research office here. In 2016 energy and environmental companies
accounted for the port city’s second-biggest export industry (after
food), according to the latest available data from the municipality.
“Renewable energy plays a huge role in the city,” says Mayor Jacob
Bundsgaard. “It’s not just Vestas.”
Traders sometimes liken Aarhus to the Swiss commodities
hubs in Geneva or Zug. Judging from the low turnover rates at
local trading firms, the city (population 345,000) offers enough to
keep people from shoving off to Copenhagen or London or beyond.
Besides the buzz of the work, the attractions range from the cos-
mopolitan ambiance provided by Aarhus University to four restau-
rants with Michelin stars. “Aarhus more than lives up to big brother
Copenhagen’s reputation as a foodie destination,” says Soren
Jessen, a Danish former banker who owns restaurants in London.
Bundsgaard, 43, has been mayor since 2011. Most morn-
ings, typifying the municipality’s mission to become carbon
neutral by 2030, he cycles to work at city hall. Aarhus, where
CO2 emissions have been cut in half over the past decade, has
built a 110- kilometer (68-mile) electric tram network and will
introduce electric buses this year. Wastewater treatment plants
are ordinarily very energy-intensive; Aarhus’s produces 40%
more power than it consumes.
Perhaps the most striking monument to Aarhus’s place in
the world of renewable energy is a biomass plant that opened in
- Atop a hill at Lisbjerg, on the edge of the city, three enormous
45-meter-high glass boxes soar above a landscape of farms and
woodland. More than 60 trucks a day deliver agricultural straw to
the plant when it’s running at full capacity. Next door, in another
box, there’s an older waste facility. Here, 150 trucks a day dump
rubbish that’s incinerated at 1,000C (1,832F). Both plants produce
electricity and pump hot water into the Aarhus district’s heating
system. “We’re almost free from coal now,” Bundsgaard says.Trading PlacesTo get onto one of the trading floors at Danske Commodities
A/S, you take a glass walkway across a shallow pool of water
whose murmuring lends an air of tranquility to the space. For
the traders, it can be a place of respite: The markets they cover
are anything but calm.
While many assets may move a percentage point or two at
most during a daily session, intraday electricity contracts can jump
or slump at many times that rate. All it takes is a sudden drop in
wind or a few unexpected hours of sunshine. This volatility has
spurred the development of a niche industry here. DC is the biggest
of the 10 or so companies in Aarhus that specialize in Europe’s
power and natural gas markets, which together were worth €1.65 tril-
lion ($1.85 trillion) last year, according to Prospex Research Ltd.
A gas trader named Henrik Lind founded DC in 2004. He’d
spotted an opportunity to profit from price differentials across
geographical markets and began to move power between Denmark
and Germany. The company, whose profit rose 28% to €72 million
in 2018, has about 300 employees and operates in about 40 markets.
Equinor ASA, a Norwegian oil major, bought out Lind, who owned
a majority of DC, and other shareholders for €400 million in a deal
that was completed in February. Lind is staying on as board member.Big Wind Around the World
Onshore turbine manufacturer market share in 2018, by megawatts of commissioned capacityCompany’s region of domicile Europe Asia Americas OtherVestas
10.1kSenvion
0.7kNordex
2.4kEnercon
2.5kGoldwind
6.7kMing Yang
2.4k Other*
2.4kGeneral Electric
5.0kSuzlon 0.9k lnoxGuodian
1.3kCSIC
0.8kWindey
0.9kDongfang
Electric
0.7kXEMC
0.7k
Sewind
0.4kEnvision
3.3kSiemens Gamesa
4.1k78 BLOOMBERG MARKETS