TPT May 2012

G lobal M arketplace

and other technologies are established to handle their intermittency and volatility.” The first “incident” recalled by James Kanter, of the International Herald Tribune , occurred during howling weather in the winter of 2010, when Denmark’s heat and power plants were running full bore. So, too, were thousands of windmills both inland and along the coastline, and for a few hours they generated so much power that Danes had to pay other countries to take the surplus. Since then, according to the national grid company Energinet.dk, there have been two more instances in which the price of wind power in Denmark turned negative for a significant period of time because of excessive wind. Writing from Copenhagen on these unintended consequences, Mr Kanter was taking up a topic of keen interest in Denmark. A highly ambitious recent proposal by the Danish government calls for generating half the nation’s power from wind within eight years – up from less than a quarter now. Before approving the target the Danish Parliament must address, among other factors, the expense of the plan. Danish consumers already pay more than the European average for their power. (“Obstacles to Danish Wind Power,” 22 January) But Mr Kanter, who also writes on energy and environment issues in the blog Green Inc, noted that the reaping of wind energy has pan-European significance. Experts say that the critical factor in enabling Denmark to meet its goal will be investment in new and bigger interconnectors to trade more electricity with neighbouring countries. Anders Eldrup, CEO of Dong Energy, the biggest Danish power utility, told the Herald Tribune that some such projects are under way within Scandinavia, with plans as well for interconnectors between Denmark and the Netherlands. There also have been some early-stage discussions about building an interconnector with Britain. “It is a steep increase to go from 20% to 50% wind in just a few years time, so there is a challenge there,” Mr Eldrup said. “But I think our experience tells us that there are solutions to these challenges.” For Jens Moller Birkebaek, the Energinet.dk vice-president, who believes the government’s target is “possible but not straightforward,” the biggest challenges may be technical. He said a major concern is that the supply of electricity could exceed demand for about 1,000 hours each year by 2020 unless there are substantial changes in the way Denmark manages its electricity. Supply and demand Meanwhile, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and Denmark already must store abroad large amounts of excess energy from its fleets of windmills. In Norway and Sweden, wind power from Denmark pumps water uphill to reservoirs. That water is released and drives turbines when power is in demand. But the Danes often pay more for the repurchased power than they received for the surplus because prices depend on demand in the broader Nordic power market.

Improved weather forecasting could help power companies anticipate when other countries need Danish power and when they are in a position to sell power to Denmark. Additionally, Mr Kanter wrote, “ Denmark also is expected to take advantage of an existing plan to remove overhead power lines and bury them underground to install a more efficient and responsive domestic grid to help handle variations in the wind.” › For his part, Dong Energy’s Mr Eldrup said using vastly more wind is part of his strategy to close down coal plants within 20 years by using electricity generated from wind, biomass and gas. Less polluting than coal, the power could also be fired up quickly when the wind dies down. “Big-scale wind and gas are a sort of yin and yang,” Mr Eldrup said. To encourage the combination, governments would need to allow utilities to earn a premium rate for using gas to encourage the utilities to switch it on and off when needed. New storage technologies to manage the increase in wind power might also be necessary, he said. › One storage strategy that Dong is already focused on is the projected electrification of Denmark’s transport sector. Two years ago the power utility took a stake in the Danish subsidiary of a US company – Better Place (Palo Alto, California) – that leases batteries and builds charging facilities for electric vehicles, including home charging equipment and battery swap stations. Mr Kanter reported, “Renault, the French car manufacturer, has received orders in Denmark for about 1,000 models of its all-electric Fluence that will operate on battery systems from Better Place. Delivery of those cars should start in coming weeks, and there could be 20,000 electric cars on Danish roads by 2014, according to Better Place.”

Automotive Big improvements in conventional gasoline-powered cars narrow the mileage gap with hybrids in the US

Before investing hope in electric cars as a means of balancing power on its national grid [See “Energy,” above ), Denmark might pay heed to an increasingly pronounced trend across the Atlantic. In the US, gasoline-powered cars are making headway against hybrids, which saw market share slip to 2.2% in 2011 from a peak of only 2.8% in 2009. As reported by Keith Naughton of Bloomberg News, the efficiency of conventional engines has improved so much that the miles-per- gallon (mpg) gap is closing, making it harder for prospective car buyers to justify paying more for gas-electric models. (“Hybrids’ Unlikely Rival: Plain Old Cars,” 23 February). Mr Naughton cited the experience of one such shopper, Doug Hacker of Cincinnati, Ohio, whose co-workers strongly recommended the Toyota Prius hybrid for its fuel efficiency (50 mpg). But a little research by Mr

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