Introduction
Samsø is a 112 square kilometers island off the east coast of Denmark. Home to 4,300 residents, the island relies on renewable energy for 100% of its needs. The island’s proposal won a Danish government competition and within ten years the community proved it could live entirely off renewable energy.
Objectives and target audience
In the late nineteen-nineties, the island’s inhabitants had a conventional attitude toward energy. Most Samsingers heated their houses with oil, which was brought in on tankers. They used electricity imported from the mainland via cable, much of which was generated by burning coal. As a result, each Samsinger put into the atmosphere, on average, nearly eleven tons of carbon dioxide annually.
Then, quite deliberately, the residents of the island set about changing this. They formed energy coöperatives and organized seminars on wind power. They removed their furnaces and replaced them with heat pumps. By 2001, fossil-fuel use on Samsø had been cut in half. By 2003, instead of importing electricity, the island was exporting it, and by 2005 it was producing from renewable sources more energy than it was using.
Financial Resources and Partners involved
Financial Resources: without any direct subsidy from the Danish government, the islanders built a 50 million Euro energy system. 80% the capital was raised from local investors, relying only on Danish laws and regulations.
In the four years of construction, the total investment in RES and RUE has been 49 mill. €, 41 mill. € coming from local firms, private households and the municipality
Until 2002, a national program subsidised the installation of biomass heating, solar collectors and heat pump systems, an incentive that convinced many homeowners to replace their oil furnaces and electric panel heaters.
Partners Involved: Samso Energy Agency coordinated the RE development in cooperation with Samso Trade Organisation, Samso Farmers Organisation and Samso Municipality.
Process
The project began in 1998.
Eleven 1 MW wind turbines were erected in 1999-2000 that would make the island self-sufficient with electricity. The wind turbines are owned by a windmill cooperative and by individual owners.
Local public meetings and citizens groups worked to generate the broadest possible base of public support for these initiatives.
Houses outside the district heating districts were given several different options. They could requisition an energy appraisal of their house, a report which gave specific suggestions for conversion to renewable energy, as well as advice on how to conserve energy by improving house insulation and installing better windows and class A electrical appliances. Until 2002, a national program subsidised the installation of biomass heating, solar collectors and heat pump systems, an incentive that convinced many homeowners to replace their oil furnaces and electric panel heaters.
Several small-scale projects started after the energy island project in 1998. These investigated the viability of methane gas, disposal site gases and canola oil for vehicle transportation. During this same period, seven household windmills and three PV solar collectors systems were established.
The foundation work for the ten offshore wind turbines started in 2002 and the offshore wind park was the biggest project in the renewable energy implementation plan. These wind turbines were erected to compensate for the CO2 emissions from the transport sector and to match the energy consumption in this sector. Technical solutions are not yet available that can replace all the island vehicles.
The Samsø Energy Academy was built in 2006 and opened its doors for visitors in 2007.
Results
The dependency on energy-import has been reduced from 7.3 mill.€ per year to 4.1 mill.€. The emission of CO2 is reduced by 140%.
The number of “technical tourists” is approx. 1,000 per year, visiting the Energy Academy to learn from their experience.
The island provides 70% of its heat with district heating plants. Gradually, islanders are increasingly using biodiesel for liquid fuels.
For electricity, islanders installed 15 new wind turbines. The turbines on land are owned individually by local farmers.
To compensate for liquid fuels used in transportation, the islanders installed ten 2.3 MW wind turbines offshore, two of which are cooperatively owned by 450 shareholders.
Critical Success Factors / Challenges
During the brief summer months residents depend on the 50,000 visitors to the island. Traditional occupations for the remainder of the year, such as fishing, have been in steady decline. The move to renewables was considered essential for the “survival of the island.” The island and its year-round residents needed a new strategy.
Local public meetings and citizens groups worked to generate the broadest possible base of public support for these initiatives.
An integrated renewable energy network shall be built on Ikaria Island (Greece), allowing renewables to become the backbone of public power supplies. Power supplies are presently covered 94% by diesels (6,050Kw installed capacity) and 6% from wind (385kW). The project represents the 1st phase of a programme aiming to turn this ratio in future to the opposite, namely 90% from renewables and only 10% from diesel. But already the present project (1st phase) is expected to cover nearly 50% of electricity demand from renewables.
L’ objective is the transformation of the market by introducing new centrifugal pumps for increased efficiency – Energy+ pumps – for much more efficient circulation of heating than already used today. A new age of technology of pumps with the use of commutation electronics is available and allows a reduction of consumption of approximately 60% to be obtained.
In Western Hungary, close to the Austrian border, the first turbine of a wind farm is operational and provides the public lighting costs of the village of Vep (3000 inhabitants). The project company has a two step extension plan: first to in-stall three more turbines of altogether 4.8 MW (second phase), and then 16 turbines of 32 MW (third phase). The managers of the project aimed at proving that it is possible to use renewable energy in the village of Vép and that this kind of locally available energy can also be used for a community purpose.
This is why the project managing company was established which was able to launch the investment using resources from tenders.
Electricity generated in the wind farm is fed into the public utility electricity network. The owners have taken on a commitment saying that they would settle the complete bill for public lighting for the village of Vép from the income derived from the sale of the generated electricity. The trial operation of the wind turbine started in mid-June 2005, and the technical acceptance was scheduled for 4th September 2005.
Investment milestones:-
2002 – The idea was born, wind measurements, gaining support of village residents
2003 – Submitting bid for design tender (West Pannon Regional Development Council)
2004 – Ending design
May 2004 – winning bid of PHARE CBC
January 2005 – public procurement
June 2005 – surveys in village concerning acceptance of wind energy and construction of wind farm
4th September 2005 – technical acceptance
2006 – agreement with village on footing public lighting bill.
In Hungary the use of wind energy is traditional (windmills), but usage of wind for electricity
producing was not characteristic until last years. Until the end of the twentieth century usage of wind-energy was only possible using low-power wind converters, which operated water-pumps, inductors or water-fans. But researches confirm that it is worth to build wind power plants for electricity producing, with aware place choice.
According to the European wind sorting Hungary is a moderately windy area. The windiest
month is March, the less windy month is October, but the wind climate of Hungary is relatively equalized. The spatial inequality of wind is significant. The most suitable area of the country for using wind-energy are the northwest and the southeast regions (Radics, 2004). The geographical environment of Hungary is not ideal, but there are more advantages of usage of wind-energy, so Hungary has to exploit the wind-energy potential.
According to a survey (MPOMRI, 2006) made by Median for Callis Energetics in January 2006 wind is a ‘popular’ renewable energy-source.
91% of the population of Hungary support building of wind power plants, and 85% would support it even if the price of electricity would increase 1.5%
For several years the Icelandic government has been keen to become the world’s first hydrogen-based economy, replacing traditional fossil fuels with fuel cells. In May 1999 the Icelandic holding company VistOrka hf, Shell Hydrogen, Norsk Hydro, and DaimlerChrysler entered into a joint venture and established Icelandic New Energy Ltd (INE). The first task of INE was to set up a project that would explore the possibilities of hydrogen on the island. This led to the concept of the ECTOS (Ecological City Transport System) project, which was finalized by the end of 2000.
The ECTOS project is centred on a Shell Hydrogen retail filling station that has been installed on an existing Shell forecourt in the city of Reykjavik. The hydrogen for the project will be produced, stored, and distributed at this station. The hydrogen is produced by electrolyzing water using electricity generated from renewable energy. Norsk Hydro supplied the hydrogen fuel plant in which this process takes place.
ESTEEM was used and developed in one of INE’s projects called SMARTH2. SMARTH2 is a demonstration project for hydrogen fuelled vehicles and vessels. The project will test various types of hydrogen-fuelled company cars and other equipment that run on hydrogen, including a hydrogen auxiliary power unit for a tour ship. The project also aims to demonstrate the operation infrastructure for compressed hydrogen and develop the distribution system, for example by organizing and running a small-scale hydrogen transport service.
Perfect wind and solar conditions make the town of Priolo Gargallo (200.000 inhabitants), a town on the east coast of Sicily (Italy), a unique location for applying innovative sustainable technologies. One major innovation is a local solar power plant. The plant generates steam from solar radiation, which is then fed into the steam cycle of a gas-fired combined cycle power station next to it. The system combines several innovations that over-come the existing problems of solar power systems.
Nobel Prize winning physicist Carlo Rubbia, president of the alternative energy agency ENEA, has opened the pilot of the Archimedes solar power plant in 2004. The prototype on industrial scale, which will supply energy to the town of Priolo Gargallo and save 39.0000 tons of CO2 emissions each year.
In Drachten, a town in the North of the Netherlands, a project is being developed to build the first Zero Emission Power Plant (ZEPP) in the world that is able to produce enough emission-free electricity for a small town of hundred thousand households (68 MW). To realise the project two relatively new technologies are combined.
The ZEPP will be equipped with an innovative gas generator in which the combustion takes place with pure oxygen. To avoid extremely high temperatures, water is injected in the flame. The exhaust of the generator consists of pure CO2 and water vapour. After condensation, the water is re-used for injection and pure CO2 remains. This CO2 is stored in an existing gas field. All consequently the plant produces electricity without substantial emission of any kind. This will result in a CO2 reduction of one megaton in six years.
The ZEPP will use a gas field which is no longer used but still contains a considerable amount of natural gas. The injection of CO2 leads to an increased pressure and eases the extraction of the remaining gas of the field (Enhanced Gas Recovery), which will be used in the power plant. Additional the residual heat of the plant will be used for heating nearby buildings. In the Netherlands, several gas fields are suitable for ZEPP technology. And after the plant in Drachten will be operational, possibly others will follow.
This project will be the first project in the Netherlands with inland underground storage of CO2.
The first park for education on energy in Keratea of Attika was constructed by the Center of Renewable Energy Resources in order to provide education on renewable energy issues as well as to sensitize people on energy saving ways. It is the first thematic park which includes 4 educational areas, 8 demonstration units and 3 junctions aiming to help visitors to understand the energy production mechanisms from renewable resources.
The educational areas are the following:
* Wind area
* Hydrogen area
* Water area
* Solar area
The demonstration units are the following:
* Biomass unit for hot and cold water
* Geothermic unit for air-conditioning
* Pumping unit with photovoltaic systems
* Autonomous hybrid unit for the desalination of seawater
* Unit for production and storage of hydrogen through wind power
* Solar air-conditioning unit
* Hydroelectric unit
* Photovoltaic System for monitoring the sun
The junctions are the following:
* Junction for the history of renewable energy resources
* Junction for Geothermy
* Junction for other forms of renewable energy sources
Furthermore, the infrastructure has an amphitheatre where take place presentations of environmental programs and seminars.
Kalamata is a city of 45,000 inhabitants with a long history. It is situated in the south of the Peloponnese, in Greece. The Municipality of Kalamata in Greece applied the concept of bioclimatism when rebuilding one of its district. Speaking of bioclimatism, we refer to the passive use of the sun’s energy, i.e. its direct utilisation without transforming it into another form of energy, either electric, thermal or mechanical energy.
After the 1986 earthquake, the Municipality of Kalamata was faced with the task of rebuilding destroyed districts. The district concerned by the project is situated to the south-east of the old part of the town which is characterised by a high building density. Destroyed buildings were of different local styles combining modern elements taken from the modern part of the town with more traditional ones from the oldest part. The surface area covered by these buildings is 13,3 square meters and the ground has a 7% north-south gradient. The dry climate and low wind speeds prompted the idea of building low energy houses with direct or indirect solar heating. This project was innovative in the sense that it integrated already tested techniques into a widescale commercial project. Assessments and measures therefore mainly focussed on cost efficiency aspects. After the rebuilding, the Municipality of Kalamata sold the houses and flats once they were finished.
