Denmark is a leading country in renewable energy production and usage. Renewable energy sources collectively produced 81% of Denmark's electricity generation in 2022, and are expected to provide 100% of national electric power production from 2030. Including energy use in the heating/cooling and transport sectors, Denmark is expected to reach 100% renewable energy in 2050, up from the 34% recorded in 2021.
In the heating sector the country has long used and continues to develop district heating (DH) networks. Hot water or steam is produced centrally and then distributed through a network of insulated pipes to high population areas. Houses within a district heating area have heat exchangers installed instead of boilers for their heating and hot water requirements. The heat exchanger keeps the two water systems separate and means that heat can be adjusted as with a familiar domestic boiler. One simple but important innovation in the district heating network was the development of internally insulated pipes. The two pipes taking and receiving the return of water are placed inside a much larger pipe and insulating material is set so as to fill the figure eight shaped void between the two smaller and the large pipe. In 2013 district heating supplied over 60% of all households in Denmark with heating and hot water. The development of district heating technology has led Denmark to become a world leader in industrial pump and thermostat designs and its products are used in many industries worldwide.
Cogeneration is also widely used. This is a process that extracts the waste heat produced when generating electricity. Power stations designed to do this are known as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) stations. CHP stations in Denmark are often sized to provide the heat required for the local district heating system. Thus CHP stations produce both electricity for the grid and heat for district heating systems. Heat can be stored in large industrial hot water tanks for several days allowing electricity and heat supply to be provided time independently from each other. By 2013 the use of CHP stations had reduced the overall energy consumption in Denmark by 11%.
Danish electricity generation has become increasingly decentralised with a move away from production in the large central power stations to many smaller locally based and mostly CHP stations. Many of these smaller stations use locally sourced bio energy sources including straw and wood pellets.
Energy consumption and objectives +Gross energy consumption in Denmark (PJ), 1980–2018Source except where noted: Unit: petajoules (PJ)198019902000200520102012201320142015201620172018201920202021*2022*Total814819839850814782763755760770772781749706729709Oil546355376352312289278276284280286288281238245256Natural gas082192192176149138127133131125121113969165Coal241327175166147146143137108116929870696353Waste, non-renewable581417161717181818181819201918Renewable energy224881123163180186196219225252257266283311317
*Provisional data for 2021, 2022, some data for earlier years may also be provisional.
Renewable-energy consumption increased more than elevenfold from in 1980 to in 2018. Whilst renewable-energy consumption was rising between 1990 and 2013, gross energy consumption fell by 7%. Most of the fall can be attributed to a great increase in combined power and heat generation (CHP) and the growth in wind power. This has increased energy conversion efficiency, reducing conversion losses by 28% or 7% relative to gross energy consumption. Put simply smaller and decentralised CHP plants use fuels far more efficiently than older centralised power plants, and wind power has no fossil fuel to waste. Thus the growth of these two sources (10% during the period) has displaced fossil fuels by more than a one-to-one ratio. The use of Biofuels in local CHP plants has further displaced fossil fuel consumption. The figures in the table above show that whilst the reduction in fossil fuel use has been most pronounced in coal use, there has also been a significant reduction in oil and natural gas usage since 2000. Oil has fared better than the other fuels because it still dominates usage in the transport sector and alternative fuels and transport solutions are not yet widely deployed. On 22 March 2012, the then–government of Denmark announced the Energy Agreement, which had the following goals: Eliminating coal from power production by 2030; having completely fossil-fuel-free electricity and heating production by 2035; Providing 100% of Denmark's energy requirements from renewable sources by 2050. In 2018, an energy agreement was signed by the then–government of Denmark with support from all the parties in the Danish parliament at the time. This agreement had the goal of providing 50% of Denmark's energy from renewable energy in 2030, fully covering the Danish people's electricity consumption.For a list of initiatives included in the agreement, see
In 2020, the () current government of Denmark revealed a plan to build two energy islands, one on Bornholm and one on "an artificial island in the North Sea". When built both would have a capacity of at least 2 gigawatts; the North Sea island could eventually have a capacity of 10 gigawatt.
Energy consumption by sector All EU countries as well as Iceland and Norway submitted National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) to outline the steps taken, and projected progress by each country between 2010 and 2020 to meet the Renewable Energy Directive. Each plan contains a detailed breakdown of each country's current renewable energy usage and plans for future developments. According to projections by the Danish submission in 2020 the gross final energy consumption in Denmark by sector breaks down as follows: Projected energy use by sector in 2020MtoeTWhRE 2020 target Heating and cooling7.79039.8%Electricity3.23751.9%Transport5.56410.1%Gross final energy consumption*16.419130.0%
Almost half of energy consumption (46.6%) is used in the heating and cooling sector. The heating and cooling sector (also known as the thermal sector) includes domestic heating and air conditioning, industrial processes such as furnaces and any use of heat generally. The next largest share is the transport sector at 33.6%, followed by the electricity sector at 19.8%. Total annual energy consumption is projected to be by 2020. Denmark's binding 2020 target under the EU Renewable Energy Directive was a 30% share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption, up from 17% in 2005. The share of renewable energy in Denmark more than doubled between 2005 and 2020 on the back of continued investment in wind power and bioenergy, reaching 31.7% in 2020 and thereby meeting the target, although large statistical transfers to Belgium, Ireland and the Netherlands in 2020 and 2021 temporarily reduced the renewable energy share recorded within Denmark. Renewable energy use is expected to be 39.8% in the heating and cooling sector, 51.9% in the electricity sector and 10.1% in the transport sector.
The energy measures above are gross final energy consumption. Another broader measure, primary energy consumption also includes energy used in the extraction of fuels (the energy sector) and energy lost in transformation (the transformation sector, i.e. converting heat to electricity in power plants or fuel energy to heat in heating plants) as well as gross final energy consumption for end users. In 2013 Denmark's total final energy consumption was whilst its primary energy consumption was . Most of the approximately 25% difference is accounted for in losses in the transformation sector. These losses are likely to be most prevalent in thermal electricity sectors, thus the use of renewable electricity will reduce emissions and fuels lost in the energy and transformation sectors as well as those in final consumption. Denmark is one of the world's most fuel efficient countries and the difference between the two measures is smaller than many other countries.
Electricity sector
Production by source
In 2017 wind was the major source of Denmark's net electricity generation, with 50.2 percent of the total yearly production. Biofuels (wood, straw and biogas) and the biodegradable part of waste provided the second-largest RE source at 18.5% of national generation. Solar power has grown significantly in recent years from a low base and provides a further 2.7% share. Hydroelectricity provided just 0.1% of net national generation, but the country maintains strong links to its neighboring countries large hydroelectric reserves. In 2017 fossil fuels and other non renewable sources accounted for just 28.6% of Denmark's total net generation and continues to decline against a total of 71.4% generated from renewable sources.
Growth from renewables
+Electricity generation in Denmark (GWh) from renewable energy sources, 2007–2017Total electricity generation*Land based wind turbinesOffshore wind turbinesPhotovoltaicsHydropower**BiofuelsWasteThermal generation from RE fuels***Total renewable generation% of National generation200737,0245,8001,370301,9361,5703,19210,39228.1%200834,6495,4531,524271,9201,6723,25710,26129.6%200934,2905,0461,664202,1171,5513,0299,75928.5%201036,6185,1222,686213,3131,4674,17612,00532.8%201133,2106,3603,405183,0251,5023,85113,63441.1%201229,0256,7963,472104183,1431,4403,93514,32549.4%201332,9566,7724,351518153,2201,4113,99615,65247.5%201430,6157,9135,165597163,0781,4413,87117,56257.4%201527,7049,3004,833605192,9981,4383,78918,54566.9%201628,9308,1324,650744193,5081,3774,26617,81161.6%201729,4539,5975,180789184,7111,3605,45521,04371.4% * excludes internal consumption by plant. ** figures in italics include photovoltaics. *** includes biofuels and biodegrable fraction of waste. RE terminologyIn other countries
See: Renewable energy by countryInstalled capacity: The maximum power that can be generated under ideal
conditions when a plant is supplied with wind, sun or fuel.
1 kW = App. power of a 1 bar electric fire.
1 MW = 1000 kW
1 GW = 1000 MW
1 TW = 1000 GW
We is watt of electricity, Wth is watt of thermal (heat).
Electricity used / produced:
10 kWh = 1 kW x 10 hours
or 2 kW x 5 hours
100 GWh = 100GW x 1 hour
or 25GW x 4 hours
How many households does 1MW of
wind / solar provide electricity for?
1 Onshore wind turbine rated 2.2 MW
1,202 households (EU)*
App. 546 households per 1 MW, (546,000 per GW)
1 Offshore wind turbine rated 3.6 MW
3,312 households (EU) *
App. 920 households per 1MW, (920,000 per GW)
5MW Solar PV power
1515 households (UK)**
App. 303 households per 1MW, (303,000 per GW)
Sources: *Emea.org **Solar Trade Organisation
The table above shows the proportion of total Danish electricity generated by renewables rose between 2007 and 2017 from 28.1% to 71.4%. Total renewable electricity generation grew from 10.4 TWh in 2007 to 21.0 TWh by 2017. Between 2007 and 2014 most of the growth in RE electricity generation was the result of growing wind power generation (accounting for +56.9% of total generation growth), thermal generation from RE fuels added an additional 6.5%, Solar power has also made an impact as a new power source of an additional 597 GWh (5.7%) since 2012.
Fossil fuel reduction
Renewable energy generation in Denmark increased from 10.4 TWh to 17.6 TWh between 2007 and 2014. Fossil fuel generation fell from 26.3 TWh in 2007 to 12.4 TWh in 2014. Electricity generated from renewables first exceeded electricity from fossil fuels in 2012 and again in 2014.
Coal power, for example, has fallen from 90% of Danish electricity generation in 1990 to 42% in 2005 and 10% in 2020. Current (2023) plans anticipate a complete phase out of coal from the electricity and heat sectors by 2030.
Forecasts