Sufficient and sustainable

The Danish municipality Ringkøbing – Skjern aims at 100 % energy sufficiency by 2020.

Earth, wind and biogas. And waves, hydrogen and solar power will help the Rinkøbing-Skjern municipality on its path towars energy sufficiancy (Photo: Istockphoto)

The Danish municipality of Ringkøbing – Skjern is taking serious measures to become 100 % energy self sufficient. By 2020 the plan is that the municipality will generate as much renewable energy as their 58 000 inhabitants use in their homes, in transportation and industry. The project is called Energy 2020 Ringkøbing-Skjern – 100 % renewable and will cost them about a hundred million euros.
In 2007 renewable energy accounted for 20 % of the total energy use in the municipality. The remaining 80 % will be covered by :

15 – 25 % Bio energy. Ringkøbing - Skjern is in size the largest municipality in Denmark. With a thousand cattle and pig farms, and 100 000 ha of cultivated land, they have easy access to biological raw material.
25 – 30 % New wind mills. Full implementation of their new wind energy production will produce twice the municipality’s need.
10 – 20 % Buildings. New buildings will be able to produce more energy than they consume, so called active houses. The energy use in old buildings will be halved.
5 – 15 % Transportation. Public transportation will run on bio-fuel or electricity, while they plan to move parts of the goods freight from road to sea. The municipality will also hydrogen to fuel some of their vehicles. Denmark's first public hydrogen fuelling station is located in Ringkøbing.
10 – 25 % Other renewables. Both private and public initiatives are working on geothermal, sea heat, solar, wave energy, excess electricity and other renewable energy resources.

ringkøbing

As a part of the bio energy strategy, the municipality in cooperation with the business community established the company Bioenery Vest. Ringkøbing - Skjern owns 50 % of the company which is seen as an important step towards their vision of energy self sufficiency. The aim is that 80 % of the manure from the municipality’s farms will be used to produce bio gas. By 2020 they plan to have 40-60 plants generating a total of 30 000 cubic meters of bio gas from manure and crops. Around 5 % of the municipality’s farmland will be devoted to energy crops. The advantages are manifold for the municipality. By linking biogas plants with district heating plants they secure a high degree of energy efficiency, as well as reducing the environmental impact of the farms, and the biogas can substitute around 20 % of the total energy consumed in Ringkøbing – Skjern.

Sufficient and sustainable

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