Fairlee
Soren Hermansen, director of the Samso Energy Academy on the island of Samso, Denmark, opened his talk at the ninth annual Vermont Community Energy and Climate Action Conference with a disclaimer.
“I don’t know what you expect,” he told the crowd of more than 100 at the Lake Morey Resort.
Hermansen said his island, which won a national competition to reach full renewable energy sourcing, had succeeded thanks to Denmark’s “long history” of support for sustainable energy — and, more than technical prowess, thanks to the community’s ability to band together and do what was necessary.
“It’s not about how we’re going to do it, because the technology is already there, … but about why we want to do it,” he said. “Are you ready to have that discussion?”
Political and social differences were a challenge to energy advocates even on Samso, an island of 43 square miles that is home to about 3,800 people.
Hermansen said there had been conflict between residents of the north and south of Samso, who, despite living less than 10 miles apart, speak different dialects and have different social expectations that shape their approach to renewable goals — a difference he compared to the regional identity of the Northeast Kingdom versus Vermont’s more cosmopolitan areas.
Hermansen encouraged the audience to accept other Vermonters’ viewpoints, and seek consensus rather than absolute agreement.
“If we can agree to have common ground and talk about this, it’s OK to have different reasons to be at the table,” he said.
But he also addressed an unavoidable reality, one that sometimes requires compromise or sacrifice from some communities: renewable siting.
“We need to go a little farther than to say, not in front of my window,” he said. At some point, he said, people must recognize that to meet their goals “we need to find space for this.”
A large part of Samso’s energy — tens of thousands of megawatt-hours each year — comes from wind turbines, Hermansen said.
In Vermont, communities and politicians from both major parties have opposed industrial wind, citing concerns about turbines’ effect on the local environment and on the aesthetic value of ridgelines. Those opponents include Gov.-elect Phil Scott, a Berlin Republican who will replace Gov. Peter Shumlin, a wind advocate, in January.
“The governor-elect does not support industrial wind sited on Vermont’s ridgelines,” Scott spokesman Ethan Latour said in an email Saturday. “This position is based on the feedback he’s received from local communities where these projects have been built or proposed and because these turbines could be obsolete several years down the road as technological gains are made in the other renewable fields.”
Hermansen said Samso also relied on a carbon tax to hit its target — a strategy that he said the United States should follow. The Danish renewables expert said he had marveled at the enormous trucks he saw on America’s roads — “very big, heavy trucks, with one guy in it.”
“Why don’t you keep gasoline prices at four-something,” and then use the extra revenue to fund renewable projects, he said. “This must be a political target. I’ll leave it to you.”
Scott also opposes a carbon tax; however, he does back the state’s renewable goal, his spokesman said. The governor-elect believes the energy objective will be achievable, Latour said, “as innovation continues to accelerate in the renewable field and we develop strategies to become more energy efficient.”
“He believes the ability to store energy will be a game changer,” Latour added.
In an interview after his talk, Johanna Miller, coordinator of the Vermont Energy and Climate Action Network and the energy program director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council, expressed support for a carbon tax and said it should be a legislative priority in the upcoming session.
Miller, who introduced Hermansen on Saturday, said that the public conversation around renewables had become too focused on the areas where Vermonters disagree, and not enough on the state’s overall goals and the values that residents share in common.
“It’s not all about the controversial issues,” she said in response to a question about opposition to turbines and a carbon tax. “Wind is only one piece of the puzzle.” Wind, she said, was only a small piece of a comprehensive plan that included many different forms of energy. “It has dominated the conversation, but it will not dominate the energy portfolio.”
Miller said she was looking forward to having a “fair conversation” with Scott about carbon taxes, which she said should be brought up in the context of wider tax reform — and not referred to as an onerous extra cost on Vermonters.
The larger, and mostly unseen, part of Vermont’s drive to 90 percent will be the unglamorous, overlooked work of retrofitting buildings, getting local renewable energy groups started and bolstering their efforts around the state, she said.
“We have to make a decision as Vermonters: What are our values, and what are we willing to pay for them?” Miller asked.
Activists, organizers, businesspeople and politicians at the day-long conference attended workshops on every aspect of the renewable energy push, including navigating the legislative landscape, reducing carbon in transportation and making municipal buildings more efficient. Before Hermansen’s talk, VECAN gave awards for excellence in renewable energy, and afterward, professional storytellers gave tips on how to weave effective narratives around the topic of sustainability.
Near the end of his remarks, Hermansen told the Vermonters in attendance that their state could be to America what Samso had been to Denmark: A pioneering community that shows the rest of the country how an energy system reliant on renewables can work in practice.
“Vermont will be the (model) for green innovation in America,” he said. “And not ‘will be’ — is already, and will be even more.”
Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.