Wind Power
To the Danes, the wind is an asset, employing around 25,000 people to make almost half of the world’s wind turbines . Wind generated power accounts over 25% of generating capacity in Denmark today, a figure that the government hopes to boost to 50% by 2020.
You can see the wind turbines everywhere. I was keen to learn more about this type of renewable energy and signed up for a site tour to Lynetten Wind Farm offered by the host city Malmö to participants in the Earth Hour City Challenge conference.
Here we are at the base of the tall turbine in the wind park. Note the row of turbines in the ocean at the back of the photo. Linda Nowlan, WWF Canada, Barbara Evaeus and Annsofie Aaronson, WWF Sweden.
Our tour guide, a retired civil engineer involved in building the complex, gave us the drill. “Put on the white dusters to pick up the oil and dirt as you climb”, he said. “And don’t forget the safety gloves- the rungs on the ladders can be slippery”.
I looked up at the first trapdoor. The metal ladder had about 30 rungs. There were six of these stations in the turbine. The sections grew narrower as we climbed up, and each time the metal trapdoor clanked down, enclosing us in the next stage of our journey, we all winced. It was cold, dark, and scary.
At the top of the turbine, we inched our way out of the narrow opening onto the top railing.
The vista before us –turbines on shore, turbines off shore, industrial lands and the city of Copengahen – was stunning. Now we could learn the facts on wind power. In fact we could feel the wind whipping through us, icy and biting.
The Lynetten Windm¯llelaug I/S (Lynetten Wind Cooperative) is home to seven wind turbines on a dike in Copenhagen harbor . The wind speed in this area is in the medium range for Danish wind power sites and the turbines have a capacity factor of approximately 20.5%, totaling 4.2 MW for the entire park.
Denmark has made stellar progress on wind in a few short decades. Its’ ambitious 2008 Promotion of Renewable Energy Act is one reason. Project builders are required by law to offer at least 20 per cent of the ownership shares for sale to local citizens’ living within 4.5 km from the site of installation. Giving citizens a buy-in option for wind turbine shares boosts local support for these projects.
Denmark intends to become entirely independent of fossil fuels by 2050, a goal that WWF also embraces.
Sweden is no slouch either. The 48 turbines in the Lillgrund Wind Park located approximately 10 kilometres off the south coast of Malmö, in the waters between Sweden and Denmark, is Sweden´s largest investment in wind and to date, and the third largest installation of off-shore wind energy in the world.
In British Columbia, where I live, a number of wind power projects are underway or proposed. The 2012 report WindVision 2025: A Strategy for British Columbia finds that wind energy is the most cost-effective renewable energy technology for large amounts of new generation, and predicts a falling cost for wind energy in BC.
