ENV Skill no 3: Energy sovereignty is not just a windmill park!

Artifact no 2 relates to Environmental Studies Skill no 3. This artifact is a press release announcing the dissolution of the Association of Samsø Weekend, a non-profit fund offering information and education in renewable energy, operating in Samsø Island, Denmark.

The fund was built on the proceeds from publishing a weekly watchdog newspaper on the EU project "Renewable Energy Island Samsø" ( from heron REIS) and later The Energy Academy Samsø, which emerged from the EU project. As the REIS matured, the Association of Samsø Weekend had fulfilled its purpose and dissolved, and the funds were passed on to other local non-profit organizations on the Isle of Samsø, Denmark. I was Chairman of the Association from 2001 to 2010.

The present-day tale of how the Island municipality of Samsø became 154% self-sufficient in renewable energy has turned into a highly narrated story. However, for the decade in which the Isle of Samsø achieved its energy sovereignty through a number of local renewable energy projects, the accurate tale is one of strong colliding and conflicting views on wether we should aim at the sum of renewable KWH or wether we should insist on a multitude of projects and types of ownerships.

The original EU project scope was primarily focused on establishing a number of windmills, heavily subsidized and distributed amongst a few well-established and well-off landowners. At the time, any further REIS projects in mind were similarly aimed at high subsidization and targeting house owners with significant spending or loan power. Although this would improve the Island's total renewable energy production, others felt that a renewable energy Island project was an opportunity to be much more transformative.

We formed a group to publish a newspaper that, quite controversially, reported REIS activities and decisions from the municipal council, the windmill council and the EU consultant on site. The Newspaper furthermore became a mouthpiece for a diverse range of interested Islanders, including the non-land/house owners. In the decade it existed, the Newspaper became a household stable in most Island homes. With the Newspaper´s constant push towards transparency and full community involvement, the Energy Island project extended from the scope of a few single persons' ownership of the renewable energy generation, to the scope of community ownership of a multitude of renewable energy projects, and also from high-cost entry point projects only to diverse and more affordable renewable energy solutions.

The diversity and extended range of involvement from the community acted as deep leverage points for systemic change for the Island community. A green economy emerged as small business master artisans took the risk of educating their staff in renewable solutions as there were now a multitude of projects, even on such a small island, to support business devcelopement. Small family farms asked neighbours for co-funding and built neighbor-plants to drive their costs of heating down. School classes made projects on renewable energy, and subsequently, the school installed renewable heating systems. Tree different villages banded into village plants and now owns their own heating generation. And the majority of house owners have installed one of more renewable energy systems and are selling back to the grid. Moreover, the municipality released windmill shares and smaller part-shares in two ocean windmills, so even non-homeowners could contribute to the transformation. This extended version of the REIS Project demonstrated to us islanders that we had much power to act when we overcame our differences and supported each other's projects. This change of mindset cascaded into other community projects, and the islanders have managed to preserve the hospital, built a parent-led kindergarten, restored a movietheater and founded a culture festival and a youth council.

The proceeds from the sale of the Newspaper were all put into the fund of the Association of Samsø Weekend, which firstly funded and facilitated a string of informative and educational workshops and lectures from national and international renewable energy experts, but soon we also funded and facilitated the community meetings to push all these other community initiatives as well, and the fund existed beyond the Newspaper, for another 4 years.

At the beginning of this reflection piece, I stated that the present-day tale of the success of REIS is highly narrated because the tale today leaves out the majority of public disagreements and the width of autonomous alternative projects to the main project; two factors that I see as foundational for the extensive success of REIS. To achieve real energy sovereignty, the project must be owned by and benefit all social groups in the local community, and it must lead to the generation of a local green economy that benefits the entire community.