Sustainability Context

Denmark gets a significant share of its power from wind energy. As wind is an intermittent power source, there is often more energy being produced than is needed. Some of this excess power is sold to neighboring countries but this power could in principle be used to charge vehicles.

Now, Dong Energy A/S and Silicon-Valley based Project Better Place are getting together to build an electric car network throughout Denmark. They plan to have 20,000 recharging stations at parking lots and homes by 2011.

Andrew Williams at EcoGeek writes:

Vehicles are to be provided by Renault, using Nissan produced Li-ion batteries, and will have a 90-mile range between recharging. Batteries will use excess power from Dong's wind turbines, but revert back to coal-powered sources on calmer days. Even then, project organisers claim that CO2 emissions will still be around half of that associated with gasoline engines.

Because the grid is also powered by coal fired plants, there will be greenhouse gas emissions associated with the electricity produced.

For full details of the program, see original press release.

It will interesting to see if this Danish model can be replicated elsewhere around the world. While there are different types of renewable energy sources, factors such as urban density and structure are important factors in determining the viability of these projects.