Danish Wind Power Generation to Increase 180% Using 2,000 Less Turbines

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Danish Wind Turbine Owners' Association (DWTOA) (Aarhus, Denmark) and the Danish Wind Industry Association (DWIA) (Frederiksberg, Denmark) have drawn up an ambitious plan outlining how wind power generation capacity can be ramped up to cater to 50% of Denmark's power demands from the present levels of 20% using 2,000 fewer wind turbines on land by the year 2020.

Denmark currently has more than 5,000 wind turbines generating 3,200 megawatts (MW) of power. The proposal suggests replacement of several existing wind turbines with more advanced and efficient models that have higher generation capacities. Using this plan, the number of wind turbines used could be reduced 30% to 3,400, while installed wind power generation capacity could be increased 180% to 6,350 MW, of which onshore turbines would generate 3,800 MW of power while offshore turbines would produce 2,550 MW of power.

Denmark, Germany and Spain, hailed as the three wind-energy pioneers of the world, provide 75% of the overall direct employment opportunities in the wind sector. The proposal made by the DWTOA and DWIA is also in line with Copenhagen's aim to bring down carbon-dioxide emissions to zero and become the world's first carbon-neutral capital city by 2025 through increased use of wind power and other measures. For additional information, see article from March 30, 2009 - Copenhagen Plans to Become Carbon-Neutral by 2025.

Denmark's Minister for Climate and Energy, Connie Hedegaard, hailed the initiative as encouraging but expressed doubts regarding the feasibility of ramping up wind power to account for 50% of the country's power generation portfolio. Hedegaard said that determining ideal locations for onshore wind turbines would be challenging.

In a presentation made in January this year, Jan Hylleberg, Managing Director of the DWIA, proposed the development of 1,200 modern wind turbines onshore and 500 turbines offshore to achieve the target of achieving 50% power generation from windfarms. Hylleberg emphasized that the Danish parliament would need to draw up long-term plans to be able to overcome the challenge of identifying the right locations for wind farms.

Offshore wind turbines come across as attractive alternatives in regions that have a high population density and inadequate land for setting up large windfarms. However, while construction costs are higher, offshore wind farms have higher power generation capacities than their onshore counterparts. The west coast of Denmark running from Rudbol to Skagen has immense potential for development of offshore windfarms because of the southwest winds blowing in the region.

According to the Danish Energy Plan, Energi21, Denmark aims to develop 4,000 MW of offshore wind power generation capacity by 2030 to generate 13,500 gigawatt-hours per year of electricity, accounting for 40% of the country's power consumption. The largest offshore windfarms in Denmark are the 160-MW Horn Rev project along the west coast of Jutland and the 158-MW Nysted wind farm near Lolland.

In March, A2SEA (Fredericia, Denmark), Dong Energy (Fredericia) and Siemens AG (NYSE:SI) (Munich, Germany) installed the first wind turbine at the Horns Rev 2 windfarm in the North Sea. The project, scheduled for commissioning later this year, will be the world's largest offshore windfarm with 91 turbines and a total installed power generation capacity of 209 MW, capable of supplying carbon-dioxide-free power to more than 200,000 households.

View Project Report - 79000014 79000015

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.