Danish island community goes 100 per cent renewable

The 4,000 strong community of Samso, an island in Denmark has become the first to go 100 per cent renewable.

The independent municipality won a competition in 1997 to become the country’s first 100 per cent renewable community, inspired by the Kyoto talks 20 years ago.

The Huffington Post reported that the island has now completed the process of transitioning from a traditional energy supply, based primarily on oil and coal, to a society based on renewable energy with zero CO2 emissions.

Most space heating is supplied from district heating. Boilers burn straw and distribute hot water to heat houses — and 75 per cent of all houses are connected. The rest use heat pumps, individual biomass boilers and/or solar thermal. Electricity comes from 11 MW of wind turbines producing 100 per cent of the average yearly consumption — 23MW offshore wind power compensates for the transport sector’s energy consumption.