Denmark just set a world record by generating 39 percent of its electricity from wind power! In an article for The Local Denmark, Denmark Climate Minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen says, “We will definitely hit our 2020 goals. We have set a one-of-a-kind world record. And it shows that we can reach our ultimate goal, namely to stop global warming.” The Danish government has set a goal of having half of all their electricity provided by the wind in 2020 and banning the use of coal entirely in 10 years.
Danish Climate Minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen says, “We will definitely hit our 2020 goals. We have set a one-of-a-kind world record. And it shows that we can reach our ultimate goal, namely to stop global warming.” The Danish government has set a goal of having half of all their electricity provided by the wind in 2020 and ban the use of coal entirely in 10 years. But the record does not mean that 40 percent of the country’s total electricity was actually provided by the wind in 2014.
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The confusion comes from the fact that only one tenth of Denmark’s total energy use comes from electricity. The Danish Energy Association says that Denmark still depends on natural gas, coal and oil for about three quarters of its total energy use. Most of that energy is being used by heating and power plants which will need to convert to more renewable and sustainable forms of energy in order to become truly free from fossil fuels. “It is moving too slowly with getting the heat pumps into our heating systems and thus integrated into the energy and heat sector. That becomes more and more pressing as the amount of wind energy increases,” said Aalborg University professor of energy planning Brian Vad Mathiesen.
Still, the progress is something to be proud of and as the Danish government has reserved 60 million kroner, about 95.9 million USD., towards developing greener heat pump technology designed to make Danish energy plants more climate friendly, they are encouraged that they are headed in the right direction.
Via The Local Denmark
Images via Andreas Klinke Johannsen and Micah MacAllen, Flickr Creative Commons
