Danish wind energy has record year - The Local

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http://www.thelocal.dk/20150106/danish-wind-energy-has-record-year

Danish wind energy has record year

With 39 percent of Denmark's electricity use covered by wind power in 2014, the climate minister says the nation is well on its way to hits its 2020 goals.
2014 was a record year for wind power in Denmark.

According to year-end numbers from Energinet.dk, 39 percent of all electricity used in Denmark last year was produced by wind power. The 2014 totals dipped slightly from the 41.2 percent of electricity generated by wind through the year’s first six months, but the climate minister said Denmark is still well on its way to achieving its energy goals.
“We will definitely hit our 2020 goals. We have set a one-of-a-kind world record. And it shows that we can reach our ultimate goal, namely to stop global warming,” Climate Minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen told broadcaster DR.

The Danish government has set the goal of having half of all electricity produced by wind power by 2020.

According to Energinet.dk, there was nothing extraordinary about the amount of wind in 2014 and the increase in electricity production can be attributed in part to the more than 100 new offshore windmills that were installed in 2014.

The amount of electricity produced by wind varied throughout the year, from a high of 61.7 percent in January to a low of 23 percent in June.

Petersen said the wind record puts Denmark well on its way to phasing out coal, a process that he said in October he would like to see happen in just ten years.
“It is moving too slowly with getting the heat pumps into our heating systems and thus integrated into the energy and heat sector. That becomes more and more pressing as the amount of wind energy increases,” he told DR.

Petersen responded by saying that the government has set aside 60 million kroner toward a heat pump trial programme meant to encourage Danish power plants to embrace the more climate-friendly, but currently more costly, solution.