Denmark is well on its way to reaching a goal of 50% clean energy by 2020, with data showing that more than 30% of the country’s electricity consumption was covered by wind in 2012.
This is about 2 percentage points higher than the wind output in 2011, which is likely due to the 170 megawatts of new capacity built both onshore and offshore this past year.
“An increase of 2 percentage points may not sound as much, but it is in line with what we expect to reach the official target of 50% in 2020,†said the Danish Wind Industry Association’s chief economist Sune Strøm. “We will see a slightly larger jump in 2013, when Anholt completed and there will again be some jumps when we connect the next big wind farms and near-shore turbines in 2017-2020.†Anholt is a large offshore wind farm that is expected to be completed at the end of 2013, providing 4% of Denmark’s electricity consumption.
There are several more plans in the work for wind farms, including 400 megawatts at Horns Rev III and 600 megawatts and Krieger’s Flak. There will also be 500 megawatts of near-shore turbines, 50 megawatts of which will be test turbines for potential future projects. In other words, Denmark is taking advantage of all the wind it can get and doesn’t look to be slowing down the pace of wind power development.
Image CC licensed by Andreas Klinke Johannsen: Offshore windfarm near Copenhagen, Denmark
0 comments… add one