The International Energy Agency's (IEA) latest study shows that Denmark remains a global leader in decarbonizing its economy, and is on track to meet its ambitious goal of becoming a low-carbon economy by the middle of the century.
According to the IEA's review on Tuesday, which focuses on the country's energy policies, the country aims for renewables to cover at least 50 percent of the country’s total energy consumption by 2030.
'By 2050, Denmark aims to be a low-carbon society independent of fossil fuels. The IEA’s latest review of Denmark’s energy policies finds it is moving convincingly to meet these world-leading targets,' IEA stated.
- Challenges and opportunities
The IEA underlined that the growing share of wind power has created new challenges and opportunities for the Danish electricity and heating sectors, as well as for end-use sectors such as transport, buildings and industry.
'Denmark’s energy policy has a special focus on two interrelated issues,' the report says elaborating that these include how to increase the share of renewables in the power system beyond its current share of 45 percent, and how to decarbonize the heating sector.
These two areas are critical for further advancing decarbonization in Denmark and they also offer an attractive potential for energy system integration, the report showed.
- Electricity generation in Denmark has changed fundamentally over past two decades
The report says that coal generation has been steadily replaced, and the bulk of power generation now comes from wind and bioenergy.
In addition, Denmark has also become a world leader in system integration of variable renewable energy (VRE). It has the highest share of wind power in electricity generation, and electricity supply is stable and secure at both transmission and distribution levels.
Denmark is also among the global leaders in using energy-efficient technologies, including combined heat and power (CHP) that provides half the electricity and two-thirds of heat sold in the country.
By Gulsen Cagatay
Anadolu Agency
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