Page 36 - Sjæklen2010

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35. Ole Sønnichsen: op. cit., Gads Forlag 2009, p. 186ff
samtwww.vestas.com.
36. JyllandsPosten 18-1-2010. Kina var i 2009/10 undervejs
med landets første havmøllepark (jf. tabel 3), og i sensom-
meren 2010 offentliggjorde det koreanske værft, Daewoo,
planer om at opbygge en vindmølleproduktion, der i 2020
skulle udgøre 30 % af værftets omsætning – svarende til
7,5 mia. dollar. Selskabet producerede allerede vindmøller
i 2010, men åbnede nu også for bl.a. drift af havmøllepar-
ker og bygning af skibe til installation af sådanne (www.
maritim-industri.dk/nyheder/26-8-2010).
37. Ole Sønnichsen: op. cit., Gads Forlag 2009, p. 180ff. Også
DONG Energy gik i foråret 2010 ud med meldinger om, at
bedre danske vilkår var krævet, såfremt selskabet fortsat
skulle investere her i landet (JydskeVestkysten 18-5-2010).
38. Vestas: Delårsrapport, 26-10-2010, offentliggjort på
Vestas’ hjemmeside. I alt medførte tilpasningen af virksom-
hedens kapacitet en reduktion af staben med knap 3.000 med-
arbejdere, heraf godt 2.000 i Danmark, hvor Vestas’ fabrikker
i Skagen, Viborg, Rudkøbing og Nakskov blev nedlagt.
Summary
Windmills were originally the second best option, some-
thing used in areas where an adequate supply of water power
was not available. One of these areas was the flat country
of northern Europe, where windmills – for example in Den-
mark – were introduced around 1200. But the water mills
were easier to operate, and even around 1800, more mills in
Denmark were driven by water than by wind.
Windmills flourished in Denmark in the first instance
in connection with the expansion of agriculture during the
major grain sale period in the nineteenth century. There was
no possibility of constructing more water mills then because
the appropriate sites were already occupied, and there was
a general reduction in the number of water mills because of
drainage.
The next wave of windmills came around 1900, trig-
gered by the need for energy on farms, as the first steam-
and diesel-driven mills, and later power plants in the cities,
took over in connection with industrialisation.
Regarding the possibilities of developing the rural areas,
a few pioneers drove the development of windmills further,
and insisted even in the 1950s on the usability of windmills
in a general electricity supply situation. These initiatives
were shelved by the power plants at the beginning of the
1960s, primarily because of the low oil price in this period,
which made the operation of wind turbines uneconomical in
a broader context.
However, the oil crises of the 1970s and 1980s changed
the picture, as Denmark and other countries began to priori-
tise reliability of supply and alternatives to hydrocarbons.
The experiences with Danish wind turbines were relatively
recent, and popular resistance to nuclear power helped to
direct political opinion towards renewable energy.
The result was the rise of a subsidised Danish wind tur-
bine manufacturing industry which, from the 1980s, also
found a market in the USA. The favourable subsidies in both
the USA and Denmark were radically changed in the mid-
1980s. Falling exports and a reduced home market led to a
general crisis in the Danish wind turbine sector, but the sur-
viving companies were professionalised, threw themselves
into product development, and geared up for international
markets, where they still retained a leading position in the
first decade after the year 2000.
Both popular opposition to the steadily increasing
number of wind turbines in the landscape and actual policy
planning via Danish government energy plans sent the wind
turbines to sea in the 1990s. The world’s first offshore wind
farm was established north of Vindeby on the island of Lol-
land in 1991, and it was quickly followed by more. When
they were commissioned, the offshore wind farms at Horns
Reef 1 (2002) and Horns Reef 2 (2009) were not merely the
newest in Denmark – they were also the world’s biggest.
The establishment of the two offshore wind farms at
Horns Reef generated a lot of work in Esbjerg, whose har-
bour became the shipping and base harbour for the projects.
While handling the Horns Reef 2 project, Esbjerg Harbour
also handled similar assignments in relation to a number of
British offshore wind farms, and a number of offshore com-
panies in Esbjerg gained work in connection with offshore