Danish Pioneering of Modern Wind Power - Wind Power for the World: The Rise of Modern Wind Energy - page 168

companies to provide the necessary energy supply for most
sectors, including a significant part of the electricity production.
In the case of Denmark, cheap oil was fuelling about 90% of the
electricity production in the years before the oil crisis, which
made Denmark especially vulnerable to the jump in oil price and
to the insecure supply situation in the Middle East. This triggered
a new phase of official energy planning in Denmark where energy
supply security became of central importance. The electric utilities
in Denmark focused on three main solutions: shift from oil to
coal, introduction of a natural gas system and introduction of
nuclear power.
The shift from oil to coal and the introduction of natural gas,
was not politically controversial (global warming was not an issue)
and the utilities implemented the shift from 90% oil and 10%
coal (rounded numbers) to 10% oil and 90% coal over a few years.
Most of the remaining electricity production on oil was supposed
to be replaced by nuclear power over a number of years. This
strategy was supported by the utilities, large industry and the
majority in the Danish parliament. However, in the Danish tradition
of open democratic discussion this impressive support did not
suffice. The proposal of nuclear power gave rise to a broad and
heated public discussion over a decade which brought RES and
especially wind power high up on the political agenda. The history
of the Danish nuclear debate is important for an understanding
of the situation of Danish wind power during the decade up to
1985.

6.3 Nuclear Controversy in Denmark

The introduction of nuclear power was an essential element in
the first official energy plan from the spring of 1976 (Danish
Ministry of Industry and Commerce, 1976). An alternative energy
plan without nuclear power and with a higher contribution from
RES was published in the fall of the same year by a group of energy
experts from Danish universities (Blegaa , 1976 ) . A summary

in English of the alternative energy plan was published in 1977
(Blegaa

et al.

, 1977).
Soon after the oil crisis a couple of new NGOs [The Organisation
for Information on Nuclear Power (OOA) and the Danish Organisation

et al.