Solar power in Denmark


Solar power in Denmark contributes to a goal to use 100% renewable energy by 2050. The goal of 200 MW of photovoltaics by 2020 was reached eight years early, in 2012, and 36 MW was being installed each month. Denmark had 790 MW in late 2015. A total of 3,400 MW is expected to be installed by 2030. Many solar-thermal district heating plants exist and are planned in Denmark.

Installed capacity

YearTotal in MWpInstalled in MWpΔ%References
1996<10.1100%
1997<10.2100%
1998<10.125%
199910.6120%
2000>10.436%
2001>100%
2002>10.17%
2003>10.319%
200420.421%
2005>20.417%
2006>20.27%
200730.27%
2008>30.196%
2009<51.339%
201072.554%
2011169130%
20123323162075%
201356424870%IEA-PVPS
201460339.47%IEA-PVPS
2015789183IEA-PVPS
2016~90070IEA-PVPS

Timeline

Solar power provided the equivalent of 2.8 percent of Danish electricity consumption in 2018.
2020
In 2020 The Danish Energy Agency to host 400 MW PV projects in the Nissum Fjord location.
2015
In 2015 only 6.3 MW was applied for out of a funding pool of 41 MW. The funding is valued at 1.02 DKK/kWh for 2015, and 0.88 for 2016. In 2016, a German solar power auction was won by a set of projects with a combined capacity of 50 MW at a price of 5.38 eurocent/kWh, which is unusually low for Northern Europe. The projects are located in Denmark due to EU rules.
2013
In 2013 PV deployment remained strong with 216 MW of new installation, despite the fact that it was 32 percent down from previous record year.
2012
In 2012, new photovoltaic installations had surged to unprecedented levels in Denmark. This twentyfold increase in photovoltaic capacity in only one year urged the Danish government to cut back its net-metering scheme. In December 2012, Danish parliament reduced the compensation period of net-metering from a yearly to an hourly bases and increased in turn the granted feed-in tariffs. This change in policy intended to reduce the overall attractiveness of further PV deployment while keeping up some incentives for small developments. It also reduced the loss of tax revenues for the government by shifting the costs directly to the electricity consumers.

Solar heating

Solar heat plants are widespread in Denmark.
A large solar-thermal district heating plant 55% of the year-round heating needs of the town of Marstal. This is after an expansion of the original plant which supplied one-third of the heating needs, The plant uses seasonal thermal energy storage in the form of a large lined pits that is filled with gravel and water as the heat storage medium. The storage, which is covered with a layer of insulation, enables solar heat collected primarily in summer to be used year-round. The system includes 75,000 m³ of heat storage pits, 33,000 m² of solar-thermal collector area, and a 1.5 MW heat pump. It also includes a biomass CHP plant for generating electricity and additional heat; however a spokesman said "If I were to calculate the economics for a project today, I would opt for a heat pump," because the cost of wood pellets has greatly increased. "At least, we can always count on solar energy to be free of charge." The expansion of the Marstal facility, completed in 2013, was part of the European Union's SunStore4 project, and can serve as a basic model for such heating plants elsewhere in Europe if local conditions are also taken into account.
In Braedstrup, the community's solar district heating system stores heat in a borehole STES facility that uses 19,000 cubic metres of underground strata as a heat battery. It can hold 500 MWh of heat at a temperature of 65 °C. Two water tanks provide additional heat storage. When extracting heat, a 1.5 MW heat pump boosts the temperature to 80 °C, for circulation in the district heating loop. The present system is the first expansion of an original smaller system, and now provides 20% of the community's heat on an annual basis, from a solar collector area of 10,600 square metres. A second expansion is planned, to provide 50% of the heat demand from a total solar collector area of 50,000 square metres and using an enlarged BTES store. The remainder of the demand is provided by electric and gas-fired boilers.
The Braedstrup system is designed to integrate with the national electric grid. The heat pump and electric boiler are used when there is surplus wind power available on the grid, contributing to the stability of the system and maximal use of the wind power. The natural gas boiler is used when this renewable electricity is not available.