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Updated Tuesday, August 19, 2008 0:00 am TWN, By Martin Burlund, Reuters

Rows of solar panels sit in a pasture near Norby on the Danish island of Samso on May 20. Concerns about energy security may run high elsewhere in Europe, but on the windswept Danish island of Samso the inhabitants have achieved a decade-long target of self-sufficiency in renewable power. (Reuters)

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Living a green dream in Denmark

SAMSO, Denmark -- Concerns about energy security may run high elsewhere in Europe, but on the windswept Danish island of Samso the inhabitants have achieved a decade-long target of self-sufficiency in renewable power.

It’s a challenge their government set the island in 1997 and which has been largely funded through local taxes and individual investments, in one of Europe’s wealthier countries — Denmark’s GDP per capita was more than US$35,000 in 2006.

Now the islanders have shown that where there’s a wind, there’s a way — and in the process mounted a global showcase for one of the prize export industries in Denmark, which is home to the world’s largest wind-turbine maker, Vestas.

“I often use Samso as an ambitious example of how to cope with the big challenges that our own country faces in the race to become independent of fossil fuels,” said Randy Udall, a U.S. energy sustainability activist.

Based in Colorado, Udall imports ideas from all over the world on how to make communities self-sufficient in energy.

On Samso, which is home to just 4,000 people, wind turbines tower over green fields and rise from the choppy waters of the North Sea; rye, wheat and straw are used to heat the one-storey buildings and solar panels have sprouted on roof tiles.

“I think Samso has set an agenda for the climate issue and, alongside other projects, it has shown that this is possible,” said Soren Hermansen, director of the Samso Energy Academy and one of the project’s main drivers. Without any construction subsidies, the islanders have invested 400 million Danish crowns (US$84.35 million) — an average of more than US$20,000 per citizen.

“We invested US$84 million — a big number for 4,000 people — but in reality it’s not a whole lot,” said islander Jorgen Tranberg, who describes himself as a milk producer who “owns a couple of turbines.”

In Denmark’s geographical center, Samso used to be best known for its early-season potatoes. Now 11 onshore wind turbines cover all local electricity demands and 70 percent of the island’s homes are heated using biofuels or solar power.

While some homes have opted to stay with oil furnaces for heating and cars are still common, the island has become carbon neutral by erecting 10 offshore wind turbines — in addition to the 11 on land — to offset the automobiles’ carbon emissions and those from the 30 percent of homes still heated by oil.

“We even produce far more electricity than we need,” said Hermansen. The surplus is sold to the mainland.

To promote wind-power, the Danish government subsidizes wind energy production to the tune of about 20 to 50 percent of the final cost of power to consumers.

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