In March I went to see Henrik Poulsen, the boss of Dong Energy, in Copenhagen. Never heard of him or his company? You are not alone, but the chances are he is keeping your lights on. The largely unknown story of his company is worth telling because it is genuinely revolutionary. Dong stands for Danish oil and natural gas. It was, like Shell and BP, involved in fossil fuel exploration and production. But in less than a decade it has become an 85% offshore wind company, and is divesting its coal, oil and gas interests. By 2023, Dong Energy will be very close to zero carbon. That is a pretty staggering transformation in a very short space of time.
But it doesn’t end there. This isn’t just a hymn to the glory of an oil and gas company, it’s also a paean to the UK’s “greenest government ever”. Thanks to its support, the price of offshore wind energy has dropped by half in less than two years. By the 2020s, it will be as cheap or cheaper than any other form of power generation. It’s just become much cheaper than nuclear, even taking into account the additional costs associated with the wind’s intermittency. And in any case, this is less of an issue at sea where the winds are more constant..
Wind power is now cheaper than nuclear – the energy revolution is happening | John Sauven | Opinion | The Guardian
