An unusually windy day meant that Denmark far surpassed its energy needs just through renewable power sources
That's amazing. But as good as it sounds, it's not as easily replicable in another country. Denmark's population is 5.6 millions while, for example, UK is 64.1 millions. Which means UK people would need 11.5 times the wind power of Denmark to be self-sustainable. We don't understand what "electricity needs" refers to. Is it energy consumption by households ? Is it energy consumption by households and companies ? Does it includes transport (cars, planes, freight, train), heating and cooling, food, manufacturing ? For example, the UK can't only live on renewables (this book is really great and go in-depth about our energy consumption/production http://www.withouthotair.com/ and explains it).
I was thinking about this in regard to the US. We'd probably want to compare it at the state level. So i'd be more appropriate to compare a state like Virginia to Denmark than the entire US. Especially since it has coast line that could generate a great deal of that energy.
The headline is a bit disingenuous. It's factually correct to say the Denmark wind output was 140% of demand, but it was only true during a period of low load in the early morning hours. It doesn't mean all demand during all hours can be served by wind, though that doesn't stop a spokesperson from claiming it does:Oliver Joy, spokesman for the European Wind Energy Association, said: "It shows that a world powered 100 per cent by renewable energy is no fantasy."