Interactive EurObserv’ER Database - Country policy schemes

Solar thermal energy in Denmark

General

The importance of energy independence in Denmark is underlined in the government plan ‘A Visionary Danish Energy Policy’ (January 2007) in which also the importance of renewable energy sources is stressed. Denmark is known for its high penetration rates of wind power in the electricity systems, that locally may result in overcapacity during certain time-frames. Heat supply through distribution networks is common practice in Denmark. The major developments of the district heat sector took place in the 1980s and 1990s, focusing on cogeneration of electricity and heat. According to the present policy Denmark should have at least 30% energy supply from renewable energy in 2025, which corresponds to a wind power production of around 50% of electricity consumption.
According to the draft Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources the target for the share of energy from renewable sources in gross final consumption of energy in the year 2020 for Denmark is 30% (in the year 2005 the share was 17.0%) The Directive has a mandatory 10 % target for transport to be achieved by all Member States, which refers to renewable sources as a whole, not biofuels alone.

Renewable energy projections according to the National Renewable Energy Action Plan for Denmark

The National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP) for Denmark was submitted in July 2010. The target according to Annex I of Directive 2009/28/EC is 30% for the year 2020 and the projected NREAP share in that year exactly matches the target. According to the projection, the most important contribution in the year 2020 is expected from biomass (renewable heating and cooling) (2643 ktoe, 54% of all renewable energy). Second important contribution is expected from wind power (11.7 TWh or 1007 ktoe, 20% of all renewable energy). The third largest contribution is from biomass (renewable electricity) (8.8 TWh or 761 ktoe, 15% of all renewable energy). Wind power contributes with 4.0 GW (11.7 TWh) in the year 2020 (onshore wind 2.6 GW and 6.4 TWh, offshore wind 1.3 GW and 5.3 TWh). For solar photovoltaic the 2020 contribution is projected to be 0.0 GW (0.0 TWh). For solar thermal the 2020 contribution is projected to be 16 ktoe. The two most important biofuels are projected to contribute 167 ktoe (biodiesel) and 94 ktoe (bioethanol / bio-ETBE) by 2020. The renewable electricity production from solid biomass amounts to 6.3 TWh (546 ktoe) and for biogas it is expected to be 2.5 TWh (214 ktoe). The consumption of renewable heat is expected to amount to 2470 ktoe for solid biomass and 165 ktoe for biogas.

Renewable heat: solar thermal
The subsidies available for solar thermal from 1979-2002 and those available under the 1997 Energy Plan likely contributed to the strong growth in the solar thermal market. The 2001 Executive Order for Solar Heating Obligations in New Buildings Outside District Heating Areas was accompanied by an approximately 5% annual increase in solar thermal heating.
The overall policy is that the majority of the national solar heating field is well developed after 30 years of research and development (There was 40.000 solar thermal installations in Denmark with a total surface of 400.000 m² by 2005. Eight large solar thermal plants are connected to district heating; the largest in Marstal is 19.000 m²). Standard subsidies were cancelled in 2002, and will probably not return since increasing prices for oil and natural gas more than compensate for the missing subsidies. Therefore, only the development and demonstration of new concepts will be funded. Some demonstration projects of solar heating coupled to district heating have been funded, as well as some IEA SHC Tasks including cooling projects. Existing national solar heating and cooling programmes are energy research programme and PSO (public service obligation). New programme is EUDP (Energy Technological Development and Demonstration Programme).

Future programme changes expected
Solar thermal district heating plants will be nearly competitive with oil and natural gas and the PSO (public service obligation) system still has funding for them, therefore, it is expected that this sector will grow. Similarly, the interest in small solar heating plants is increasing despite a lack of funding. Interest in the development of solar cooling systems is increasing. The new EUDP programme has a strong focus in development and demonstration leading to commercialisation, therefore, new concepts and manufacturing will be stimulated.

Sources
Denmark 2008, National Programme Report, http://www.iea-shc.org/countries/reports/report.aspx?Country=Denmark

IEA: Renewables for Heating and Cooling, untapped potential, Renewable Energy Technology Deployment, 2008

The National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) are all published on the Transparency Platform on Renewable Energy: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/action_plan_en.htm (sourced July - December 2010)

Renewable Energy Projections as Published in the National Renewable Energy Action Plans of the European Member States, http://www.ecn.nl/nreap (sourced December 2010)

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Last update: March 2011

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