The country was almost totally dependent on the imported fuel for its energy needs when the world was struck by an oil crisis.War in the Middle East and an oil embargo sent the country a painful wake-up call — oil isn’t forever.A series of such shocks quickly tripled the price of heating.Things were so bad that during some winters, people closed off rooms and lived in the dining area, remembers engineer and energy specialist Niels Bahnsen.
It shocked the country into rethinking its energy policy and every Dane into just how much he was using.Over the next decades, the government introduced a subsidy programme for insulating the house, says Bahnsen, who works with Niras, a Danish consulting engineering firm.People received incentives to get energy-saving equipment and act responsibly.In the late 80s, the government introduced a scheme for people to ditch their old energy-guzzling fridges to energy-saving ones with discounts and rebates.It was meant to trigger interest among the public and was to run for only a short time so that it wouldn’t distort market prices.Initially, the target was to sell 6,000 fridges, but the scheme succeeded in selling 32,000 fridges instead. The demand for the energy-saving fridges was so high that suppliers began selling more of it, which eventually brought the prices down, says Bahnsen, who heads Niras department of Energy and Climate Change.Bahnsen was relating these experiences after addressing a recent forum on integrated resource planning, organised by the Economic Planning Unit and the Danish International Development Agency.He said the Danish government also introduced voluntary energy management for industry during the 90s and taxed natural gas and petroleum to reduce consumption.The country has an energy efficiency fund set up with the sole purpose of improving energy-saving measures.Most importantly, Denmark invested millions in researching alternative energy sources and wind-power technology is its new multi-billion dollar industry.Today, in Denmark, a homeowner cannot sell his house without an energy certificate. It shows a potential buyer how much energy is consumed per square metre and is closely scrutinised before he signs on the dotted line, says Bahnsen."Not easy," adds Bahnsen, when asked to describe the long road Danes have taken to get to this level of energy efficiency."But it can be done."
It shocked the country into rethinking its energy policy and every Dane into just how much he was using.Over the next decades, the government introduced a subsidy programme for insulating the house, says Bahnsen, who works with Niras, a Danish consulting engineering firm.People received incentives to get energy-saving equipment and act responsibly.In the late 80s, the government introduced a scheme for people to ditch their old energy-guzzling fridges to energy-saving ones with discounts and rebates.It was meant to trigger interest among the public and was to run for only a short time so that it wouldn’t distort market prices.Initially, the target was to sell 6,000 fridges, but the scheme succeeded in selling 32,000 fridges instead. The demand for the energy-saving fridges was so high that suppliers began selling more of it, which eventually brought the prices down, says Bahnsen, who heads Niras department of Energy and Climate Change.Bahnsen was relating these experiences after addressing a recent forum on integrated resource planning, organised by the Economic Planning Unit and the Danish International Development Agency.He said the Danish government also introduced voluntary energy management for industry during the 90s and taxed natural gas and petroleum to reduce consumption.The country has an energy efficiency fund set up with the sole purpose of improving energy-saving measures.Most importantly, Denmark invested millions in researching alternative energy sources and wind-power technology is its new multi-billion dollar industry.Today, in Denmark, a homeowner cannot sell his house without an energy certificate. It shows a potential buyer how much energy is consumed per square metre and is closely scrutinised before he signs on the dotted line, says Bahnsen."Not easy," adds Bahnsen, when asked to describe the long road Danes have taken to get to this level of energy efficiency."But it can be done."
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