In context: World governments are gradually increasing their use of renewable energy, but some countries are certainly performing better in this regard than others. Denmark has always fallen into the former group – indeed, on multiple occasions, the region has made headlines for satisfying its citizens' 24-hour energy needs entirely through renewable sources.
However, the Nordic country isn't interested in leaving well enough alone. Today, the Danish Ministry of Finance announced an ambitious new plan to boost its wind power production capacity. Instead of merely building a few more wind turbines here and there, the country will construct two entire "energy islands" exclusively dedicated to clean power facilities (mostly, if not entirely wind, it seems).
Denmark says these islands could supply the country with as much as 4 GW of offshore wind energy, which is "more than twice" the energy that the country currently produces at sea. And that's just in the short term – down the line, these islands could begin to provide as much as 10 GW of wind energy.
Denmark is leaving itself plenty of time to establish these islands, of course: the soft deadline is 2030, for now, though we're sure it'll be extended or shortened if things don't go as planned (or they go particularly well).
In addition to this "new era" of energy islands, Denmark hopes to move forward with several more clean energy initiatives. These initiatives will include significant government-led investments in green energy as a whole, a conversion to a green waste sector (as well as boosted recycling), an attempt to ensure "green heat" for Danes, and improved green energy efficiency.
We look forward to seeing how many of these goals Denmark's leaders will accomplish over the coming years. However, we don't expect any significant progress to be made toward them until the Covid-19 pandemic burns itself out.
Image credit: Petra Nowack, Dirk Goldhahn