Newsletter no. 21
Denmark is opening up
Søren Hermansen
Covid 19 hit us more than a year ago just like the pandemic hit the rest of the world.
The Energy Academy had just returned from an official trip to Indonesia in collaboration with the Danish Energy Agency working on a sector collaboration between Denmark and Indonesia, this was all just before international travel was closed. Samsø and the Energy Academy were isolated from the outside world and our visit programs were later canceled or postponed to better times. We have had to adapt our activities – or lack thereof – to the reality we now operate in. It is quite different from what we had planned. Courses and workshops have been put on hold and we have looked inwards and adapted our operations to withstand a long time with Covid 19.
We have become really good at Zoom, Teams, Skype and all the electronic platforms we now use to connect with the world, but we are still far from appreciating the work we deliver. An electronic presentation is not the same as a physical appearance, and the personal meeting cannot be replaced by a screen. But we practice and keep in touch and live in our amazing online network while we wait for the world to somehow reopen. Fortunately, no employees at the Energy Academy have been ill and Samsø has had very few Covid cases throughout the year … right now none at all.
Your view on the climate situation
While we are under pressure from a lot of changes, it seems as if the climate has shifted it’s position in the spotlight. To the Energy Academy and the local contribution, it seems more and more that the market has taken over and that most new energy plants are being established in larger private economies or in energy companies. It can both be considered a success; we have won with the green agenda and made the market interested in investing. However, it can also be seen as a loss to the local communities, these have so far been both brave and necessary early investors in a local energy infrastructure, this made perfect sense both physically and mentally. We have overcome a lot of skeptical notions about wind turbines and district heating. It is now again a challenge, as private ownership removes some of the important local arguments for installing energy plants. Lack of local ownership will in many ways promote the so-called NIMBY effect. NIMBY; ‘not in my backyard’ is a well-known phenomenon that often makes it difficult to implement a new energy plan where wind turbines, biogas or large photovoltaic systems are involved. While we are talking about it, time passes and the future goal agreed by the government and the EU is approaching very quickly. Meanwhile, the projects with the purpose of solving the climate problems become larger and much more complicated to establish.
The Energy Academy is planning several meetings where this challenge will be addressed. In September, ‘Folkedybet’ is launched – a meeting on local, sustainable development in many facets.
New colleague
In the midst of adaptation to a generational change, both in the crew and in the work tasks we have, there is a new man in the house. Henrik Ostenfeldt, who we hired to implement a change in business procedures and administration, resigned in November and moved to the Samsø company, ExamVision. It was of course bad timing for us, but good for many other things, and we are, as always, used to adapting and have been lucky enough to hire Jeppe Hermann as our new business manager. Jeppe lives in Nordby and is working with his wife on an exciting place Skippergården. Jeppe comes from a job in Samsø Municipality as a controller and has an exciting past. We believe that we have found a good match for the Energy Academy’s future tasks! Please do come by and say hello, so Jeppe gets off to a good start with our network.
Smartees
One of several EU projects still operating is Smartees. The project consists of a number of universities from the EU member states, together they will create prototypes of sustainable development projects. Samsø is one of the examples used, and the Energy Academy, as a subcontractor, must provide data and work to make the prototypes suitable for use in the participating local communities, and for teaching. Due to Covid 19, the project has been extended to October 2021.
Samsø On Air at South by Southwest
Alexis Chatzimpiros
Every now and then Samsø carefully crosses the Atlantic to reach out and tell the story of how it changed its mindset and took climate action for its own better future. You gave us a hand to open the door, and thank you! Now Austin’s famous SXSW has become a stepping stone for the megaphone.
In this year’s online edition, our CEO Søren Hermansen has a conversation with Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer at the New Yorker, about his leadership and the social innovation that made Samsø a climate pioneer and an exhibition window to the world. Its about what happens when a community sees through the cracks of a wall and tears it down to let the light in so transformational change can happen. Very early in the process we realized that we are not alone in this energy transition and that many communities are interested in learning from our experience. Tune in at SXSW and also please get in touch with us to share perspectives from your own community.
“The days are getting longer; the winter is getting tougher”
Peter Christensen
February lives up to these words in the danish poet Brorson’s beautiful poem to that extent, because even though the days have now been extended by more than two hours, it is getting colder and colder and the snow is falling. Without a doubt to the delight of many, children and adults alike.
The Night Light project achieves amazing measurements despite Corona challenges.
The Night Light project, which among other things aims to ensure the small village Nordby accreditation with the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) has been affected by the Corona pandemic and the closure.
This has meant that we have not been able to hold as many events through 2020 as we would otherwise have done. However, the autumn holiday was an exception. On Thursday 15th October, together with the Nature School, we held a fantastic event at Langøre Nature school with the participation of 50 persons, children and adults. We walked to Lilleøre, had a visit from Louise and her horned owl from Samsø Falkecenter, Bjarne from the Nature School talked about nature and the animals at night and ended it all with hot cocoa at the Nature School’s campfire site.
Throughout 2020 we have measured the darkness every month at six different places on the North part of the island. These measurements need to be used to get our accreditation with IDA, and the measurements have been really impressive. The North Island on Samsø simply has some of the best darkness you can find in Denmark.
We look forward to returning to fairly normal conditions again and we can once again make night walks out in the dark with both samsingers and the island’s guests.
https://energiakademiet.dk/nattelys/
https://www.facebook.com/darkskysamsoe
The SMILE battery stores power for the night
Michael Kristensen og Jan Jantzen
Data from Ballen marina is flowing in. Over the course of seven months in 2020, including the high season, solar cells have managed 47 percent of the port’s electricity consumption.
The SMILE solar battery provides a good, tax-free saving.
When the solar cells make excess power, it is stored on the Xolta battery for the night. The solar cells have saved the port from buying DKK 51,000 worth of electricity from the electricity grid.
The diagram below shows the energy accounts for the period 1st April 2020 to 1st November 2020. Sometimes the battery is full and the solar cell power goes to the electricity grid, but it is not very much, so we utilise the solar cells to a great extent.
SMILE project’s Facebook page in Danish: https://www.facebook.com/smilesamso/
SMILE project’s Facebook page in English:
https://www.facebook.com/H2020smileproject/
Fact sheets in English and Danish: http://arkiv.energiinstituttet.dk/643/9/Fakta_Facts.pdf
Questions and answers in Danish: http://arkiv.energiinstituttet.dk/643/9/Fakta_Facts.pdf
Dataset: http://arkiv.energiinstituttet.dk/643/
Self-picker: New company sees the light of day
Mikkel Bruun and Malene Lundén
Samsø as an island has won in the energy field. On a backdrop of political necessity, community and hard work, the island has carried out a transition to renewable energy and has been recognized and celebrated for it.
Samsø has a unique brand as a sustainable island with a committed local population and with general goodwill from both Danish and international players. The driving force in this energy adventure has taken place in close partnership with Samsø Environment and Energy Office and Energiselskabet and Samsø’s local residents.
Many – very many – have supported and invested time, money and love, so that in 2007 we could build the Energy Academy at Strandengen, which today functions as a supertanker for large and small projects. Here we have cultivated the unique fusion of people, energy, environment and culture, which have been the ingredients of the transformation.
Next, natural steps in the green transition are a further reduction of co-2 emissions, energy optimization and new forms of production and economy. The Energy Academy has a 14-year lead with popular inclusion and cross-cutting cooperation, but also has a heirloom of good and evil, which makes the work both easier and harder; easier because there are well-established methods and networks that can be shared with the whole world, and more difficult because there are new projects that require new ways and forms that must come from new edges within both younger and developed competencies. Therefore, we put a pilot boat in front of the Energy Academy to establish a company and a member association, this goes by the name “Self-picker” at the moment. It is a construction that has been established to make room for new, local and national players, but also to revitalise projects that have juice and power, that are perhaps too commercial or a little too soft for the supertanker Energiakademiet to lift them or has the economy to develop. This company will be part of the Energy Academy as a self-thinking partner who will handle a broad area of cases, e.g. courses, business collaborations, events and fundraising. We look forward to being able to getting together and invite you to a number of strategic partner meetings to kick-start our Self-Picker – this is because if you want something, you often have to pick it up yourself.
If you would like to meet us or know more, you can contact Malene Lundén, Mikkel Bruun and Lea Bruun from Samsø.
Review
Søren Hermansen
Mr. Microsoft has written a climate book that is mainly a summary of the state of the globe in terms of our resource management. It can be read as a list of status’ and a review of technologies and their effect and economy, indeed there are glimpses of understanding the local and determined community’s opportunities to govern a country through the challenges. Bill Gates mentions Denmark as a country that early on realised the need to legislate and administer a business and community development, so that renewable energy plants received special attention and a strong push, which also led to the establishment of a local community like Samsø.
It is great to see Samsø as a brand for sustainable, Danish development – and great for us to be seen. But there is a long way to go in Bill Gates’ own country and the sympathetic thing about the book is: Bill is well aware of that!
Other major business leaders are looking outward and will travel to Mars as a consequence of climate change. Bill sticks to what he can see and what he knows.
Sea foam from southern Alaska
Malene Lundén
“SGuuluu Jaad”. …
-I have to find out what that means, because the words come from the ancient Haida culture south of Alaska, that I now have to visit. This is how this news starts nonetheless, for I am in my capacity as an artist, going to exhibit at the Haida Art Museum from June to December 2021.
In a book about the area and the island of Haida, I can read that the Egyptians and the great Inca Empire also knew of a god who was called “Sea Foam”, and that each ethnic group had their own language for the concept of sea foam. To the Haida people, Sguuluu Jaad means ‘sea foam’.
The collaboration and friendship with Haida began about 6 years ago, when Søren Hermansen was invited to give a presentation at the Perimeter Institute:
A special task force group was invited here, and this is where Søren Hermansen first meets Chris Henderson, who is the founder of the Catalyst program:
A friendship sprouts up, and the two exchange knowledge and the Samsø connection to Haida grows as the Energy Academy and Søren work as mentors on the Catalyst program. Catalyst is an award-winning, interactive three-month program that connects First Nations, Inuit and Métis catalysts in a network of native and non-native project mentors and coaching specialists. They are involved in the development of a project focused on clean energy, including energy efficiency, solar, wind, hydro, biomass and geothermal, both on and off the grid.
That first meeting brings many more meetings and have resulted in several delegations and First Nations – including native Haidas – have visited Samsø: A small seed sprouts and friendships and opportunities grow and shed more seeds.
Who and how
In 2020, I should have been on the island of Haida far in the north and exhibited three works of art, but due to Covid-19, the exhibition has been postponed until now. I have started a fire and I look forward to Samsø being represented at the island’s art museum with the tall wooden pillars, a place where great art and solid craftsmanship have been performed for centuries. A phrase that is hidden inside one of the many totem poles on the site is:
Because it was told.
However, the word totem pole is a misnomer for these carved wooden pillars, but many years of use of this have taken hold and now the wooden pillar, what was not a totem pole, has become a totem pole.
There is nothing religious about a totem pole. Totem simply means ‘object of nature’, and is believed in some nature religions to bring happiness or have a special religious significance for a particular society or a particular group of people.
Kunstner Bill Reid First Nations Northwest Coast Haida Artist
It can be based on a story, for example a statement about a person or in memory of a specific event. The totem pole is a piece of monumental art carved on wooden poles or pillars with figures that tells important stories in the culture of the Northwest Coast Indians. The carved animals or characters are typically symbolic.
The totem poles can be part of a building as the gable of the house or as load-bearing columns. They are used as a greeting to visitors, as funeral piles containing the remains of the deceased, or even to bring shame on someone.
In southeastern Alaska and the area in and around the island of Haida, in 1986 the people took a historic and decisive step by uniting to reclaim the land of their ancestors. Among other things, the island and the surrounding area were to have the name Haida back, they fought bravely and fiercely for independence and their culture by drawing the line and the border to what once was. Haida, which means ‘people’, numbered up to 9,000 people in over a hundred villages, until a chickenpox epidemic in the 1860s drastically reduced the area. Today, there are nearly 2,000 Haidas in Alaska and a similar number in Canada.
The native Northwest Coast Indians can be traced back to approx. 8,000 B.C. as cultures oriented around marine resources. A rich life of whales, seals, sea lions and sea otters, large quantities of salmon, herring, capelin, halibut, cod and other fish as well as many species of shellfish provided the basis for a large population concentration, a piece of open beach between the rocks, sea and rivers provided space for human housing.
In the book about the Haida culture’s struggle to get land and culture back, the following quote is written and told:
“Drawing a line or a border is easy, but keeping the line and the border is what counts!”
Guujaaw 2016.
I look forward to bringing my artwork to Haida, where I will be contributing to the censored group exhibition;
Hlk’yak’ii: To Start a Fire.
You can read more about the museum where the exhibition will take place here:
Background:
The island of Haida is located in the archipelago of Haida Gwaii among the Queen Charlotte Islands (named after the British King George III’s wife, Charlotte, 1744-1818). The site is located in the Pacific Ocean 100 km west of Prince Rupert in British Columbia, Canada; it covers 9596 km2, and contains 6000 inhabitants (2003), of which 1/3 descendants of the Haida people, whose history goes back over 8000 years.
Invitation to ‘co-creation’
The Energy Academy wants to meet your desire and investigate what it takes for you to participate in Samsø’s and Denmark’s green transition.
• Folkedybet is a meeting place for sustainable experiences throughout the year.
• Folkedybet culminates with a festival in September on Samsø.
• Folkedybet has a secretariat, which is located at the Energy Academy.
Therefore, we now invite you to a joint survey, where you can contribute with topics that you think Folkedybet should investigate:
Join the survey here
Folk high School on Samsø
The Energy Academy creates courses and meetings with education in mind.
That is why we invite you to folk high school days this summer.
You will get more information in Samsø Posten and on the Energy Academy’s website around the 1st of June.
Registration opens on 20.6 and it is first come, first served.
We invite you to three small courses:
- Hiking in Torkild Bjørnvig’s footsteps
Week 31 Thursday to Saturday
Speakers: Ole Kæmpe & Malene Lundén
- Family course: Poetry stop
Week 32 Thursday to Friday
Speakers: Karen Siercke & Malene Lundén - Family course: Build and see everyday initiatives combine
Week 33 Thursday and Friday
Speakers: Michael Kristensen & Søren Hermansen
New initiatives
Malene Lundén
At the Energy Academy, we have gone back to basic, the usual annual number of visitors of about 5,000 has dropped to 0. A challenge that has created a new opportunity for the use of the 700 square meters large house.
We wanted to take advantage of the space by starting an office community, which we have named the TRANSIT. We have held a number of meetings, and the interest in working here with us has been overwhelming.
The first member of TRANSITTEN is architect Michael Colfelt, who has moved to Besser and occupies a officespace at the Energy Academy.
Others have indicated that they would like an opportunity, to use the Energy Academy for customer meetings. Furthermore some have wished for a network where knowledge and tasks are exchanged across competencies. So TRANSITTEN is growing and we see opportunities that need to be thought through, so our professional and courses can unite with the office community TRANSITTEN when Denmark opens up again.
We have been asked if a joint, local business network could be drawn up, as ‘Erhvervsforum Samsø’ no longer has any permanent address or has member meetings in the diary.
The Energy Academy collaborates well with ‘Erhvervsforum Samsø’, and we wish to investigate what it takes for us, in cooperation with you, to lift the ‘Erhvervsforum Samsø’ and give the island’s many businesses a place to keep focus on the development, the development that gives us all a vibrant community with light in the windows and open shops – even outside the tourist season. Samsø knows so much and has many solid companies and an agriculture that works and creates jobs all year round.
A regional hub for Northern Europe’s islands
Alexis Chatzimpiros
Samsø has been a meeting place since the Viking period and we recognize the value of hubs where we meet, share, learn from each other and build communities among alike and different, small and big, front runners and laid-backs.
This is once more our intention as regional hub of the new Clean Energy for EU Islands Secretariat.
A new Islands Secretary is now appointed until 2023 and the Samsø Energy Academy is a regional facilitator. We intent to bring small and big islands in Northern Europe together, help build local capacity and empower communities advance the local discussion on clean energy, shape decarbonisation plans and put plans into practice. We believe that islands can be hubs for innovation and new paradigms if they spell out climate goals in their local language. So let’s wonder ‘what if’ and have a conversation about what the future could look like!
B-Corp actions is coming to Samsø
Malene Lundén
Therefore we would like to invite you to a meeting with small and medium-sized companies on 12th June at 19.00 – 22.00. Nille Skals, who is a Corporate Activist & partner in the organization, Märk, will be joining us. She tells us the following: “I have to warn you, I’m one of those kind of business leaders who believes that business only has a right to exist if it truly helps society flourish and do good!”
Nille once read a book on her way back from an assignment, since then she has only looked to the work ‘The Responsible Company’ written by Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard. Patagonia, one of the world’s most successful outdoor equipment companies, has a mission to build the best product, and when doing so not cause any unnecessary damage, and use the business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Patagonia considers the dolphins their largest shareholders and takes pride in using its business as a strength for good. Yvon Chouinard, an unusual business icon who is only in the industry because he is concerned about the world, has his very own definition of evil: When you have the means and ability to do good, but do nothing, then it hurts.
Nille elaborates: “I related strongly to the spirit in Patagonia’s business model where Yvon asked the one question that has transformed my life: ‘why are you in the business world?’ It started an existential crisis for me as I could not answer the simple, yet powerful question: ‘why do you or I run a business?’ “
Nille Skals shares knowledge and networks within the global movement, that calls itself B-Corp, and works to lift the many bottom lines so that the consequences of climate change can demand local action across national borders. For example, B Corp companies in South America have started investing in water, in Scotland they are focusing on the social agenda in relation to the country’s needy public service system, and all the many small rings in the water are helping to create a much larger river. So how can companies create a far more activist approach that stimulates sustainable societal development?
Business is much more than the sale and development of services and products. We have seen this with Samsø’s status as Denmark’s renewable energy island, which resulted in a great many services and business development.
This movie on You tube about chocolate, shows the need to think about the good in business:
What should the child’s name be?
Malene Lundén
On Samsø, we have made many plans, which have been successfully used as both conversation papers, inspiration, planning, documentation and much more over the last many years. Now it’s time for a “spring clean”, and therefore work is being done to make a comprehensive plan for the entire island.
Loved child has many names: since 1997, work has been done on a 10-year plan for self-sufficiency in renewable energy, Energy Accounts, Fossil-free island 2030, Climate-neutral island and Net zero. In addition, there have also been municipal framework plans under municipal auspices: municipal plan, planning strategy / agenda 21, resource plan, action plan, climate action plan (CAP) and municipal climate accounts, which in one way or another overlap one or more of the other plans.
Work is currently underway to obtain a plan for a location for future energy facilities on Samsø. There are clearly some synergies in assembling, updating and further developing all of these plans. One could advantageously look at the drinking water protection on Samsø (the action plan), together with the desire to build more forest (municipal plan, CAP) and the location of future RE plants (Fossil-free island, planning strategy, CAP, Climate accounts). Here, there is room and need for the Energy Academy in relation to citizen involvement, coordination of the various players and organisations that are on Samsø. To achieve this task, we must “restart” the community project from 1997 to achieve the same success and co-ownership for the continued innovation and development for Samsø.
https://energiakademiet.dk/omstilling/
The Energy Academy invites to Folkedybet’s meetings.
The intention is to meet up with love for diversity. When we choose to move out into society and participate in joint meetings and exchange on things we do not understand, here the sum of society becomes greater, and the conversation makes Folkedybet real. Folkedybet is a 3-day meeting at Strandengen. The climate challenges require a united consideration, and at the Energy Academy we insist on the need for us to safeguard the many truths that society have absorbed Who makes a people’s depth become real? US!
Wanting to meet about conversations that matter. They can be about everything from the environment and nature to functions and services such as charging stations, dog forests, solar panels and playgrounds. In 2019, the Energy Academy decided that the headline and content of the phenomenon Folkedybet should be realized by inviting you to activities and meetings at Strandengen in Ballen throughout the year. The Energy Academy published the newspaper FOLKETID, which was distributed in front of Brugsen in Tranebjerg. Nr. two newspaper is on its way.
In 2020, the Energy Academy held Folkedyb meetings despite covid19. We invited to digital meetings about energy plans, folk high school, the EU and even about the strength of poetry in the green transition. So Folkedybet embraces the technical, systemic and broadly human, which means that our own and the common household is balanced and coordinated by those who participate. Due to covid19, we were forced to cancel the first festival in September 2020. However, we still hope and believe that it is possible to make a festival this year.
The Energy Academy believes in miracles.
In FOLKETID newspaper no. 2, we invite everyone to map out which themes / topics are to be debated in September. Therefore, in 2021 you are invited to be a part of both planning and the meetings we hold the third weekend in September, we will harvest and share which conversations bring Samsø, Denmark and the world around green agreements together.
What do we do now?
Peder Bang
In these uncertain Corona times, the famous words of the Danish singer and sing-a-song-writer Kim Larsen could very well be an expression of the thoughts and actions of the Energy Academy board. But it’s not so.
The past year has, of course, presented great challenges, but there is still a great demand for the Energy Academy’s knowledge and competencies, both regionally, nationally and internationally. We are therefore working intensively on how we can best meet the high demand. In any case, the academy will in the future strengthen the work around teaching, education and research with a view to making it a more profiled part of the academy. At the same time, work is being done on the idea of a campus or a folk high school. Whether it will be one or the other or perhaps both are still in the consideration phase.
Samsø Energy Academy and The Central Denmark Region have a great desire for an enhanced collaboration. Therefore, work is being done on a collaboration agreement with a focus on making both the Academy and The Central Denmark Region an international lighthouse for the green transition with a stronger involvement of the young generation and a spreading of the common knowledge about the green transition in practice.
The story told by others
Line Noelle Ankjærgaard
What is good communication? Communication succeeds, when the ‘story’ is retold.
A good example is the story of Søren retold on Dansk Energi’s website.
The article “The people are ‘the missing link’ in the green transition” was placed second “most read” in March 2021 on www.danskenergi.dk
The article was written by Søren Hermansen and was about local culture, nature and citizen involvement. Furthermore about the energy of the future, communities, responsibility, will and a failing electric car market.
It was also about the idea behind the community center and the co-operative thinking, and the much-discussed solar cell megatrend and ‘solar cell park’ on Samsø
An exciting partnership sees the light
Malene Lundén
“What’s really going on down there at the Energy Academy in Ballen? We do not always understand what they are doing ”.
These are statements we hear from time to time. Therefore a little look into what we are working on in addition to all the projects we develop and make happen:
The only place available for charging your car, is at the Energy Academy. Electric cars are gaining ground and we can see long queues of people coming from the windows of the Energy Academy to recharge their electric cars.
Since we are sharing the news of the rapid development in electric cars, it brings great pleasure to Samsø that Mercedes has entered into an agreement with Post Nord to have our mail brought out by electric cars. Nikolai from Mercedes traveled to Samsø to find a good story, and here he contacted Visit Samsø. On behalf of Mercedes, Nikolai begins an exciting conversation with Jacques from Visit Samsø about Samsø’s status as Denmark’s renewable energy island, and Jacques speaks warmly for the cause and the Energy Academy, as he knows a lot about our work. The little chat becomes absolutely crucial, because a few weeks later Nikolai calls Søren Hermansen and states that he is impressed with what Søren has accomplished over the years. Not only on Samsø, but all over the world. It is no secret that Søren hesitates and thinks: “what will be the next thing Nikolai and Mercedes want?” This is not the first time Søren has tried this, back in 2011 a collaboration and partnership was launched between Grundfos, the Energy Academy and Samsø Golf Course, which resulted in the golf course getting, among other things, a wind turbine. Greenkeeper Thomas Pihlkjær developed a long, green course, it won awards and became a pioneer project for other golf courses around the world: it was noticed by several sustainable and circular readings, they mention among other things, the use of solar-powered golf carts, course fertilizer with seaweed and a grazing agreement with a farmer, who put his sheep on the grasslands along the green so they could grace there over the summer.
Læs artiklen om Grønnere golfbane (Danish)
In short: Søren knows what strategic partnerships can bring to Samsø, and in the following two years, the Energy Academy and many others were mentioned in Grundfos’ annual report, and many visits helped to fill local hotels and restaurants.
In the conversation with Søren, Nikolai tells Søren what he desires. His main motivation is for Søren to become an ambassador for their new initiatives with electric cars in the Nordic region. In collaboration with Børsen, there will be a number of stories about Søren, Samsø and Mercedes Electric cars. Recently Søren drove around the many corners of Samsø with drones and camera hot on his heels, all the while journalist Laura noted which stories should be written. Everything will be published in Børsen’s printet newspaper, their online platform as well as on their social media. We will keep you posted on when this is happening, around early May. What an advertisement for Samsø!
We do not always appreciate what opportunities it gives us, but this time Folkedybet was on the spot, and the event ended with us being invited to enjoy a sunset coffee on the slope in Kolby Kaas. Lady Luck was with us: Despite rain and gales all day Søren appeared in true Mercedes style, driving in the middle of the field, while the sun appeared from the most dramatic clouds in the sky.
Mercedes, Energiakademiet and Selvhenteren have now started a strategic collaboration, we must make things happen together! Without relationships and finances, it is difficult to keep direction, and therefore it gives us great pleasure to be able to share this current news.
If you want to participate in Folkedybet, sign up for the newsletter or stop by. We have established a network around the event in September, where many events culminate with the participation of Mercedes.
The car breathes and can turn on all four wheels simultaneously. It holds several futuristic and hyper-modern inventions. We live in a wild time!
You can watch a film about the Mercedes Avatar, the car of the future designed by the finest engineering of the time, via this link:
THE BILLIONAIRES AND SAMSØ
Samsø has played an active part of the climate fight for over 20 years with popular commitment, cooperative-owned wind turbines, environmentally friendly district heating and other green initiatives.
It has been noticed. Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates praises Denmark and Samsø in a new book, ‘How we avoid the climate catastrophe’, for its efforts within climate and innovation.
Another billionaire is also focusing on – and setting aside money for – the climate.
Amazons CEO, Jeff Bezos, has recently announced that he is putting 10 billion dollars in to a newly created Bezos Earth Fund. The money must, he informs on Instagram, go to researchers, activists and grassroot organizations.
Bezos also has roots on Samsø. His great-grandfather, John Jørgensen, moved in 1900 from Samsø to Chicago in America, where he married also Danish-born Ida Minnie Jorgensen.
Local and global.
Before the world went into a corona coma, the supernetworker Søren Hermansen traveled the world to talk about popular engagement and the results that the microcosm, Samsø, has reaped since the hilly island between Jutland and Zealand was named Denmark’s official renewable energy island in late 1990.
The biggest TV stations have been visiting the island to hear and tell the story of the 3,600 residents and their green energy that is so strong that (before covid19) there were plenty of guests , guests to an extent that required state support to deal with. Samsø Energy Academy is part of the government Finance law.
On Samsø, the near and the global meet. Here and in all communities, whether we are talking a global hotspot or a desert, it must be easy to meet close and global if the climate crisis is to be limited.
source: Dansk Energi
