Denmark set a new record in 2017, the Scandinavian country showed the world that its wind turbines are able to supply green energy in an unbelievable quantity ever. Danish wind turbines delivered power equivalent to 43.6 percent of country’s electricity consumption in 2017.
Denmark government is proud of its new milestone in the effort to transition the energy supply system to be carbon neutral, and mother nature helped the country a lot, especially on a stormy 2017 December. In total, last year an output of about 14,700 GWh derived from data from Energinet.dk.
The year 2017 became a new record year for wind in Denmark, noted Lars Aagaard, CEO of Dansk Energi. He emphasized the importance of the utilizing a combination of amazing wind resource and the ability to supply incredibly stable power supply.
“Electricity must replace gasoline, oil and gas,”
Mr Aagaard says.
Turbines’ quality, not quantity above all
The Danish Energy Authority says that although wind turbines deliver a steadily increasing share of the Danish electricity supply, that does not mean that the number of turbines increases. On the contrary, today there are about 20% fewer wind turbines in Denmark than in 2001, when the number of wind turbines peaked. In 2017, about 6,100 wind turbines were in service.
The turbines have become bigger and more efficient. In addition, the majority of Denmark’s offshore wind turbines have been installed since 2001. Overall, capacity in Denmark has more than doubled since 2001, with today’s 5.3 GW wind capacity installed on land and water.
The perspectives of the wind turbines are really bright and successful, by 2020 the wind is expected to reach 50 percent of Denmark’s electricity consumption. It is worth to note that a renewable energy, including solar and sustainable biomass, will cover 80 percent of country’s electricity consumption.
This Scandinavian country is in a unique position this way, taking into account that when storage gets implemented over the years, the utilization of the transmission lines can easily double.
