Denmark's data-centre grid queue revives the wind-versus-nuclear debate

Ruby on Rails creator David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) argued on 23 October that Denmark's decades-long campaign against Sweden's Barsebäck nuclear plant, whose reactors closed in 1999 and 2005, was a 'self-own', saying data centres now wait 10+ years for a grid connection because wind 'has wrecked the grid'. He quoted Bjørn Lomborg, who said Denmark's ~5,000 wind turbines produced 21.6 TWh in the past 12 months versus 23.3 TWh from Sweden's Forsmark plant alone. Grid operator Energinet paused new connections in March after ~60 GW of requests against ~7 GW peak demand, warned very large projects could wait 5-10 years, and under an emergency plan in force since 12 October puts most large data centres at the back of the queue. Others, including Denmark's National Audit Office, blame slow grid expansion, and a Danish Energy Agency study found SMR costs must fall substantially to compete with renewables.