Renewable energy from wind supplied Denmark with all its electricity on the night of June 9 and early morning June 10. Excess energy was stored by Germany and Denmark using pumped hydro. Wow. This shows that renewables can indeed supply huge amounts of power on a reliable basis. Will power plants using natural gas and coal continue to be needed? Absolutely. However perhaps someday, sooner rather than later, carbon-based fuel supplies will be the backup power for renewable energy.
Three-quarters of Danish wind power is onshore, with big offshore wind farms being planned as well as more onshore wind turbines.
So much power was produced by Denmark’s windfarms on Thursday that the country was able to meet its domestic electricity demand and export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden.
On an unusually windy day, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.
Texas is also a leader in wind power. On March 26, 2014, it set a new record of 29% of power from wind.