our bus drove over the Great Belt Bridge. The bridge is 1,624 meters longest, making it the world's second longest suspension bridge. As I was ON the bridge, it wasn't easy to get a nice photo. So I'm cheating, and I found this one online.The study tour was through my core course, Sustainability in Europe. Our class visited several places in Western Denmark to learn about renewable energy plans, energy systems, wind power, and sustainability education in Denmark. Our first stop, one of my favorites, was at Energinet -"the Danish national transmission system operator for electricity and natural gas" (Wiki definition). It was amazing to see the THREE guys running the entire countires electricity grid, and working with the fluctuating wind power. They gave us a tour of the control room (where I took a photo before being told we couldn't...then I accidently deleted it) and a lecture on wind energy in Denmark. It makes up 20% of their electricity overall, and the government plans to increase that to 50% in about 5 years. In comparison, the U.S. get 1% from wind power. On windy days, wind power can provide 100% of Denmark's electricity! If t
here is excess, they sell to Norway, Germany and Sweden and if there isn't enough, Denmark usually buys hydro-power from Norway.
Our other visits included a
- "folk-center", with the windmill museum seen to the right.
- Aalborg University, where we had a combined lecture with some
sustainble development grad students and joined them for"Friday Bar" and a BBQ.
- Thy National Park, it's right on the coast of the North Sea. Despite being cold and rainy...it was very scenic!
- An "eco-village" trying to be self-sustainable
- An art museum ARoS , in Aahurs, Denmark's second largest city.
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