Denmark approaches 40% wind power in 2014

Renewables International

According to Danish grid operator Energinet, Denmark posted a new record for wind power last year. The monthly high came in January at a whopping 61.7 percent, with the low being 23.0 percent in July.

The Danes have done it again – after getting roughly a third of their electricity from wind power in 2013, the Danes increased that share to 39.1 percent in 2014 (press release). Since 2009, the Danes have effectively doubled the share of wind power.

Up to 2002, the onshore wind sector grew steadily in the country, largely because of its decades-old community wind power movement. But a conservative government that took office that year but an end to this trend. Over the past few years, the wind sector has once again picked up significantly in Denmark, but it is now largely in the hands of big companies, not community projects.

For instance, the press release itself speaks of the Anholt offshore wind farm, which was originally launched by Danish energy giant Dong Energy, which sold 50 percent of its shares to two pension funds. The wind farm is gigantic, with a nominal capacity of 400 megawatts, and is the largest in the country.

As I reported last year, Denmark already has days of excess wind power production, but storage is not yet an issue because the country is so small and so well connected to its neighbors, from which it can import and export electricity.

Interestingly, the press release also states that percentages for wind power from previous years have been adjusted because the small amount of power from photovoltaics had not been taken into account. But the changes are slight – apparently, PV makes up only around 0.2 percent of the country’s power supply.

Source: Renewables International. Reproduced with permission.