By Slim Allagui
Denmark, a world leader in wind energy production and consumption, has built the world's largest offshore wind park in the North Sea as it aims to generate 75 percent of its electricity needs with wind power by 2025.
Looking out from the port of Esbjerg, the blades of 80 giant wind turbines rotate high in the sky at the Horns Reef wind farm about 20 kilometres offshore.
The 160 megawatts of wind energy capacity generated by the park is enough to meet the needs of 150 000 homes for a full year.
'We aim to make Denmark independent of oil' Horns Reef is the newest of Denmark's 11 offshore parks constructed since 1991. Offshore wind power now totals a capacity of 398 megawatts, or 12 percent of the about 3 100 megawatts of wind energy generated in Denmark in 2006.
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Denmark is one of the pioneers in the field of wind power along with Germany and Spain, and part of a growing European trend toward wind power.
With indigenous fossil fuels running out, energy prices on the rise, global scrambling for reserves and nuclear power still controversial in numerous countries, Europe is increasingly looking to renewable energies such as solar and wind power.
In March, the 27-member European Union committed itself to making renewable energies the source of 20 percent of the total energy consumption across the bloc by 2020. The current level is just six to seven percent.
According to the European Wind Energy Agency (EWEA), wind power accounted for 3,3 percent of Europe's electricity requirements in 2006.
Germany is now the largest market for wind power in Europe, with more than 20 000 megawatts of wind power capacity installed at the end of 2006, followed by Spain with 11 615 and Denmark with 3 136, according to EWEA figures.
Italy has 2 123 megawatts installed, Britain 1 963, France 1 567 and the Netherlands 1 560.
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