New Offshore Wind in Denmark 18 Cents per kWh

By Paul Gipe

 

While traveling in Denmark this year I picked up a local newspaper (Dagbladet 13 September 2012, p 32) that had an article on the huge Anholt offshore project in the northern Kattegat–the straits between Denmark and Sweden.

The 400 MW project had only one bidder, DONG, and the price awarded was 1.051 DKK per kWh. At the exchange rate then this was ~$0.18 per kWh.

The tariff is for a contract term of 20 TWh of generation or about 10-12 years of operation.

This is significant in the Danish context because developing wind on land would be far cheaper and would offer opportunity of ownership to more than just one utility company.

Offshore wind has been characterized as the “nuclear power” of renewables. It works, but is expensive.