The Copenhagen Post

Sunday
December 6th
Banner
Front page Climate Climate World’s largest wind farm spins into action

World’s largest wind farm spins into action

Thursday, 17 September 2009 09:15 RC Climate
E-mail Print

Hundreds of thousands of homes will begin receiving their power from the new Horns Rev II wind farm

Crown Prince Frederik, Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Climate Minister Connie Hedegaard will be on hand today for the opening of Horns Rev II, the world’s largest wind farm.

Located in the North Sea some 30 kilometres off the western coast of Jutland, the wind farm covers 35 square kilometres and boasts 91 wind turbines. It is able to produce 209 megawatts of carbon free energy – enough for 200,000 homes’ annual electricity usage.

Horns Rev II is expected to create around 9,000 new jobs in the area. It is also the first wind farm to have living quarters for its workers built onto its platforms.

Televised by TV2, the opening ceremony for the wind park begins at noon with Crown Prince Frederik setting the blades in motion.

Comments
Only CPHPOST registered users can write comments!
tom1980   |2009-09-17 15:05:34
The Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Texas has 421 wind turbines that generate a total capacity of 735 megawatts.

Compare that to the one in the above story with 91 turbines and 201 megawatts.

Maybe the title of this story should be "World's largest propaganda campaign spins out of control".
mig selv   |2009-09-17 13:38:23
JP headlined it, "Nu snurrer verdens største havmøllepark."

Compare that to the incomplete translation above.

Perhaps the title of your comment should be "Misguided Expat Jumps to Predetermined Conclusion."
tomnashdk   |2009-09-17 16:40:50
Altamont Pass Wind Farm in central California just east of San Francisco has over 4900 small wind turbines and a capacity of 576 megawatts. it covers an area of approximately 177 square kilometers.
JFD  - Don't Believe the Hype!   |2009-09-17 14:44:51
In business school we did a case study on Net Present Value (for all of you non-financial types, in its simplest terms NPV calculates the net value of future cash flows today since the value of a unit of currency today is not the same as value that same currency in the future). The case revolved around an actual case of a PECO Energy nuclear powerplant. Based on the cost to fabricate, operate and maintain the plant and expected energy prices consumers would pay for electricity generated from the plant, it showed that the plant would never make any money... even if the price of energy was double that of what it actually projected. The only way the plant made financial sense was with heavy government subsidy.

I wonder, what the NPV of this project is? Granted it is not a nuclear plant, but none-the-less I'll bet it is so far in the red that us tax payers will be footting the bill for years on top of the rediculous energy prices we already pay. Note how not a word about the projects finances were published.

I also find it funny that Danes actually think that anything they do will have a material impact on global climate change. Let me reiterate that in no uncertain terms:

NOTHING DENMARK DOES WILL HAVE ANY MATERIAL EFFECT ON GLOBAL CLIMATE.

N-O-T-H-I-N-G

What is not so funny is that you and I are throwing away our hard-earned money on rediculous governement fees and taxes so DK can be seen as the world leader to green-clean-climate-whatever.

Don't believe the hype people!
tom1980   |2009-09-17 16:40:42
"Don't believe the hype people!"

Don't worry JFD, I dont believe anything I read in this newspaper.

I expect people are wondering while I still read it then.

Put it this way, when you bought that fancy bottle of snakeoil off the old wizard at the pier, you werent intending to drink it.
PC  - actually JFD...   |2009-09-18 10:24:28
In a recent report, which was mentioned in this newspaper, it states that Denmark is one of the top polluting countries (top 5 if I remember right) in Europe despite being so small. So I guess they do have a material impact after all.

(In case you are trying to figure out this one, they take into account all the emissions from Mærsks tankers and operations around the globe)

Oh and as for your NPV analyses you seem to forget that, in modern society, electricity is a basic necessary good. So yes, it should be government funded if its operation is not profitable.

Or you could start using candles? Oh wait CO2 emissions...
tomnashdk   |2009-09-18 22:29:18
Denmark does very little to curb its actual emissions. The dirty little secret (pun intended) is that Denmark stays within it's commitments to treaties by buying carbon credits on the open market from countries that do not create enough pollution to use all of their credits. So while Denmark can technically claim that it is following the treaties by not exceeding the carbon credits, in actuality it is buying its way out of having to make any meaningful and substantive changes.

If Denmark truly wants to make a dent in its carbon emissions, it should get rid of or signiificantly reduce the ridiculous tax on vehicles, which essentially keeps older polluting vehicles on the road years longer than normal. But "tax reduction" and "Denmark" are mutually exclusive terms, and to hell with social responsibility. Social responsibility is something to preach to other countries from behind the smoke screen (that pun intended as well.)
 

Focus on

 

Failing the grade

A lack of international schools, especially those offering the International Baccalaureat...

 

Home sweet home?

Take part in the on-going debate over the quality of life for foreign professionals in De...

 

A gift in a time of crisis

The national government owes it to the rest of the country to promote growth in Greater C...

Copenhagen Podcast



image

 



JP International

The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen