Denmark has announced that it intends to have one third of its energy provided by green, renewable sources in the next decade, and to complete the green conversion within fifty years. Some call it an overly aggressive estimate, but the initiative has wide support from politicians of every party in Denmark. Uniting to clean up their energy generation, Denmark has set a precedent that will hopefully be followed by more and more countries around the globe.
Lykke Friis, of the Danish Liberal Party, defended the initiative staunchly. "No matter what we do, we will have an increase in the price of energy, simply because people in India and China want to have a car, want to travel," she says. "That is why we came out with a clear ambition to be independent of fossil fuels: so we are not vulnerable to great fluctuations in energy price."
The goal is not without its own problems, however. Storage of energy generated by green methods such as solar energy, wind energy, and the burning of biomass is proving to be a considerable problem, as well as distribution of that energy. Normally, power plants are located in close proximity to the cities they fuel. Putting wind turbines far out at sea, as is the current plan, means building miles of wiring to deliver that energy to the people who need it.
Despite all these problems, though, Denmark has a considerable benefit that will help to overcome any and all obstacles: Unity. In other countries, green energy is nothing more than a dream. In still others, it is a wildly debated issue, with politicians hindering it as much as helping it. Even with the problems Denmark is facing, they are sure to make considerably more progress than in countries with such divided points of view.
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