A Nationwide charging network for electric vehicles in Denmark

Our modern lifestyles offer a wealth of exciting possibilities, but also go hand in hand with high energy consumption. Because of the carbon footprint that our energy consumption leaves behind, there is no longer any reason to doubt that our lifestyles affect the climate. Each and every one of us, including DONG Energy, is responsible for minimizing our energy consumption and maximizing our consideration for the environment. As an energy company, we have a special responsibility for producing energy in as environmentally friendly a manner as possible.

We aim to triple our renewables capacity by 2020. That is a major challenge in itself. Despite these measures, our power plants will remain an essential part of our energy supply for the foreseeable future in order to provide reliable supplies of energy. Therefore, we need to identify efficient methods for reducing CO2 emissions from our power plants, which are among the most efficient in the world. We have removed almost every pollutant from the flue gases. Now we are focussing on the CO2 challenge. Our long-term objective is clear – providing reliable energy without CO2 emissions. Therefore, we are engaged in developing a range of projects that support this objective. Examples of these projects are: wind power generation; production of second-generation bioethanol; co-firing with biomass when generating combined heat and electricity; capturing and storing CO2; employing geothermal energy as a supplement to district heating; and generating energy via solar energy, hydro power, or wave and tidal energy.

We are constantly trying to improve our competitiveness and expand our presence in the northern European energy market – particularly through growth outside Denmark. The growth will be underpinned by a whole series of identified, well-defined investment options that have been chosen because they support our long-term objectives, utilize skills and existing market positions, and enable synergies across the entire Group.

Recently, we entered into an agreement with Siemens to supply up to 500 wind turbines – with a total capacity of up to 1800 megawatts – for our planned offshore wind farms in northern Europe. This agreement is the largest single offshore wind turbine supply agreement ever, and it strengthens our leading position within offshore wind energy. Finally, it is an important tool for implementing our strategy of significantly expanding DONG Energy's position within the sustainable energy sector.

In 2008, DONG Energy formed a cooperation with Better Place in Denmark. By doing so, DONG Energy became partner in a program for rolling out a nationwide charging network for electric vehicles in Denmark. The project provides optimum exploitation of renewable energy, which until now has been impossible to store, and also saves CO2.

As a geographically small country, Denmark has relatively low transportation needs. There is a high car-registration tax on conventional cars, but apart from VAT, there are no taxes on electric vehicles, making Denmark an ideal location for launching an electric vehicles program.

The goal of Better Place is to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector by implementing a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. DONG Energy is shareholder in a Better Place operator in Denmark and will be supplying the energy to drive the electric vehicles. In close cooperation with DONG Energy, Better Place Denmark will be responsible for building an electric-car-charging network as well as a control centre that will communicate wirelessly with the cars in order to optimize the charging behaviour in relation to hourly fluctuations of market prices for electricity. Thereby it can be ensured that if a car is plugged into the carport socket outlet at 5 p.m., it will not start charging until late at night when general energy consumption is at its minimum – or alternatively, at times of the day or night when there is a surplus of energy.

The infrastructure will include thousands of charge spots per region: in private homes, workplaces, and public locations throughout a deployment area. The charge spots are supplemented by a network of battery-switch stations that allow drivers to exchange a depleted battery for one with a full charge, in less time than it takes to fill a tank with petrol. That said, as the vast majority of driving trips are shorter than the 150-km range possible with a fully charged EV-battery, most customers will use charge spots as their primary source of energy.

We estimate that one medium-sized windmill with a 2 megawatt capacity on an annual basis can supply the energy needed for 3000 cars. In a country with 5.4 million inhabitants and some 2 million passenger cars, the entire passenger car fleet could thereby be run on electricity produced by less than 750 windmills.

But as the wind is not blowing constantly, we have also estimated that even if all the electrical charging of cars was sourced from coal-fired power plants, net CO2 emissions would still decline by half. The reason is partly that electric motors are far more efficient than even the most modern combustion engines, and partly that the energy efficiency of our power plants is high.

However, the more wind power we have in our production mix at any given time, the higher the reduction in CO2 emissions will be. An additional benefit will come from the fact that most charging will take place at night when wind power is in excess supply. This means that it will be possible to use wind energy for transportation purposes that otherwise would have to be exported to neighbouring countries, typically at relatively low prices.

Ultimately, the transition to an electric-vehicle-based transportation system powered by renewable energy will lead to a reduction of CO2 emissions to the benefit of our climate.