Europe > Northern Europe > Denmark > Denmark Wind power Profile

Denmark: Denmark Wind power Profile

2011/07/07

          更多  

 

 

 

 

Wind Power

As concerns over global warming grew in the 1980s, Denmark found itself with a relatively high emissions rate per capita, primarily due to the coal-fired electrical power plants that had become the norm after the oil crises of the 1970s. Renewable energy became the natural choice for Denmark, decreasing both dependence on other countries for energy and global warming pollution. Denmark adopted a target of cutting carbon emissions by 22% from 1988 levels by 2005. In 1988, two years after the Chernobyl disaster, the Danes passed a law forbidding the construction of nuclear power plants.

 

Wind resources

Denmark has relatively modest average wind speeds in the range of 4.9 to 5.6 metres per second measured at 10 m height. Onshore wind resources are highest in the Western part of the country, and on the Eastern islands with coastlines facing South or West. The country has very large offshore wind resources, and large areas of sea territory with a shallow water depth of 5 to 15 m, where siting is most feasible. These sites offer higher wind speeds, in the range of roughly 8.5 to 9 m/s at 50 m height. There have been no major problems from wind variability, although there is a temporary problem resulting from the connection of a large bloc of wind power from offshore wind farms to a single point on a weak section of the transmission network.

Denmark is connected by transmission line to other European countries and therefore it does not need to install additional peak-load plant to balance its wind power. Instead, it purchases additional power from its neighbours when necessary. With some strengthening of the grid, Denmark plans to increase wind's share even further.

Capacities and production

In 2005, Denmark had installed wind capacity of 3,129 MW, which produced 23,810 TJ of energy. Wind power provided 18.2 % of the total gross electricity production, and 18.5 % of the electricity supply in Denmark. In 2006, the installed capacity increased to 3,136 MW.

Wind turbine cooperatives

To encourage investment in wind power, families were offered a tax exemption for generating their own electricity within their own or an adjoining commune. While this could involve purchasing a turbine outright, more often families purchased shares in wind turbine cooperatives which in turn invested in community wind turbines. By 1996 there were around 2,100 such cooperatives in the country. Opinion polls show that this direct involvement has helped the popularity of wind turbines, with some 86% of Danes supporting wind energy when compared with existing fuel sources.

The role of wind turbine cooperatives is not limited to single turbines. The Middelgrunden offshore wind farm - with 20 turbines the world's largest offshore farm at the time it was built in 2000 - is 50% owned by the 10,000 investors in the Middelgrunden Wind Turbine Cooperative, and 50% by the municipal utility company.

By 2001 over 100,000 families belonged to wind turbine cooperatives, which had installed 86% of all the wind turbines in Denmark. By 2004 over 150,000 were either members or owned turbines, and about 5,500 turbines had been installed, although with greater private sector involvement the proportion owned by cooperatives had fallen to 75%. The cooperative model has also spread to Germany and the Netherlands.

Wind turbine industry

The Danish wind turbine industry is the world’s largest. Around 90% of the national output is exported, and Danish companies accounted for 38% of the world turbine market in 2003, when the industry employed some 20,000 people and had a turnover of around 3 billion euro.

The development of wind power in Denmark has been characterized by a close collaboration between publicly financed research and industry in key areas such as research and development, certification, testing, and the preparation of standards. For example, in the 1980s, a large number of small Danish companies were developing wind turbines to sell to California, and the Danish Risø laboratory provided test facilities and certification procedures. These resulted in reliable products and the rapid expansion of the Danish turbine manufacturing industry.

Professor Bent Ole Mortensen compared and contrasted the development of wind power in Denmark with that of the United States in a recent Symposium in Houston that focused on economic and environmental barriers to wind power.

Related Articles
  • Denmark's Green Transport Vision

    2011/11/15 更多 document.getElementById("bdshell_js").src = " http://share.baidu.com/static/js/shell_v2.js?t=" + new Date().getHours();  
  • Denmark's Energy Policy

    2011/11/15 更多 document.getElementById("bdshell_js").src = " http://share.baidu.com/static/js/shell_v2.js?t=" + new Date().getHours();  
  • Denmark commits to overall energy reduction

    2011/11/15           更多   document.getElementById("bdshell_js").src = " http://share.baidu.com/static/js/shell_v2.js?t=" + new Date().getHours();
  • National Aquaculture Sector Overview Denmark

    2011/11/13           更多   document.getElementById("bdshell_js").src = " http://share.baidu.com/static/js/shell_v2.js?t=" + new Date().getHours();
  • Denmark Fishery Sector Overview

    2011/11/13           更多   document.getElementById("bdshell_js").src = " http://share.baidu.com/static/js/shell_v2.js?t=" + new Date().getHours();