Samsø - The green island

On 3rd of May, we the COP 15 students all around the Denamrk had the opportunity to visit the very beautiful small Danish island just in the middle of Denmark named ''Samsø''. The background of this study trip was to observe the activities at Samsø leading to the sustainable development of this small island. We were quite amazed to see that this small island is based on 100% renewable enrgy from land based and offshore wind turbines and also from heat produced by straw (waste for farmers) and wood chips. This heat from straw and wood chips provide the district heat system at homes in samsø and on the other hand wind turbines are responsible for the electricity needs of island. The only GHG (Green House Gas) emissions are coming from the transport sector as the island is dependednt on daily goods transported from different parts of Denmark and it takes the fuel consumption in ferries leading to global warming and also the transport on the island is based on fossil fuels. But we also seen the strong commitment of Energy Academy at Samsø to develop the transport system at Samsø based on renewable energy resources and they are already experimenting different options. So, in future we can hope of 100% green island in true terms!

Our visit at Samsø was for 2 days and both days we had the briefings from Energy Academy at Samsø which helped us in understanding of renewable energy system at the island in a better way. In the northern part of island, energy is also produced from the solar cells. The most interesting thing about the so successful system at Samsø is the community ownership as half of the wind turbines and 2 combustion plants of straw and wood chips are owned by the local farmers. This thing truly makes the dream of becoming 100% green island come true as nothing is possible without the community involvement.

The bus which took us all the way around was quite interesting as it was from 1934 and very nice looking. I can say that our visit was interesting due to this bus as well as we all felt ourselves in some cartoon world travelling in the same surroundings in such an interesting bus :).

Finally, I have not forgot to attach some of the nice pictures from island, so enjoy!