Country Review

DENMARK

Denmark is together with Germany, committed to reduce CO2 emissions by 21% (relative to the 1990 level) by 2008-2012. The main efforts have hitherto been directed at low cost solutions such as energy saving, building insulation and fuel substitution (coal to gas) combined with investments abroad in low-CO2 projects (e.g. wood chip energy plant in Romania). A CO2 electricity tax is levied on industry (about 7 € per tonne) and the revenue is reinvested in industrial energy efficiency measure and renewable energy projects such as wind mill farms. Private consumers also pay a tax: about 1.5 €cent per KWh. An emission cap-and-trade system has for a number of years been in operation for the 18 major power producers.

Electricity is produced mainly from coal-fired plants, with extensive use also of district heating from these plants and from waste incineration.

Denmark is self-sufficient with oil and natural gas from the North Sea. About 1/3 of the hydrocarbon production is exported. The majority of the hydrocarbons are produced from high porosity/low permeability chalk fields, from which the ultimate oil recovery efficiency is currently anticipated to be low; less than 1/3 of the original oil discovered. The use of CO2 for Enhanced Oil Recovery would be an obvious possibility, but has not been investigated.

The geological conditions of the onshore and near-shore areas are very favourable for eventual geological storage of CO2. An assessment of the aquifer storage potential was carried out in the GESTCO study, revealing a capacity of 16 billion tonnes of CO2 in 11 structures.