One of the most pressing questions in the European energy sector today is how to move towards a low-carbon economy in the smartest possible way. The European Union has set the ambitious target that at least 20% of its energy consumption should be met by renewable energy by 2020. This is a significant challenge.

On 23 and 24 June 2011, the European Gas Infrastructure Industry gathered in Edinburgh experienced people from all parts of the gas industry to answer this and other questions of strategic importance for the gas sector.

There was a clear consensus among a number of speakers that Denmark had at least found a part of the answer as to how renewable energy could play a significant part in the energy mix as an element of a low-carbon energy system.

Denmark is in fact the only country in the European Union that has already reached the EU target and ensured that renewable energy now constitutes more than 20% of total energy consumption.

With that in mind, the International Energy Agency (IEA) mentioned that important lessons could be learned from Denmark. Other speakers elaborated on this and pointed especially to the Danish use of wind energy and the fact that a closely linked development of both the power and gas infrastructure yields additional benefits.

It was also noted that Denmark is a good example of how to create development conditions for the use of gas that is by far the cleanest fossil fuel. Especially the creation of a trading hub for cross-border trade (Link4Hubs) and the development of projects for additional international infrastructure (Skanled) were highlighted and credited to Energinet.dk.

Denmark and Energinet.dk are among the smallest players on the European scene and will like other players be facing many challenges in the years to come. However, it is worth noticing that it can be inspirational for the large players to see even small players make strategic efforts to meet common European challenges.