GREEN LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE.
The residents of a small Danish farming island have driven an ambitious plan to create an energy independent community.
In a sweeping grass field, just behind Jørgen Tranberg’s cow barn, five wind turbines stand in a neat row. Their blades make a slight swooshing sound as they rotate in the breeze.
“That one is mine,” Tranberg says and points to the second one before putting his hands back in the pockets of his blue overalls.
The small Danish farming island of Samsø – located in the Kattegat, a strait in the North Sea – has found global fame as one of the world’s most energy independent communities. Tranberg was among the first to get involved after Samsø won a challenge, proposed by the Danish Ministry of Energy, for a community to become completely energy self-sufficient in a decade, using renewables. In 1997 Jørgen Tranberg bought one of the wind turbines that were put up in his field.
Today, scientists, environmentalists and media from all over the world visit the green island, also known for its delicious new potatoes and sweet strawberries, to study its remarkable transition to 100 per cent renewable energy.
The island’s total electricity demands are met by 11 one-megawatt wind turbines, like those in Tranberg’s field, and an ever increasing number of additional household windmills.
About 450 of Samsø’s 4,100 residents – known as Samsingers – own shares in the island’s windmills and Tranberg is one of the major shareholders. He also owns half an offshore windmill. Altogether, he has invested nearly $4,5 million in the turbines and in just a few more years he will have recouped the whole amount. Tranberg now makes more money from the wind than from his 150 milking cows.
“Windy days make me happy,” he says. “Actually, there is no bad weather anymore.”
The turbines require very little maintenance – only a few minutes a day, Tranberg estimates, and a service twice a year.
“Talking to journalists about them takes up far more of my time,” he says with a hearty laugh.
Fellow Samsinger Brian Kjaer has a 22-kilowatt wind turbine in his backyard that supplies his family with electricity.
“We use electricity when the turbine produces and try to save energy on calm days,” says Kjaer, who also drives an electric car and has installed solar panels on his roof. Windy days are laundry days, he adds.
As an electrician, Kjaer’s skills were in demand as the energy project started up, so, like Tranberg, he was involved early on.
“It just seemed like a really good idea to supply the island with renewable energy and I decided to be part of it,” he says.
“The project has meant a lot of work for me,” he admits. “I have put many hours into this, but it has been worth it.”
Jesper Kjems, communications officer at the Samsø Energy Academy, says that the hands-on efforts of the Samsingers have been key to the project’s success.
“Since most islanders are involved they feel that this is their project. They feel responsible and they care about it,” he says.
He believes that the project’s ‘think local, act local’ approach helped increase motivation and contribute to its success.
“I do not think that it would have worked as well if the Samsingers had been asked to do this to save the world. Instead, they were encouraged to take local responsibility for the energy situation in their community,” says Kjems.
Before Samsø embarked on this experimental path, the island was far from a beacon of sustainability. Houses were heated with oil that was shipped in. Electricity, mostly generated by burning coal, was imported from the mainland. Eleven tonnes of carbon dioxide were generated on average per resident every year.
Just 12 years later, Samsø is nearly self-sufficient in renewable energy. The only remaining obstacles are fossil fuel-powered ferry traffic to and from the mainland and transportation on the island. To compensate for the greenhouse gases these activities produce, 10 large 2.3-megawatt offshore turbines were erected just south of the island in 2002. Together they generate roughly 80 million kilowatt-hours a year of clean electricity that is purchased by mainland Denmark. As a result, the export of renewable energy outweighs the import of fossil fuel.
“Our goal to be carbon neutral is met. Since starting this project we have actually cut our carbon emissions by 140 per cent,” Kjems says.
Farmer Erik Koch Andersen is one local committed to reducing his carbon footprint.
“Climate change is obviously something very serious. We all have to do what we can,” he says.
For him, this means running his car and tractor on homemade biofuel. In a shed behind his house he presses rapeseed into oil, using a small blue pressing machine and what looks like a vacuum cleaner tube. The dark yellow oil drips into a plastic container on the cement floor. The by-product churned out of the machine is rich in protein and used as cattle feed.
“At the Energy Academy they showed me how the press works and I decided to go for it,” he says.
Five years ago, Andersen installed solar panels for his house. He also has a wood boiler in his furnace room.
“The solar panels heat my entire house from April through October, but they are not enough in winter,” he explains.
About 75 per cent of the island’s heating energy is renewable, mainly sourced from Samsø’s four district heating plants. Three are straw-fired and the fourth is powered by solar panels and a wood chip-fired boiler. A majority of households are connected to the district heating systems but about 300, including those of Andersen and Kjaer, have instead invested in individual renewable energy systems for their home heating.
Solar panels grace the roofs of houses all over the island. Heat pumps and biomass boilers are increasingly common. Kjaer says the change to renewable energy usually means reduced power and heating costs.
“It is great that our island can show the world that thinking green can save you money.”
However, becoming a renewable energy island takes a substantial initial outlay: the Samsø transition cost nearly $107 million. The municipality spent $30 million buying five of the offshore turbines. About $14 million for building the district heating plants came from a European Union grant. The rest of the money came from individual and collective investments.
Organic farmer Else Lysgaard grows potatoes and asparagus on northern Samsø. She owns wind turbine shares – both landbased and offshore – and has solar panels on her roof. She says that the energy project has brought a green consciousness to Samsø.
“People seem to think more about these things now.”
The successful project has inspired the islanders to look at other aspects of their lifestyle. What’s next for Samsø? Lysgaard hopes to see more organic farming and Jørgen Tranberg wants a solution to the transportation issue. Jesper Kjems is looking forward to seeing more electric cars on Samsø’s winding roads.
“Most of us are proud to live on a renewable energy island and I believe this can inspire a shift to other green alternatives,” Kjems says. “People come [to] see us at the Energy Academy with ideas for new projects. Hopefully we will have a new success to talk about in 10 years.”
Publicerad i Green Lifestyle Magazine (Australien).
Foto: Linda Berglund