Denmark gets first power from Anholt wind park

COPENHAGEN, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Danish utility DONG Energy has brought the first turbine onstream at Anholt, set to be the country's biggest offshore wind park with a total capacity of 400 megawatts.

The Anholt development will deliver enough power for 400,000 households, or 4 percent of Denmark's power consumption, when it is completed in a year's time, state-controlled DONG Energy said on Friday.

Denmark, already the world leader in wind energy with around a quarter of its electricity from wind farms, aims to cover half its power needs with wind turbines by 2020.

It also aims to get 30 percent of overall energy consumption from renewables by 2020, and Anholt will make a significant contribution to those goals, DONG Energy said.

The wind farm, located off the island of Anholt in the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden, will have 111 Siemens turbines with a capacity of 3.6 MW each.

While DONG Energy has not disclosed the cost of the project, estimates are around 10 billion Danish crowns ($1.74 billion).

DONG Energy, the oil, gas and electricity producer, owns 50 percent and is the operator of the Anholt development, while pension insurance groups PensionDenmark and PKA own 30 percent and 20 percent respectively.

The pension providers bought their stakes in March 2011, marking a new step in DONG Energy's efforts to bring new kinds of investors into wind power projects and diversify its own risk as wind farm developer and owner. ($1 = 5.7558 Danish crowns) (Reporting by John Acher; Editing by Dan Lalor) (john.acher@thomsonreuters.com; +45 2630 9650; Reuters Messaging: john.acher.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)