When it comes to energy, islands generally suffer from high prices, low reliability and dirty fuels. Often dependent on oil for their energy needs, they are at the mercy of global petro-politics, which can wreak havoc on their economy. But this is changing as solar panels and wind turbines become the lowest cost generation options and technology to manage their variability, and monitor and control electric load, matures. To see how islands are grappling with new opportunities, FORESIGHT has taken a look at three islands in different parts of the world. First up is Bornholm, a Danish island that has pioneered the way to 100% renewables and continues to explore new technologies .
Read part two on Hawaii and part three on Puerto Rico
Bornholm, a Danish island due south of Sweden in the Baltic Sea, is making itself into a “Bright Green Island” by pursuing a goal of carbon neutrality by 2025. To get there, Bornholm has become a laboratory for new technologies and strategies to cut emissions. “Our little island is very well-suited for experiments,” says Torben Jørgensen, head of research and development at the island’s government-owned energy utility. The indication is that what works for Bornholm can be scaled up for the mainland. The small size of the island, with a population of just 40,000, also reduces the number of people involved and bureaucratic barriers. “We are down to earth and easy to connect with,” he says. Bornholm’s residents have been model guinea pigs so far. “This is a small community and people trust each other,” says Jørgensen. “If we say it is interesting, people want to participate.” Some locals, however, have started to complain about the increasing number of wind turbines on the island. Wind is the main power source for Bornholm, supplying 39% of electricity last year. The island is home to 35 turbines, many of which are small machines dating back to the 1990s, though the three newest are 3 MW giants. A few years ago, the city council voted against adding more wind turbines to protect the “unique nature” of the island. A small number of protesters raised enough noise to make elected officials timid. According to Jørgensen wind turbines became “a political issue.”
Over 800 households on Bornholm are participating in the EcoGrid 2.0 project, testing the ability of heat pumps and electric radiators to provide grid flexibility.The two project partners, IBM and Insero, take control of heating appliances, turning them down to cut demand or up to absorb excess generation. They have made over 200 load response actions over the past two heating seasons, which are tracked in real time at ElectricityBaseline.com%22&.clientValue-default-plotlyCrosstalkOpts=%7B%22on%22%3A%22plotly_click%22%2C%22persistent%22%3Afalse%2C%22dynamic%22%3Afalse%2C%22selectize%22%3Afalse%2C%22opacityDim%22%3A0.2%2C%22selected%22%3A%7B%22opacity%22%3A1%7D%7D&date=%5B%222018-05-05%22%2C%222018-05-12%22%5D&dr_test_select=%22IBM%20DE%20HS1%20global%20test%20-%202017-03-27%22&tabs=%22baseline%22).
Sunshine island
The bubble of opposition to wind turbines prompted the utility to investigate other ways of powering the island. “We are now seeing how far we can get without more wind power,” says Rasmus Christensen, director of the utility. “We found that there is room for far more solar energy than we thought and that solar power plants fit better into the energy system than expected.” Bornholm is known as _”_sunshine island” because of its relatively sunny weather, at least by Danish standards. Developers are building two 10 MW solar plants on the island, with power expected to start flowing in May 2018. There are also about 1000 residential solar systems on the island, says Jørgensen, the highest concentration in Denmark. Overall, the utility gets 65% of its power from renewable energy produced on the island, with the rest imported by undersea cables from the Swedish grid. Much of its electricity comes from nuclear and renewables, mainly wind energy. The increase in solar power will help the island meet its goal for all electricity to come from renewables by 2025. It is also experimenting to see whether the sun can help with heating. Most energy for urban heating on Bornholm is already 100% renewable. The island’s district heating systems were converted from coal to biomass in 2016. It is now testing a hybrid design for solar panels, where photovoltaic panels are coupled with a heat transfer system that warms water while improving PV performance. Jørgensen would like to incorporate hybrid solar parks into district heating to cut the use of biomass fuels in summer. “Less than 20% of energy in sunshine is converted to electricity,” he says. “More than 80% is lost in heat.” While a hybrid solar panel is not a new idea, it has never been successfully commercialised and the island is working with the Danish company Racell and its “triple energy” solar product that produces power, heat and cooling from a single building unit, to see what is possible.
Private cars
While progress on emission-free energy supply is moving in the right direction, Bornholm is struggling, like many other places, with the problem of decarbonising private cars. There are 17,000 of them on the island. “The transport sector is the most difficult part” says Jørgensen. “Danish policy for electric vehicles is not so favourable.” He thinks, however, this will change as the move to phase out fossil fuel cars increases across Europe. In preparation for this expected upturn, Bornholm is working with the Technical University of Denmark to test the integration of electric vehicles into grid operations and their ability to help balance supply and demand through flexibly charging and discharging at appropriate times of the day and night. “EV sales will grow exponentially and we need to be prepared to cope with their impact on electrical systems,” says Jørgensen.
TEXT: Bentham Paulos
This article is part of the Nordic Clean Energy Series, published by FORESIGHT Climate & Energy to support Nordic Clean Energy Week. A week where energy leaders from around the globe gather in Copenhagen and Malmö to discuss the policies, business and technological solutions and challenges involved in tackling climate change.
Learn more about the week - Nordic Clean Energy Week
Take a look at FORESIGHT’s Nordic Clean Energy Special Edition
published in May 2018.