Second wave of green establishment

By Morten Andersen

Anyone who knows the energy area, will know that the Danes have great expertise in wind power. So it’s not surprising that a number of international manufacturers have established development divisions in Denmark – for example India’s Suzlon and, most recently, China’s Envision Energy. A new development trend is that a number of players outside the wind power industry have begun to arrive. The reason is that Denmark has come a long way in establishing a flexible infrastructure in the energy area. This is necessary to be able to accommodate a large amount of wind power, which is highly variable.

The latest example is US company Nuvve, which develops systems to connect electric cars to the electricity grid. The company, which is based in San Diego, California, has chosen Denmark as the location for its first European subsidiary.

“The higher the proportion of renewable energy in the system, the higher the value of the solutions we supply. Denmark already has about 20 percent renewable energy, mainly from wind, and an ambitious yet realistic goal to reach 50 percent,” says Nuvve’s CTO Willett Kempton.

“In addition, Danish universities are interested in wind energy, electric cars, and technologies that link them together. They are potential partners for us. And lastly, it matters that electric vehicles are tax-exempted in Denmark. That has great value in an incipient market,” explains Willett Kempton.

Testing electrical vehicles
Computer giant IBM has also been attracted by the opportunity of testing new technologies in an electrical system withhigh proportion of renewable energy.

“There is broad consensus that both wind energy and electric cars have enormous potential for creating a sustainable future for energy – and the linking of the two promises to be a winning combination,”
said Guido Bartels, General Manager of IBM’s Global Energy & Utilities Industry division.

IBM has joined the Danish research consortium EDISON (Electric Vehicles in a Distributed and Integrated Market using Sustainable Energy and Open Networks). China’s BYD, which so far has tested all its products in China, has now signed an agreement with the Danish bus company Movia to test its electric-powered buses in Denmark. BYD is one of the largest companies in electric-powered vehicles.

From having 20 employees in 1995, BYD today employs more than 200,000. The company, whose key technology is batteries, combines IT, automobiles and new energy technologies. In addition, Better Place and ChoosEV, which produces electric-powered cars, have established a presence in Denmark.

Strengthening the wind industry
Developments on the demand side, where electric cars and a flexible electricity system interact with renewable energy, means that things are now also becoming more interesting at the end where it all started: wind power. This is noticeable in the town of Silkeborg in Jutland, where the Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Envision Energy has now placed an innovation centre. The goal is to develop the next generation of offshore wind turbines, says company CEO Lei Zhang to windpower.org:

“Denmark has the entire supply chain, key research institutions, good testing facilities and the leading players in the market, Vestas Energy Systems and Siemens Wind Power. In the next decade it will still be in Denmark where the competition to be the best at technology development will take place – the combination of the historically accumulated knowledge in Denmark and the future competition is unique.” After only a year´s time in the country, the company is ready to test a new offshore wind turbine developed at the company´sGlobal Innovation Centre in Denmark.

Envision Energy is headquartered northeast of Shanghai. The company has a strategic partnership with the Chinese energy company Longyuan, which is the largest wind power developer in China. In Denmark, Envision Energy has a strategic partnership with blade manufacturer LM Wind Power.

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This article is from Focus Denmark Magazine, June 2011