Wind farms in Denmark were able to produce 140 percent of the country's electricity needs on Friday, allowing the Nordic nation to export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden.
"It shows that a world powered 100% by renewable energy is not fantasy," Oliver Joy of the European Wind Energy Association told The Guardian. "Wind energy and renewables can be a solution to decarbonization - and also security of supply at times of high demand."
Eighty percent of the excess power was shared with Germany and Norway, with the remaining 20 percent going to Sweden.
The figures were first noticed by the Danish website energinet.dk, which provides a real-time account of the country's renewable power output. During yesterday's peaks, Denmark's wind farms were not even operating at their full 4.8GW capacity, The Guardian noted.
Near unanimous political consensus in Denmark in recent years has resulted in a significant expansion of wind farms across the country. It has a goal of producing half of its electricity through renewable resources by 2020, and 84 percent by 2035. By 2050, Denmark aims to completely end the burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, The New York Times reported.
In the U.S., the Department of Energy recently released a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. wind energy industry and determined that with "continuing technological advancements, cost reductions, and siting and transmission development, the nation can deploy wind power to economically provide 35% of our nation's electricity and supply renewable power in all 50 states by 2050."
The U.S. is already the number one producer of wind energy in the world, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
