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Wind power in Denmark

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Wind power in Denmark

Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers such as Vestas and Siemens Wind Power along with many component suppliers. Wind power produced the equivalent of 42.1% of Denmark's total electricity consumption in 2015, increased from 33% in 2013, and 39% in 2014. In 2012 the Danish government adopted a plan to increase the share of electricity production from wind to 50% by 2020, and to 84% in 2035. Denmark had the 6th best energy security in the world in 2014.

Contents

History

Danish inventor Poul la Cour experimented, taught and constructed wind power subjects around the year 1900.

As concerns over global warming grew in the 1980s, Denmark found itself with relatively high carbon dioxide emissions per capita, primarily due to the coal-fired electrical power plants that had become the norm after the 1973 and 1979 energy crises. Renewable energy became the natural choice for Denmark, decreasing both dependence on other countries for energy and global warming pollution.

Many countries tried to subsidize green technology such as wind power, and most failed to make a viable industry. The Danish system was an exception, providing 30% of initial capital cost in the early years which was gradually reduced to zero, but still maintaining a feed-in tariff. The capital cost subsidy was reduced to 20% in June 1985, when wind turbines received DKK 50 million per year. Other renewable energy forms received 37 million. The research institution Teknologisk Institut identified many specific improvement needs, pushing development from ad hoc to systemized solutions.

On 29 March 1985, one year before the Chernobyl disaster, the Danes passed a law forbidding the construction of nuclear power plants. In the process the Danish grassroots movement had a substantial role. The Danish Anti-nuclear Movement's (OOA) smiling-sun logo "Atomkraft, Nej Tak" ("Nuclear Power, No Thanks") spread worldwide, and the renewable alternatives were promoted by the Danish Organisation for Renewable Energy (OVE).

Denmark adopted a target of cutting carbon emissions by 22% from 1988 levels by 2005. Planning of wind power was deliberately streamlined by authorities in order to minimize hurdles.

Danish district heating plants use 100 Petajoule/year, but little of this consumption is from 180MW of electrode boilers installed in powerplants or 37MW of large heat pumps. The boilers are only used to soak up the powerplant's own electricity when prices are negative, to avoid paying tax. Expansion of wind powered district heating is calculated to be economically efficient without taxes.

The number of household heat pumps has stalled at 70,000 in 2015 due to tax-free wood pellets, and the goal of 300,000 small heat pumps in 2035 is unlikely to be reached, reducing the value of more wind power unless electricity tax is reduced.

Capacities and production

At the end of 2015, Denmark's capacity stood at 5,070 MW.

Denmark has the highest proportion of wind power in the world. In 2015, Denmark produced 42% of electricity from wind, up from the 2014 record of 39% of total power consumption. For the month of January 2014, that share was over 61%. The month of lowest wind power share was July at 23%. Denmark also had 548 MW of solar power (790 MW in late 2015). A peak generation period occurred on 21 December 2013 when the wind share was 102%, and for 1 hour the share was 135%.

A report on Denmark's wind power noted that their wind power network provided less than 1% of average demand on 54 days during 2002.

In 2005, Denmark had installed wind capacity of 3,127 MW, which produced 23,810 TJ (6.6 TW·h) of energy, giving an actual average production of 755 MW at a capacity factor of 24%. In 2009, Denmark's capacity grew to 3,482 MW; most of the increase came from the 209 MW Horns Rev 2 offshore wind farm, which was inaugurated on September 17, 2009 by Crown Prince Frederik. In 2010, capacity grew to 3,752 MW, and most of the year's increase came from the Rødsand-2 off-shore wind farm. In 2014, the largest increase came from the 400 MW Anholt wind farm.

Wind power output reduces spot market prices in general via the merit order effect; in 2008 this caused a net reduction of pre-tax electricity prices (balancing the increase from the feed-in law).

Price levels for large offshore wind farms in Denmark

The chart shows the minimum (guaranteed) price a plant receives during the FLH period in øre/kWh. Subsidy = guaranteed price minus market price. FLH=Full Load Hours; the amount of production the plant receives support for. After that, the plant usually receives market price. Transmission is included in the nearshore "Vesterhav", but not the other plants. The levels are usually below levels in Germany and UK.

Peak records

As Denmark continues to install additional capacity, they continue to set new production records. This is a natural consequence of capacity growth. On July 9, 2015, in the evening, unusually strong wind conditions resulted in 116% of national electricity consumption being produced by wind farms and at 3AM the next morning at low demand, wind production exceeded 140% of current demand.

Offshore

On 22 March 2012 a coalition of parties representing 95% of all members of the Danish parliament agreed that the Danish state would increase the country's offshore wind capacity by 1,500 MW. The 1,500 MW extra capacity will be achieved by constructing the future offshore wind farms Horns Rev 3 with a capacity of 400 MW in the North Sea at 77 øre/kWh and Kriegers Flak at 37.2 øre/kWh with a capacity of 600 MW in the Baltic Sea close to the borders of Germany and Sweden. Kriegers Flak will also be used to connect Denmark and Germany with a 400MW cable, through the German Baltic 2 Offshore Wind Farm, and Energinet ordered electrical equipment in early 2016. Horns Rev 3 is set to be operational in 2019 while Kriegers Flak and all the nearshore wind farms are set to be fully operational around 2021. Eight groups applied for pre-qualification for Kriegers Flak, of which 7 were approved - 3 more than the 4 companies approved to compete for Horns Rev 3, both having more bidders than the single bidder for Anholt.

Nearshore

In addition 6 nearshore wind farms with a total capacity of up to 450 MW will be constructed along with 50 MW of experimental offshore wind farms. The nearshore differ from conventional offshore in having the being close enough to the coast to have the transformer on land, decreasing cost. The first 350 MW were called for tenders in 2015, with a maximum price of 70 øre/kWh. Vattenfall bid the lowest price for the 350 MW nearshore farms at 47,5 øre/kWh in September 2016, but the politial situation was unclear.

Onshore

In addition to the offshore projects, a further 500 MW additional net capacity of onshore windfarms is expected to be constructed until 2020. The 500 MW of additional net capacity is the expected result of the scrapping of 1,300 MW capacity from obsolete wind turbines combined with the simultaneous building of 1,800 MW capacity of modern wind turbines – a process also known as repowering.

Electricity exports from Denmark

Annual wind power production is currently (2014) equal to about 39% of electricity consumed in Denmark. The proportion of this that is actually consumed in Denmark has been disputed, as the considerable hydropower resources of Norway (and to some extent, Sweden) is used as grid storage with low loss. Hydropower can rapidly reduce generation whenever wind farms are generating power, saving water for later, and can export electricity to Denmark when wind power output drops. Short term, Denmark imports electricity from Norway during daytime and exports in nighttime. Long term, Denmark imports electricity in summer and exports in winter. Wind is higher in autumn and winter, when consumption is also high. This service of timeshifting production and consumption is also found around the world in pumped-storage hydroelectricity balancing coal and nuclear plants.

For timeshifting trade with Norway, Denmark exports at DKK 157/MWh and imports at DKK 212/MWh. The correlation is low between wind power in Norway and Denmark. Market price sometimes falls to near or below zero, particularly in high winds and low consumption. In 2014, there were 46 hours with negative prices, costing DKK 37.7 million. In 2015, negative prices occurred in 65 hours in West Denmark and 36 hours in East Denmark - less than 1% of the time. Danish prices are mainly negative when German prices are even more negative. The whole date of September 2 (2015) was the first time that no central power plants were running in West Denmark, and grid stability was maintained by compensators.

Denmark is generally a transit country for electricity trade between the much larger markets in Norway, Sweden and Germany, and plans to add cables to the Netherlands (COBRAcable) and England (Viking Link) as well, further increasing the function of being a crossroads for electricity.

Claims of up to 40% of wind power being exported have been made, countered by claims that only 1% was exported.

According to the first argument, power in excess of immediate demand is exported to neighbouring countries at lower prices. Part of the benefit of this goes to Denmark's northern neighbours: when Denmark exports power, it is sold at the spot market price which must be lower than at the importing market in order to be transmitted.

According to the second argument, the correlation between exports and wind power is weak, and a similar correlation exists with conventional thermal plants running partly for district heating; meanwhile, causal analysis shows that export from Denmark typically occurs as a consequence of the merit order effect, when large thermal plants have reserve capacities at times the spot market price of electricity is high.

In any case, the export price is the intermediate between the prices of the two areas, so the exporting TSO (Energinet) uses the profit to relieve tariffs at around DKK 500 million per year. Wind power organizations state that Denmark exports power at a higher price than it imports at.

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 return of investment dropped from near 20% before the financial crisis, to 10% some years later. The Danish wind turbine industry had a turnover of DKK 84 billion in 2014.

The biggest wind turbine manufacturers with production facilities in Denmark are Vestas and Siemens Wind Power.

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. Components are tested at LORC in Odense, and new large prototype turbines between 4-8 MW (including some non-Danish ones) are being tested at Østerild. Limited production turbines (four Siemens 7MW with 66kV cabling) are to be supported at Nissum Bredning at a cost of DKK 300m, partially financed by local people.

Danish wind economics

Denmark's electricity costs (including PSO; costs for cleaner energy) are average in the EU, but taxes increase the price to the highest in Europe. The tax money is a considerable income for the state, and changing the composition of the taxes towards a "greener" mix is difficult. According to a government official, the majority of taxes are not based on environment concerns, in contrast to the DKK 5 billion per year in PSO-money for cleaner energy, paid by electricity consumers to producers of clean electricity. These tolls are not available for government consumption.

Actual consumer-paid incentives (PSO) to new wind turbines depend on year of commission, but is generally around 25 øre (3.4 eurocent) per kWh for a limited amount of hours, although support is discounted if combined price exceeds 58 øre/kWh. PSO is also used for biomass, solar, and district heating; total PSO was DKK 5.8 billion in 2013, of which DKK 3.2 billion went to wind power. In 2015, the cost of power was only 32% of the price, while PSO was 9%, and tolls and VAT the remaining 59%.

Wind power displaces coal, oil and gas to some degree, reducing running cost for fossil fuels. Consumption of coal was more than halved over 10 years. Wind power reduces price variability slightly.

Criticism

In 2009, the Institute for Energy Research commissioned the Danish think-tank CEPOS (Centre for Political Studies) to report on electricity exports from Denmark and the economic impact of the Danish wind industry. This heavily criticized report states that Danes pay the highest residential electricity rates in the European Union (mostly for government revenue, but partly to subsidize wind power), and that the cost of saving a ton of carbon dioxide between 2001 and 2008 has averaged 647 DKK (€87, US$124). It also estimated that 90% of wind industry jobs were transferred from other technology industries, and states that as a result Danish GDP is 1.8 billion DKK (US$270 million) lower than it would have been without wind industry subsidies of 1.7-2.6 billion DKK (roughly $320M - $480M) yearly in 2001-2005. The report was later heavily criticised. Firstly Danish engineering magazine Ingeniøren claimed that the report was ordered and paid for by the American oil and coal lobby through IER. Later, several Danish researchers and professors from all technical universities in Denmark, wrote a joint response to the report, refuting it. The report from CEPOS was even brought to Government level, where minister of Climate and Energy Lykke Friis discredited the work done by CEPOS and the report. The World Nuclear Association estimates that the report was IER's response to US president Obama's 2009 Earth Day speech in Newton, Iowa claiming that USA could generate 20% of its electricity from wind by 2030, as Denmark already was.

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 municipality. 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, as is the Avedøre near-shore turbines.

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.

Samsø Island

The island of Samsø erected 11 one-megawatt, land-based wind turbines in 2000, followed by ten offshore 2.3 MW wind turbines completed in 2003. Together with other renewable energy measures, this community of 4,200 achieved fame, claiming that it is the largest carbon-neutral settlement on the planet. This claim exploits the general discourse, that one can neglect carbon-dioxide and other pollution from fossil fuel consumption (cars, imported electricity, heating for houses...), if the yearly average electricity production from sustained sources is higher than the total energy consumed.

References

Wind power in Denmark Wikipedia