Like any good story, this one begins with a resounding failure. In 2002, the Danish energy company Elsam inaugurated Horns Rev1, the world’s first commercial offshore wind farm, in the North Sea: 80 turbines with a total capacity of 160 megawatts (MW) are installed 14 km from the country’s coast. . But, designed to be installed on land, they quickly prove to be unsuitable for the extreme conditions of the offshore. The damage is linked. Finally, in 2004, the blades and nacelles were dismantled to be repaired in the dry. Torben Kenneth Hansen, electrical engineer, recalls: “Our colleagues in the coal-fired power stations were asking, laughing, what were these long smokeless sea chimneys for, which did not produce electricity. “
Today, what is no more than an anecdote in the short history of offshore wind power says a lot about how far we have come. The episode will chill the area for a long time. In 2006, when Elsam merged with five other Danish energy companies to form DONG (Danish Oil and Natural Gas) Energy, fossil fuels made up the bulk of the new company’s portfolio of activities: exploration and development. ” extraction of gas and oil in the North Sea, as well as the operation of huge coal-fired power stations, responsible for a third of CO emissions2 in Denmark.
It will take less than fifteen years for DONG Energy to achieve one of the most impressive metamorphoses in the sector and become the world leader in offshore wind, with a third of the market share. Renamed “Orsted” in 2019 – from the name of the Danish physicist Hans Christian Orsted (1777-1851), at the origin of the discovery of the interaction between electricity and magnetism -, the Danish group today derives more than 98% of its revenues from renewable energy production. Between 2007 and 2020, it reduced its CO emissions by 86%2, while almost doubling its operating income (18.1 billion crowns in 2020, or 2.4 billion euros).
The 2006 Stern Report
But let’s go back to 2006, year of birth of DONG Energy, a company controlled at 76.5% by the State, which achieves nearly 9% of its turnover on the Danish market. “We were convinced that we had to grow in each of our business sectors”, recalls Jakob Boss, then executive assistant to CEO Anders Eldrup. Except that the wind starts to turn: “The debate on climate change has arrived”, explains Mr. Boss, now vice-president in charge of strategy at Orsted.
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