Consumer surveys in Denmark reflect a positive attitude towards renewable energy technologies, and even a willingness to pay a little more than the retail electricity price to support clean energy.

On this basis, the utility Elselskabet VOH, with support from the national government, has established a 60 kWp PV project involving 30 houses to introduce the technology to its customers and to test the effect of PV systems on the Danish grid. The participants in the pilot project were selected following an advertisement in the local newspapers. This had a huge response, with 10% of the utility's customer base expressing an interest in participating in the project. The majority of systems are retrofitted on rooftops, and tilted between 15 and 45 degrees to the horizontal. One system has been attached to a vertical wall, one is installed on a flat roof, and there are two roof-integrated systems. However, all systems use standard components, and each is connected to a central computerized monitoring systems, which allows comparative performance to be undertaken.

The electricity tariff for this project is 56,3 Øre/kWh (about 8,2 US cents/kWh) for purchases from the grid. The utility is keen to see what effect this has on consumption patterns, so some months prior to installation of the PV systems, the participating households' energy usage behaviour was monitored to allow before and after comparisons to be made. User's can instantly see whether they are buying or selling power to the grid on their 'PV meter', and this helps them to optimise usage of home generated power.

The systems have been operational since April 1997, and preliminary examinations show the following:

• About 50% of the power produced is used on-site, the remainder is being exported.
• The slight variations in orientation encountered have little influence on systems performance
• Tests with 90% of the PV systems in operation indicated there is no measurable effect on voltage distortion, in fact the effect is some 50% less than that caused by the customers' television sets.

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