Clean Power Blowing in Denmark Wind

Wind power is taking off in Denmark, already the world’s second-biggest producer of wind energy after the United States.

A major electricity company plans to build the world’s first offshore wind-energy plant--11 turbines on rocks in the Baltic Sea.

Elkraft Power Co. said the plant will cost $5.8 million and, by 1991, could produce enough electricity to supply 4,000 homes.

Clean power advocates like Torgny Moeller, publisher of a wind-power magazine, say wind could provide 20% of Denmark’s electricity needs in the year 2000. That’s double the government’s goal for renewable energy use by that date.

“Some communities in Jutland already are receiving up to 30% of their electric power from windmills,” Moeller said.

About 3,000 turbines across the country provide only 1.5% of national electricity consumption.

But the Danish Energy Ministry said power generated by wind turbines is competitive financially with power from oil and coal. And oil price increases, such as those triggered by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, could make wind power more attractive.

The government began a $164-million turbine investment program 10 years ago. Since then, the cost of a kilowatt-hour of wind-generated electricity has fallen from 16 cents to 5.5 cents.

The cost of electricity produced from fossil fuels in Denmark is 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

In Ebeltoft, a string of 16 wind turbines built on a 2,600-foot pier generates enough electricity to satisfy needs of 600 homes.

Some call them windmills, but the old-fashioned word is too romantic for these three-bladed streamlined structures. The blades, like huge airplane propellers, swing in unison as the wind changes direction.

From a small control room, supervisor Knud Nielsen uses a computer to monitor the turbines.

Nielsen and one assistant maintain the machinery. “We’ve learned from experience that it’s best to keep the design of windmills as mechanically simple as possible,” he said.

Local authorities financed half the $3.4-million cost of the project in 1985. “One well-placed windmill park can pay for itself in five to six years,” Nielsen said.

The amount of energy that can be produced depends largely on the site. Turbines in built-up areas are least efficient. Wind blowing over open land provides power less efficiently than wind over open water.

Denmark built three more seaside turbine parks after the success of the Ebeltoft project.

Denmark will need a combination of clean-energy sources to wean itself from fossil fuels and from the nuclear-generated power it gets from Sweden through the Scandinavian grid, Nielsen said.

“The best solution is a local mixed system, a hybrid of wind and solar energy. When there is no wind, the sun can still be shining,” he said.