificial island. Further construction, protection works and installation activities are required before the platform can support its planned high-voltage systems.
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HVAC and HVDC transmission
The transmission concept combines high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) and high-voltage direct current (HVDC). Offshore wind electricity can be gathered at the hub, converted where necessary and sent to Belgium or through hybrid interconnectors to other countries. DEME described those hybrid links as infrastructure that can both connect offshore generation and exchange electricity between national grids.
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By combining wind-farm connections with cross-border cables, the project is intended to give Belgium more than a single route to shore. Elia chief executive Chris Peeters called it “the most cost-effective and reliable way to bring offshore wind to shore” and said it would provide “options for the future.” That is a stakeholder view of the project’s expected value, not an independent performance result.
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When will it be complete and operational?
Published schedules have changed and describe different stages of the work. Elia’s October 2023 permit announcement projected construction from March 2024 through August 2026. In April 2025, the European Investment Bank (EIB) described the island as due for completion in 2027, followed by additional high-voltage infrastructure and connections to the wind farm. DEME’s October 2025 update said offshore activity was expected to restart in spring 2026, subject to weather.
These dates should not be read as a single confirmed commissioning deadline. Island construction, electrical fit-out, cable installation, wind-farm connection and commercial operation are separate phases. The cited accounts do not establish a final current date for the hub to begin operating.
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What is the project costing?
The EIB reported in 2025 that the first phase had a €650 million green credit facility and an estimated island-construction cost of €1.1 billion. It also reported a €100 million European Union subsidy. Those figures are tied to the EIB’s account of the first phase and should not be treated as the total cost of later electrical works, cables, wind-farm construction or operation.
The same EIB report said prices for electrical equipment—particularly HVDC systems—were rising and that Elia was evaluating options for next steps. Cost estimates and financing therefore remain subject to change as the project advances.
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Environmental features in the design
The EIB says the nature-inclusive design includes spaces above the water for birds to nest and underwater structures intended to support oyster beds and other marine life. These are planned design measures. The sources cited here do not establish measured ecological results, so the benefits should not be presented as proven outcomes yet.
What the milestone does—and does not—prove
| Question | What the available project updates establish |
|---|---|
| Is the island complete? | No. The milestone concerns the final caisson planned for the 2025 offshore campaign. |
| Is it connected to Belgium’s grid? | No such connection is established by the milestone report. |
| Is it producing electricity? | No. Generation is planned in the separate offshore wind zone. |
| Is the 3.5 GW figure island output? | No. DEME used it for the planned Princess Elisabeth wind zone. |
| When will it operate? | No final current operational date is established in the cited accounts. |
Why the construction step matters
Completing the 2025 caisson campaign removes one major piece of marine civil engineering from that season’s plan. The completed perimeter will eventually provide the physical base for transformers, converters, switchgear and cable landings, but those systems still require later installation and testing. The project’s significance therefore lies in progressing the foundation of a proposed international electricity junction, not in delivering power today.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Princess Elisabeth Island the world’s first energy island already in operation?
No. It is a planned Belgian offshore grid hub. The September 2025 announcement covered a construction milestone, and the cited sources do not show that the island is complete, commissioned or operating.
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The island is transmission infrastructure that will collect and route electricity. Wind turbines in the separate Princess Elisabeth offshore wind zone are intended to generate the power; the 3.5 GW figure refers to that planned zone.
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