Esbjerg (Denmark)

Esbjerg is a port city in southwestern Denmark, located on Jutland peninsula's western coast. The municipality covers a total area of approx 743 km2 (287 mi2). The town has population around 72,000, ranking it Denmark's 5th largest.

By road, Esbjerg is approx 70 km (44 ml) west of Kolding and approx 165 km (102 ml) southwest of Aarhus. Esbjerg harbor facilities were expanded to serve boxships (container shipping traffic) and the new wind-turbine (offshore renewable energy) industry. The city is served by Esbjerg Airport (located approx 9 km / 6 ml northeast of downtown). The airport serves the airlines Danish Air Transport (DAT / passenger and cargo carrier) and Loganair (Scottish airline transporting passengers, cargo and mail). From Esbjerg are offered regularly scheduled flights to Aberdeen Scotland and Stavanger Norway, plus seasonal domestic flights to Ronne (Bornholm Island, Denmark).

The town is popular for its museums, including Esbjerg Museum (themed on city's history), Esbjerg Art Museum (themed on modern and experimental arts), Fisheries and Maritime Museum (sea-themed). In Esbjerg are also the branches of two major Danish universities - Aalborg, and Southern Denmark. The football club Esbjerg forenede (united) Boldklubber is based here and plays its matches at Esbjerg Stadion (aka Blue Water Arena, capacity 11,000 seats). Esbjerg Elite Ishockey (the ice hockey team Esbjerg Energy) plays at the 800-seat Granly Hockey Arena.

Port Esbjerg

Before 1868, when the harbour port Esbjerg was established, this area consisted of farms around which the town quickly developed - from population ~13,000 (1901) to ~70,000 (1970). Along with cargo shipping and commercial fishing industries, Esbjerg has well-developed agricultural export trade. Most visitors used to arrive by ferries from Harwich England. However, the regularly scheduled (since 1875) ferry service was terminated in 2014. Freight shipping with UK is still available - between Esbjerg and Immingham (England).

For FY2018 (fiscal year), the Port (locode DKEBJ) reported a cargo turnover of 4,5 million tons, 6000+ port calls (ship dockings) and served 6 regularly-scheduled cargo routes linking to 25 port destinations.

In May 2019, Port Esbjerg purchased one "Liebherr LHM 800 Litronic" - currently ranked world's largest Mobile Harbour Crane by lifting capacity (308 tons). As of 2019, worldwide there are only 12 such units. The acquisition was part of port's expansion to better serve the increased cargo shipping traffic - by 66% in just four years (2014-2018). Liebherr LHM 800 weighs 800 tons, has height 48 m (158 ft) and boom length 66 m (217 ft). The crane was scheduled for installation in August 2019. The need for it was prompted mainly by the offshore wind-farming industry as the North Sea-based wind turbine components are constantly getting bigger in size. The new crane is also needed for in-port uses - handling heavy production equipment and machinery.

In late-June 2022 European Energy AS (Soborg Denmark-based company with a wind farm in Made/near Esbjerg) announced that it starts delivering green hydrogen to Port Esbjerg in 2023-H1. The hydrogen is used for bunkering of ships fitted with fuel cell technologies. The large amount of excess heat generated during the green hydrogen's production is fed into Esbjerg's heating network.

• In late-February 2021, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners PS (Danish fund management and investment firm specializing in infrastructure/particularly wind power) announced plans to establish Europe’s largest green ammonia (CO2-free) production facility in Esbjerg.
• The PtX-facility (Power-to-X) turns into green ammonia the electricity generated from offshore wind farms.
• The PtX-facility project is planned for completion by 2026 and initially used two test wind turbines (installed by European Energy AS). The green ammonia is used as fertilizer (in the agriculture sector) and also by ships (powered by fuel cells). PtX-facility's excess heat provides heating for ~1/3rd of Esbjerg's households.
• The PtX-facility consists of 1 GW electrolysis and has max annual capacity 900,000 tonnes of ammonia.