The Great Green Danes
Scottish Parliament
Committee Room One -
Wednesday 16 January - 18:00 to 20:00
Scotland’s fast
becoming a European hub for the production of large-scale renewable energy
using the template that guided the oil
and gas industries; “Big is Beautiful.”
Wave and tidal
projects are being encouraged to find the same "large" scale. Energy
is a policy area reserved to Westminster but Holyrood’s planning control gives
Edinburgh considerable clout. What though about Scotland’s communities?
Soren Hermansen is one of Time Life’s Heroes of the Environment
2008. In 1997 the small, tight-knit,
conservative, farming island of Samso, nestled in the Kattegat Strait, won a
contest sponsored by the Danish Government to become Denmark's showcase for
sustainable power, eventually going carbon-free without any state funding, tax
breaks or technical expertise.
Then almost all Samso’s power came from oil and
coal and the island's 4,300 residents didn't know a wind turbine from a grain
silo -- Samso seemed an odd choice. Soren Hermansen, though, saw an
opportunity. Today Samso isn't just carbon-neutral — it produces 10% more clean
electricity than it uses, and feeds extra power back into the grid at a profit.
How did Samso do it – and what lessons are there for communities across
Scotland?
Labour’s Jenny Marra
MSP (pioneer of the Switchtogether scheme) will host the event.
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