Have we enough wind to power Apple’s windfall?

It is comforting to see that the Danes are as fawning in their response to Apple’s decision to invest the best part of €850 million in their bog lands – or heaths as they prefer to call them – as we are.

The mayor of Viborg (population 35,000; notable industries: none) has led the way in welcoming the biggest foreign investment in Denmark to date.

"Viborg municipality is helping to write the history of Denmark today, so it is clear that we are very proud and happy right now," mayor Torsten Nielsen told Politiken.

Not only will the investment create jobs, he also reckons that he will be able to heat the town with all the heat thrown off by the servers as the world listens to iTunes.

It seems that Viborg and the Danish equivalent of IDA Ireland – Invest In Denmark – have been working on the project for three years. But the story goes back much further than that, according to a certain Peter Hummelgaard, columnist with the aforementioned Danish paper.

Much credit goes to a Svend Auken, the environment minister in the Rasmusen government of the 1990s, who led Denmark's embrace of green energy. Without his foresight, Apple would never have made its investment, he argues.

Perhaps, but he is certainly correct in saying that Denmark will have little trouble supplying Apple with green energy given that around one-third of its electricity comes from wind, a figure that is expected to reach 50 per cent by 2020.

Ireland may not have quite so strong a case. Wind energy accounts for closer to 20 per cent of electricity consumption and opposition to wind farms is growing by the day. The IDA was a little vague yesterday on where Apple's power will come from but hopefully they know the difference between green energy and hot air.