
By Michael Kristensen
Project Manager
These local power plants contributed to the fact that energy supply should become a common good, available to everyone in town and in the countryside, without the risk of monopoly formation, centralisation, and exploitation, which e.g., coal and oil and nuclear power exploitation in perpetuity is so full of. Without the risk of exploitation and environmental poisoning.
This is also the main idea behind the Sustainable Energy Island idea – both in the past, present, and future on Samsø.
A green hope for the future. Can we learn from the past?
Just over 25 years ago, Samsø won the competition to become a renewable energy island.
A title that Samsø Energy Academy, in close collaboration with the rest of Samsø, has used to develop and introduce new, sustainable initiatives ever since.
When Samsø walked away with the victory, it was precisely because of the cooperation perspective. In its initial planning, Samsø has specifically involved public and private agencies, associations, and movements in the work. Furthermore, the project balanced between known and new technology. And it is both organisationally and financially characterised by innovative thinking in the cooperation between the local energy companies, businesses, the population, and the municipal council. It has also played a role in the fact that, in relation to renewable energy, Samsø is a mini-Denmark, where RE resources are broadly composed.
At Samsø, there is a tradition of looking ahead and standing together for both challenges and positive changes. When we once again choose to prioritise sustainability, it is to meet the threatening climate changes – but also to utilise resources in the best possible way locally. In addition, the hope is that the many measures will bring other good things with them – e.g., social sustainability. The hope is to “land” as many as possible of the good wishes for the future that are for the island, and thereby contribute to Samsø’s great vision of becoming fossil-free by 2030. A vision that requires a lot of work again for both the Energy Academy, the municipality, business and for citizens of the island.