Denmark never ceases to amaze me. Despite switching back and forth between conservative and progressive governance over the past decades, the Danes have continued toward their goal of becoming fossil free. Sure, not as fast as they could, or as fast as those of us in the trade would like, but they steadily make progress.
Recently I saw a mention that Denmark supplied one-third of their gas consumption with biogas last year. What?
Back when I was paying attention—yes, it’s been a while—biogas was big in Denmark in cogeneration. Biogas was mostly being used for electricity generation as in nearby Germany.
I knew there were plans in several European countries to offer feed-in tariffs for biogas injected into the natural gas network. I never expected it to amount to much.
Then Bang. Reports start popping up from Energinet, Denmark’s energy data source, summarizing the country’s success with renewables. (See Renewable energy in the Danish energy system.) It’s just not wind anymore.
Biogas provided 35% of Danish gas consumption in January of 2023.
Wind & Solar
Of course on the electricity side, the contribution from wind, solar, and biogas are continuing to grow.
In 2022, wind and solar delivered 60% of electricity consumption. For nearly a quarter of the days last year, wind and solar provided more than 100% of consumption. Wind provided 53%, and solar 6% of electricity consumption in 2022.
This is what Germany could be doing if it hadn’t faltered during the Merkel years.
Go Denmark.
