Impressions of Denmark, the happiest country in the world (8)

Impressions of Denmark, the happiest country in the world (8)
This time I would like to write about energy policy and education in Denmark. In 2014, the proportion of wind power in the country's total electricity generation was 39.1%, setting a world record for a country as of that time.
Denmark has a population of 5.6 million, which is roughly the same size as Hokkaido's population of 5.47 million.
Hokkaido is colder, but the percentage of wind power generation in Hokkaido is only about 3%. Hokkaido is said to be one of the leading wind power generating regions in Japan. Even so, the difference is more than 10 times.
It is said that Japan is a heavy industrial region and Denmark has a small population, but compared to Hokkaido, its GDP per capita is far higher, and the difference with Denmark, where whole-house heating is widespread like Hokkaido, seems to be a difference that goes beyond any excuses.
Another big difference from Japan is the ownership. In Japan, mega solar power plants are often owned by large corporations. However, in Denmark (and neighboring countries), about 85% of solar power plants were installed with private investment. Natural energy is often dismissed as "not worth discussing" based solely on the cost of generating electricity, but there is a key point here.
Please refer to the well-known author Atsushi Murakami's book for more details on this subject.

In short, the key is to circulate money that goes overseas within the region. For example, in Shiga Prefecture, about 2 billion yen, which is equivalent to about XNUMX% of the prefecture's total production, goes overseas every year as energy import costs. This amount exceeds the total production of the construction industry in Shiga Prefecture, which is XNUMX billion yen. Even if it is a little expensive, it does not emit COXNUMX, contributes to a trade surplus, ensures perfect energy security, and creates jobs in installation and maintenance, which leads to economic development. It is because of this framework that European countries are desperately trying to increase wind power generation with private investment. Little by little, Japanese media are starting to publish this idea, but it is still very much in the minority. The person who probably first brought this idea to Japan and is still working to spread it throughout Japan is Tetsuya Iida of the Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies, who I always rely on.
Denmark plans to increase this ratio to 50% by 2025, and in fact, opinion polls show that 80% of Danes think that "we should increase wind power generation."
It seems that education has a large influence behind this trend. Apparently, in environmental education assignments in elementary schools, students discuss the "problem of highway construction." They are asked to discuss the negative aspects of highways, such as taking away the habitats of plants and animals, and the positive aspects, such as revitalizing industry by speeding up logistics. This is just one example, but it seems that this type of education has been going on since the early grades of elementary school. With an education system like Japan's, which is divided vertically into "Japanese," "arithmetic," "science," and "social studies," and which only emphasizes memorization, I have to say that no matter how high the deviation score becomes, there is little chance that the country or region will improve in the future.