Danish District Heating's director Kim Mortensen started with a regret that the energy policy debate with five parliamentary politicians had been reduced to three.
- Linea Søgaard Lidell (V) and Lea Wermelin (S) have unfortunately had to cancel. Lea Wermelin is stuck at an airport in Greenland due to fog. Anyone who has been to Greenland knows that flight departure times depend on it, says Kim Mortensen, before introducing Henrik Frandsen (M), Torsten Gejl (Å) and Søren Egge Rasmussen (Ø), who have appeared from Christiansborg for the Climate People's Meeting 2024.
It actually won't be long before the topic of geothermal energy comes to the table. Geothermal is a renewable green form of energy, where energy is made from warm saline water underground. And it is one of the solutions of the future for home heating.
- Now we can see that geothermal energy is being used in both Aarhus and Copenhagen. And we need to see how we can reduce the consumption of biomass. That is, the burning of wood. I would like that to be a topic for next year's municipal election campaign, says Søren Egge Rasmussen of the Danish Green Party.
Natural gas as a heating source in individual households was challenged to a great extent by the war in Ukraine due to the rising prices on the energy market. And the government focused on the expansion of district heating. But in the meantime the price of gas has fallen again. This has had its effect on the transition:
- The focus has shifted away from moving away from natural gas after prices have fallen again. What do you say to that? says Kim Mortensen to the politicians.
- District heating must be expanded, and we must phase out natural gas, but at the same time we must keep green biogas. But it is true that the pressure on natural gas has decreased because it has become cheaper, says Henrik Frandsen, who also points out:
- We need to look for the right green solutions for district heating, and they must be economical for consumers.
Denmark could become a green eldorado
The Alternative's rapporteur also has a clear position on this.
- I actually very much agree with what Henrik says. But the Netherlands, for example, has said stop to gas, and that is something that we would very much like to be part of as well. That could create a green eldorado here, says Torsten Gejl.
He immediately gets support for this from the Unity Party.
- It is of no use that we in Europe are financing Putin's war in Ukraine by buying gas. Gas consumption has fallen by 20 percent. - but that's not enough, says Søren Egge Rasmussen and makes a suggestion:
- Let's say we closed the gas pipelines in 2030. But there must be other solutions ready. We could, for example, provide a municipal guarantee for geothermal district heating.
- There is nothing that prevents geothermal from being built now. There is just no municipal guarantee, Henrik Frandsen insists, though.
More extraction from new fields until 2050
A question from the audience focuses on the fact that oil will be extracted from the Hejre field for a 20-year period until 2050. This is part of the North Sea Agreement, which means that Denmark will stop extracting oil in 2050.
- We have an end date for oil and gas production, and we are not going to change the North Sea Agreement. On the way to a fossil-free society, we must use oil and gas, says Henrik Frandsen.
On this point, there is a divide between politicians.
- It is completely double standards that we are developing the Hejre field. We do not need to do it, because we are good at solar and wind, says Torsten Gejl.
- We completely agree with Torsten Gejl. We are not part of the North Sea Agreement, because we were not invited to the negotiations at all, says Søren Egge Rasmussen.
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