Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
isolated from the mainland, an island is a manageable unit and
the inhabitants have to cooperate on elementary things.
For engineer Hans Jørgen Lundgaard Laursen, local blacksmith
Thomas Nørgaard and later researcher Frede Hvelplund, it was a
challenge to persuade the people of Tunø to support the idea. The
blacksmith
was aware of local scepticism, which he could easily
understand. It all must be handled in the right manner. “How comes
that they try to make people believe that if we are going to have
windmills, they are to be placed in a long row all the way down the
Western coast of Jutland. In that case no one will want windmills,”
Thomas Nørgaard remarked.
Hvelplund and Lundgaard Laursen wrote a report, which
attracted much attention. They described the first project for a
community wind turbine in Denmark based on one big unit. For
Hvelplund, it was the beginning of continuous research in the
economy and politics of wind power, whereas Lundgaard Laursen
was invited to Tvind, to coordinate the ambitious windmill project
of their schools. There they had the money and the appetite for a big
task, while the more cautious inhabitants of small islands were not
ready yet.
The Tunø project was discussed in Folketinget (the Danish
parliament). Several politicians had become aware of the great
perspectives in supplying island communities with renewable
energy. They just overlooked the fact that there were no wind
turbines capable of functioning yet—at least none that fitted the
needs of Tunø.
7.4
Prophets and Demagogues
One of the political friends of wind power at the time was social
democrat Mogens Camre, member of the parliament. With great
courage he recovered details from some old projects for sun and
wind energy that had been smothered in red tape during their
journey through the granting bodies.
One of the forgotten applications was a wind power project by
a well-known industrialist Th. Myhre from Århus, who had applied
for financing a highly efficient turbine blades and a new type of
electric generators with variable speed. But this was refused. The
courage of the granting bodies failed, according to Mogens Camre,
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