Wind Power In Denmark: 'Changing Planet' Episode On The Weather Channel (VIDEO)

In the race to find innovative ways to implement clean and renewable energy, countries may want to keep an eye on Denmark. A new segment from "Changing Planet" reveals how the country leads the world in wind power.

According to a new, green episode of "Changing Planet" on The Weather Channel, 20 percent of Denmark's electricity is generated by the 5,500 wind turbines that have been built off-shore and on land across the country. Danish officials hope to increase wind's share of the country's electricity to 50 percent in the coming decades.

The Danish economy has grown by 80 percent in the past several decades, while its carbon emissions have remained constant, according to TreeHugger. Denmark's wind turbine industry currently employs over 20,000 people, and 90 percent of Danish wind turbines are exported. As an NBC news anchor says in the video clip, "What the Danes have done is transform an age-old idea and become world leaders in wind power."

Wind energy may offer both environmental and economic benefits to the United States as well. In 2010, the U.S. placed third for its economic investments in clean energy, according to The Pew Charitable Trusts. Plans have been approved for the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., with construction set to begin this fall. The Cape Wind project will place 130 turbines in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts. The project's officials claim that Cape Wind will create up to 1,000 jobs in the area, and similar investments nationwide could create tens of thousands of jobs.

Despite wind power's promise of clean and renewable energy, critics cite many drawbacks. Opponents of a new wind farm in Maryland explain that both too little and too much wind can be crippling for wind farms. Additionally, current wind turbine technology does not allow for electricity storage on a large scale, creating the need for alternative, and often fossil fuel-based, backup systems when there is no wind. Other groups, such as some Ontario, Canada residents, have claimed that living in close proximity to wind turbines may cause health problems. However, it can be argued that these concerns are a small price to pay for a cleaner form of energy.

Tune in to The Weather Channel on Tuesday, July 26th at 9 PM (ET) for this episode of "Changing Planet," featuring a town hall conversation focused on wind turbines and their growing place in green energy investment.

WATCH:

Comments

[Dave McRae]

04:19 PM on 07/27/2011

http://wilfriedheck.tripod.com/danish.htm

This repeats the same story. A lot of challenges, no thermal plants shut down, and huge costs. Also mentions total dependence on neighbors to absorb excesses and provide for periods of low wind activity. Same as the others have been saying, because it's the truth.

[Dave McRae]

04:09 PM on 07/27/2011

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/renewables/danish-wind-turbines-take-unfortunate-turn

"Two years ago, when Spectrum featured the Horns Rev project [see "Reap the Wild Wind," October 2002], Peter Christiansen, a senior engineer with Elsam Engineering A/S, conceded that grid stability problems were serious. Contacted in September, he says nothing has happened in the meantime to change his mind.

John Eli Nielson, a senior engineer with Eltra, the organization that manages the grid in western Denmark, said that Eltra has launched an ambitious program of breaking the country's whole western grid into virtually autonomous cells. The objective is for each cell to be able to provide adequate voltage support (reactive power) to meet its own needs and to be able to restore power independently after an emergency shutdown ("blackstart")."

[Mike Holly]

02:18 PM on 07/27/2011

The Huffington Post, Weather Channel, Wind Industry etc. are guilty of propaganda. While it is true Denmark generates 20% of its electricity from windpower, it uses less than 4% and dumps the rest around Europe. The fact is windpower is so intermittent that it becomes too expensive to back up when USED beyond a few percent of supply. To those who want to bash every private study that warns us, I ask for one US or EU study that proves differently. The Wind and Solar Conspiracy perpetrated by governments is one of the truly scandalous waste of money, prehaps even surpassing the housing crisis when considering that windposer mandates are being used to block the development of cost competitive and reliable renewable energies like biomass cogeneration.

[Dave McRae]

03:51 PM on 07/27/2011

They just won't believe the facts when you present them. They'd rather have hope that there's some kind of magic out there that "the man" is somehow keeping from them. When in reality, Wind power has value, but let's proceed with caution because it has risks also. Mainly that it's expensive, and it is unstable and makes the grid unstable when it becomes a larger percentage of your generation. This is reality, and we must work to solve these challenges. If we do this well, we will be much better off! Saying Denmark made mistakes is not saying Wind power is bad. But it is a caution to study and think through your solutions, and not just think you can take another countries ideas and use them here. American Wind turbines have a much highers load factor, because we demand they be for profit, and we only place them where they will be effective. Other countries, to a certain degree, waste wind turbines because they put them in bad locations just to install them. America is doing a lot of things right, and a lot of this criticism of our programs is unfounded.

[Mike Holly]

06:57 PM on 07/27/2011

Sorry, but I won't believe America is doing better than Denmark until I see the cost/benefit analyses. Here in Minnesota the state has been just as misleading as Denmark. The state's windpower study estimated costs of generating 20% of the electricity in the state from windpower and then assumed the power would be used throughout the entire MAPP region, which is 10 times as big, meaning only 2% windpower would be used. No government is estimating the real costs of using 20% windpower.

[nirek]

08:02 AM on 07/27/2011

Denmark is a world class country.

[Dave McRae]

03:53 PM on 07/27/2011

Agreed! The country of my Great Grandfather!

[Dangerous Dan]

11:09 PM on 07/26/2011

Going to love it when lubricants freeze up in sub-zero temps, or a gear seizes. Fiberglass and even carbon fiber does not like the cold.

[alvdh1]

10:15 AM on 07/27/2011

That"s why the new Boeing 787 is 30 percent composite flying in temperature of minus 60. The newer wind turbines do not have gear boxes, but your comments on lubricants freezing up is an uninformed attempt to denigrate alternative energy.

[robnelsong]

10:49 AM on 07/27/2011

f/f. Thank you for refuting another ill informed person who denigrates alternative energy. Having recently returned from a number of European countries, wind turbines are now quite common. Sadly the US is way behind with respect to alternatives to fossil fuels.

[alvdh1]

11:40 AM on 07/27/2011

New lubricant solves cold weather problems with wind turbine gear boxes.

http://www.designworldonline.com/articles/6164/313/Lubricant-for-Wind-Turbine-Gearboxes.aspx

[Dangerous Dan]

11:03 PM on 07/26/2011

Wind power, got to respect it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEccgR0q-o

[doxienan]

02:54 PM on 07/26/2011

Lester Brown, the world's most respected environmental economist, writes:

"Income from wind-generated electricity tends to remain in the community, bolstering local economies by providing local income, jobs, and tax revenue. One large advanced-design wind turbine, occupying a quarter-acre of land, can easily yield a farmer or rancher $2,000 in royalties per year while providing the community with $100,000 of electricity.

For farmers and ranchers, discovering the value of their wind resources is like striking oil--except that the wind is never depleted. One of wind's attractions is that the turbines scattered about a farm or ranch do not interfere with the use of the land for farming or cattle grazing. For ranchers with prime wind sites, income from wind can easily exceed that from cattle sales. The wind boom can rejuvenate rural communities throughout the world. "

"As governments look to reduce dependence on price-volatile fossil fuels and to cut carbon emissions, wind—a widespread, abundant, and inexhaustible resource with zero fuel cost—is becoming an increasingly attractive option. In a 2009 study of world wind resources, Harvard University scientists concluded that the top 10 carbon dioxide-emitting countries could satisfy all of their electricity needs using wind alone. The world will of course use a variety of technologies to meet future energy demand, but these findings leave no doubt: the potential for wind power to replace fossil fuels and take a leading role in stabilizing climate is huge."

[Dave McRae]

03:04 PM on 07/26/2011

You get exactly what you're getting right now in the Pacific Northwest. Too much wind from Mom and Pop wind farms that have been promised ridiculous prices for electricity that no one can afford to pay are getting filthy rich (multi millionaires, folks, well over $250,000 a year!) but the wind blows when they don't need that much power and there's no way to store it so the wind power just gets dumped onto the grid and causes all kinds of problems. BPA is struggling to control their grid, CAISO is also. What is being done is people are buying wind power and dumping it, just to make statistics for politicians. If that's environmentally friendly, that's news to me. To create energy just to collect money for it and no one actually can use it. Sad state of affairs. And because of these costs we can't have social security anymore? Brilliant plan!!!

[Dangerous Dan]

11:02 PM on 07/26/2011

Like Emu and Ostrich farms.

[alvdh1]

12:07 PM on 07/27/2011

This year's excess wind power is the result of heavy rain and snow fall. Consequently, hydro electric dams are having to dump excess water. In addition, part of the surplus is a result of the recession in the Northwest, which has limited demand.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/14/wind-farms-in-pacific-nor_n_861997.html

http://www.nwcouncil.org/library/2011/2011-01.pdf

http://www.rnp.org/node/wind-energy-technology

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/state-regs/pdf/Oregon.pdf Oregon's electric rate is 7.63 cents per Kwh, which is the 16th lowest in the country. Making stuff up seems to be your best skill. New York Rates are 17.3 cents per Kwh.

http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html Electric rates for all 50 states.

[simsum]

12:24 AM on 07/26/2011

Wow, some enviro-t-partiers on this thread. And they seem to be allergic to presenting hard facts. I for one am in favor of science, so sorry guys, the science is in favor of windpower.

[Dave McRae]

12:35 AM on 07/26/2011

I'm a trained Engineer and Mathematician. I prefer science also. And reality. Not fantasy land lies and politically charged articles that mislead everyone into making bad investments into Americas infrastructure, while promising them things they cannot deliver. Lastly, I dispatch the power from two wind farms totaling about 400-MW of wind power. Unless you have hands on experience operating a wind farm or a power grid, sit back down in your chair and listen to an expert and learn a few things. This isn't about left versus right on the political spectrum. It's about people lying to you for profit. Oh, and you only thought an oil company would do that? That's why you have a blind spot and are easy to be taken advantage of by misleading articles that you're pre-conditioned to already believe rather than openly question.

[simsum]

01:23 AM on 07/26/2011

I have a BA in physics, so sit back and get used to why your politics is getting in the way of your understanding reality. Right? Right.

[simsum]

01:24 AM on 07/26/2011

Hey, if you're so confident, why are you so worried? LOL

[Dangerous Dan]

11:50 PM on 07/25/2011

Green Fail!

[alvdh1]

12:12 PM on 07/27/2011

Green victory - your kid will love you for it.

[Dangerous Dan]

11:43 PM on 07/25/2011

Push for wind! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqEccgR0q-o

[PlayTOE]

09:57 PM on 07/25/2011

To make wind work, there needs to be some method of mass storage for power.
Also, the larger the interconnected grid, the easier it is to remove the power fluctuations due to changing supply and demand.

[Dangerous Dan]

11:45 PM on 07/25/2011

I really support green energy, do environmentalists? http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9830/pub_detail.asp

[PlayTOE]

12:09 AM on 07/26/2011

Most of the so called "environmental groups" challenging wind power are not grassroots but AstroTurf funded by oil interests in a bid to keep the competition from getting a foothold.

[Wanderland]

08:59 AM on 07/26/2011

Thanks for the link to a clap trap website, pointing out that NIMBYs exist.

[alvdh1]

12:13 PM on 07/27/2011

Wind works now.

[PlayTOE]

12:28 PM on 07/27/2011

In most cases, power storage is accomplished by storing extra water above a dam, and "fill-in" power comes from natural gas turbines which have a very quick start up time.
This gives easy integration of between 20% to 50% wind power, but wider system integration and mass battery storage could move this to 90% to 100% green power.

[Dave McRae]

09:40 PM on 07/25/2011

I read a report out of Denmark that was a scaathing rebuke of wind power there. Dear God, Let's pray what happened to them doesn't happen to us in the United States! First of all, they raised their electric rates to 4 times the US electric rate to pay for it. Then, they installed turbines everywhere, regardless if there's wind or not. If there's an open space, they put a turbine there. Here's the rub: They haven't turned off a single power plant (fossil) because they get all theri steam and heat from the power plants. So, they run the power plants and the wind, and have tons of excess electricity which they dump on Sweden and Germany. Starting THIS year, Germany and Sweden are CHARGING them money to take on their excess generation when the wind comes up, and then CHARGING them MORE for electricity from Germany and Sweden when the wind dies. So, Denmark is getting screwed financially by wind to the tune of millions and billions of dollars (over time.) Their approach has been nonsensical, inefficient, and really born from their pride in "windmills" as a national symbol rather than intellignet engineering and basic economic principles. RIght now, they either have too much electricity or too little, and they pay a stiff penalty for BOTH.

[alvdh1]

10:19 AM on 07/27/2011

Provide some links to support your comments.

[alvdh1]

12:33 PM on 07/27/2011

Denmwark has one of the highest standards of living in the world and one of the lowest unemployment rates as well. But, according to you, the sky is falling in Denmark who employs over 20,000 people in the wind industry. Something must be working well for the people and government in Denmark.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/denmark/unemployment-rate-imf-data.html

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/denmark/gdp-per-capita-ppp-us-dollar-wb-data.html You will love the last sentence in this link. Oh what the heck. I'll just copy and paste it for you.

"With very few natural resources, Denmark industrialized market economy depends on imported raw materials and foreign trade. Within the European Union, Denmark advocates a liberal trade policy. Its standard of living is among the highest in the world."

[Dave McRae]

03:37 PM on 07/27/2011

Yes, Denmark is a country of rich people. Or are you suggesting they were a poor country with 40% unemployment until they discovered wind power? Like a poster said on an article I read about this, "They are rich, and they pay newspaper delivery boys $2000 a month." So yes, they can afford their high electric bills. Maybe wind power only makes sense if you're super rich? IS that your point? Are you saying America's poor families can afford $600 electric bills?

[FreeHat]

08:44 PM on 07/25/2011

24 year old moderator of 'green' issues with no scientific license. Looooool

[simsum]

08:04 PM on 07/25/2011

The Danes have proved that windpower is both cheaper and sustainable. So there is nothing to stop the entire world from adopting it - except politics and foolishness.

[Dave McRae]

09:42 PM on 07/25/2011

They actually have proven the exact opposite. Politics won't let that story out easily, but I've read the report. It's costing them tons, and they haven't shut down a single power plant. Nor, will they ever, for obvious reasons having nothing to do with wind or electricity.

[Dangerous Dan]

11:46 PM on 07/25/2011

UNIONS!

[simsum]

11:56 PM on 07/25/2011

Do you have a source that shows windpower is more expensive than other energy sources in Denmark? Because I have sources that prove otherwise.

Remember that costs are always higher for a technology that is new and relatively unsupported by the society as a whole. The "cheapenss" of a mainstream technology is often an illusion, especially when we do not consider externalities such as pollution.

[Dave McRae]

03:31 PM on 07/26/2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_Denmark

Sometimes the spot market price goes to or below zero....that's code for "We have to pay to dump this excess electricity on Germany"

What a total waste. We don't need so much wind power that we have to pay people to dump it, and yet, that's where we are heading if we aren't careful.

[alvdh1]

10:27 AM on 07/27/2011

You are long on commentary and short on sources.

[Kenz300]

07:59 PM on 07/25/2011

The price of oil, coal and nuclear keep rising and have safety and environmental concerns.

The price of wind and solar keep dropping every year with technology improvements and now economies of scale.

Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future. The world produces a lot of trash every day. Let's produce both fuel and energy from all that waste.

[Dangerous Dan]

11:49 PM on 07/25/2011

Who is going to sell sunlight to the Northern states? Plastic shatters in sever cold. Lubrication locks up. Excessive wind is worse than no wind at all. NOT IN MY BACK YARD. Environmentalists will stop it before the Repubs do.

[Wanderland]

09:18 AM on 07/26/2011

Was there a point to this comment?

The original commenter, to whom you responded, mentioned a slew of alternative energy sources, but you ask about "selling sunlight to the Northern states," and mention that cold temperatures can make materials brittle. And yes, NIMBYs exist.

So what?

[alvdh1]

10:28 AM on 07/27/2011

Your name says it all when it comes to making dangerously false commentary.