On Aug. 12, the Coastland Times published a letter from S. Medeiros attacking the offshore wind farm proposed by Dominion Power (Dominion’s windmills are just scarecrows.) As someone who has lived alternately in Denmark and in Kitty Hawk for more than two decades, I was astonished at the distorted and just plain wrong characterization of wind power in Denmark.

First, since the first offshore wind farm was built in 1991, the power generating capacity of an offshore wind turbine has grown almost 20 times, according to Orsted, Dominion’s Danish partner. This has enabled the cost per MWh to plummet to the point that building new offshore wind power capacity in northwestern Europe is now cheaper than building new gas or coal fired power capacity. And it is clean, renewable energy production.

Second, Denmark did not “ abandon plans to build five offshore wind farms.” On the contrary, construction has already begun and two projects will be completed by the end of 2020. In addition the Danish parliament recently approved three larger offshore wind farms to be built in in the next decade. The fact is that, in 2017, wind turbines in Denmark generated power equal to 42 percent of Denmark’s electricity consumption. And, according to Eurostat Data, 18 of 28 EU countries had higher electricity prices than Denmark.

Third, the price for building renewable energy is coming down more rapidly than anybody imagined only a few years ago. People who live and work on the Outer Banks know from experience that climate change is real and we simply have to reduce our emissions of CO2, methane and other greenhouse gases from our critical energy production. The true generational theft would be not doing so.

As a Kitty Hawker who also spends lots of time in Denmark, I can tell you that Denmark has got it right when it comes to affordable, clean and renewable energy. If you take a close look at the real facts you can’t help but agree. The sooner they build that wind farm where the conditions off our coast are perfectly suited for it, the better for all of us.

1. Spencer Oliver, Kitty Hawk and Tisvildeleje