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Elia Transmission Belgium's EUR 1 billion green credit facility from the European Investment Bank for the Princess Elisabeth Island came into public view in early September 2026, with coverage on 8 September.
Princess Elisabeth Island, about 45 km off the Belgian coast in the North Sea, is billed as the world's first artificial energy island - a 5-hectare offshore hub for connecting offshore wind to the grid.
It is designed to connect up to 3.15 GW of offshore wind capacity and is expected to be operational in 2031.
The island's outer walls are formed by 23 concrete caissons built at Vlissingen in the Netherlands by Jan De Nul Group and DEME Group; all 23 were placed in the North Sea by 24 August 2026.
The facility is the largest loan the EIB has made to an energy infrastructure project in the Benelux, and follows a EUR 650 million EIB facility for phase one agreed in October 2024.
An energy island is an offshore platform or reclaimed landmass that houses the electrical equipment for offshore wind - substations, switching stations, transformers and cable connections. Instead of running a separate cable from every wind farm to shore, the farms feed the island and the island exports the power.
Simple Analogy: A power socket board in the middle of the sea.
The Belgian electricity transmission system operator, developing and owning the island and its grid infrastructure.
The European Union's long-term lending institution, owned by the EU member states; it provided the EUR 1 billion green credit facility and the earlier EUR 650 million facility.
Belgian marine construction contractors that built the 23 caissons at Vlissingen in the Netherlands and installed them in the North Sea.
GS Paper 3 > Infrastructure and Energy > Renewable energy; GS Paper 1 > World Geography
General Awareness > International Current Affairs
Consider the following countries: 1. Finland 2. Germany 3. Norway 4. Russia How many of the above countries have a border with the North Sea?
Answer: Only two
With reference to 'National Investment and Infrastructure Fund', which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. It is an organ of NITI Aayog. 2. It has a corpus of ₹4,00,000 crore at present. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer: Neither 1 nor 2
A large watertight concrete structure used in marine construction, harbour works and offshore foundations. Twenty-three of them form this island's outer walls.
The entity that owns and runs a country's high-voltage electricity grid - Elia in Belgium's case.
The project's nature-inclusive design element: rocks seeded with young oysters placed around the island to form a reef and limit erosion.