Can a 30-mile by 15-mile wide industrialized island of 4,000 inhabitants be completely energy self-sufficient? With 21 wind turbines, power plants that rely on furnaces fired by wood chips and straw, and farms of man-sized solar panels (kept trim by herds of sheep), an energy self-sufficient island is a reality. It’s the Danish island of Samso. It has become one of the first industrialized places in the world to qualify as being totally energy self-sufficient.
How Samso has become energy self-sufficient (image via ngpowereu.com). Click to zoom in on the Infographic.
In 1997, Samso won a competition between 5 Danish islands to become Denmark’s renewable energy island. How? It presented a 10 year plan to to convert its energy consumption from oil and gas to clean technology. Ten years later, it has succeeded. Is there any reason that a 30-mile island in the Baltic sea can achieve a project like this (with 21 wind turbines), yet a city like Las Vegas, with an infinite amount of sun (only 130 sq. miles of land area), can’t seem to get on track with solar power? The U.S. is full of great ideas, but we’re also full of languid goals. Wow, a 17% cut in greenhouse gases by 2020? 35mpg standards by 2016? I haven’t seen such weak achievements since my Tae Kwon Do testing for yellow belt.
Pessimists will mark the Samso model as a low-scale achievement; unachievable for large metro areas. The fact is, these sort of numbers will truly get the ball rolling in every part of the globe. The numbers add up. After all, the energy that the Sun generates in one hour is enough to power the Earth for an entire year. Why not use this energy? Why not use the renewable energy that is generated from the waves off of our nation’s shores? The heavy winds throughout the Great Plains and Midwest?
Coincidentally, next month’s UN Climate Change Summit will be in Denmark. Maybe seeing a working example in person (like an 18-year-old in a long-distance relationship) will get other nations on the right track. Sadly, it just might take that.
Please visit Power and Energy to read the article on how Samso became an energy self-sufficient island.