Innovation Europe > News > Innovation blog > Samsø - energy island

Samsø in Denmark is a case-study of where societal change, the application of technology and investment are all needed for real innovation. In 1997, Samsø won a government competition to become a model renewable energy community. At the time, Samsø was entirely dependent on oil and coal, imported from the mainland. The island was also seeing its young people leave the island for jobs on the mainland.

But with a total community of around 5000 people, it was possible for a consensus to emerge about how to plan for a future other than slow decay. One key component of the islanders’ plan was the decision to generate renewable energy. Denmark has a centuries’ old tradition of co-operative businesses and so the majority of the islanders were willing to invest their own money to build wind-turbines and biomass power plants.

Bales of locally grown straw fuel small combined heat and power plants. The straw fetches a good price for the farmer, maintaining local agricultural incomes and the left-over ash is returned to the farmers to be re-applied to the fields, maintaining soil fertility. One power plant near Balleen produces enough energy for around 250 families, roughly a quarter of the people on Samso island and the island has several others.

Electricity from an offshore windfarm of 10 turbines added to the 11 turbines scattered around the island makes the islanders ’carbon negative’. These turbines were also funded co-operatively.

On a smaller scale, Samsø farmer Eric Koch Andersen produces all his own biodiesel for his farm tractor by cold-pressing oil-seed rape. The cake that remains after the oil is pressed out is a high protein animal feed and feeds the dairy herd.

Samsø energy academy in Ballen is the knowledge resource centre where Samsø’s know-how and hands-on experience is organised. The academy acts as an educational and conference centre with state of the art public exhibits and an energy school program for visiting school groups. It’s also a place where the islanders can envisage the next stage in their quest for economic and energy independence.

The islanders still rely on carbon fuels for their transport. Now they are planning to move over to electric vehicles with several electric vehicles currently being trialled and with 21 turbines in all, the island has electricity to spare to fill batteries.

Even with the energy transition and the local jobs this transition has created, Samsø is still losing people, with the population down 500 in the last 10 years. The latest transport plan will create another vital 50-100 good quality jobs, and other initiatives emerging from the energy academy will add to this so for Samsø the aim of energy independence is vital to prevent Samsø becoming just another dead space full of holiday homes, but devoid of people.  

Richard Scrase