Small Danish island cashes in on wind
Row of generators bring residents of Samsø fame and fortune
By Anna-Liina Kauhanen
It is a dim and stormy day. Rain is pelting down, and ferry traffic from the mainland to the island of Samsø is at a standstill. The wind is so strong that a person can lean on it.
Swoosh, swoosh, is the sound that the island’s windmills make as they generate more krona into the bank accounts of the islanders.
Samsø is an island of 4,000 residents lying an hour’s ferry ride from the mainland. It is small and idyllic, and very windy. Denmark, the host of the UN climate conference, is proud of the island for good reason. Samsø is carbon neutral.
The island produces more energy than it needs, using wind power, solar panels, wood chips, and biomass. Farmer Jørjen Tranberg, 55, heats his house with milk.
When 150 cows are milked twice a day, the tank of milk is like a massive warm water container. The milk, which is at a temperature of 38.5 degrees Celsius when it is fresh, needs to be cooled to just three degrees, and that heat is extracted and used to Tranberg’s farmhouse.
However, the biggest energy source here is wind. If Samsø were a corporation, it would earn huge amounts of money under the EU’s emission trading scheme, as the island uses 40 per cent more energy than it needs itself.
There are 11 windmills on land and 10 at sea. The owners are the residents of the island, of whom one in ten own a share.
The most interesting aspect of the Samsø case is that the struggle for the windmills was the initiative of the islanders themselves.
Jørjen Tranberg has his very own windmill with a generating capacity of one megawatt in his back yard, and he has a share of one of the offshore windmills. Although the investment was fairly high, 2.5 million, it has paid for itself.
“When the wind is strong, I can earn 3000 euros in a day.”
About ten years ago the future of Samsø seemed as dark as the sky behind the island’s new energy academy.
Smaller potato farmers were selling their land to larger farmers. The largest employer, the slaughterhouse, closed down and took with it 100 jobs. Fishing was in dire straits, as catches were dwindling.
Something had to be done. As luck would have it, the Danish state organised a competition seeking ways to achieve self-sufficiency in energy. On the continent, in the city of Århus, a small firm of consultants figured out that Samsø is a very windy place. They made a number of calculations, and persuaded the municipality of Samsø to join the effort - and they won the competition.
The prize was an official certificate, which had the effect of obliging the local authority to start a small project. Local residents were called in for a meeting, which drew 50 local residents, including Søren Hermansen.
A crisis was needed to force residents of the island to think about how to prevail in the future. Also needed was Hermansen, a frustrated former vegetable farmer, and a very persuasive speaker. Political will was needed, and, for instance, the very significant detail, that for the first years of operation, the Danish state guarantees a minimum price for energy generated by wind power that is greater than the production costs.
“For it to succeed, it was important that this remained a project for the islanders”, says Hermansen.
Hermansen knew how to approach the islanders. He bought a portable juice press. “Nearly everyone here has apple trees.”
Hermansen spent an autumn travelling around the island, pressing apples. “And drinking so much apple juice that my stomach hurt.”
When the juice was all bottled, and other matters discussed, he asked if anyone would be interested in reducing their energy bills.
At first, four solar panels were set up, and a district heating plant using wood chips and straw as fuel.
It seems that the row of solar panels next to the district heating station is being put to good use, even though it is pouring with rain. Sheep are happily standing underneath the panel, getting shelter from the rain.
After the district heat came the windmills.
The state price guarantee for wind electricity meant that investing in wind energy was practically risk free for the islanders. Many understood how good the opportunity was, and have not regretted the decision. Paul Erik Wedelgaard is certainly not sorry that he went with the project.
Weldegaard’s old fishing boat, the Kyholm, cuts through the waves toward the windmills lying off the southern end of the island. At the age of 76, Wedelgaard was a professional fisherman for decades. Then it stopped being profitable, so he started to raise salmon.
Six years ago he sold the salmon growing facility, borrowed money, and bought a share of an offshore windmill for EUR 470,000. “I own 12 per cent of turbine number six”, he says.
The sun pops out from behind the clouds “They certainly are beautiful”, Wedelgaard sighs.
“We have a kind of reverse nimby effect - imby ‘in my back yard’. Everyone wanted to benefit from this”, Hermansen says, and looks satisfied.
And for good reason. Samsø’s reputation as a green ecological island is largely his doing.
“But this was no ecological project. Danish farmers cannot be talked into using and producing renewable energy on the basis of environmental arguments alone. It is a question of how this community will survive in the future.”
Next, Hermansen hopes to get the islanders excited about biogas and electric cars.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.12.2009
ANNA-LIINA KAUHANEN / Helsingin Sanomat
anna-liina.kauhanen@hs.fi
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| 8.12.2009 - THIS WEEK |
 Small Danish island cashes in on wind |
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