Samsø, Part I

Greetings fans. I'm back from a weekend on Samsø, and really all I have to say is "Wow!" For those who don't know, Samsø is a very small island between Fyn and Seeland. Pretty great sounding, right? Oh wait- I forgot the good part. Thanks to the combined delights of wind power and offset calculations, the island is not only independent when it comes to energy, but actually overall has a negative carbon footprint. 


There are 11 wind turbines on the island, which provide all the electricity needed by the island's residents. Then there are 10 offshore turbines that offset the carbon produced by the cars and ferries used by the residents. The power produced by these is exported to the rest of Denmark, bringing green power to the rest of the country. 

One of the 11 onshore turbines.

75% of the heating on Samsø is provided by district heating. This is a series of localized plants that burn biomass (generally straw bales) to heat an enormous boiler. The hot water is then circulated through a heavily insulated series of pipes, going through heat exchangers at every connection and giving every home or business access to heat that is essentially carbon neutral.


But enough of that boring factual stuff. Here's what we did this weekend:


Arrived at Samsø Friday after a two hour train ride and an hour and a half ferry, and walked to our hostel in essentially the dead of night. Very exciting. 

Looking off the wharf towards Samsø.

Saturday morning we hopped astride our rented bikes and pedaled off across the fantastically beautiful countryside to the Enrgieakademie on the other side of the island.

We look virtually indistinguishable from locals.

There we met Søren Hermansen, one of the spearheaders of the Samsø environmental movement. After talking us through the energy revolution of Samsø, he walked us though a district heating plant.

Søren and the boiler.

We ate lunch on the beach.

Delightful views and food. Doesn't get much better than this.

After that we cycled off to a farm to meet a local farmer that owns his own wind turbine, which he took us to the top of. Let me rephrase and repeat that in case you missed it: I stood on top of a 50 meter wind turbine. Just let that sink in for a moment. Now imagine you've just climbed about 73 ladders straight up and are crouching in a minuscule capsule jammed with gear boxes and generators and all sort of fun things like that, which is swaying gently back and forth in the gale-force winds. 

Inside a turbine.

You're just beginning to feel that you may have wasted a lot of effort climbing up there, when the roof splits open, your pod opens to the sky, and you're standing on top of the world. 

Ta-da!

The blissfully safety-disregarding farmer then invites you, one at a time, to stand unsupported on top of the generator, the master of all you survey. By far one of the most amazing things I've ever done. 

No explanation could do this feeling justice.

  And on that note, we'll pick up the story tomorrow.

One more look, just for good measure.

.