The government and the politicians at Christiansborg make many loud speeches that they want to quadruple solar and wind energy by 2030, but we move in drag on land and at sea.

For many years we have been lulled to sleep with pathos-filled fairy tales about Denmark as a green front runner nation. But the reality is different.

According to the Danish Energy Agency's latest forecast, the pursued policy will only deliver a little more than a doubling. Even though we have a majority government, it has not cleaned up the jungle of rules and the many stumbling blocks that are blocking the green transformation of the energy sector.

With the latest moves, the hope is that maybe something will happen in the first half of 2024. That is progress. But that should have happened a long time ago.

Like Vestas CEO Henrik Andersen said recently, Denmark is probably the only country in the EU that is currently slowing down wind power. This year, more turbines are being dismantled than new ones are being erected.

The government canceled the open door scheme for offshore wind with up to 23 GW. Instead, a slower and more bureaucratic plan was chosen for offshore wind in the Baltic and North Seas, which may not deliver an extra 9-14 GW until 2032.

And the Danish Energy Agency must spend 2-3 years mapping the sea instead of turbocharging the expansion.

On top of that, the people-rooted energy community in Bornholm's Havvind, which was ready to build nine offshore wind turbines off Nexø, which could make Bornholm 100 percent self-sufficient in green power as early as 2026, has been slowed down. That screams to the sky.

In many parts of the country, local projects with solar cells and wind turbines cannot be connected to the energy grid because it is worn out and only a third of the electricity stations have spare capacity.

The EU is pushing for the member states to set up renewable energy zones, so that with quick approvals of 6-9 months, the development of solar and wind energy can be accelerated. But Denmark is still not ready.

The EU also wants local and popular energy communities to find it easier to set up, produce and share solar and wind energy across properties, but Denmark is digging in and doing minimum implementation.

Some have tried to assign blame to environmental organizations that block projects because of concerns for voles or bats. Yes, it happens from time to time, and it's a shame.

But many developers have shown that it is possible to build both renewable energy plants og ensure biodiversity. We must protect nature, the population and biodiversity, but solar and wind energy can be expanded without compromising environmental considerations.

And remember the proportions: The biggest threat to biodiversity is still fossil fuels, climate change and overly intensive chemical and industrial agriculture.

The good news, however, is that we already have all the energy technology solutions that are needed.

By 2040, we can build a 100 percent renewable energy system based on a massive scale-up with solar and wind energy, heat pumps, geothermal heat, battery storage and electrification of virtually all sectors.

It requires at least a sevenfold increase in solar and wind energy on land if we simultaneously make energy efficiency improvements and remove all waste.

In fact, this development path is far cheaper and less climate-damaging than sticking to fossil energy sources, which today account for 53 percent of Denmark's gross energy consumption, and patching up the damage with CO2 capture at the end of chimneys.

We should also phase out the burning of solid wood biomass, which emits over 15 million tonnes of CO2e into the atmosphere every year, and which is not needed in the electrified heating system of the future.

We are still stuck in a incineration society that is helping to set the globe on fire, and we must now free ourselves from that. It can only go too slowly. Denmark was once a green front runner nation. Unfortunately, we are no longer.

In the past year, Sweden has installed an extra 2 GW of wind turbine energy, while we in Denmark have come to a standstill. In Germany, they use solar cells tenfold towards 2030, even though they already have more solar energy per capita.

And in the last three years, the Netherlands has become Europe's front-runner with the expansion of solar energy. The next five years they will put additional 20 GW solar cells up.

One of the secrets is that the Netherlands has introduced a net metering scheme, where people can deduct as much from their electricity bill as they supply green power to the grid.

They make it good business to switch from natural gas to renewable energy.

In Denmark, you get much less for the green electricity you produce for the grid than for the electricity you get from the grid. The tax hammer already hits if you earn more than DKK 14.000 annually from selling green electricity from your property.

Instead of making it easy to set up popular energy communities in local communities, we have made it difficult in Denmark.

We have only completed the minimum possible of the EU directives for the electricity market and for renewable energy instead of giving citizen-driven communities far more rights.

There were some improvements in the new Electricity Supply Act, but the set of rules is complicated, and the sharing of RE-produced power between buildings must be done via the collective grid if there are several electricity consumers.

Municipalities are forced to set up separate energy companies to share solar energy across municipal buildings, and they must pay electricity tax for their own consumption, where companies otherwise do not.

The charges for getting on the transmission and distribution network are 13-14 doubled since the climate election. Instead of making it cheaper to set up renewable energy, it has become more expensive.

The fossil fuel consumers should pay a larger part of the bill for the expansion of the electricity grid rather than passing the bill on to the green energy producers.

The current self-sustaining principle, where the consumers of the electricity grid must cover the costs of expanding the grid, is in practice helping to slow down the pace of the green transition.

The Danish energy system is dragging around the legacy of the past. Industrial society, old monopolies and central power plants still cast long shadows over the way we produce, distribute and regulate energy.

In the future we will have a green ocean, where huge amounts of clean, renewable green power will be needed. Rather than getting stuck in the centralized structures of the past or waiting for a unified government plan, citizens and local communities must be freed from below.

It is far too difficult for citizens, local energy communities and municipalities to share responsibility for the green transition away from fossil fuels.

Some claim that it is the citizens' own fault. That many Danes say Not in My backyard. That people say no thanks to solar and wind projects in the backyard or in the premises.

But it doesn't fit. Several opinion polls have shown that between 70-80 percent of citizens would like to have more wind turbines in their municipality. 74 percent say: Yes to more renewable energy as soon as possible.

There are plenty of local stories that show that it all goes much easier and faster when citizens are involved early in the process. People want to be heard and take a share of responsibility.

In the Council for Green Transformation we've been around the country - from Gedser to Thisted, from Avedøre to Fjelsted - where citizens single-handedly stack large solar cell systems, jointly owned wind turbines and thermonets on their feet in order to phase out fossil oil and gas boilers.

There is a lot of drive among the citizens. If they can get co-ownership in green energy projects, they say yes to much more than the politicians in Christiansborg dare to hope for.

We need an energy revolution in Denmark. We must create a new and more flexible and decentralized energy system, where the number of energy producers will multiply.

Instead of just betting on large central monopoly companies, citizens and local civic communities must also produce their own green electricity and sell it freely to the grid.

We need a mass movement of prosumers who put solar cells on rooftops and parking lots and build energy-plus houses. And who use their electric car batteries to stabilize the grid during peak hours. It can make the energy grid greener much faster.

And make it more attractive for municipalities to say yes to renewable energy, so that they don't just get a lump sum or redistribution via a central green pool. Vestas has proposed that you give 10 øre per Kwh, the wind turbines produce during their lifetime.

That is an excellent idea. If it is, for example, a 15 MW turbine, such as the one being set up at Thyborøn South Harbour, the municipality could get an additional income of around DKK 8 million per year and DKK 280 million over 35 years.

With more local profit sharing, the transition could really be accelerated.

The debate entry was written by director Bjarke Møller and was brought to the Alting on 11 December 2023