Denmark Eyes on Wind Parks for Future Green Energy Gains

Offshore Advantage

On a windy day, the Middelgrunden windmills, with an installed capacity of 40 megawatts, turn their blades briskly, even as the seawater around them grows choppy, and locals on land turn their collars up against the stiff breeze.

The park produces an average 100 GW hours of electricity, equal to meeting the power needs of 40,000 Copenhagen households. The power generated is carried by cables to a transformer plant 3.5 kilometers away, and then to a central grid, which also handles power generated from conventional sources.

From here, it is redistributed to households at a set cost per kilowatt-hour. Under Danish law, wind park operators or utility companies must buy the power generated by wind parks. Individual households and industry then buy electricity from utilities companies.

Middelgrunden's cooperative experience has also inspired similar cooperative offshore parks near urban areas in Avedoere, in southern Copenhagen, and a 22 MW site off the holiday island of Samsoe.

"Wind farms today are like power stations. They are very huge, so it's important to get local people on board," said Andreas Krog, a DONG Energy spokesperson on renewable power.

Middelgrunden park is built and operated by DONG, Denmark's biggest energy and utilities company, which also owns ten of the park's turbines.

"In a small country like Denmark… it is limited how many turbines you can build on land, and how large you can build them. (DONG is) looking at offshore turbines because that is where we see huge potential. That is where you have good wind resources and plenty of room," Krog told Xinhua.

But large, deepwater offshore parks are costly, needing deep foundations for the turbine towers and long cables to bring the power to transformer stations. They are also more expensive to build and repair because of their location. Thus, they are mostly funded by private or public companies rather than cooperatives.

Krog admits that currently, the cost advantage of offshore parks are few, but they enjoy economies of scale, as dozens of big turbines can be placed without any interference, far out at sea.

For instance, DONG already operates a 160 MW offshore park off the west coast of Denmark's Jutland peninsula. It is also building a 400 MW offshore park, equivalent to 111 wind-turbines, and designed to meet the energy needs of 400,000 Danish households, in the Kattegat Sea, between Denmark and Sweden.

"Placing these onshore on the Danish landscape would be totally impossible," Krog observed.

Pricing It Right

Meanwhile, smaller offshore projects situated in coastal waters, remain a viable option.

"The idea is to have local people involved in smaller offshore projects where you have the space for it, have better wind, and shallow water near the coast, where it is cheaper to install parks than in deep water," Soerensen remarked.

Today, around 17 percent of Denmark's total energy production comes from renewable sources including wind, biomass, and solar power. The Danish government wants wind energy to represent 50 percent of electricity consumption by 2020, and to phase out fossil fuel use by 2050.

Wind parks, both on and off shore, remain central to achieving these targets, but that will mean pricing green power correctly.

"We should not be trapped in a situation where the government has to agree on too high a price for wind power," Karnoee cautioned. He was referring to cases where the Danish government has supported an above market-rate price per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced by offshore wind parks, so as to encourage renewable power projects.

"Too high a price not only raises the overall energy price but also gives a bad reputation: that wind power is nice, but too expensive," he explained, adding that it is only too expensive if one does not account for environmental costs accruing from fossil fuel use.

But the government is confident that wind power will become cheaper.

"As evolution in the industry continues, windmill electricity is becoming more and more competitive, and the amount of money that we use to support it, is going to be lower and lower," said Danish parliament's Gade.