Denmark Renewable Energy Generation 40.7% of Electricity Produced in 2011, Wind Energy 28.1%

The Danish Energy Agency announced earlier this week that consumption of renewable energy had increased in 2011 by 2.5% thanks in part to a big push in wind-power production. Based on the European Union method of calculation, Denmark saw renewable energy account for 23.6% of energy consumption in 2011, at the same time that electricity production based on renewable energy accounted for 40.7% of domestic electricity produced in the country.

Wind power accounted for 28.1% of electricity produced in 2011.

Observed energy consumption actually dropped in 2011 by 6.4%, bringing it back almost to the levels it had been at back in 1990. Considering that the 2008 energy agreement Denmark signed called for a drop in adjusted gross energy consumption of just 2% from 2006 to 2011, the full 6.6% drop is truly marvellous.

Another interesting fact to pull out of the numbers is that, while the national GDP grew by 0.8% in 2011, energy efficiency improved by 1.7% over the same period. Subsequently, energy efficiency improvements over the past two decades have allowed for each unit of GDP to require 28.5% less energy in 2011 than in 1990.

The amount of observed CO2 emissions caused by energy consumption in the country fell in 2011 by 10.6% to just 44.3 million tonnes. This is a great improvement, with a fall of 19.5% based off the baseline year of 1990/95.

Finally, Denmark proved itself to be the only EU member state to be energy self-sufficient in 2011. Denmark was able to produce 110% of its energy needs in 2011, compared with 121% in the previous year.

Source: Danish Energy Agency
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