Denmark

The political target of a 70% reduction in carbon oxide emissions in 2030 is followed by a goal of 100% in 2045. This was announced by the new government established after the national election November 2022. The latest forecast from the Danish Energy Agency expect PV to reach 7,5 GW by 2025, more than 12 GW by 2030, and 18 GW by 2035. These figures are periodically revised.
The main potential for deployment of PV in Denmark has traditionally been identified as building applied or integrated systems. However, the number of ground-based centralised PV systems in the range of 50 to >200 MW has been growing. Mostly, the projects are based on commercial PPAs or providing power to the actual market price (Nordpool).

Net-metering for privately owned and institutional PV systems was established in 1998, and is still existing, however, with consequent limitations and restrictions.  

In 2024, the BAPV solar industry experienced a decline in activity. This can, among other things, be explained by rising interest rates and low electricity prices. Furthermore, rising costs for grid connection and long municipality and utility approval time negatively impacted the market. This contributed to the fact that the competition between the actors intensified for the realized projects.  

Despite the more difficult conditions, the accumulated installed capacity reached over 5 GW in 2024 due to increased installed capacity for utility-scale projects. 

To promote the development of the green transition, the plan is to increase the depreciation basis for industrial and commercial facilities to 108% in 2025. Likewise, these facilities will be able to lease or obtain other forms of third-party financing. Obtaining tax deductions for the assembly work will be possible for private installations. For solar installations on residential properties over 2 floors, it will be possible to apply for support for the project.  

The government is expected to designate areas for large field installations to promote the approval process. These areas will especially be areas with low-lying soil, where the CO2 emission is high due to drainage channels and drains. 

For the reasons mentioned above, the government has now indicated that the ambitions and targets for the green transition will be revised, and some form of public guarantee will be considered. Until now, nothing has been decided.

Innovation Fund Denmark supports early-stage R&D (TRL 1-3). EUDP, GLDK, MUDP, and GUDP support development and demonstration (TRL 4-8). EIFO and the EU Innovation Fund support market introduction (TRL 9). 

The Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Programme (EUDP) under The Danish Energy Agency funds projects by enterprises and universities that demonstrate new green energy technologies. The programme can support PV and every year different PV related projects are supported. The R&D programme, as well as the ongoing and ended PV-related projects, can be found at the EUDP webpage https://www.eudp.dk/en/om-eudp. 

The strategic innovation topics in the EUDP programme are: 

1. Green electricity; 
2. Sustainable biomass, biogas and pyrolyze; 
3. Energy efficiency; 
4. Power-to-X; 
5. Heat and heat storage; 
6. Flexible use of electricity and digitalization and 
7. Carbon capture, use and storage 

Elforsk is reborn as a special program under EUDP with focus on smart energy and digitalization. 

Innovation Fund Denmark under the Ministry of Education and Research creates a framework that enables entrepreneurs, researchers and businesses to develop innovative and viable solutions to societal challenges. 

The electricity consumption in 2024 was 38.4 TWh, a 6% increase compared with 2023. More than 80% of the electricity was covered by renewable energy, including biogas and sustainable biomass. On a national level, the CO2 emissions per kWh used are now below 100 g. See figure 1 for the solar and wind coverage of the electricity demand from the last 15 years.

The yearly average electric price was 0.53 DKK/kWh, peaking at 7 DKK/kWh on December 12th between 5 PM and 6 PM. On the same day, prices were also almost six times lower during the night. The electricity market is very volatile and the low prices in peak production hours for solar and wind sets the business cases under pressure, especially when the electrification of the fossil fuel is progressing slower than expected. 

The Danish PV Association established in late 2008 with approximately 60 members has provided the emerging PV industry with a single voice and is introducing ethical guidelines for its members. A few PV companies producing tailor-made modules such as windows-integrated PV cells can be found. A Li-Ion and a vanadium redox flow battery (VFB) manufacturer is now engaged in the PV market, offering storage solutions. A few companies develop and produce power electronics for PV, mainly for stand-alone systems for the remote-professional market sector, such as telecoms, navigational aids, vaccine refrigeration, and telemetry. Many companies are acting as PV system developers or integrators designing, developing and implementing PV systems for the home market and increasingly at the international level. Danish investors have entered the international PV scene on a rising scale acting as international PV developers/owners of large-scale PV farms. Some of the members have activities inside and outside Denmark. Consultant engineering companies specializing in PV application in emerging markets report a slowly growing business volume. 

Improved conditions for medium-sized solar installations 

Green Power Denmark and the Danish Solar Association have entered into an agreement in 2024 in which a scheme will be established for inverters that are part of solar installations between 125 kW and 1 MW. These inverters can now be pre-approved by Green Power Denmark. Manufacturers of inverters that are typically included in this type of plant can therefore be content with sending documentation and test reports for one copy of each of the requested inverter types. 

This saves a lot of time and bureaucracy in the installation process to the benefit of both suppliers.