We can't be Denmark: Josh Frydenberg plays down wind energy potential on Q&A

Josh Frydenberg has pointed to South Australia’s intermittent power issues as evidence that the rest of the country is not ready to transition out of fossil fuels, calling the state Australia’s “great experiment”.

Josh Frydenberg - "We can't be Denmark".

The minister for the environment and energy appeared alongside Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the chief executive of Save the Children International and the former prime minister of Denmark, on the Q&A panel on Monday night.

Denmark derives 57% of its electricity from renewable sources – 43% from wind. Asked whether Australia could reduce its reliance on fossil fuels, Frydenberg said the transition was under way.

He said there was no shortage of wind or sun in Australia but its geographical remoteness meant it could not be connected to other countries in the way Denmark was. He said producing similar figures for wind for Australia was “probably not going to be when I’m the energy minister, but it will be in time very high levels of renewable penetration into the grid”.

Read The Guardian story - “We can't be Denmark: Josh Frydenberg plays down wind energy potential on Q&A.”

Denmark Generated Enough Wind Energy To Power All Its Electricity Needs On Wednesday

The country of Denmark generated enough wind energy on Wednesday to power the entire country’s electricity needs, according to new figures from Europe’s wind energy trade body, WindEurope.

According to WindEurope, Denmark generated a total of 70 gigawatt-hours (GWh) from onshore wind and another 27 GWh from offshore wind — enough to power the equivalent of 10 million average EU households.

This is not the first time wind power has dominated generation statistics in Denmark, with several big wind energy days back throughout 2015. By the end of 2015, the country had a total of just over 5 gigawatts (GW) worth of wind energy installed — made up of 3799 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind and 1271 MW of offshore wind — a number which likely would have increased during 2016.

Read the Clean Technica story - “Denmark Generated Enough Wind Energy To Power All Its Electricity Needs On Wednesday.”

Denmark May Hold the Key to Integrating Large Amounts of Intermittent Renewables

It seems Denmark hold the key to integrating
renewable power, securing reliability. 

Denmark now produces over 40 percent of its electricity from wind. The country wants to get 50 percent of its electricity from wind by 2020 and 100 percent renewables by 2050.

Despite this high wind supply, Denmark’s grid is more reliable than countries with lower percentages of renewables. So what’s Denmark’s secret to integrating high intermittent generation?

The key, according to analysts, is steady policy commitment to clean energy that’s created a flexible grid of distributed energy resources interconnected across Europe.

“The system operator and the whole energy system are constantly being developed to accommodate the fact that we are going away from fossil centralized production capacity to renewables,” said Troels Gregersen, Nordics energy expert at PA Consulting Group.

Read the Green Tech Media story - “Denmark May Hold the Key to Integrating Large Amounts of Intermittent Renewables.”

Searching for ways to detect and solve public opposition

Policymakers worldwide are looking for ways to detect and solve public opposition.

They offer financial stakes and try to play down impacts – but studies repeatedly find no empirical evidence, say, that placing wind turbines further from buildings increases acceptance (PDF in German). As that study puts it, “It’s not enough to want to win over residents by providing them with information early on. Instead, people need to be able to participate early on – and have real input.”

Too often, policymakers and industry representatives assume that financial stakes are enough reward for the public. For instance, Denmark now requires various types of energy projects to offer 20 percent of the stakes to the public. But by the time those holdings are issued, the project is already well defined; citizens cannot shape the project’s design.

Read the One Step of the Grid story - “Why people come together in community energy projects.”

Wind power meets and exceeds Denmark's domestic electricity needs

S

o much power was produced by Denmark’s windfarms on Thursday that the country was able to meet its domestic electricity demand and export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden.

On an unusually windy day, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.

Interconnectors allowed 80% of the power surplus to be shared equally between Germany and Norway, which can store it in hydropower systems for use later. Sweden took the remaining fifth of excess power.

Read the Guardian story - “Wind power generates 140% of Denmark's electricity demand”.