A windy end to the year 2018 could not make up for many months of steady weather, which prevented Danish wind energy performance from reaching last year’s result of 43 per cent.

However, the rise of electricity prices that caused the wind turbine transfer price to increase significantly meant that 2018 did become a very good year for the Danish wind industry.

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 The total energy production from Danish wind turbines was 13.9 TWh compared to last year’s 14.7 TWh. The production decreased albeit the total capacity for wind energy increased to around 200 MW.

‘’The share of wind in 2018’s total power consumption was 41 per cent, which is still outstanding seen in a European perspective. The small decrease in production compared to last year was mainly caused by the sunny weather in the spring,’’ said Søren Klinge, Senior Economist at the Danish Wind Turbine Owners' Association.

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A large increase in prices

The average transfer price on wind energy increased by nearly 50 per cent to an average of EUR 0,040/kWh, while the average transfer price in 2017 was only EUR 0,026/kWh. In comparison, the average market price on electricity in 2018 was EUR 0,044/kWh (consumption-weighted).

‘’Although the total wind energy production has decreased by 6 per cent since last year, the price increase in the electricity market counterbalanced the decrease in production, which means that overall 2018 became a good year for the Danish wind turbines,’’ said Søren Klinge.

‘’The price increase in the electricity market are caused by multiple factors such as the higher prices for CO2 emissions, reduced water levels in the Nordic water storages, and rise in the cost of fossil fuel for conventional thermal power plants,’’ he ended.

-Source: Danish Wind Turbine Owners' Association (In Danish)