Gathering Ideas.

Not much in life is unique to one person's own discoveries. Life is about mixing it up and learning about other cultures and taking on board the good and avoiding the bad where possible.

In the past 20 or so years I have been lucky to have been able to travel to many parts of the globe and seen how some societies have embraced renewable energy from an early stage in their development. One of the most progressive energy conscious countries I have had the privelage of visiting is Denmark.

Copenhagen is an old city which has embraced utilising different forms of transportation to suit its varied requirements. Even in the cold of winter you will see people numbering several thousand on bicycles making their way around the established inner city streets. In other cities like Aalborg and Aarhus it is very much the same on an albeit smaller scale and scattered around the region you will see evidence of renewable energy that is now contributing healthy percentages to the Danish energy requirement.

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur war, Denmark was 98% dependent on foreign oil for its power. Today, 36 years later, the country derives 21% of its energy from wind and is a net exporter of energy.


After the ’73 oil crisis, Denmark got real about energy. First, they focused on energy use, by requiring greater energy efficiency in buildings through insulation and energy audit requirements. Second, they invested in district heating systems, in which electricity producers capture “waste” heat created during power generation and distribute the heat to homes and buildings for use as a heating source. Third, they made a commitment to developing clean, renewable energy, and in 2005 provided 40% of the world’s wind energy, generating $4 billion turbine technology exports and creating 23,000 jobs in the process.

Many of the new turbines appearing around the British landscape have come via Danish companies now exporting their renewable energy know how.

Denmark is not an energy utopia. Part of their pathway to energy independence has been lined by aggressively pursuing oil drilling in the North Sea. But the Danish people as a society are looking forward rather than towards their past. They appear to have incorporated the clean, renewable ethos into the fabric of their society and have committed to invest $1 billion in tidal, solar and fuel cell technology R&D over the next 7 years, an investment which should dramatically boost their renewable portfolio and presumably their exports to a world market hungering for renewables.