Denmark has set another record-breaking year for wind power generation in 2015, generating 42% of the country’s electricity consumption needs.
According to new figures revealed by Energinet, Denmark’s electricity utility, the country saw its wind turbines generate the equivalent of 42% of its electricity consumption. In Jutland and on Funen, wind power went even further, generating more than the total consumption for 1,460 hours of the year.
Energinet claims that 42% is the highest ever figure for any country, which itself is up on the previous record, held by Denmark, of 39%.
According to Energinet, for 1,460 hours of the year, “the western part of the Danish electricity system (DK1) produced more wind power than the total consumption in Western Denmark.”
“Hours with wind power production exceeding consumption is not in itself unusual, but the fact that we are now generating surplus power 16 per cent of the time in the Western Danish power grid illustrates that the increasingly fluctuating electricity generation means that we can benefit from imports and exports across borders to an even greater extent,” said Carsten Vittrup, Energy Strategy Adviser in Energinet.dk’s Energy Analysis section. “If, for some hours, we have surplus wind energy, the producers sell it to consumers in Norway, Sweden and Germany, and, conversely, we buy hydroelectric power from Norway, solar energy from Germany and power station electricity from Sweden, when it is advantageous for Denmark.”
Western Denmark is nevertheless home to the majority of the country’s wind turbines, and during 2015 ended up generating electricity corresponding to 55% of the electricity consumption in that region of the country. Eastern Denmark generated only enough for 23% of the consumption.
Maybe the most impressive fact to come out of 2015 in Denmark was the fact that for the first time ever, on September 2, the country’s large central power stations were not in operation, leaving the country to rely, successfully, on electricity generated by wind, solar, local CHP plants, and imports. Denmark also experienced the highest wind power share in any hour of 2015, with 138.7% on July 26, between 6 and 7am.
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