The traditional energy source for Denmark is oil and Coal. The 1973 oil crisis resulted in a new energy policy, focusing development of renewable energy to increase the energy security and reduce the dependence on coal and oil. Through ambitious schemes for development of technologies for energy efficiency and renewable energy,Denmark has achieved what no one else has in terms of utilizing the resource efficiently, which is to keep increase the GDP since 1980 without increasing energy consumption at all. The case of Denmark therefor illustrates that energy efficiency can help overcome the negative impact normally associated with economic growth.
Almost different types of renewable energy technologies that Denmark has promoted, the biomass is the widest applied. The wider concept of biomass technologies includes combustion, gasification and liquefaction. Types of resource are straw, agriculture and timber waste, energy crops, animal manure,organic waste and etc..
Heat and power cogeneration used in district heating is the most widely applied biomass technology. The main sources are straw, timber waste and agriculture waste. Under the promotion by the government, the technology of biomass combustion. Now Denmark is the leading country of the district heating technology.
Biogas is a technology which can digest the organic waste in anaerobic environment, and the production is mainly methane, which can be burned to provide heat or electricity. The Technology has developed to maximize the gas production which means more heat/power supply can be sold. The biogas utilization cannot only provide energy, but also a solution for discharge from livestock farms, and food industry, how to ease the odor, water, and earth pollution. The sludge from the digestion can be used as fertilizer, which can be an additional income for the plant.
Because Denmark is an agriculture country, the livestock industry is also very well developed. To find the solution for waste treatment is what it has started to explore fairly early. Biogas plants was introduced, and attracted wide attentions, because this concept has included the idea of regarding the biogas as an energy resource, which can provide economic reliability for the plant. In 1987, a Government Action Programme for Centralized Biogas Plants was established. Ten demonstration plants were built and follow-up programmes carried out. Ten additional plants were built in the years 1993-1998. In 1995 it was concluded that centralized biogas plants could be reliable and financially viable under certain preconditions.