Danish consumption of coal fell by almost 43% in 2019 compared to 2018 and now accounts for 5% of the observed energy consumption, Danish Energy Agency announced Thursday.
Energy consumption fell by 3.4%, while observed CO2 emissions from energy consumption fell by almost 6% in the same period, according to the agency's preliminary energy statistics for 2019 published Thursday.
"In the almost 50 years over which the Danish Energy Agency has been collecting energy statistics, the Agency has never registered a lower consumption of coal and coke in Denmark than in 2019, when observed consumption amounted to 39 petajoule (PJ)," it said. This corresponds to just 5% of energy consumption.
The natural gas consumption in the country also fell by 7.6% in 2019 compared to 2018.
This trend is due to a general drop in observed energy consumption of 3.4%, increasing net imports of electricity from neighbouring countries, as well as higher consumption of renewable energy, the agency explained.
"Renewables covered 35% of the observed energy consumption in 2019, compared with 32.9% in 2018," it added.
Production of renewables showed an increase of 4.2% in 2019 compared to 2018, corresponding to 7.2 PJ. The increase in the production of renewable energy is primarily due to an increase in production of wind power and biogas, the agency noted.
- Drop in oil and natural gas production
Primary energy production in Denmark fell last year by 10.3% as a result of a dramatic fall in the production of oil and natural gas of 11.4% and 25.7%, respectively.
"Production from the North Sea in recent years has shown a downward trend, but the temporary shutdown and redevelopment of the Tyra field from September 2019 and to the completion in 2022 has particularly affected gas production from Tyra and production and landfall transportation from a number of associated fields," the agency added.
By Ebru Sengul Cevrioglu
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr