Denmark, pioneer in modern wind power technology

Denmark is the leading wind power nation in the world. The Danes were pioneers in developing commercial wind power during the 1970’s and today almost half of the wind turbines all over the world are produced by Danish manufacturers. The wind industry is a very important business in Denmark, with wind manufacturing activity bringing about 3 billion Euro into the Danish economy and employing 20,000 people.

Wind power is also important in Denmark because it is a green, clean and renewable energy. Scandinavians are known for their advanced environmental policies, and wind power has given the Danes a way to reduce their dependency on polluting fuels: 20% of Denmark’s electricity consumption is covered by clean electricity produced at Danish wind farms. At times, wind power supply is able to cover the total electricity consumption of the whole west of Denmark.


The Danish Wind Industry: Leader in research and innovation

The Danish wind power industry is the world’s largest. 90% of the wind turbines manufactured in Denmark is sold to the international markets. In 2003, the Danish manufacturers had a total world market share of approximately 38%, generating a combined turnover of almost 3 billion Euro and maintaining over 20,000 people employed in the industry, from wind turbine factories to maintenance and research.

Denmark is the global leader in the wind power industry since the 1970’s. Danish turbines are present all over the world because Denmark has been continuously investing in research and development, becoming the leading centre of wind power technology in the world, an unrivalled cluster of knowledge with a highly qualified work force and intelligent energy system solutions.

The latest example of leading Danish engineering is the offshore wind turbine market -wind turbines at sea- where 492 MW out of the 530 MW produced in 2003 were of Danish origin. The largest offshore wind farm in the world is Nysted, a joint Danish-Swedish venture built in 2003 near Lolland, with 72 turbines and a total capacity of 166 MW. Annual production is expected to be 595 million kWh, the equivalent to the electricity consumption of 145,000 Danish homes, which could save the emission of 500,000 tonnes of CO2.


Clean energy: 20% wind power in Denmark

Fossil fuels such us oil, gas and coal are not clean and renewable energies, and some day they will no longer be abundant and cheap. The EU Green Paper on Security of Supply forecasts that 70% of the EU’s energy needs will have to be covered by imported fuels within 20-30 years. To reduce this huge cost to the balance of payments and to help meeting the Kyoto targets on climate change, the European Parliament called in 2004 upon the European Commission for a target of 20% of renewable energy on the total domestic energy consumption in the EU by 2020.

Denmark is often used as the example to follow, as 20% of the Danish electricity consumption is covered by clean electricity from wind turbines, compared to 2.4% in the whole Europe.

Denmark gets again a world record: wind power alone supplies 20% of the total Danish electricity consumption. The 5,536 GWh produced by clean-energy wind turbines in 2003 covered the electricity demand of 1.4 million Danish homes. At times, Danish wind power production can be strong enough to cover the whole energy demand in western Denmark and part of the consumption on the east of the country.

But Denmark is not stopping there: the projected construction of several offshore wind farms and the ongoing repowering of older turbines will increase the Danish share of wind power up to 29% by 2005, according to the Danish Energy Agency, helping Denmark to meet the environmental commitments agreed in the 1997 United Nations’ Kyoto Protocol on climate change.


Wind industry creates welfare: People and environment

Burning of fossil fuels are a threat to health and to the environment. Environmental pollution and emissions of CO2 carry a number of health and environmental costs which are not found on the consumer electricity bills, but are paid by the society in the form of increased health costs, respiratory problems, pollution of the environment, climate change related cost... Those external health cost were estimated to add up to 85-170 billion Euro in 2001, according to the ExternE Research Project from the EU Commission on external costs of energy technologies.

Wind turbines cause virtually no emissions during their operation. The EU Commission’s ExternE Research Project calculates that wind power has the lowest external costs of all energy technologies – 0.1 eurocent/kWh compared to 4 and 7 eurocent/kWh for coal and brown coal in Denmark. Denmark’s use of clean wind energy is saving our atmosphere from about 5.2 million tonnes of CO2, contributing to a cleaner planet. Moreover, the production of wind energy is also saving the Danish economy the bill of some 2.3 million tonnes of coal worth more than 100 million Euro.

Wind turbines are popular in Denmark. According to public opinion polls carried out in Denmark, 86% of the Danes support wind energy when compared with existing fuel sources. The polls also show that direct involvement of the general public in wind farm projects has helped to increase local approval.

Some 150,000 Danes have already invested in wind power and own wind turbines or shares in wind turbine co-operatives. Denmark has about 5,500 wind turbines, out of which 75% are privately owned by local co-operatives. Most of the employment created by the Danish wind industry is primarily situated in sparsely populated areas of the country, contributing importantly to the welfare of some rural economies.


© September 2004, Mattias Akselsson

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