Wind Energy News Archives 1999
Danish
Wind Community Requests Timeout for Danish Green Certificate
Scheme
The Danish Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association
and the Danish Wind Turbine Owners Association have met with
the Energy Committee in the Danish Folketing (Parliament) to
request that the Minister for the Environment and Energy postpone
the green certificate trading system for a year. The system was
to be operational by 1 January 2000, but it is clear that preparations
are not anywhere near completion. The two associations request
that the scheme be postponed for another year in order to ensure
proper analysis and preparation for this far reaching change
in Danish renewable energy policy.
In
a reply to a question from the Energy Committee of the Folketing
on the basis of this request, the Minister, Svend Auken, indicates
his willingness to consider an (unspecified) transitory arrangement
for the year 2000.
(1 December 1999)
Ten
New Pages on this Web Site
Read about wind
shear and escarpments and see the wind
map of Western Europe, a brand new
wind map of Denmark, a page on wind
turbine towers, a page on occupational
safety and wind turbines, four pages on wind
turbine manufacturing, including a 360° QTVR panorama
from a wind turbine factory, and a page with pictures of multi-megawatt turbines.
We have added a number of new photographs to the illustrations
in the Guided Tour on Wind Energy.
(8 October 1999)
Guarded
optimism about the new Danish RPS
The Danish Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association
has armed itself with guarded optimism but doubts whether the
new RPS will be ready on 1 January 2000. Read
more here.
Green
Mermaid Festival Week in Copenhagen
The first week of June was Green
Mermaid Festival Week in Copenhagen, the environmental capital
of Europe.
The
Danish wind turbine manufacturers had set up a surprise for the
visitors in the very centre of Copenhagen, right in front of
the City Hall. A wind turbine sculpture with a 44 metre diameter.
Green
Mermaid Wind Turbine Sculpture
This is what Copenhagen
City Hall Square looked like on 31 May 1999.
Click on the picture
for a 1024 x 748 pixel image (192 K). or click for another 1024 x 748 image without the crane (177
K).
Photographs by Christian Kjaer © 1999.
If you are patient, you can download a 2 minute QuickTime movie (5.2 MB) to see how we built the wind turbine sculpture, and see how people received it.
Click
to go to the movies
Another
Record Year for the Danish Wind Turbine Industry
Sales from the Danish wind turbine industry reached 1,216 MW
(megawatt power) in 1998, a growth of 26%. Wind turbine manufacturing
in Denmark has thus increased sixfold over the past five years.
The value of sales increased by 33%.
Key
figures from the association's magazine, WindPower Notes
1,742 wind turbines with an average size of 700 kW were sold
in 1998. Germany remains the largest market with 32% of sales,
Denmark accounts for 26%, Spain takes 16%, and Italy 7%. These
figures do not include local manufacturing of Danish turbine
designs in e.g. Spain, India and the US.
We
expect 30% growth for 1999. Employment in wind turbine manufacturing
will reach 15,000 in 1999, which is more than total direct and
indirect employment in the Danish electricity sector.
The
turnover of the Danish wind turbine industry reached 7 billion
DKK in 1998, including 5.2 billion of exports. In addition, exports
of components (including rotor blades) to foreign manufacturers
were close to 1 billion DKK in 1998. The turnover of the Danish
wind turbine industry is now twice as large as the value of Danish
North Sea gas production, and equal to the value of total energy
use in the Danish manufacturing industry.
Export
turnover is expected to grow by 3 billion DKK in 1999 while domestic
sales are expected to decline by approx. 1 billion DKK.
10,000 MW of wind power has now been installed world-wide. This
is equal to the total amount of nuclear power in the world by
1968 - and equal to the total installed electrical power capacity
in Denmark. 55% of wind power in the world is of Danish origin.
In
Denmark, installed wind power is now 1,500 MW. Wind energy covers
10% of Danish electricity consumption in 1999.
Note 1: Our sales statistics
include only projects which have been fully commissioned,
whereas BTM Consult ApS in its new report has changed its
accounting principles to include all wind turbine shipments
from factories. The BTM report will therefore have larger 1998
figures for turbines manufactured for particularly the US, Canada,
and Spain, where several large projects were being installed
at the end of 1998.
Note 2: The increase in sales by
33%, and the 26% volume increase are not directly comparable.
Sales may include projects wich are not yet commissioned.
(28 April 1999)
Web
Site Author Receives European Poul la Cour Prize
The European Wind Energy Congress, EWEC 1999 in Nice
has awarded the 1999 Poul la Cour Prize for outstanding contributions
to the development of wind energy.
The
prize was awarded to the author of this web site, Søren
Krohn. Mr. Krohn receives the prize for his work as managing
director of the Danish Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association
and especially for his vision of using the Internet for educational
and commercial promotion of wind energy. His web site has set
a standard for high quality Internet information dissemination,
writes Erik Lundtang Petersen, Risoe National Laboratory, as
chairman of the EWEC Programme Committee in the motivation for
the award.
The
prize has been awarded twice before. Erik Grove (now Risoe National
Laboratory) received the prize in 1993 for his pioneering work
in development and manufacturing of wind turbine rotor blades,
while Aloys Wobben was awarded the prize in 1995 for his development
of the gearless Enercon wind turbine with its multi pole generator.
(10 March 1999)
Overhaul
of Danish Planning System for Wind Turbines
The Danish Government is planning a new directive
for counties' and municipalities' planning for wind turbines.
The directive replaces the original proposal made in June 1999
which met with strong resistance from wind turbine owners and
manufacturers.
The
proposal still implies that counties will have a larger say in
planning, but the most important change from the June 1998 proposal
is that the new proposal will allow present planning and installation
of wind turbines to continue.
(10 March 1999)
New
RPS System Agreed for January 2000 in Denmark
The Danish parliament has agreed to replace the present
support system for wind energy with an RPS "Renewable Portfolio
System" or "Renewables Certificate System". Details
of the new system will be planned during the remainder of 1999,
but it has already been agreed that the share of renewables in
electricity generation is to increase from the present 10% to
20% by the end of 2002. This will imply an investment of about
500 MW in onshore wind power, and 300 MW in offshore wind power
during the years 1999-2002.
The
future system will be based on a payment of 0,33 DKK/kWh for
electricity plus a "Renewables Certificate" with a
minimum price of 0,10 DKK/kWh and a maximum price of 0,27 DKK/kWh.
Meanwhile,
a transitional system will operate during 1999. Under this system
wind turbines ordered until the end of 1999 will receive 12,000
full load hours (i.e. 900,000,000 kWh for a 750 kW wind turbine)
from the date of commissioning at a rate of 0,60 DKK/kWh. The
same rule will apply to existing wind turbines above 599 kW from
the year 2000 and onwards. After the 12,000 full load hours have
expired, turbine owners will receive 0,33 DKK/kWh for the electricity
supplied to the grid, plus a "Renewables Certificate"
with a minimum price of 0,10 DKK/kWh and a maximum price of 0,27
DKK/kWh.
Existing
wind turbines up to to 200 kW will receive 25,000 full load hours
from the date of commissioning at the high 0,60 DKK/kWh rate,
while turbines from 201 to 599 kW will receive 15,000 full load
hours at the high rate. These turbines are also eligible for
renewables certificates.
Owners
of turbines below 100 kW will be encouraged to replace their
old turbines with modern, large turbines. The encouragement will
consist in the right to purchase shares in wind co-operatives
equivalent to three times their present annual electricity output.
You
may find the details of the agreement in an English version on
the Danish
Energy Agency web site.
(10, 12 March 1999)
1200
MW Sold in 12 Months
The Danish wind turbine industry sold some 1200 MW
of wind turbines from Danish factories during 1998, an increase
of some 22%. About 300 MW were sold on the Danish market. The
final, detailed statistics will be available to members (only)
mid April 1999 in the publication Wind Power Notes.
A
growth of some 25% in sales volume is expected for 1999. The
sales of Danish wind turbines was about 6.5 billion DKK = 1 billion
USD in 1998. Sales are expected to exceed 8 billion DKK = 1.25
billion USD in 1999. The Danish wind turbine industry employs
more than 15,000 persons directly and indirectly in 1999, a number
which is larger than the total direct and indirect employment
of the Danish electricity sector.
(22 February 1999)
New
EU Directive on Electricity from Renewables
Read our opinion on the directive.
(2 February 1999)
Old
News
See our Wind Energy News Archives
1998
See our Wind Energy News Archives 1997
© Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 Danish Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association
Updated 30 May 2001
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