June 8 . Wind Power & Planning in Denmark & Biking!

Denmark has all the Gust-O!

We were scheduled for three lectures today. The first was given by Niels Lund at the Copenhagen Environment and Energy Office. The main focus of his talk was on the history of wind power as an energy source in Denmark, engineering difference between on- and off-shore turbines, and some future policy goals. Today, 35% of all wind turbines in the world are made in Denmark. They use a lot too. Turbines are everywhere in the countryside!

Essentially, I took away from this lecture that off-shore turbines are a pain and that cities shouldn't think about doing them unless absolutely necessary. Denmark is a very flat country and the aesthetics of wind turbines were a hard sell to those living in Copenhagen. The off-shore turbines were a compromise for the aesthetics -- if the turbines were off shore they wouldn't be as visible. They also enabled Denmark to get ahead in planning and installing the first off-shore turbines in the world (Photo, Right) which is a technology that has now been marketed to numerous other countries since they were constructed in 2001.

I actually find the turbines quite attractive. If Milwaukee did something like this, I believe it could actually be a boon to tourism but more importantly, make Milwaukeeans feel like they are in a first class city and proud to be engaged in sustainable energy production. This would look beautiful off the coast of Lake Michigan. I don't know much about the wind at this location, but there is potential for it to be a suitable climate. Niels said that these windmills had already paid for themselves in the 8 years that they had been operating and would have a 20-25 year life span. Let's make the investment! :)

The best wind production is off the Western coast of Jutland, not near Copenhagen where this off-shore wind farm is located. In Jutland, near Esjberg, there are two large groups of deep water tubines several kilometers from the coast. They are located so far from shore that an accomodation platform floats in the water off the coast, where people who do maintenance on the turbines live for shifts of 6 days. Wouldn't want that job.. but... if you want to achieve 30% of your energy production for the entire country from wind, you're going to have to find some tough sea persons!

When the turbines are located in the sea off the coast of Denmark, they only need government acceptance of the project, though for the off-shore project near Copenhagen there was much community outreach before a compromise was made on the configuration of the wind-farm. Denmark is currently building and planning 5 new offshore windfarms so even more of their energy will come from wind power in the future. Niels is excited about that. (Photo, Right)


Planning in Denmark

After being enlightened by wind, we went back to the City of Copenhagen to talk to Berta and Baret (sp?) about how planning in Denmark is done, with a special focus on the Carlsberg redevelopment. One of the most interesting things I learned is that office buildings of any appreciable size must be built within 600m of a railway station as part of the Danish Planning Act. Also, those that are between 600m and 1000m must have a public transportation link. If it's outside of that distance, an office building cannot be built. This is one of the reasons that Carlsberg redevelopers wanted the train line moved to their location.

We also heard about the restructuring of Denmark's municipalities. Essentially, county government was dissolved and municipal governments were lumped together to include other small municipalities. Each municiapal government contains at least one larger city and is responsibile for coordinating planning with the other municipalities in their delineation, as well as the rural areas. The state government orchestrated this.

Can you imagine something like this restructuring happening in the US? I think that Denmark has had a lot of success with this state planning effort because it is so small and people actually trust their government to do the right thing.

Politicians Believe in Bicycling!
That's right, in Copenhagen, politicians think cycling is a viable mode of transportation and support planning and infrastructure. One of the reasons for this is that the projects can be implemented in one election period, are cheap, and extremely visible. Politicians certainly like to be recognized for having positively contributed something to the common good while they are in office. The goals for Copenhagen are to increase mode share for those who commute by bicycles from 37% to 50%! Let me tell you, people in Copenhagen are really tough when it comes to getting on their bike in inclement weather (PICTURE).

Copenhagen currently has 220 miles of cycling tracks (the ones that have the curb) and 30 miles of cycling lanes (only paint marking for delineation). They spend $10-$20 million annually on new investments to cycling infrastructure and even technology. On certain streets the lights are no longer timed for autos, they are timed for cyclists going at 20km/hour. This means that if you cycle consistently at this speed, you will not have to stop for any red lights -- you go through a "green wave" as they call it. The current traffic integration policy is aimed at making the bicycle/train policy competitive with the car.

I also learned a little about the culture of cycling in Copenhagen. Essentially, no one considers themselves a "biker" or a "cyclist" or whatever. They just consider themselves people, just as people who own a car in the US don't consider themselves a "driver." It's just something you do, in every day clothes, every day. Traveling by bicycle has no connotations about your social or financial status because people of all status use the bicycle as a mode of transportation.

In Milwaukee, people consider me a "biker." It's always something I was proud of but I wish things were more like Copenhagen -- where I don't have to bike so defensively and feel marginalized constantly. If we had more cyclists, they would start to feel more comfortable one the road because drivers would begin to respect their presence. The respect goes a long way in feeling comfortable on the road. We just need to get a few more bikes out there to get this process started! It certainly isn't going to happen overnight.

We certainly don't want to see signs like this ...*sadface*