Denmark breaks its own world record in wind energy
From: EurActiv
EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlestown has made wind energy conversion essentially illegal by setting onerous and nearly impossible to meet requirements on homeowners and businesses who wish to install ANY device that generates electricity from wind. Details HERE. Some of Charlestown's wind NIMBYs seem to believe that wind energy presents some threat to health, as if climate change doesn't.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Charlestown has made wind energy conversion essentially illegal by setting onerous and nearly impossible to meet requirements on homeowners and businesses who wish to install ANY device that generates electricity from wind. Details HERE. Some of Charlestown's wind NIMBYs seem to believe that wind energy presents some threat to health, as if climate change doesn't.
Danish wind turbines set a new
world record in 2015. Wind power is now counted for 42.1% of the total
electricity consumption in Denmark, according to data published on January 15.
The percentage of wind power in
Denmark's overall electricity mix is the highest in the world. Last year, the
share was 39.1%, which was a record, according to Energinet, which runs the
power grids.
Out of the 8760 hours of 2015, the western part of the country produced wind power during 1460 of them, said Energinet's Carsten Vittrup.
"It's not unusual that we
have hours where the wind production is greater than the actual consumption.
But in the western part of the country, it has sometimes been 16% more, and
that illustrates that with a volatile electricity production, we are able to
import and export across our borders," Vittrup said in a statement.
The new Danish wind power was
exported to Norway, Sweden and Germany, while Denmark bought hydropower from
Norway and solar power from Germany.
Power plants that run on coal and
bio mass still play an important role as "buffer" in the power
supply, Vittrup pointed out, when there's no production of wind power or solar
enegy.
The Danish parliament wants the
Scandinavian country to get at least half of its electric power from wind by
2020. According to the forecast, this target looks to be met. By 2030, the
country hopes that 90% of the electricity and heating supply will come from
renewable energy.
In 2005, wind energy counted for
18.7% of the total electricity consumption. In 2010, the share had increased to
22%, and in 2012, the share was 30%.
In the UK, wind power likewise had
a record-breaking year. According to figures from the National Grid, 11%
of the UK’s electricity was sourced from wind power in 2015 – up from 9.5%
the previous year.
Overall, wind provided enough
electricity to meet the demands of more than 8.25 million homes – almost a
third of UK households – compared to 6.7 million homes in 2014.
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