Danish wind power whips up record 43% of electricity

Wind power generated 43.4 percent of electricity consumed in Denmark last year, a new record for the Nordic nation which aims to rely on renewables for half of its energy needs by 2030, authorities said Thursday.

"Denmark is on track to surpassing its EU energy targets" which is to have at least 50 percent of its energy needs supplied by renewable resources by 2030, against a current one third, and a zero-fossil fuel energy by 2050, the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate said in a statement.

"With the wind power production record, Denmark places a green flag on the world map," Danish energy minister Lars Lilleholt said.

"We have managed to accommodate large amounts of wind power and other green sources of energy, while maintaining high security of supply," he added.

Anticipating more records in the coming years, Denmark is developing new offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea and North Sea.

The nation imports its additional electricity needs from Norway (hydropower), Sweden (nuclear power) and Germany (solar). It intends to store up its wind and solar energy to guarantee security of supply on less windy and cloudy days.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) praised Denmark's fast transition to renewable energy in a November report, saying the country had become a "world leader in decarbonisation" in two decades.

Scandinavia's southernmost nation, long dependent on energy imports, started to reduce its coal-fired plants in the late 1970s and invested heavily in wind power.

Denmark, which produces both oil and gas and was a net exporter of energy in the late 1990s, is now 90 percent self-sufficient.