Denmark is to make room for more onshore wind turbines.
On 18 September, Climate, Energy and Utilities Minister Samira Nawa decided not to extend the expired political agreement setting a cap of 1,850 onshore wind turbines in 2040. This removes a political restriction on the expansion of green electricity production.
The Danish Chamber of Commerce has welcomed the decision. An analysis by the organisation and EA Energy Analyses shows that more onshore renewable energy and additional batteries could cut up to DKK 2.8 billion from Denmark’s total annual electricity bill. For businesses alone, the benefit could approach DKK 1 billion.
But more wind turbines also place greater demands on a power grid that is already struggling to keep up.
- Removing the cap on wind turbines will not help much if there is still a bottleneck in the electricity grid. We need to resume new grid connection agreements as quickly as possible. At the same time, we need to expand the grid faster and become much better at using the capacity already available in the existing network, says Ulrich Bang, Deputy Director at the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
Pressure from both sides
In Lolland-Falster and South Zealand, the capacity problem concerns both transporting green electricity out of the area and supplying power to new businesses.
- There are capacity challenges both when electricity needs to be imported into the area and when power needs to be transported out of the area, Kim Willerslev Jakobsen, CEO of Energinet System Operator, previously told FemernBusiness.
This means that the region’s large production of green electricity does not in itself guarantee room for new power-intensive companies. They must also be supplied when the sun is not shining and the wind is not blowing. In those situations, electricity must among other things be transported through the already constrained grid in South Zealand and Lolland-Falster.
At the same time, demand is growing. In Nørre Alslev, charging operator Milence is planning a public charging hub for lorries, while the proposed data centre near Rødbyhavn could require more than one gigawatt at full build-out. In addition, a new industrial park near Rødbyhavn has now also been given the green light.
Years of waiting
Energinet expects planned grid expansions to roughly triple transmission capacity between Lolland-Falster and Zealand. The so-called Green Grid is scheduled to be completed in two stages in 2029 and 2033.
Energinet has also stated that regional grid constraints will persist for several years. The government is therefore now opening the door to additional green electricity production while the infrastructure needed to move that power in and out of the region is still being expanded.
