W o r d s
⁄
S t e v e V i c k e r s
I l l u s t r a t i o n
⁄
M a j b r i t L i n n e b j e r g
I
n 1997, the Danish island of
Samsø was reliant on
energy from the mainland.
Oil was sent across to heat
homes and coal-generated
electricity was imported via a cable. Then
the Danish government launched a
competition, inviting five small
communities to show how they’d reach 100
per cent self-sufficiency using only
renewable energy sources. Samsø’s plan
was the most impressive, and within eight
years the island was producing enough
green power to meet the needs of its
4,000-
or-so residents.
These days, Samsø’s network of wind
turbines, solar panels and biomass burners
functions so well that islanders have a
surplus of green energy – and they’re
selling around 80,000 megawatt-hours of
it back to the mainland every year. “We’ve
changed from being totally dependent
on imported fuels to being more or less
independent,” says Søren Hermansen,
director of Samsø Energiakademiet, the
organisation driving the project.
Hermansen and his colleagues are
now fighting to rid the island of fossil
fuels entirely, including the fuel used in
buses, private cars, and the ferries that
connect Samsø with Jutland and Zealand.
By 2030, the hope is that 80 per cent of
local cars will run on electricity, with all
ferries powered by gas or – even better –
electricity produced on the island.
“
One of our strongest assets is the public
participation and ownership,” Hermansen
says. “We have convinced the local people
on Samsø that it’s a good idea to invest
in these projects and they are doing it
actively. They have learnt that it pays.”
Norwegian flies to Copenhagen from ten
destinations. Ferries to Samsø leave from
Kalundborg, 101kmaway
The small Danish island of Samsø is already carbon neutral – by 2030,
its aim is to be rid of fossil fuels entirely. We ask how
Is this the most
eco-friendly island on earth?
0 2 4 \
n
n
A
