News

The new Danish centre-left coalition government has increased targets on wind capacity. Wind power is set to represent 50 percent of the total power consumption in Denmark in 2020.

The new Danish government just recently released its targets on renewable energy and CO₂ emissions. The new disposition increases the previous CO₂ reduction target from 30 to 40 percent, measured relative to 1990.

“A green and more sustainable world does not evolve by itself,” says Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt at the Global Green Growth Forum in Copenhagen on the 11th of October.

As a part of the increased ambitions on CO₂ emissions, wind power is targeted to represent 50 percent of the total power consumption in Denmark in 2020. The major role of wind power should be seen as a part of the government’s plan to phase out fossil fuels by 2050.

The ambitious targets place Denmark in pole position on renewables among the developed countries.

Backed by rising exports, the Danish wind energy sector beat expectations to register healthy growth in 2010, the Danish Wind Industry Association announced in connection with the annual meeting on March 30th.

Sectoral revenues rose by 8.3 percent in 2010, corresponding to 55.3 billion Danish kroner (10.44 billion U.S. dollars), up from 51.1 billion Danish kroner (9.64 billion dollars) in 2009.

Meanwhile, the sector's exports rose 11 percent, earning 46.2 billion Danish kroner (8.72 billion dollars) in 2010, up from 41.7 billion Danish kroner (7.87 billion dollars) the previous year, indicating that overall sectoral growth is strongly-pegged to export strategies.

"Generally the wind industry in Denmark had a surprisingly good year in 2010. We expected the financial crisis also to affect the industry in 2010 as it did in 2009. However, it seems that especially Vestas Wind Systems and Siemens Wind Power had a really good 2010" says Jan Hylleberg, CEO, DWIA

The figures represent a record, with the wind-industry accounting for 8.5 percent of Denmark's total exports in 2010. European markets were the primary destination, but non-European markets were also important buyers.

Barring negative growth in 2003 and 2009, the Danish wind sector has grown by an annual average of 16 percent between 2000 and 2010.

It is predicted that 2011 will have a "moderate growth" in revenue and exports for Danish wind energy companies.

- Turnover: National turnover rose to 55.3 billion DKK in 2010 corresponding to 8.3 percent.

- Turnover: Global sales (incl. Denmark) rose by 8.1 percent to 98.8 billion DKK.

- Export: Exports in 2010 rose to 46.2 billion DKK or by 11 percent.

- Export: Exports from the industry remained on 8.5 percent of the total Danish exports.

- Employment: Employment rose to 25.000, meaning that the sector grew 1.2 percent i 2010.

The Danish wind industry is unique in many ways. A proud history of being first mover in both onshore and offshore wind energy has made us front runner in innovative wind solutions that are in demand all over the world. These solutions have created the backbone in the energy system, with almost 25% of the electricity supply consisting of wind energy. A penetration rate unmatched by any other country.

However, the Danish wind power hub has even greater ambitions for the future and aims to draw on the qualities in the unique supply chain to fulfill them. Invest in Denmark and the Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA) have published a brochure “Denmark – Wind Power Hub” focusing on the wind industry and some of the challenges that lie ahead on the road to 50% wind energy in the energy system by 2020.

“Denmark – Wind Power Hub” introduces some of the key competencies in the wind industry and the activities of our many members to make sure we will remain global leader in wind energy as well as function as incubator for new innovative system solutions that aim to cut cost of energy.

The brochure portrays developments in the supply chain with many key competencies clustered within a 200 km radius. It also tells the story of how wind energy is integrated into the energy system and the necessary steps to reach 50%.

Danish companies have a 90% market share offshore and the brochure highlights some of the close networks between educational institutions and companies in the pursuit of finding tomorrows talents in the industry. “Denmark – Wind Power Hub” also lists the Danish test and demonstration facilities necessary to deliver tomorrow’s technological solutions.

DWIA welcomes new members to our extensive network.

Enjoy the read!
Read the brochure here

In May 2006, the Danish Government presented a report on promoting environmentally effective technology and established a number of innovative partnerships. The partnerships intend to strengthen public-private cooperation between the state, industry, universities and venture capital to accelerate innovation for a number of green technologies. The partnership for wind energy is called Megavind.

Megavind’s vision is to maintain Denmark as a globally leading hub in wind power. The following partners represent the sector:

• Vestas Wind Systems A/S

• Siemens Wind Power A/S

• DONG Energy

• Grontmij I Carl Bro

• The Technical University of Denmark

• Risø DTU - National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy

• Aalborg University

• Energinet.dk (observer)

• Danish Energy Agency (observer)

Megavind’s strategy for offshore wind describes the offshore challenges and suggests research, development and demonstration (RD&D) priorities to enable offshore wind power become to competitive with other energy technologies. The strategy lists key recommendations as well as key thematic priorities and for each of these a number of RD&D priorities. Under each thematic priority references are made to the European Strategic Energy Technology plan (SET-plan), which prioritises offshore wind RD&D in Europe.

The strategy content and recommendations are based on inputs from a long list of Da-nish offshore players both from industry and research organisations.

The Danish Wind Industry Association functions as secretariat for Megavind and Risø DTU has co-authored the strategy.

Read the full report in English here (pdf)

The Danish Energy Agency has awarded DONG Energy the concession to build the next major offshore wind farm in Denmark off the Danish island of Anholt in the Kattegat. The wind farm will have a capacity of 400MW and thus it will be the largest wind farm in Denmark.

The construction of the wind farm will represent a total investment of approximately DKK 10 billion ($1.65bn).

 The wind farm is expected to be commissioned in 2013. When fully operational, it will provide clean energy for approximately 400,000 households, or four per cent of Denmark's power consumption.

'Building Anholt offshore wind farm is an important milestone in the expansion of green energy production in Denmark. DONG Energy is therefore happy to build Denmark’s next large wind farm,' said Anders Eldrup, CEO of DONG Energy, and added:

'Building Anholt offshore wind farm will bring DONG Energy a major step closer towards the vision of supplying energy without CO2.'

Siemens Wind Power will supply the wind turbines with a capacity of 3.6MW and a rotor diameter of 120mt to the Anholt wind farm. The wind turbines will be produced at Siemens Wind Power’s plant in Brande in Denmark and installed 20km off the northeastern coast of the Jutland peninsula.

Siemens Energy chief executive Wolfgang Dehen said: "The new order for the Anholt offshore wind farm further strengthens our position as the global leader in offshore wind power.”

The scope of supply for Siemens Wind Power includes manufacturing, installation and commissioning of the wind turbines. The company will also provide a service and maintenance agreement for the first five years, with an option of selected services during the second five years.

15 June is Global Wind Day - In 2010 the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) are organising wind events around the world for both the public and the media to come and find out more about wind energy. Already some 38 organisations have signed up to take part, with others sure to join them. 

“Imagine being able to harness the power of nature in a sustainable way to create abundant clean energy, tackle  climate change, create jobs and end our dangerous dependence on polluting fossil fuels”, said Steve Sawyer, Secretary General of  GWEC. “It’s not a dream, it’s wind energy – and it definitely deserves a special day.”  

Last year over 300 Global Wind Day events were held in 35 countries from China to the Czech Republic to Canada.  

“2010 will be even bigger,” said Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of EWEA. “Wind Day has grown in popularity since its launch in 2007 because wind power itself is breaking all records. In Europe more wind power was installed in the last two years than any other energy-generating technology. There is spectacular growth in China, the US and elsewhere. It's a global success story."  

“Global Wind Day is a fantastic opportunity for people to participate in wind energy events and ask all the questions they may have about it,” added Kjaer. “People will be able to see for themselves how it works and what the benefits are.”

EWEA will put up a 29 metre turbine blade in the middle of the Schuman roundabout next to the European Commission and European Council in the heart of the European quarter of Brussels, to promote its message and new campaign: “Give Europe a breath of fresh air”.

From wind farm open days and conferences, to exhibitions, information days, sporting contests and photo contests, there will be something for everyone in most corners of the globe.

For example, in the spectacular setting of the Villa Borghese in central Rome there will be conferences and sporting events for over two weeks. In Poland, inflatable wind turbines eight metres high will be placed in front of government offices around the country. In Estonia, a ‘wind turbines in the future’ design contest will award the winner the chance to drive a Toyota Prius for one month. In Argentina, Sweden and the Netherlands there will be photo competitions.

In Brussels, on Monday, 14 June there will be a press conference (on the day before Global Wind Day) at the foot of the blade on Schuman roundabout (information about time, subject and speakers will be sent separately in due course.)

Read more
www.globalwindday.org

With an aggregated export of 41.7 billion kr. (exceeding 5.6 billion euro) in 2009 the Danish wind industry maintained the high export figures from record breaking 2008 despite the financial crisis. The wind industry exports account for 8.5 per cent of total Danish exports in 2009 compared to 7.2 per cent in 2008.       

“We have maintained the high export figures from the record breaking 2008. Today, the Danish export of wind power technology accounts for 8.5 per cent of the total Danish exports as compared to 7.2 per cent in 2008. The industry has felt the financial crisis because the markets were depressed resulting in lower employment rates,” says Jan Hylleberg, CEO of The Danish Wind Industry Association and continues:

“Looking ahead the industry expects employment rates to increase by 8 per cent in 2010 to a total of approximately 26.700 employees. Thereby half of the workplaces lost in 2009 will be recreated, and it is most gratifying that the companies expect to reemploy as many people.”

The wind industry expects the Danish nearby markets to grow from 35 GW at present to a minimum of 117 GW by 2020 equivalent to a growth by more than 10 per cent a year.

“The Danish companies are well prepared to turn the great potential on the nearby markets in to good account. The potential in northern Europe both onshore as offshore is great and commercially unexploited. If we come to a decision in Denmark as to the national 2020 extension plan, the technology development taking place among Danish companies will be strengthened. Denmark has always been a front runner regarding next generation turbines, components, and grid. A decision to develop the energy system enabling us to integrate 50 per cent wind power by 2020 will drive the technology development forward,” says Jan Hylleberg.

Today, wind power accounts for approximately 20 per cent of the Danish electricity supply. The Danish Wind Industry Association has shown how 50 per cent of the electricity can be supplied by wind power by 2020.     

“A national target to realize 50 per cent wind power by 2020 will, apart from a certain market potential, pave the way for technology development among the Danish companies. The technology development will take place among manufacturers, suppliers, and utility companies and also provide an interesting possibility to exhibit Danish competencies to the benefit of the Danish industry, exports, and employment,” concludes Jan Hylleberg.

For more information please contact:
CEO Mr. Jan Hylleberg, +45 3373 0330
Head of Press Mr. Rune Birk Nielsen, rbn@windpower.org, +45 3373 0339/ +45 6133 3653

Read the Danish Wind Industry Annual Statistics 2010 here

In a press release from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) which is funded by the American oil and coal lobby, IER admits that it has commissioned the report on Danish wind power from CEPOS.

This confession leads the Danish Wind Industry Association to ask for an explanation in an open letter to the chairman of CEPOS, Bernt Johan Collet.

The Danish think tank CEPOS published the controversial report last September and went “on tour” with the report in the US. The report is highly critical of the Danish model on wind power and indicates that the Danish wind turbine industry model is ineffective.

The validity of these conclusions has been contested by numerous experts challenging not only the figures but also the method by which these figures were drawn up.

”We are not to judge on CEPOS’ professional standards or the quality of their reports. However, we think it is open to criticism that CEPOS is touring one of the wind industry’s most important markets with misleading and undocumented messages on Danish wind power,” says Jan Hylleberg, Managing Director, Danish Wind Industry Association.

Recently, a group of fourteen independent researchers, scientists, and analytics joined in extensive criticism of the CEPOS report.

”You need to ask yourself what CEPOS’ motive is? Why are they compromising Danish companies’ business opportunities in the US?” underlines Jan Hylleberg.

The Danish Wind Industry Association has just sent a letter to CEPOS’ chairman, Bernt Johan Collet, requesting a response to the massive critique of CEPOS touring the US.

”I think it is quite fair to ask why CEPOS has acted this way. Is it owed to a general opposition to the Danish wind industry? Or has CEPOS willingly been the American oil lobby’s mouthpiece?” Jan Hylleberg asks.

In a response to the Danish Parliament, the Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Lykke Friis, recently stated her opinion that “CEPOS’ report “Wind Energy - The Case of Denmark” gives a distorted picture of wind power.”

IER on Wikipedia
IER’ press release on the CEPOS report
Expert Group Report: Danish Wind Power Export and Cost (pdf)

Conservative think tank admits that report critical of Denmark’s wind power industry was commissioned by US think tank A controversial report critical of the wind energy industry from conservative think tank CEPOS was commissioned and paid for by an American think tank.

A controversial report critical of the wind energy industry from conservative think tank CEPOS was commissioned and paid for by an American think tank with close ties to the coal and oil industries, according to trade journal Ingeniøren.

The report, which was published last September and concluded that Danish wind energy figures were misleading, was taken by CEPOS members to the US media in the months leading up to the COP15 climate summit in Copenhagen. The message behind the report indicated that the Danish wind turbine industry model was not effective.

Numerous experts have since strongly criticised the report’s conclusions, challenging many of the figures and the means in which those figures were obtained.

But now it appears that the report was indirectly commissioned and paid for by the American coal and oil lobby.

A press release from the Institute for Energy Research (IPR) indicated that it had commissioned the report from CEPOS.

IPR reportedly receives funding from the American oil and coal lobby. The think tank has posted a summary of the CEPOS report on its website which includes the claims that ‘in 2006 scarcely 5 percent of the nation’s electricity demand was met by wind. And over the past five years, the average is less than 10 percent — despite Denmark having carpeted its land with [wind turbines]’.

CEPOS CEO Martin Ågerup admitted to Ingeniøren that the report was both commissioned and paid for by IPR. But he said he was not aware of IPR receiving funding from the coal and oil industry.

‘I don’t know who supports them. That doesn’t interest me. They contacted me and so we did the report,’ Ågerup said.

Ågerup admitted, however, that during his company’s tour of the US last autumn, he and one of the report’s authors, Hugh Sharman, were made aware of the relationship between IPR and the American coal and oil industries.

‘I was told that IPR was supported by coal and oil interests, but I don’t know the specific sponsors,’ he said. But then it’s common for people to have sponsors for a project – just as we have also had, for example, for reports dealing with integration and the school system.’

‘The only condition we impose is that we are allowed to be fully independent in our conclusions and the assessments we make,’ said Ågerup. ‘And IPR has fully lived up to that condition.’

The Copenhagen Post

By Ken Dragoon

In February, Danish energy industries invited some dozen Americans, including Federal Energy Commissioner Mark Spitzer, to Denmark to learn about Danish efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.  Their purpose was to encourage the spread of the Danish example to the United States.  To be sure, changing anything in our current political climate is a daunting task.  Nevertheless, when the US gets serious about energy security and reducing emissions, the future will no doubt look a lot like Denmark.

Denmark’s dedication to purpose was born out of the 1974 oil crisis.  Back then, more than 95% of Danish energy came from petroleum.  The economic effects of the oil crisis were devastating.  Cars were banned entirely from streets on Sundays.  Leaders across the political spectrum agreed to end dependence on oil.  Mass popular opposition led to abandoning any nuclear programs in 1985 and the emergence of policies to rely entirely on renewable energy.

Today, wind power supplies more than 20% of the electric energy consumed in Denmark.  In ten years, it will be 50%.  They won’t stop there.  Indeed, the government’s goal is a carbon-free power grid, with most of the energy coming from wind power.  Denmark is leveraging its green power grid by adopting electric vehicles as the main mode of personal motorized transportation (40% of the population commutes by bicycle).  Efficiency is key too—so-called power plant “waste heat” is captured to provide hot water and space heat through district heating systems that already serve 60% of all buildings.

Accommodating the variability and uncertainty of the growing reliance on wind power is a central focus.  Risø National Research Center Director Henrik Bindslev explained that instead of energy supply responding to demand, demand will respond to supply in the Danish grid.  When the wind comes up, excess energy can be stored as hot water for the district heating systems and in electric vehicle batteries.  When the wind dies off, batteries can give back some of the energy to the grid.  The island of Bornholm will soon be the first system served entirely by renewable energy and virtually isolated from the main power grid.

When the wind doesn’t blow for longer periods, batteries won’t be enough.  The Danes are burning wood chips and other waste bio matter in their power plants.  Rescuing straw from being burned or left to rot on farmers’ fields, the Danes invented a process to turn straw into alcohol for fueling cars, molasses to feed cattle, and lignin pellets to fuel the big power plants that used to burn coal.

Little Denmark, with a population hardly more than Oregon’s is not only replacing all its fossil resources with renewable energy, it is adding jobs by exporting technologies such as the straw-to-alcohol plant. From 1990 to 2007, Denmark’s GDP increased 40% while its weather-adjusted carbon emissions decreased 14%.  This is our future once we find the political will to follow it.  I can hardly wait.

After a period of stalemate, the Danish Energy Agency (DEA), has announced that the Danish wind power industry is beginning to get back into gear. Although Denmark is often regarded as one of the world’s leading exporters of wind power technology, the utilization of its expertise has slowed down in recent years.

According to the DEA figures, onshore wind turbine capacity increased by 97 MW in 2009, which is the highest annual expansion since 2002. The Danish offshore capacity rose by 237 MW in 2009.

We still have a long way to go
The figures show that wind power provides around 20 percent of the total Danish electricity consumption – however, there is still a long way to go, in order to reach the goal of the Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA). DWIA has a stated goal to reach 50 percent of consumption by 2020, which requires an annual onshore growth of approx. 160 MW.

The DEA figures were welcomed by Jan Hylleberg, CEO of the Danish Wind Energy Association, who said in a statement that government programs offering incentives for turbine construction were now beginning to pay dividends. At the same time, he said, local municipalities were better able to define their role in turbine development after taking over responsibilities from regional governments.

"There is reason to praise development in 2009” Hylleberg said. “It was a good year compared to recent years. But we can also see that there is a way to go to the average of 160 megawatts we need to ensure the long-term development of the wind turbine market”

Read more
For the full original article, see Børsen

Offshore wind turbines with a combined capacity of 577 MW were installed in Europe in 2009 and Denmark accounted for 230 MW of the expansion, the Danish Wind Industry Association said today.

Denmark-based wind-turbine maker Siemens Wind Power A/S and Vestas Wind Systems A/S accounted for a total 89.5% of the newly installed capacity in Europe.

At the end of 2009, Denmark had installed a total 305 offshore wind turbines, capturing the first place in Europe, followed by the UK with 287 turbines.

In addition to the already started offshore projects, there are approved plans for a further 16,000 MW new capacity in Europe. Germany accounts for some 52% of all future projects, while Denmark stands for 3%.

"In order to retain its favourable position, the Danish wind turbine industry needs a political decision regarding the long-term goals for the expansion by 2020 as well as developed infrastructure," Jan Hylleberg, director of the Danish Wind Industry Association, said.

The association expects the offshore market in Europe to grow by 75% on the year to some 1,000 MW in 2010 and to account for some 10% of the continent's total wind power capacity.

Read the article at TradingMarkets.com

Read the full EWEA report on Offshore development here (pdf)