Samsø

If you tell a Dane you are going to Samsø, they will inevitably ask you to bring back some potatoes. While the Danes may associate the island with Denmark’s first crop of potatoes (which can bring in up to $80 a pound), to the international community it is known simply as “energy island.” In 1997, it won a competition to become the first carbon neutral area in Denmark. During the 10 years that followed, an infrastructure of windmills and district heating plants was constructed making Samsø an island that actually produces more energy than it uses! What makes it really unique is that many of the windmills are owned on share by the islanders themselves. In the small, conservative towns of Samsø, it took some convincing seeing as most were not interested in ideals of saving the environment or stopping global warming. They were convinced when they found out how much money they could save. One farmer we visited, Jørgen Tranberg, actually makes more money selling energy from his windmill back to the grid than he does from his dairy farm.  He let us climb to the top of his wind turbine. Some may say they are a noisy eyesore, but I think there is nothing quite as majestic in the manmade sense as a row of windmills spinning in synchronization…  

We also visited a district heating plant that burns biomass (woodchips, straw, etc.) to heat water which is then pumped to the nearby towns and directly into people’s homes. The water returns cold to begin the process again. The oxygen the straw releases as it grows equals the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the burning process. This particular one also had solar panels that directly heated the water.

 And at the end of the day, to give ourselves some extra energy, we built a campfire and made snobrød. Basically, you wrap dough around a stick, toast it over the fire, spoon in some jam, ketchup, or add a hotdog, and enjoy!

Samsø’s next goal is to become fossil fuel free by 2020!

You can read more here.