Modern society consumes considerable volumes of energy for transport, heating and cooling as well as electricity for private or industrial consumption. The production and consumption of energy have an impact on the environment.
Our cars, power stations and industrial enterprises burn fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil. Combustion leads to the emission of various substances to the air and leaves by-products.
Even though biofuels are considered CO2-neutral, they nevertheless affect the environment due to emissions of substances and by-products. Renewable energies such as wind power and hydropower have a different impact on nature. Wind turbines dominate the landscape, while in our neighbouring countries hydropower leads to the flooding of extensive land areas when reservoirs are filled behind the dams.
Environmental impacts must be reduced
As the transmission system operator responsible for the Danish electricity and natural gas systems, Energinet.dk does not concern itself with the environmental impacts of the transport sector. Energinet.dk owns and operates the transmission grids for electricity and natural gas. As such, we are dedicated to reducing the environmental impacts of our activities as much as possible.
Natural gas is supplied to power stations, large and small, for the generation of electricity and CHP. Electricity and CHP producers submit environmental data to Energinet.dk so that once a year we can compute the environmental impacts in Denmark of the production of electricity and CHP in the form of an environmental statement.
Research and development
In future, more and more electricity will be generated on the basis of renewable energy sources such as wind, sun, biofuels and water. As these technologies are not yet all fully developed, Energinet.dk administers a particular programme for funding research and development into technologies for environmentally friendly electricity production. The funding comes from electricity consumers who pay DKK 0.004 towards such research for every kWh of electricity consumed.
It is the object of Energinet.dk to actively contribute to reducing the environmental impacts from the production, transmission and consumption of electricity and CHP.