Renewables now cover 56% of electricity consumption in Denmark

According to the Danish Energy Agency, the largest contribution to the production of electricity from renewables came from wind power at 41.8% and biomass at 11.0%.

In addition, increased electricity imports and higher electricity production from wind power meant that fuel consumption to generate electricity fell by 14.4% in 2015. This trend covers a total drop in coal, oil and natural gas consumption of 30.4%, while consumption of renewable energy rose by 2.7%.

Increasing consumption of renewable energy

Consumption of renewable energy increased from 2014 to 2015 by 6.4% to 206 PJ. This has partly been due to an increase in wind power generation of 8.1%. According to the EU method of calculation, renewables accounted for around 30% of energy consumption in 2015, against 29.2% in 2014.

Drop in emissions of greenhouse gases

The large drop in the consumption of coal in 2015 meant that the observed CO2 emissions from energy consumption fell by 6.6% in 2015 to 35.2 million tonnes. Adjusted for fluctuations in climate and fuel consumption linked to foreign trade in electricity, CO2 emissions fell by 3.3%. Since 1990, adjusted CO2 emissions have been reduced by 35.8%.

A preliminary statement of total Danish observed emissions of greenhouse gases shows a drop of 4.9% in 2015 corresponding to a reduction of observed emissions of greenhouse gasses of 31.1% since 1990.