Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

has considerable sources of oil and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian ...

and ranked as number 32 in the world among net exporters of

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

in 2008. Denmark expects to be self-sufficient with oil until 2050.Unforeseen billions from North Sea
''Maritime'', 4 December 2011. Accessed: 8 December 2011. However, gas resources are expected to decline, and production may decline below consumption in 2020, making imports necessary.Andersen, Christian Meiniche
Gas supply 2011-2013
page 17 '' Energinet.dk''. Accessed: 8 December 2011. Denmark imports around 12% of its energy (this statistic includes all forms of energy, not just electricity). Denmark has drastically decreased production of electricity from coal, and in 2019 it constituted less than 11% of the electricity production. Coal and all other fossil fuels, plus waste burned for electricity, amounted to 64.2% of the electricity production. The other 35.8% of the electricity produced came from renewables: wind power (8.7%; see

wind power in Denmark Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers such as Vestas—the world's largest wind-turbine manufacturer ...

), biomass and other combustible renewables (30%) and solar power (6.2%).Monthly OECD Electricity Statistics
/ref> CO2 emissions Denmark

Denmark is a net importer of electricity: domestic production of electricity was equal to 83% of the total consumption, while net imports were 17% of the total consumption. The electricity Denmark imported came in large part from hydroelectricity and nuclear power (both being low-carbon sources). As a result, Denmark used hydroelectricity despite domestic production of it being close to zero; and part of the electricity consumed (3-4% according to older data) came from nuclear power, despite the country having no nuclear power stations. In February 2011 the

Danish government The Cabinet of Denmark ( da, regering) has been the chief executive body and the government of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1848. The Cabinet is led by the Prime Minister. There are around 25 members of the Cabinet, known as "ministers", all of wh ...

announced the "Energy Strategy 2050" with the aim to be fully independent of

fossil fuel A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...

s by 2050, and a new government repeated the goal in 2015 despite public scepticism. The European

Renewables Directive The Renewable Energy Directive 20182018/2001 is a Directive in EU law that requires 32 percent of the energy consumed within the European Union to be renewable by 2030. This target is pooled among the member states. Background Before the 2009 ...

set a mandatory target at 20% share of energy from renewable sources by 2020 (EU combined). In 2012 the Danish government adopted a plan to increase the share of electricity production from wind to 50% by 2020, and to 84% in 2035;Lindboe, page 3 this was later changed to a broader 100% renewable electricity by 2030 target. Denmark's

electrical grid An electrical grid is an interconnected network for electricity delivery from producers to consumers. Electrical grids vary in size and can cover whole countries or continents. It consists of:Kaplan, S. M. (2009). Smart Grid. Electrical Power ...

is connected by transmission lines to other European countries,Gellert, Bjarne Christian
Electricity interconnections
'' Energinet.dk'', 22 August 2011. Accessed: 6 December 2011. and had (according to the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...

) the best

energy security Energy security is the association between national security and the availability of natural resources for energy consumption. Access to (relatively) cheap energy has become essential to the functioning of modern economies. However, the uneven d ...

in the EU in 2013 although this had fallen to third in the EU by 2014.

History

In 1972, 92% of Denmark's energy consumption came from imported oil. The

1973 oil crisis The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had su ...

forced Denmark to rethink its energy policy; in 1978 coal contributed 18%, and the Tvind wind turbine was built, along with the creation of a wind turbine industry. The

1979 energy crisis The 1979 oil crisis, also known as the 1979 Oil Shock or Second Oil Crisis, was an energy crisis caused by a drop in oil production in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. Although the global oil supply only decreased by approximately four pe ...

pushed further change, and in 1984 the North Sea natural gas projects began. The North Sea production of oil and gas made Denmark self-sufficient in 1997, peaking in 2005, and decreased below self-sufficiency by 2013. In 2015 Denmark produced 89% of its energy consumption of 720-756 PJ. The year 2014 was the warmest on record in Denmark, with the lowest number of

degree day A degree day is a measure of heating or cooling. Total degree days from an appropriate starting date are used to plan the planting of crops and management of pests and pest control timing. Weekly or monthly degree-day figures may also be used wi ...

s in history. A normal year has 2,906 while 2014 saw only 2,100 degree days.Bernth, Martin.
Mildt vejr skærer 20 procent af varmeregningen
''

Ingeniøren ''Ingeniøren'' (full name: ''Nyhedsmagasinet Ingeniøren'', literally ''The News Magazine "The Engineer"'') is a Danish weekly newspaper specialising in engineering topics. History and profile The paper has covered science and technology issues ...

'', 5 January 2015. Accessed: 5 January 2015. Since 2000, Denmark has increased

Gross National Product The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product ( GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreig ...

and decreased energy consumption.

Overview

Energy statistics

Energy taxes

¹Not applicable for industry Fuel is not taxed for ships and planes to other countries. Coal and gas for electricity is not taxed. Minor taxes are called "Compulsory storage fee" and " tax".

Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...

tax is 0.09 DKK/kWh for electricity. Fossil fuels are taxed at about 90 DKK/ton . Energy taxes contributed 34 billion DKK in 2015, about 12% of overall taxing revenue. The money is a considerable income for the state, and changing the composition of the taxes towards a "greener" mix is difficult. According to a government official, the majority of taxes are not based on environment concerns, in contrast to the DKK 5 billion per year in PSO-money for cleaner energy, paid by electricity consumers to producers of clean electricity. These tolls are not available for government consumption.Fremskrivning af PSO-udgifter
page 6+17. '' Danish Energy Agency'', 19 May 2014. Retrieved: 17 January 2015.

Energy sources

Coal

Denmark has drastically reduced the role of coal in both electricity generation and district heating. Less than 11% of the electricity produced in the country came from coal (2019) and only about 12% of the energy used for district heating came from coal and oil combined (2017). This is a radical change, considering that coal provided 48.0% of the

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...

and 22.0% of the heat in

district heating District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating ...

in 2008; and in total provided 21.6% of total energy consumption (187 PJ out of 864 PJ). The coal is mainly imported from outside Europe. Consumption of coal was more than halved over the 10 years between 2004 and 2014.Energy statistics, 2014
page 12ENERGISTATISTIK 2015
page 3. Quote: "2015 var præget af stor nettoelimport, hvilket hovedsageligt betød et kraftigt fald i forbruget af kul på 35,8%" Coal constituted 41% of the mass fuels (not wind and sun) in 2015, and is expected to decrease to 14% in 2025, mostly replaced by biofuels.

Oil

;Production The production of crude oil fell from 523 PJ in 2010 to 470 PJ in 2011. As of May 2014, Denmark produced an average of 172 kbpd.
'' Danish Energy Agency'', May 2014. Accessed: 26 June 2014. Danish oil companies donate DKK 1 billion over 10 years to

Technical University of Denmark The Technical University of Denmark ( da, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet), often simply referred to as DTU, is a polytechnic university and school of engineering. It was founded in 1829 at the initiative of Hans Christian Ørsted as Denmark's fir ...

to increase production. Danish oil reserves are expected to run out around 2047. ;Consumption Consumption fell from 315 to 306 PJ during 2011.Main energy statistics 2011
'' Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy'', 20 March 2012. Accessed: 20 March 2012. Official statistics estimate 231,000 residences heated by oil in 2014 (down from 328,000 in 2013), but only 87,000 actually purchased oil during 2014.Wittrup, Sanne.
Halvdelen af landets oliefyr er forsvundet
''

'', 9 April 2015. Accessed: 9 April 2015.

Natural gas

The production of natural gas fell from 307 PJ in 2010 to 265 PJ in 2011. Consumption fell from 187 to 157 PJ. emissions from energy production fell from 49.4 to 44.3 million tons, from 2010 to 2011, a decline of 10%.Dal, Peter
Large drop in energy and
'' Danish Ministry of Climate and Energy'', 20 March 2012. Accessed: 20 March 2012. Quote: "" Natural gas was responsible for 6% of the country's electricity production (2019); in district heating, it had a 20% share of the

energy mix The energy mix is a group of different primary energy sources from which secondary energy for direct use - such as electricity - is produced. Energy mix refers to all direct uses of energy, such as transportation and housing, and should not be c ...

(2017).

Biomass

The role of biomass grew as Denmark was phasing out fossil fuels, particularly coal. 20% of electricity produced in Denmark came from biomass (2019), more than from coal and natural gas combined. In district heating, use of biomass and biodegradable waste was one of multiple factors which helped bring down the share of fossil fuels and (non-biodegradable) waste to under 40% of the energy mix. Denmark consumed 2.1 million tonnes of

wood pellet Pellet fuels (or pellets) are biofuels made from compressed organic matter or biomass. Pellets can be made from any one of five general categories of biomass: industrial waste and co-products, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, and ...

s in 2014, expected to increase by 1.2 million tonnes as more coal is replaced. They are mainly imported from the

Baltic states The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone ...

and Russia. Denmark also burns wood chips and straw, mostly for heating.

Solar

Denmark had 790 MW of

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

capacity in late 2015, and already reached its year 2020 governmental goal of installing 200 MW in 2012. As of 2013, the total PV capacity from 90,000 private installations amounts to 500 MW. Danish energy sector players estimate that this development will result in 1000 MW by 2020 and 3400 MW by 2030.Denmark reaches 2020-goal for solar energy before time
12.09.2012

Solar heating A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and sola ...

is installed in some homes, EurObserv'ER: Solar thermal and concentrated solar power barometer - May 2014
and also used in district heating.

Geothermal

has three geothermal district heating plants; a 7 MW in Thisted started in 1988, a 14 MW in Copenhagen started in 2005, and a 12 MW in

Sønderborg (; german: Sonderburg ) is a Danish town in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality (Kommune). The town has a population of 27,766 (1 January 2022),renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

. 80% of the electricity produced in the country came from renewables: 57% from wind power, 20% from biomass and other combustible renewables, and 3% from solar power. Other sources of electricity produced domestically were: coal (10.5%), natural gas (6%), oil (under 1%) and other combustibles (2.5%). Denmark is a net importer of electricity; domestic electricity production was equal to 83% of the consumption, and net imports were 17% of the consumption. Imported electricity is also mostly low-carbon, although from different sources than domestic production: for example, the country imports hydroelectricity from

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

, and hydroelectricity and nuclear power (with other sources possibly in the mix) from

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

. Almost no hydro and no nuclear power is produced domestically, and other countries' hydro, thermal and wind/solar power is used for buffering Denmark's renewable generation. The average consumption of electricity per person was 0.8 GWh less than EU 15 average in 2008. Denmark invested in the wind power development in the 1970s and has been the top wind power country of the world ever since. Danish consumption of wind electricity has been highest in the world per person: 1,218 kWh in 2009. Denmark produced more wind power per person in 2009 than Spain or the UK produced nuclear power. Denmark has average electricity

cost In production, research, retail, and accounting, a cost is the value of money that has been used up to produce something or deliver a service, and hence is not available for use anymore. In business, the cost may be one of acquisition, in whic ...

s (including about DKK 5 billion in costs for cleaner energy) in EU for industries at 9

eurocent There are eight euro coin denominations, ranging from one cent to two euros (the euro is divided into a hundred cents). The coins first came into use in 2002. They have a common Obverse and reverse, reverse, portraying a map of Europe, but each cou ...

/kWh,Electricity prices for industrial consumers
''

Eurostat Eurostat ('European Statistical Office'; DG ESTAT) is a Directorate-General of the European Commission located in the Kirchberg, Luxembourg, Kirchberg quarter of Luxembourg City, Luxembourg. Eurostat's main responsibilities are to provide stati ...

'', October 2015 but general

tax A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...

es increase the household

price A price is the (usually not negative) quantity of payment or compensation given by one party to another in return for goods or services. In some situations, the price of production has a different name. If the product is a "good" in the ...

to the highest in Europe at 31 eurocent/kWh. Transmission costs are around 1c/kWh, and support regimes cost 2 c/kWh in 2014.

Wind power

Wind provided 57% of the electricity generated in

in 2019, and at least 47% of

's total electricity consumption in 2019. Denmark is a long-time leader in wind energy, and Denmark derives 3.1 percent of its

Gross Domestic Product Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is of ...

from

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

technology and energy efficiency, or around €6.5 billion ($9.4 billion). To encourage investment in

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...

, families were offered a

tax exemption Tax exemption is the reduction or removal of a liability to make a compulsory payment that would otherwise be imposed by a ruling power upon persons, property, income, or transactions. Tax-exempt status may provide complete relief from taxes, redu ...

for generating their own electricity within their own or an adjoining

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the ...

. While this could involve purchasing a turbine outright, more often families purchased shares in

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each year. ...

cooperatives which in turn invested in community wind turbines. By 2004 over 150,000 Danes were either members of cooperatives or owned turbines, and about 5,500 turbines had been installed, although with greater private sector involvement the proportion owned by cooperatives had fallen to 75%.

Nuclear power

The production of nuclear energy has been banned in Denmark since 1985. In 2014 and 2015, (imported) nuclear power was 3–4% of electricity consumption in Denmark.Rekord lav CO2-udledning fra elforbrug i 2015
" '' Energinet.dk'', 1 March 2015. An average of 10% of

domestic energy consumption Domestic energy consumption is the total amount of energy used in a house for household work. The amount of energy used per household varies widely depending on the standard of living of the country, the climate, and the age and type of residence. ...

comes from imports from neighboring countries Sweden and Germany, which both generate nuclear power. In Sweden, about 40% of the energy is generated by nuclear power and in Germany less than 20% by nuclear power. In 2011, with imports of 2.9 TWh from Germany and 5.2 TWh from Sweden, about 3.5TWh used was from countries that generate nuclear power – nearly 11% of total final consumption. This fluctuates year to year, mainly due to hydro reservoir levels via NordPool prices, and analysis showed 1% from countries that generate nuclear power in 2010, 7% in 2011 and 14% in 2012.

District heating

Danish

plants use 100

Petajoule The joule ( , ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to the amount of work done when a force of 1 newton displaces a mass through a distance of 1 metre in the direction of the force applied ...

/year, mostly waste heat from thermal power plants burning biomass, coal, natural gas and garbage, but a small part of this consumption is from

electrode boiler An electrode boiler (jet type) is a type of boiler that uses electricity flowing through streams of water to create steam. The conductive and resistive properties of water are employed to carry electric current. Technical principle The most co ...

sWittrup, Sanne.
Dong: Vores kraftværker bruger allerede billig vindmøllestrøm i elpatroner
''

'', 15 January 2015. Retrieved: January 2015. or heat pumps. Expansion of wind powered district heating is calculated to be

economically efficient In microeconomics, economic efficiency, depending on the context, is usually one of the following two related concepts: * Allocative efficiency, Allocative or Pareto efficiency: any changes made to assist one person would harm another. * Productiv ...

without taxes. The peak thermal load of district heating in Copenhagen is 2.5 GW_th, and simulations suggest a potential heat pump would run 3,500 load-hours per year using sewage water as the heat reservoir. In 2020, the average -eq emission for Copenhagen district heating was around 50 g/kWh. In 2013, Denmark imported 158,000 ton garbage for incineration in 10 district heating plants, increasing to 323,963 ton in 20 plants in 2015, about 10% of burnt waste. The pipe heat loss is 17%, at a value of DKK 150 million. New pipes have a heat loss of 6.5%. There are 60,000 km of pipes, serving 1.6 million households. Several towns use

central solar heating Central solar heating is the provision of central heating and hot water from solar energy by a system in which the water is heated centrally by arrays of solar thermal collectors (central solar heating plants - CSHPs) and distributed through dis ...

, some with storage.

Transport

Denmark aims to focus on intelligent battery systems ( V2G) and plug-in vehicles in the transport sector. Tax revenue from vehicles was 28 billion DKK in 2014.

Cities

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...

has a target to be carbon-neutral by 2025, and has burned more biomass and less coal during 2004–2014.

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwe ...

aims to be carbon-neutral by 2030.

References

*Lindboe, Hans Henrik&, János Hethey.
Vindintegration i Danmark
''Ea Energianalyse'', November 2014. Retrieved: January 2015

External links

Danish Energy Agency
{{Europe topic, Energy in