Samsø, Denmark, uses only renewable energy sources.
The island of Samsø, off Denmark's east coast, has wasted no time. Between 1998 and 2007 it abandoned its total dependence on imported fossil fuels and now relies entirely on renewables, mainly wind and biomass. It's been singled out as the world's first 100% renewable island by the Rapid Transition Alliance (RTA), which says Samsø can teach the world some vital lessons about changing fast and radically.
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Danish Island of Samsø Ends Fossil Fuel Use
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:23PM (10 children)
There's more to this story. Those Danes are making money off of this somehow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:42PM (1 child)
Or, maybe the Russians are *not* making money selling oil & gas to these Danes?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:50PM
Heh - the Russians should have been paying the geld!!
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:53PM (5 children)
Consider that Newfoundland is quite a large island. Despite having the home ports of some offshore oil rigs, it has no refineries to my knowledge and so must import all its fuel.
However, it is rich in hydroelectricity, so it's become popular for Newfies to heat their home with electricity, being far far less costly than heating oil.
It's quite windy there. It didn't have any wind farms when I was with Bonita but if it doesn't now, it will soon.
It's often sunny even during the dead of winter, so I am confident that solar will be there before long.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:01PM (3 children)
That's one of the places I would like to go, but have not done so yet. Steamed past it a couple times, in the Navy. I've been to Halifax, which is close. Never set foot on Newfoundland though. From all the photos and videos I've seen, it's a beautiful place. Couple guys on the Honda GL and CX forum video'd their tour of the island. Nice, very nice.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday February 14 2019, @07:14PM
I took the family on a road trip up there a couple summers ago, taking the ferry over from Cape Breton Island to Port aux Basques. We went up the west side all the way to St. Anthony and L'Anse aux Meadows. We enjoyed the rest of the Maritimes quite a lot, but Newfoundland was three steps up from even that high level. Gros Morne National Park was very cool with its fjords, and if you have any interest in geology it's the place where they proved plate tectonics. L'Anse aux Meadows and the viking site was a stunning place where you can well understand the Norse wanting to shelter; St. Anthony nearby with its icebergs floating by down Iceberg Alley and whales playing in the surf below the headlands was worth a visit by itself. But the best part of visiting Newfoundland was the Newfies. Very kind, salt-of-the-earth people.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @10:30PM (1 child)
You ride? What's your bike?
Having seen The Secret Life of Walter Mitty I have an urge to spend a few weeks around the seeing the sights
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 15 2019, @02:03AM
http://www.fuelly.com/motorcycle/honda/gl500_silver_wing_interstate/1982/runaway1956/138601 [fuelly.com]
It's an antique now - but it's a nice comfortable ride to play around on, or to get hundreds of miles down the road, quickly. Top speed is 100 mph, due to the igniters, but it will do 100 for two hours at a time, then you have to fill the tank again.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by richtopia on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:42PM
As always, we should start with the highest return on investment. And as you mentioned, importing fossil fuels to islands is expensive, so self-sufficient renewables can be more competitive.
Here is a fun graphic showing the various energy sources on the island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsø#/media/File:Samsø_-_The_Energy_Self-Sufficient_Island.png [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:56PM (1 child)
There's more to this story. Those Danes are making money off of this somehow.
Good. These technologies that the US is ignoring are going to be very valuable in the near future.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 15 2019, @12:33AM
Those of us who are ignoring those technologies now can pay attention when the technologies become very valuable. It's not a significant problem.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:51PM
You say that like it's a bad thing.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by ledow on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:03PM (4 children)
Well, the headline is a lie for a start.
"A further 10 offshore turbines were erected in 2002, generating enough energy to offset emissions from their cars, buses, tractors and the ferry to the mainland."
They might "be selling enough energy to pay for the fuel they burn" but they aren't "ending fossil fuel use" at all, or using "only renewable energy sources". In fact, all they're doing is making sure they don't use more ***CO2*** than they would otherwise if they were using oil. They have negative overall CO2 emissions, but that doesn't mean the island is absorbing CO2... it means someone's playing tricks with neighbours and offsetting and shifting the energy usage to somewhere else.
And they're not alone. The Orkneys (British Isles north of Scotland) do something similar, because they are used as a test-case for windfarms and tidal power, etc. *THEY* might be in the negative too but someone's still making that difference up elsewhere because - again - the islands aren't magically sucking in CO2 and other gases.
It's the same old story - move the CO2 counter to a different column, and pretend you're changing the world, while the farmers are still just burning the same oil (and then, in this case, burning the straw they make to fuel a biomass boiler).
If the outside world cut this island off tomorrow, they might be able to power the basics, but they still couldn't operate autonomously without a delivery of oil-based fuels.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:08PM
Thought as much. Fucking lieing bullshit.
(Score: 2) by pe1rxq on Thursday February 14 2019, @04:10PM (1 child)
Just a nitpick: The Island does suck in some CO2... you even mentioned it: not by magic but by growing straw...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @05:12PM
but that C02 is not sequestered; it is released back into the atmosphere when the straw is burned or decomposes.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:53PM
Saying they went carbon neutral would be more accurate, yes.