This week, the Danish Energy Agency reported a bit of bad news from the land of wind. The surprise is that, despite the ever-growing amount of renewables in the mix, carbon emissions rose too.
What happened?
This small country has had a reputation of being a renewable model country for others to admire. And remember, Denmark has pledged to be a carbon-emission-free nation by 2050.
Actual energy consumption in Denmark increased by 0.2% in 2018. The increase is seen in virtually all fuels. The consumption of coal, which fell 25.5% from 2016 to 2017, increased by 1.9% in 2018, while consumption of oil and renewable energy increased by 0.9% and 0.3%, respectively.
The adjusted gross energy consumption rose by 0.8% in 2018 on the basis of an increase in coal, oil and renewable energy, of 5.1%, 1.0% and 1.3%, respectively, while consumption of natural gas fell by 4.0%.
The increase in coal consumption is probably due to less wind in 2018 and thus lower wind power production.”
Ironic, isn’t it?
Denmark had a very long and dry summer last year, and wind energy generation was low, so we burned a lot of coal to compensate. Ouch. More solar PV would have come in handy in this situation.
What about emissions?
The rising consumption of fossil fuels in 2018 has resulted in actual emissions of CO2 from energy consumption increasing by 0.3% compared to 2017. Renewable energy’s share of actual energy consumption was 32.7% in 2018. This is unchanged compared to 2017.
This means development has stagnated from the year 2015.
Looking at the whole period, there is nothing to be ashamed of, but since 2015, it seems like something has stopped working.
Reference- Clean Technica, Danish Energy Agency Report