Focus on Denmark

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Vestas turbines at Denmark's Horns Rev offshore wind farm

Denmark have started off very well in Euro 2012 football,  beating Holland 1-0, but Denmark has not only doing well in football but especially in the world of wind power for many years.

It is no coincidence that even before you set foot in Copenhagen, you’ll see your first wind turbine there. It’s on the final approach to Copenhagen’s Kastrup Airport.  As of the end of last year Denmark had over 4,500wind land and offshore turbines. But an interesting fact is that even though Denmark’s wind energy output has  increased dramatically, the number of turbines needed to produce that energy is down by a third. How come?  Because earlier wind turbines, now obsolete, averaged 0.2 MW. Today’s replacement wind turbines are rated at from 2.5 to 3.0 MW. This means that, as obsolete wind turbines are scrapped, one modern wind turbine can replace roughly 12 scrapped wind turbines. Quite simply, fewer wind turbines are now producing more electricity. An estimated 85% of the steel in a scrapped wind turbine can be recycled.

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Denmark is clearly focused on becoming  CO2 neutral. They to add 3,900 large scale wind turbines by 2020, so that about 50% of Denmark’s electricity demand will then be generated from wind power.

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With so many turbines in a relatively small country, if you look out from any location in Denmark you will probably see at least one wind turbine somewhere on the horizon. But for the vast majority of Danes, that is not an issue. Unlike some parts of the UK and other countries, there are many fewer NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) objecting to turbines “blighting” the landscape. Part of that lack of objections is down to the latest wind turbines being quieter.

In older wind turbines, the gearbox consisted of multiple gears in the transmission, some of them turning at comparatively high speed,  generating noise. Latest wind turbine design does not use a transmission or gearbox. With no gears in the power path, there is almost no noise. Even those still using a transmission and gears are much more efficient and quieter.

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Horns Rev, Denmark

Denmark currently produces 20% of its electrical demand from wind. That’s great but everyone recognises that the wind does blow at usable speed every hour of every day. A group of backup natural gas power plants are used to generate electricity during the hours when the wind is not blowing. When the wind is blowing, the natural gas plants are either at idle or generate at a very low output. But the availability of multiple wind turbines cuts the daily consumption of natural gas in half. Because the fuel not used comes in the form of natural gas, it can easily be stored for use at a future date. As more efficient wind turbines are produced, the amount of gas required will continue to reduce.

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Denmark is, without a shadow of a doubt, a country in the vanguard of commitment to renewable energy.