Inside Denmark Wind Energy: Energy consumption goal of 50% via wind power almost achieved

Denmark is nearing its 2020 goal of have 50 percent of its energy consumption covered by wind energy, according to new figures from the national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas, Energinet.dk.

The figures showed that 39 percent of Danish energy consumption in 2014 was covered by wind energy – double what it was ten years ago.

“We will definitely reach the 2020 targets,” Rasmus Helveg Petersen, the climate and energy minister, told DR Nyheder, a well-known danish media corporation.

“We are setting a unique world record and it shows that we are able to reach our actual goal, which is stopping global warming.”

Energinet.dk considered 2014 a “normal wind year”, attributing the rise in production to an increase in the number of wind turbines – particularly the 111 new sea wind turbines off the coast of the island Anholt that began producing energy at the end of 2013.

But in order for the Danes to really get their sustainable transition going, they need to become better at utilising the wind energy. Danish power plants need to invest in heating pump systems that run on electricity, according to Brian Vad Mathiesen, a professor of energy planning at Aalborg University.

“Integrating our energy and heating sector by incorporating heating pumps into our heating system is moving too slowly,” Mathiesen told DR Nyheder. “And the issue will only become more pressing as the share of wind energy increases.”

Petersen revealed that the politicians are aware of the problem and have set aside 60 million kroner as part of the annual budget for heating pump trials.

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