After over two decades of farming, Thomas Johansen, 64, finally made the big move. In December last year, he installed photovoltaic (PV) systems, popularly called solar panels, on the roof of his cattle sheds. PV systems are electronic devices that convert light energy directly into electricity.

The dairy and crop farm, which is nestled in Egtved, a small Danish town in the Vejle Municipality of Southern Denmark, is now powered 30% by solar energy. The project cost DKK 600,000 and Johansen plans to repay the bank loan he took to fund the project over the next six to seven years. The installation has helped Johansen to bring down the cost of running the farm.

In response to the Ukraine war and the sharp surge in the price of fossil fuels, particularly oil and natural gas, the Danish government pledged to phase out natural gas entirely in a few years’ time. Specifically, the government is pushing the country to reach 100% renewable energy by 2030 by quadrupling the current production of solar and wind power.

In June 2023, solar power in Denmark amounted to 3,372 megawatts (MW) of PV connected to the national electricity grid, according to the Danish Energy Agency. The power was generated from 136,889 registered grid-connected solar systems and represents an increase of 4% in solar production from earlier in March.

In recent years, the cost of producing electricity from PV systems has dropped by about 90%, according to the Danish Energy Agency. This trend has opened new power alternatives to Danish farmers.  Pieter Oosterhof, a 52-year-old dairy farmer, is one of several farmers making plans towards the transition. Oosterhof runs the Oosterhof Dairy ApS, a family farm based in Suldrup in the Rebild Municipality of Northern Denmark.

The Oosterhof family, who have been into farming for 25 years now, have started building a new barn that will be installed with solar panels worth DKK 1.5 million. Currently, the approximately 1,000-hectare large dairy farm runs on 700,000 kilowatt-hours per year (kWh/year). By Oosterhof’s calculation, the solar panels will provide about half of this energy upon successful installation next year. It will also help the farm cut down on its electricity bills.

“We want to be independent of the energy market, especially with all the wars going on in the world,” Ossterhof explains. “You never know what’s happening with the price of power and fuel –they are fluctuating a lot.”

While over two-thirds of Denmark’s renewable energy comes from bioenergy, that is, energy stored in organic material or biomass such as crop residues and animal manures, solar energy is gaining more ground across various sectors, including agriculture. In 2022, 6.1 % of the total Danish electricity consumption came from solar PV, and this figure is expected to jump to 12% in the next few years.

NB: The title of the infographics above translates to “solar cell production at the monthly level, 2020-2023”. In April 2023, Denmark’s monthly solar cell production jumped by more than half compared to the same period last year. Source: Green Power Denmark.

As a result of the drastic drop in the cost of solar cells, some Danish farmers are even converting their lands into solar fields connected to the national grid, according to public service broadcaster, DR. Yields from a hectare of solar field are proving to be better business than an hectare of wheat farming, a farmer told the media outlet.

However, while Danish farmers are increasingly getting access to solar energy, many farmers say they cannot reach another important source of renewable energy: wind. According to the State of Green, a Danish non-profit organisation and public-private initiative, Denmark is the leading country in the world in terms of wind energy. In 2020, wind energy accounted for nearly 50% of electricity consumed in the Nordic country. 

A record amount of Danish electricity consumption was covered by wind and solar energy in 2022!☀️🌬️🌱

The increase is mainly because the Kriegers Flak offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea had its first full production year.#LetsGoGreenTogether pic.twitter.com/ilUnJbv9Dh

— Denmark.dk (@denmarkdotdk) January 6, 2023

Denmark is also one of several countries in the world that have decided to become independent of fossil fuels by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). One of the strategies to reach this target under the Danish 2050 Energy Strategy is to expand the share of renewable energy harnessed from wind. In the summer of 2022, the Danish parliament, Folketing, agreed that the country must be completely independent of natural gas by 2030 at the latest. 

10 countries met 1/4 of their electricity demand with wind and solar power in 2021.

Denmark is the global leader in this respect: Renewables met 65% of electricity demand there last year. @BloombergNEF https://t.co/rAACzKxqfj pic.twitter.com/5oHPXfNYIW

— Jan Rosenow (@janrosenow) September 26, 2022

While Danish farmers wish to tap into this abundance of wind energy, several challenges make getting a wind turbine very hard. One of them is the cost of wind turbines which runs into tens of millions of Danish krones. A wind turbine is a device that converts wind energy into electricity using the aerodynamic force from rotor blades. 

“Wind turbines are very expensive and produce much more energy than I need,” says Peter Sorensen, a 40-year-old dairy and crop farmer based in Vejle Municipality. “The power I don’t use, I have to sell to the government lines, and they hardly give anything for it. It’s a bad business case for me.”

Resistance

Farmers have also cited resistance by the local community and the arduous process of getting permission from municipal governments as big hurdles that discourage them from getting wind turbines to power their farms.  

“It takes a lot of processes to get permission from local municipalities to build wind turbines. You also need to ask your neighbours for their permission and if they are not getting any business out of it, then they think it’s no good,” Johansen explains. “That’s why finding an area where you can place a wind turbine is difficult.”

“I think it’s a pity that we use good fields where we can grow good crops such as potatoes, beets, beans, grass and corn, into solar fields because nature is disappearing and rural life is disappearing,” Oosterhof says. “When you only look at money, it’s good, but there are a lot of other things to consider.”

Meanwhile, the Danish government earlier this month announced that it has identified 32 areas across 19 municipalities where it will build energy parks comprising wind turbines and solar cells. The government also proposed increasing the financial compensation given to neighbours of wind turbines and solar cells by DKK 5,000 on average. If implemented, it means such neighbours on average can expect to receive DKK 9,000 in tax-free payment every year. 

Hans-Henrik Dalsgaard, Chief Consultant at the Djursland Farmers’ Association, notes that whether Danish farmers accept renewable energy is “always an economic question.” The Association is a Danish consulting firm that provides economic, legal and IT services to farmers in the eastern part of the peninsula in the Jutland region of Denmark.

“The Danish government has a very big interest in placing wind turbines on land and sea but the local governments (kommunes) are resisting this. So, there’s a conflict between the national government, the parliament and local government,” Dalsgaard further explains.

The expert believes it is the responsibility of the government to address all the issues facing the adoption of renewable energy adoption among Danish farmers and citizens. He noted that the government has already started addressing some of these issues through laws. 

“Before now, individuals could decide whether they want the solar cells or wind turbines around them, but now, it’s becoming a government decision,” Dalsagaard added.