Beyond Wind: New Challenges to the Expansion of Renewables in Denmark
Expansion of renewable energy in Denmark: New study by Brooks Kaiser, Luis Boscán and Lars Ravn-Jonsen examines the challenges.
Denmark is widely regarded as a world-class example in the transformation of energy systems and in the integration of variable renewable energy sources into electricity systems. Rightly so. Between 1972 and 2017, Denmark’s gross final renewable energy consumption went from 1,4% to 32,2%.
Wind power development is perhaps the most visible face of this success story, as Denmark’s wind production accounted for 43,4% of gross domestic electricity consumption in 2017 – a record that has been broken several times by Denmark itself in the past few years.
But while the bet on wind power has proven successful so far, a continued focus on this technology without an integrated approach to energy policymaking could prove risky for the future of the Danish energy transition, a new research by Brooks Kaiser, Luis Boscán and Lars Ravn-Jonsen shows.