Joint financing

Thanks to the irrepressible determination of enthusiasts and the belief in joint investments, the small island of Samsø in Denmark is self-sufficient using renewable energy. 

Twelve years have passed since this energy project was established in Samsø, and today 10 offshore windmills, 11 onshore windmills and four district heating plants provide all of the island’s heating and electricity consumption. In fact, they produce more electricity than is needed and are able to export as much as 80 million kilowatt hours a year to the mainland. This is the equivalent of the total energy requirement of about 4,000 households.

Søren Hermansen, the Managing Director of Samsø Energiakademi, has been involved since the project started up in 1997. He explains:” My task has been to make the project meaningful for people. We have managed to show the inhabitants that it will be profitable to invest in renewable energy. In all, we have invested 420 million Danish kroner over 10 years, divided among 4200 residents. There are now plans to replace fossil-fuelled cars and tractors with biogas, rapeseed oil and electric-car technology.”

The Samsø Municipality has acted as borrower on the investment loans and provided a guaranty for the loan for the island’s four centralised heating plants. The residents themselves have invested 36 million kroner in windmills. Four of the eleven onshore windmills are jointly owned by 450 private individuals on Samsø; the fact that they have gone together to own these has contributed to making the project viable. In addition to the wind power and centralised heating, solar energy is also used on Samsø.

In November, Søren Hermansen received the “Nobel-prize” of the environmental movement, the 2009 Gothenburg Prize, for his work on the Samsø project. He will use the prize money to write a book about the project and to create new ideas for the next decade. 

Read more:
http://www.energiakademiet.dk/
http://www.goteborgaward.com/