Denmark - Increasing wind energy to bring economic benefits

Increasing the amount of wind energy in Denmark would have major economic benefits, according to an Institute for Environmental Studies report. Wind energy advocates have traditionally touted the environmental benefits of the renewable energy source, but the institute’s findings indicated that investments in wind energy give an economic surplus as well. Denmark currently obtains about 20 percent of its energy from wind turbines.

The institute’s new figures indicated that the nation could up that figure to 50 percent by investing about six billion Danish crowns in new wind energy products, a move that would also provide environmental benefits worth 20 billion for Denmark and the other Nordic countries. The hard figures supplemented environmentalists’ arguments for increasing wind energy, according to Rico Busk, the project leader for the institute’s study. “We’re just putting forth the numbers,” Busk was quoted by Copenhagen Post as saying, adding: “But for the Nordic region as a whole, there is no doubt the figures add up.”

Busk added that the total benefit will be six times higher in the other Nordic countries when exports of wind energy are taken into consideration, and he believed wind energy’s competitiveness diminished the need for subsidies. Bjarne Lundager, managing director of the Wind Energy Association, an industry trade group, warned against removing the subsidies too quickly, however. He noted that while on paper wind energy appeared more costly compared with coal energy, those figures failed calculate the cost of pollution. “The math clearly favours wind energy if you take that into account,” Lundager was quoted as saying.