Progressive
Energy vision leads to an excess of renewable energy
Cars
that drive on bio fuel, mills all over and around the island, and an EnergyAcademy.
In the heart of Denmark
lies a tiny, green island where the people make extraordinary things that
attract world wide attention.
Sweet
strawberries and delicious small potatoes are what the island is mostly known
for and the biggest industries on Samsø are agriculture and tourism. But the
most special thing that Samsø has to offer is probably its exceedingly
progressive energy vision. In a short period of time this vision has already lead
to some very positive results; an overall negative usage in carbon dioxide and
the sale of energy to other parts of Denmark.
A
successful collaboration between the State and its people
Everything
started in 1997 with a government sponsored climate contest that Samsø won.
Today the results are evident. In 10 years the island cut carbon dioxide usage
with a staggering 140 percent. Most of the people on the island take ownership
in the project and that is one of the keys to success according to communications
office, Jesper Kjems.
“We
started out by asking people, how they would solve the problem? We wanted
people to get involved,” he says.
Ten
years later this mission is accomplished; farmers, handymen, and the county,
everyone is engaged on some level.
Two
of the island’s 11 land-based wind turbines for example are owned by 450
ordinary people and with only 4.400 residents on the island it is almost impossible
not to know someone who has a share. That is a classic example of how the notion of energy is on Samsø.
“When the local people have shares in a mill
they feel connected to the project,” explains Jesper Kjems.
“We believe it is crucial to involve people
in these projects. Take the wind turbines, if you don’t make people interested
in them no one wants them in their back yard,” he says.
But
the island is not an organic hippie-society. Also hardcore businessmen are in
on the climate idea.
“We have both the organic farmer who doesn’t
know how much it costs him but only does it because he thinks it’s a great idea
and the farmer who now owns mills and can tell you exactly how much the energy
prices are right now,” Jesper Kjems says.
The
example from above with the shared ownership of the mills is a very
traditionally Danish way of thinking. And that is according to Jesper Kjems also
something that attracts international media and foreign visitors.
A
Brief history about the Energy Academy
The
EnergyAcademy is also located on the island,
which is another result of all the efforts that started back in 1997. The
Academy serves as a focalpoint of
storing all knowledge from numerous experiments
of implementing energy saving projects. The academy has room for national as well
as international scholars and scientists to perform research on concrete energy
projects with e.g. windmills
and thermal
solar panel systems just outside the window. The research conducted can also be seen as a
positive ‘green’ future glance. Although Samsø is on the right way, there are
still visions and dreams to fulfill.
“The
project is now so large-scale that we need to look on how the ideas can be used
in other parts of Denmark,”
Jesper Kjems says. “We want to be bigger than just the people here on this island,”
he says.
For
the near future the focus is on solving the transportation energy consumption
for example with hydrogen or electricity cars.
Charlotte Jørgensen finished her degree in
Journalism from The Danish School of Journalism April 2009. She spent her last
semester abroad in the U.S. and completed her final project in Beirut about the political
system and the sectarian cleavages in the country and the
conflicts they cause. She has previously worked at the Danish
news agency Ritzaus and with strategic news at the Danish Agricultural
Council. Her goal is to enhance her analytic
abilities and her language skills,
