The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark has announced that the country will reach its goal of 200MW by 2020 this year due to favourable government incentives. The Ministry estimates that solar cell capacity will be a hundred times bigger this year compared with 2010. Currently, 36MW is said to being installed every month.
Danish energy sector players, Dansk Energi, Energinet.dk and DONG Energy, estimate that this development will result in 1000MW by 2020 and 3400MW by 2030.
Project manager Kim Schultz from Invest in Denmark said, “The demand for solar cells has increased dramatically since net metering was implemented in 2010. Net metering gives private households and public institutions the possibility of ‘storing’ surplus production in the public grid, which makes solar panels considerably more attractive.
“Denmark benefits from a strong design tradition and this also characterizes the Danish solar sector in which aesthetics and thinking ahead of user needs is a central part of product development”, continued Schultz. “This means that solar solutions are more likely to meet consumers’ demands.
“Last but not least, Denmark has a unique energy system with a very high share of renewable energy. This makes the energy system very suitable as a platform for Smart Grid technologies, which are a key element to fully exploit renewable energy sources like solar panels and wind energy”, concludes Schultz.
The Danish parliament has proposed 35% of the country’s energy supply to be based on renewables by 2020, making it 100% by 2050. Denmark already covers 22% of the nation’s energy consumption with renewables.
“As part of the energy agreement, we are committed to creating a comprehensive strategy for establishing smart grids in Denmark. To promote the transition to renewable energy, we have furthermore dedicated 42m DKK (approximately US$7.3 million) to analysing how we can make green solutions like solar energy even more attractive in the future,” says Minister for Trade and Investment, Pia Olsen Dyhr.
