While many countries, including the United States, have been talking about reducing their dependency on fossil fuels for a long time, Denmark has set the goal -and a date- for actually doing it. According to Denmark.dk, the official website of Denmark, the Scandinavian nation has announced the most comprehensive renewable energy goal on Earth. Denmark plans to stop using all fossil fuels (oil, gas or coal-based) for transportation and general energy production by the year 2050.

Skeptics may point out that this is just an announcement and may be nothing more than some wishful thinking, a valid point until you know the facts -Denmark is already well on its way. Thanks chiefly to a large, decades long investment in wind power, the country makes a full 40 percent of its energy from renewable energy sources. And by 2020 they are right on track to hit 50%. That’s one half of all its energy needs!

There are some challenges, though. With much of its energy coming from wind power, the concept of energy storage becomes important. During windless spells, where does the power come from? Where is it stored? Well, currently it isn’t. The wind power is “backed up” by fossil fuel generation. In Denmark’s all-renewable future, energy storage is thus a major issue.
Another not so obvious issue is that the many cheaper renewable energy sources now operating in Denmark have already started to economically affect the nation’s fossil fuel energy plants. Basically, most of the renewable sources are cheaper to maintain than the fossil fuel plants and, right now, both types are necessary to have.

Luckily for Denmark, the country has good neighbors, though. Currently, there is a robust linkage with neighboring Sweden and their nuclear infrastructure, and Norway with its considerable hydroelectric power. This helps stabilize the energy needs of the whole region.

Lest we get too critical about Denmark’s ambitious energy plan, let’s give them kudos for confronting the challenges that any country would face during an attempt to phase out fossil fuels. They have achieved a great deal already and are working hard to continue towards full energy independence.

Article Source: Holt Fiat of Ft. Worth, TX

When this city vowed a decade ago to wean itself from fossil fuels, it was a lofty aspiration, like zero deaths from traffic accidents or the elimination of childhood obesity.

But Kristianstad has already crossed a crucial threshold: the city and surrounding county, with a population of 80,000, essentially use no oil, natural gas or coal to heat homes and businesses, even during the long frigid winters. It is a complete reversal from 20 years ago, when all of their heat came from fossil fuels.

But this area in southern Sweden, best known as the home of Absolut vodka, has not generally substituted solar panels or wind turbines for the traditional fuels it has forsaken. Instead, as befits a region that is an epicenter of farming and food processing, it generates energy from a motley assortment of ingredients like potato peels, manure, used cooking oil, stale cookies and pig intestines.

A hulking 10-year-old plant on the outskirts of Kristianstad uses a biological process to transform the detritus into biogas, a form of methane. That gas is burned to create heat and electricity, or is refined as a fuel for cars.

Once the city fathers got into the habit of harnessing power locally, they saw fuel everywhere: Kristianstad also burns gas emanating from an old landfill and sewage ponds, as well as wood waste from flooring factories and tree prunings.

Over the last five years, many European countries have increased their reliance on renewable energy, from wind farms to hydroelectric dams, because fossil fuels are expensive on the Continent and their overuse is, effectively, taxed by the European Union’s emissions trading system.

But for many agricultural regions, a crucial component of the renewable energy mix has become gas extracted from biomass like farm and food waste. In Germany alone, about 5,000 biogas systems generate power, in many cases on individual farms.

This is one of many ways we could be taking advantage of recycling all of the waste we have in this country.