Purpose and description:

Project managers: Søren Hermansen and Michael Kristensen

It took ten years for the island of Samsø to become Denmark’s Renewable Energy Island, with 100% of energy being supplied by renewable sources. We have invested a lot of our own energy and money in installing renewable energy systems. Now we’re in the process of using energy more intelligently. The Version 2.0 Plan calls for becoming totally independent of fossil-based energy in 2030. This means that aspects of transportation and infrastructure need to switch to electricity or biogas. Our goal is that we end up with a zero energy account, where we don’t need to export renewable energy to compensate for our own use of fossil fuels.

In conjunction with the Danish Parliament’s Energy Agreement, Samsø Energy Academy will receive funding for its daily operations. The Agreement runs until 2024, thereby assuring the Energy Academy certainty and stability for its operations, which is necessary in order to reach the goals that Samsø Municipality has set for the island of Samsø to become a fossil fuel free island by 2030.

It is definitely an ambitious plan, and we know that there are many things that need to fall into place for it to succeed.

Yet with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, a greater focus on climate change than previously, and a Parliament that has set the goal for Denmark to be independent of fossil based energy by 2050, there is a reason to set the bar higher and make a true attempt to lead in solutions that point to the future and can be used in the energy transition that Denmark – and potentially the entire world – needs to undertake.

On the other hand, we also need a new plan for the island of Samsø. We can’t rest on our laurels, telling stories about how we managed to achieve Version 1.0 and become self-sufficient in renewable energy. Yet it’s good to use when basing our belief as a community in taking the next step to invest in a future that is more sustainable than we could achieve without a plan.

Version 2.0 Fossil-fuel Free Island is a vision. Our work over the coming years will achieve this vision.