The news is dominated by horrible politics and wars, but I thought it would be good to tell people some good news that not many people know about. Last month, I explained how renewable energy now dominates electricity generation in Germany, but let’s now focus on Denmark. wind and solar Now it’s even closer two-thirds shareMeanwhile, electricity from fossil fuel combustion has fallen by just over a quarter of total consumption (see figure based on data released yesterday by Denmark’s energy agency ENS).
Along with the United States and Germany, Denmark was one of the pioneers in the use of wind power in the 1980s and remained one of the most enthusiastic in the 1990s.
Initially, wind energy development was dominated by farmers (and small developers who leased land from farmers). next, Mid 1990sthe government has set more ambitious targets Wind power target is 50% To achieve that, the company pioneered the development of offshore wind power. Turbines are installed in shallow waters, where they can take advantage of stronger and more stable winds than on land.
As in Germany, deployments were temporarily suppressed by right-wing governments (particularly Anders Fogg Rasmussen from 2001 to 2009 and to a lesser extent). Lars Locke Rasmussensecond term, 2015-2019 government. The effect can also be seen in the figure). However, to be fair, the latest goal of complete 100% decarbonization was first legislated by another right-wing government (Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s first cabinet from 2009 to 2011).original 50% of wind power generation target finally achieved In the past two years, it has gone even higher.
Something else has happened in recent years. Rapid expansion of solar power generation. This is all the more remarkable considering that Denmark receives significantly less sunlight than Bavaria (1,000 kWh/m vs. 1,200 kWh/m)2/year), significantly less than southern Spain (1,800 kWh/m).2/year) or Arizona (2,200 kWh/min)2/Year).
The reason why solar power is practical in Denmark is not only because of the cheapness of solar cells, but also because we have already discussed it in the article about Germany. A natural balance of wind and solar power.That is, even if both wind and solar power exhibit strong fluctuations (intermittent), if both are present, their output will be combination The variability is much lower, especially when scaled to (fluctuating) consumption. And it does so on both daily and seasonal timescales. By last year, this effect had grown enormously. As you can see from the figure below (also based on his ENS data), the combination of wind and solar was over 50% of his total consumption through all months of the year, but 80%. It was never exceeded. This is quite remarkable since it’s a much smaller country than Germany (or California or Texas) and a single storm can have a huge impact.
Another thing that is clear from both the 2000-2023 and 2023 figures is that total domestic electricity production can be significantly higher or lower than consumption. This was already the case when the share of renewable energy was low.In other words, Denmark has a significant amount of Import and export of electricity. The flow and reasons behind the net totals shown in the diagram are actually quite complex, but let’s unpack some of the main stories.
- Norway While there is abundant hydropower, Sweden Hydroelectric, nuclear, and more recently wind power can also be cheaper than Denmark’s domestic fossil fuel power plants.
- At the time, Sweden, like France (see my German diary), tried to reduce fluctuations in demand by building nuclear power plants. electric heatingLike France, it was adversely affected by the surge in demand during the cold snap (when Denmark became a net exporter). The recent expansion of wind power generation in Sweden has reduced that impact (thanks to generally strong winds during winter, especially during cold waves).
- Export/Import is also used for: Balancing intermittencythis can selectively: In strong winds the surplus is exported to Germany and in weak winds it is imported from Sweden and Norway.
- The Danish electricity grid also serves as: transit For export from Norway and Sweden to Germany.
As we discussed in our diary on Germany, an issue little discussed by policymakers and the general media is that decarbonizing intermediate and peak electricity is much more difficult than decarbonizing baseload. It should be noted here that this impact is much smaller in the Scandinavian countries of Europe as they can rely on abundant hydropower to provide intermediate and peak power.
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Below is a bonus diagram to supplement last month’s diary. Is the same. seasonal variation in the past 5 years in german. I have taken a public domain figure from a monthly report published by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, but have added an English caption in the top right corner.
