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Offshore energy islands are collection and transmission hubs. Turbines send electricity through array cables to equipment on or around an island; converters and high-voltage cables then carry the aggregated power to onshore substations, where it enters national transmission networks. A hub with links to more than one country can also route electricity between those grids, combining an offshore-wind connection with an interconnector.
What an offshore energy island actually does
An energy island is not a new source of electricity and it is not necessarily a literal artificial island. Its essential function is electrical: gather power from several offshore wind farms, transform it for efficient long-distance transmission, and provide one or more controlled routes to shore. The Danish Energy Agency distinguishes Bornholm, an existing natural island, from the planned artificial island in the North Sea. Both concepts use an island location to collect offshore generation and connect it with grid infrastructure.
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The hub can also coordinate cross-border flows. Instead of building a separate cable from every wind farm to every country, planners can bring multiple generation and transmission routes together. The resulting arrangement is often called a hybrid connection because it combines an offshore wind-farm export link with an electricity interconnector. National Grid describes these hybrid assets as a way for offshore wind clusters to connect with multiple countries and as a building block of a more meshed North Sea grid. National Grid’s North Sea explainer provides that wider context.
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How does an offshore wind farm connect to the national grid?
The physical route is a chain of generation, collection, conversion, transmission and grid integration. The equipment at each stage has a distinct job.
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1. Turbines generate electricity
Wind turns each offshore turbine’s rotor and generator. The turbine produces electricity at a voltage suitable for its internal equipment, not at the voltage used by a national transmission network. A wind farm may contain dozens or hundreds of turbines spread across a large sea area, so their outputs must first be gathered.
2. Array cables collect the output
Undersea array cables connect groups of turbines to an offshore substation or hub. These collection circuits reduce many individual turbine feeds to fewer, higher-capacity circuits. Protection systems, switchgear, monitoring and transformers at the collection point allow operators to isolate faults and manage the combined flow.
3. The hub aggregates and converts power
An energy island or offshore electrical facility receives the collected output. Transformers raise voltage to reduce current and cable losses. Where the project uses high-voltage direct current (HVDC), converter stations change the wind farm’s alternating-current output into direct current for export, then convert it back to alternating current at the receiving end. The conversion equipment also controls power flow and helps match the offshore route to the receiving grid.
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4. Export cables carry power to land
High-capacity submarine cables leave the hub and run to a landfall. They may continue underground to an onshore substation. Cable design, burial depth, thermal limits and route length are project-specific; the figures for one island should not be treated as a universal engineering standard.
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5. Onshore substations join the national network
At the coast, a converter and substation transform the incoming electricity to the voltage, frequency and control conditions required by the national transmission system. Circuit breakers and protection relays connect the export route to the wider network. From there, existing transmission lines carry the power toward cities, industry and other demand centres.
6. Interconnectors enable cross-border routing
If the hub has cables to two or more countries, power can be directed to the grid that needs it, subject to the project’s control scheme, market rules and available capacity. In that configuration, the same infrastructure can move wind generation ashore and exchange electricity between national systems. The hub routes electricity; it does not automatically store it. Storage and Power-to-X facilities may be proposed as future additions, but they are not assured features of every energy-island project.
Why HVDC appears in island projects
HVDC is a transmission method rather than a synonym for an energy island. The Bornholm project specifically describes converting collected wind power to HVDC and sending it through 525 kV sea and land cable systems. That 525 kV value is a design specification for Bornholm, not a standard voltage for all islands.
Converters at the sending and receiving ends make it possible to control the direct-current link and connect it to alternating-current national grids. The sources for this topic describe the topology and Bornholm’s equipment, but do not provide a full, apples-to-apples comparison of AC and DC costs, losses or distance break-even points. Those choices depend on cable length, power rating, seabed route, converter design, network requirements and permitting.
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Two different island models
| Project | Island form and location | Planned electrical role | Named technical or capacity figure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Elisabeth Island, Belgium | Purpose-built artificial island, 45 km offshore from Belgium | Electricity hub for new offshore wind farms and interconnectors, linking the planned offshore wind zone with the onshore transmission grid | 45 km offshore, according to the European Investment Bank project page |
| Bornholm Energy Island, Denmark and Germany | Existing natural island of Bornholm | Collects nearby offshore wind and routes it to substations in Zealand, Denmark, and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany; the two-country arrangement is a hybrid wind connection and interconnector | 525 kV HVDC sea and land cables in the project description; 3 GW of offshore wind capacity cited by the European Commission on 26 January 2026 |
The European Investment Bank describes Princess Elisabeth Island as a first-of-a-kind artificial-island electricity connection hub. That description concerns a planned project, not completed or operational infrastructure. Its purpose is to connect the planned Belgian offshore wind zone and future cross-border links to shore.
Bornholm uses an existing island rather than constructing a new landmass. Its official project material says electricity from wind farms off the island will be centralised at the hub, converted to HVDC and transported through 525 kV sea and land cables to onshore substations in Zealand and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The Bornholm Energy Island project site identifies Energinet and Germany’s 50Hertz as the transmission-system operators developing the project. On 26 January 2026, the European Commission reported an agreement to develop Bornholm to connect 3 GW of offshore wind to the Danish and German grids. That is the capacity stated in that announcement and should not be generalized to every project phase or later design.
What makes a connection “hybrid”?
A conventional interconnector joins two national electricity systems but does not necessarily collect wind power. A conventional wind export cable carries generation from one wind farm to one country. A hybrid asset combines both functions: offshore wind feeds into a hub, and the hub has transmission paths to multiple national grids. Depending on wind output, demand and network conditions, the links can deliver generation to shore or exchange power between countries.
This arrangement can reduce duplicated offshore infrastructure and give operators more routing options. It also creates harder coordination problems. Protection settings, converter controls, outage schedules, congestion management, market coupling and responsibility for faults must work across national borders. The island does not remove those issues; it concentrates them in a shared electrical node.
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How to follow the electricity path on a project diagram
- Find the turbines. Start with the offshore wind-farm areas and identify their array-cable routes.
- Locate the collection node. Look for an offshore substation, natural island facility or artificial island where multiple circuits meet.
- Identify conversion equipment. A converter platform or station indicates an AC-to-DC or DC-to-AC interface; a transformer and switchyard indicate voltage transformation and switching.
- Trace each export cable. Follow submarine routes to landfall and then to the onshore substation named by the project.
- Check the receiving grid. The onshore substation is the hand-off point to the national transmission network.
- Look for additional national links. A second export route to another country means the project can operate as a hybrid connection, subject to its final controls and market arrangements.
For Bornholm, that sequence is: nearby offshore wind farms, central hub on or associated with Bornholm, HVDC conversion, 525 kV sea and land cables, then substations in Zealand and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
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Aggregation and fewer landing points
Several wind farms can share collection and export infrastructure instead of each building an independent landfall. A shared hub can standardize switching, protection and maintenance interfaces, although the final savings depend on route, capacity and construction choices.
More than one direction for power
Connections to Denmark and Germany give Bornholm a route to two national grids. The Danish Energy Agency says the island concept can distribute electricity to Denmark and other countries, directing power toward demand. Actual dispatch still depends on available generation, cable capacity, outages, grid constraints and cross-border operating rules.
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The term “energy island” can sound like a battery or fuel complex. In the projects described here, the core asset is a transmission hub. Batteries, hydrogen production and other Power-to-X equipment are possible ambitions in broader energy-island visions, but they should not be presented as built-in capabilities unless a project has committed to them.
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Project status, schedules and the limits of headline numbers
Energy islands combine marine construction, high-voltage equipment, national permitting and multinational agreements, so status can change. The Danish Energy Agency’s North Sea energy-island page warns that its displayed information does not reflect the latest political decision to postpone the tender and analyze more cost-effective options. Its older procurement timetable should therefore not be used as a current delivery promise.
A Bornholm project update says construction was expected to begin in 2027 after detailed design and planning. That is a forecast in the cited update, not a guaranteed commissioning date. The available sources do not establish one consistent, authoritative completion schedule for both Bornholm and Princess Elisabeth. For current dates, consult the operators and project authorities directly.
When comparing projects, match the same phase and measurement. Distinguish artificial from natural islands, one-country landing routes from multi-country hybrids, cable and converter configurations, planned generation capacity, and the maturity of permitting, procurement and construction. A headline gigawatt figure may refer to a target build-out while a cable or converter rating refers to a particular phase.
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- “The island generates the wind power.” Turbines in surrounding wind farms generate it; the island collects, converts and routes it.
- “Every energy island is artificial.” Bornholm is an existing natural island, while Princess Elisabeth is planned as a purpose-built artificial island.
- “525 kV is the standard island voltage.” It is the specified HVDC cable voltage in the Bornholm project description.
- “A hybrid link is just a normal interconnector.” It also connects offshore generation, allowing the same corridor to serve wind export and cross-border exchange.
- “A project announcement means the infrastructure is operating.” Princess Elisabeth is described as planned, and Bornholm’s construction timing remains a forecast in the cited update.
Further technical reading
Readers who want an engineering-level treatment can consult Wiley’s HVDC Grids: For Offshore and Supergrid of the Future, a 528-page hardcover reference covering offshore-wind integration and HVDC systems. It is specialist reading rather than a consumer guide; check the publisher for current availability and edition details.
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