Eco-Revolution in Denmark
Posted by alex in Denmark, environment at 2:21 pm | 
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GOING OFF-GRID
by S.R. Nunnally
It’s 8:10 p.m. Samso Time, Thursday, February 23, when the ferry pulls into dock at Kolby Kas after a two-hour float from Kaludborg. It’s dark…and dusty. And cold.
There are no streetlights between cities, I notice, as I blindly follow the car ahead of me to the center of the 20-mile by 6-mile island, to Tranebjerg and Flinch’s Hotel – my home base for the next two days. The island feels deserted, and it is in a way… February is Denmark’s coldest month, and many of Samso’s 4,300 residents are burrowed snuggly in their warm homes – a stark contrast to when an influx of several tens of thousands visit the island during the tourist season.
Many come in July for the popular music festival, the beautiful beaches, and sailing. But of late, Samso has been invaded by a different kind of tourist… an eco-tourist.
That was my mission… why I traveled over 4,000 miles: to discover Samso’s Eco-Revolution.
In 1997, Denmark held a national competition. The selected winner would be home to a one-of-a-kind experiment: The winner would be expected to convert all its energy supply to 100% renewable energy within 10 years.
The small island of Samso was given the nod. Because it is an island that has no conventional energy resources of its own, Samso was an ideal choice for such a controlled experiment.
Since 1998, Samso began converting its energy into renewable energy, and has been so successful that 100% of its electricity comes from wind power and 75% of its heat comes from solar power and biomass energy.
That’s a near total Eco-Revolution…but it gets better.
Here’s how they do it…
Think of the amount of time that wind turbines have been around… and multiply that by 40.
According to the Danish Wind Industry Association, wind turbines and wind mills have been “a part of the northern European landscape for more than 800 years.” Now, wind power makes up approximately 20% of Denmark’s power consumption… and that’s with Danish wind manufacturers selling 90% of their production outside of the country.
Germany is the largest buyer of Danish wind turbines snatching up 24% of exports, and Spain comes in second with 10.5%. Big numbers for big markets. In total, Danish manufacturers held 40% of the world market for wind turbines.
That equates to over DKK21 billion, or nearly $3.4 billion here in the U.S. – about 1.8% of Denmark’s GDP.
With power like that, wind is like Denmark’s new currency.
Samso has taken the torch and has really shown the world what wind power can do.
With the completion of an offshore wind farm comprised of 10 beautiful turbines, Samso has become carbon neutral. The energy produced by these wind turbines compensates for the island’s transportation emissions, including the ferries, and all other non-renewable energy sources.
In fact, sometimes Samso’s wind turbines produce so much energy that the island sells it back to the mainland!
But wind power isn’t the only thing that’s super-charging Samso’s Eco-Revolution…
On Samso, it’s much more effective to use solar power for heating. Because of the expense of solar modules, the island has put them to use in a “collective” environment. Instead of installing solar arrays on individual homes for electricity, Samso uses solar power for heat at its district heating plants.
District heating plants pump hot water to nearby homes for individual heating purposes. The water is heated using a combination of solar panels and renewable wood pellet or straw-furnaces.
Studies have shown that it’s about 20% cheaper get heat from the local district heating plants than it is to buy oil for heat.
There are about 250 homes that have installed solar cells for heating their own water tanks in instances where they reside too far from the district heating plant. In total, Samso is pushing past the 75% renewable mark when it comes to heat energy needs.
By combining solar power with local, renewable, biofuel, Samso has custom-tailored a renewable energy program that is simple and highly effective. Solar panels are so efficient that on a cloudy winter day, it can heat the water to 25 degrees above freezing on its own.
With only 25% of heat energy derived from fossil fuels, Samso’s well on its way to achieving 100% renewable status ahead of schedule.
There’s only one sector left to tackle, and it might prove to be the most difficult.
Samso’s Eco-Revolution is in danger of stalling… so the many naysayers say. Every critic of Samso’s progress ritualistically cites transportation as the missing cog in the otherwise praiseworthy renewable energy system.
Well, they’ll be eating their foot once Samso’s new projects have been put into place.
The experts on Samso will by applying two radically different concepts to tackle the transportation problem.
The first project is a biofuel: rapeseed oil.
Rapeseed oil can be used to fuel any vehicle once a simple adaptation is made to the engine. It is cleaner than ethanol, and does not need to be refined in a clunky, energy-consuming refinery. That wouldn’t be practical for this small island.
All that you need to make your own biofuel is rapeseed, and a rapeseed press… and cows to eat the waste. Once pressed, the oil can be put directly into your fuel tank.
The island can grow approximately 600 hectares of rapeseed a year. That’s not enough to run every car, but it’s definitely enough to take car of the largest diesel guzzlers: farm tractors and ferrys.
To eliminate the rest of transportation’s oil consumption, Samso wants to introduce a hydrogen plant, powered by all that excess wind power. That’s a few years down the road, but in the meantime, the Energy and Environment Office wants to put a hydrogen-fueled truck on display at its new Energy
Academy upon its completion.
The hydrogen truck, designed by H2 Logic Alps, would be a demonstration piece to start generating interest in this new, renewable fuel. Samso is planning on banning traditional combustion engines from the island once vehicles are converted to hydrogen.
Generating community interest has been a key way of developing projects and increasing investors. Samso’s Energy and Environment Office was so successful because it offered more than just a great chance at a return on investments…
In order for renewable energy project to survive, they needed strong backing from the community. In that way, Samso’s success goes way beyond the “greening” of energy consumption. This Eco-Revolution was not only an environmental change.
Samso’s residents embraced a way to save their economy and improve their way of life.
Through investing in co-ops that financed wind power and district heating plants, islanders took personal control over their quality of life. By introducing these renewable energy projects, Samso has created new, better-paying jobs, increased tourism, and added to its economy.
“The community is more inclined to support the project because they see it as something that is done locally by local people. As such, people participate not because they are forced to by the authorities but because they want to,” says Soren Hermansen, director of the Samso Energy and Environment Office, in an interview with Chan Cheng Tuan of Sunday Mail.
Community commitment is necessary for the advancement of any project, which is why Samso uses many local resources like straw and wood pellets for the district heating plants. Soon rapeseed will be added to that list.
Residents want to see Samso succeed, and understand that by participating in the islands renewable energy projects the whole island benefits.
Cheers,
S.R. Nunnally
for The Daily Reckoning
Editor’s Note: S.R. Nunnally is the editor of Material Profits, a monthly newsletter that offers in-depth research and forward-thinking investment opportunities in the commodities sector. She is a frequent contributor to WaveStrength Market Report and Taipan, and has made appearances on
financial radio shows such as KXYZ’s The Economic Contrarian with Michael Norman and KOTA’s Focus with Don Grant. For more information, please visit http://www.materialprofits.com.
7 August, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Dear Sir;
You and your innocent ignorance fight tooth and nail for a belief you must truly believe in because in no way shape or form will movements like political guiding, financing of governments and activities, business activities that do not need conspiracy’s to carry out and guide groups to believe they are innocent. The greatest weapon is the money and the power of lawyers, the power of family’s with 200 years of power all that being so far above your head I truly understand everyone fighting on both sides of the battle because it is human. What is not human is when policy’s are created to block one message no matter what the discussion, the information and argument is part of free speech. I see the battle of Racism, Anti-Jewish Battles, Anti-immigration, Xenophobic idealists use of these terms to further push agendas, block political change, block protection of what Americans once believed as the greatest threat to America, Communism. The slow push by ignorance based on your true belief that Jewish power and many American and European Family’s and organizations want power. It is not just Jewish power that is creating its own protection and for good reason but those battling against them are fighting for their protection as well and you are the pawn fighting to stop what you believe is right and true because a policy or law was passed. That not only does not make it right but most likely that means there is more truth to the argument than not because innocence is not afraid to stand toe to toe with anyone but guilt and deception will always utilize power and law to control situations so that they do not have to be bothered.
The Jewish people have been traumatized based on History and no matter what you believe today, you have no right to judge the facts of history. The victors write the rules and history. When that history is written time and time again by one sect of society to me that means they are not losing as often as has been portrayed because they would not have had the power to write history if they were the losers in battles going back 2500 years. If you are still scratching your head you must be wondering how does this type of information get made up? That is the problem, no matter what is said, no matter what actions or proof were to come to the front of the world, it would be put to rest as Anti Semitism, Racism, Xenophobia because the only way to control society is to assure society becomes what you believe it should be. The only other way to protect your own kind is to assure all others are so afraid to speak against you that you easily can control media, messages, law and push for wars against your enemy or against those whom financially have hurt you.
One of the greatest confusing outcomes of war is when a country has no interest in the WAR yet more than 60 years later its government and people are still being compensated and 80 million people died but only the 6 million people are ever discussed. The war is about control beginning in the 1800’s when the first large Jewish organizations and family’s began to push for a new country for the Jewish people. That was ok. The organizations in the US that began to formulate plans to get a home land. That was ok. The European country’s had to find away to finance a new country, how to remove Britain and the Ottoman Empire from control of their land began the goal. The long and short of it for today is the only way to weaken all the chains on the Jewish people not wealthy or in the Jewish council or in America is to weaken the chains that bind. From 1914 – 1933 the battles were being waged all over the world, in the court rooms of America, the political activities in Russia, Britain, Czechoslovakia, Hungry, the USA and Germany and Austria. The French worked as did the Russians in the same direction for years. The push for communism in France probably would have won out if Germany had not conquered France and then the US controlled them after WWII. There are so many great activities which took place behind closed doors and in Family dining rooms that anyone protecting the accusations that Jews fighting to control activities in the world is Anti-Semitic, your wrong. Those were the goals and it is in writing in Books writing in the 1800’s and early 1900’s before Hitler, before the NAZI’s. The British were worse than the Germans about the Jews and the most powerful American business men were against the financing of the Jews as well.
The Ignorance of anyone that says the Jews did not control the finances of the World until the late 1920’s when changes had to occur have never even looked at how financing was invented. The Rothschild family invented financing Banks and interest. The Christians were not allowed to collect interest so the Jews began Banks. They began controlling Kings money, the Queen and King of England, the French were the first nation to give full freedom to the Jews in the world because of the Rothschild’s handling of their money and their ability to control investments etc… throughout Europe. The Rothschild Brothers controlled every Banking Industry in 5 major Country’s for 5 decades before turning it over to their relatives. The family refused to marry outside of their own family because of the weakening of control. These are not illegal things or bad things they are facts. The problems began when France was controlled by the Rothschild’s personal money for almost 100 years helping to expand the empire during war. Germany had part of the Jewish Rothschild’s but war still came and family’s were on both sides. War became big business. England was financed by the England Branch of Rothschild’s to fight France. The British were able to keep afloat by the Black Market set up by the Rothschild’s. Then they expanded to the greatest financial growth in the World, America. The growth of other Jewish families and the desire to help other Jews became a major goal of Jewish families. They did this by hiring Jews, promoting Jews and discriminating at will yet they created policy’s for other country’s that allowed for mixing of family’s and Races because they knew that is how you weaken family’s. That is how you weaken society. The greatest battle against power is to give the people the perception of power.
I will stop for now but if you do not believe anything you have been taught today and you do not research it yourself, then your ignorance is why a war is being waged against your support of those trying to change the world and financially and politically control it.
Good luck.
Anthony Riordan