{"id":181,"date":"2024-08-01T11:22:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T11:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/?page_id=181"},"modified":"2024-09-11T18:38:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T18:38:38","slug":"some-climate-progress-is-better-than-none-denmark-germany","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/?page_id=181","title":{"rendered":"How large is climate progress in Denmark & Germany?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The climate progress in Europe has been too little and too late, but that is better than none. \u00a0A look on this page at Denmark and Germany.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A great majority of Denmark’s energy is not environmentally friendly.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Denmark has made remarkable progress using wind, but it still is 85% dependent upon carbon emitting fuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Denmark's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denmark \u00a0uses wood pellets and fossil fuels for electricity, heating and transportation. By 2024 wind, solar and biofuels may have exceed 50% of all energy supply. Denmark counts its wood pellets as green, but, as I show on a dedicate page, they are much worse than coal. Counting them correctly 87 percent of Denmarks energy use is from high emission sources!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focusing only on electrical generation, Denmark miscounts electricity from the wind.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denmark\u2019s on shore winds are on average only 11-12 mph (19 km\/hour) at a height of 10 meters, but off shore at 90 meters height they are about an estimated 22 mph (32 km\/hour).  <\/span>The depth of the seabed off Denmark is only 10 – 20 meters, compared to 37-50 meters off New England.  <\/span>The countryside is flat and a great majority is fields.  <\/span>The North Sea and Baltic Sea are close. Denmark’s population is about 5.9 million.  Denmark annually uses one-half as much electricity per capita as the USA \u2014 about 33 billion kWh (2020).  This situation is highly favorable for using wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Denmark<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source of chart: https:\/\/www.statista.com\/statistics\/1235360\/denmark-distribution-of-electricity-production-by-source\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, despite the above graph, arguably Denmark gets only around 18% of its electricity from wind!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per year Denmark produces 20.85 billion kWh of electricity, of which it exports 12.7 billion or about 45%. \u00a0Since it would not be economic to burn bio- or fossil fuels in order to export the electricity, \u00a0the peak kilowatt capacity of turbines must exceed domestic needs by 45%. \u00a0(Since the average efficiency of turbines was only 24% in 2022, huge numbers of turbines must have been installed.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(https:\/\/renewablesnow.com\/news\/denmarks-under-performing-and-curtailed-wind-turbines-have-lost-dkk-21bn-in-asset-revenue-800172\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0No other nation is even close to having capacity to supply its domestic electrical needs from wind, \u2014 much less export it \u2014or has the geographic position, the low per capita electrical demand ,and low population to do so<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denmark also imports 60% of its electricity! \u00a0<\/strong>This is not surprising, because often there is no wind or very little wind. \u00a0Where does this imported electricity come from? \u00a0Other European countries almost never have an excess of nuclear or solar energy, and wind strength is regional. \u00a0So the imported electricity comes from fossil fuels<\/strong>. (France sometimes exports energy from nuclear plants, but Denmark does not abut France.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Denmark uses 15% more electricity than it generates. \u00a0Calculating on the total base of usage, 30% of its electricity is from domestic CO2 emitting fuels and 52% if from imported fossil fuel electricity. \u00a0Only 18 % of all electricity it uses is from wind\/solar generation.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should \u00a0we give credit to Denmark for the 45% of its wind produced electricity it exports?<\/em> Why not!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany: Over 80% of energy is from high emission sources.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"undefined\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the 50 plus years, gas and nuclear replaced coal, and nuclear is \u00a0now being replaced by wind and solar energy. \u00a0Because the German economy is large (population 84 million), this is perhaps the largest saving of CO2 in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Graph<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above charts show that after deducting biomass, about 44% of all electricity produced in Germany comes from low CO2 sources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is carbon capture a reasonable solution?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The climate progress in Europe has been too little and too late, but that is better than none. \u00a0A look […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-181","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":538,"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/181\/revisions\/538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climate-reality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}