Samso is a Danish island that is perhaps the world’s first modern, completely self sustaining, energy producing community.

Samso has a population of 41 hundred people spread over 22 villages and numerous farms. Each year its population swells by 50 thousand as summer residents and tourists come to enjoy the quiet, quaint island way of life.

Prior to 1997 Samso was completely energy connected to the Danish mainland. Ships brought in gasoline and heating oil for their vehicles and homes. They powered their lights and appliances with electricity supplied by a cable connected to coal burning plants in Denmark.

Today the island is totally independent from any energy supply from Denmark. The islanders now sell their excess naturally produced power back to the mainland power grids.

In 1998 a social movement began, influenced by Soren Hermanson, a mild mannered environmental studies teacher at a local boarding school.

Hermanson was born on the island, the son of a beet and parsley farmer. He traveled off Samso to attend school and do a bit of touring. As a young man he returned to take over the family farm but soon discovered he would rather be doing something else.

“I like to talk, and the vegetables don’t respond,” he said.

Hermanson found some Federal government money for one staff position to promote self sustainability and took the job. From there he devoted himself to convincing the local, very conservative population into embracing non-traditional methods of energy consumption.

Within a decade the people of Samso Island became completely energy independent from the Danish mainland. A few years later that electrical cable from Denmark was no longer sending energy but receiving excess power that the island was producing.

Today Samso produces power from wind turbines, bio mass furnaces and solar power – reducing their carbon foot print by a staggering 140 percent.

A number of factors contributed to the success of this remarkable transformation. The most significant was community participation and local ownership of the electrical producing facilities.

“We own the wind turbines. Every time they turn around, it means money in the bank. And, being part of it, we also feel responsible,” said Hermanson.

Contracts with the mainland Danish Power grids guarantees revenue from the excess power that the island produces will pay off their investments within 8 years.

The zeal to conserve hasn’t stopped with becoming energy self sustainable.

Jorgen Tranburg grows pumpkins and early potatoes, as well as keeping 150 cows. In order to make better use of his straw as bio mass fuel he redesigned his cow barns. His cows now sleep on specially designed mattresses.

Tarnburg also has a giant 1 megawatt wind turbine on his land and has a share in an even larger 2.3 megawatt turbine, one of ten, standing in the ocean just off the islands southern shoreline. “It has been a very good investment. It has made my bank manager very happy. But none of us is in it just for the money,” said Tranburg.

Hermanson is proud of his island’s success but says that achieving it was not an easy process. He attended and spoke at endless meetings, cajolling, and as he admits, sometimes preaching to the community towards thinking in different terms about energy production.

“Nothing was achieved without talk and a great deal of community involvement,” said Hermanson.

“This is a pilot project to show the world what can be done. We are not suggesting that everyone makes the sweeping changes that we have done,” said Hermanson. “The crucial point is that we have shown that if you want to change how we generate energy, you have to start at the community level and not impose technology on people.”

“For example, Shell heard about what we doing and asked to be involved – but only on the condition that they ended up owning the turbines. We told them to go away.”

The Samso experiment is a careful weave of various natural energy collectors.

Outside of the village of Nordby there is a district heating project. A large field is covered with solar panels angled towards the sun. Cold water is introduced at one end and emerges at the other end as very hot water. The water is used to heat local housing as well as giving them an ample supply of hot bathing and laundry water.

If the sun should prove unco-operative, as it often does on Samso, the plant automatically switches to burning wood chips which heats the plant’s water. It is a tightly balanced system which ensures a continous and excess supply of energy.

The balance even includes a small flock of sheep, which are allowed to graze among the solar panels every few days to prevent the grass from growing high enough to block sunlight to the panels.

Brian Kjar is an electrician who owns his own wind turbine which he bought second hand for about a fifth of it’s orginal price. He now produces more power than his house needs and stores his excess energy as hot water in his home built insulated tank. The hot water heats his home on those rare days when there is little wind on the island. 

Kjar understands the Samso ethic: “Something like this starts with a few people. It just needs time to spread. That is the real lesson of Samso.”