Eco in Norway: Earth Hour

Earth Hour, the 26th of March , 20.30 pm to 21.30 pm.

Earth Hour is probably the easiest communication about the climate for everyday people to remember, and that is why it became a world wide hit. "Turn off the light for one hour", and do not forget there are more things that give energy and that the earth needs attention just as much. Because this is a lot more than an energy saving campaign, because actually that is not the main case at all (and misunderstood/ not communicated). This is a global message put simple. The most simple action one can do, and one can remember. To attract people to its cause. To save energy is just one part of the solution, but not at all the part that contributes to an alternative. Like creativity. No one tells you what to do, but what to not do. Turning off the light is the symbolistic meaning - and this, is probably a lot deeper than just the simple outward message that they deliver.

Inside this message, there is probably a full potential of waking up some brain cells to understand ourselves and our nature of lazyness! We`ve become lazy , also because of the easy transport of energy that is in the technology age. What to do when nobody helps you with electricity-supply? oh gosh, we`re stuck! :) No, we`re not at all stuck.  Because it is too easy, to just turn off the light and forget where you are. Yes, it is dark , but you live on a living planet. Full of energy. Full of creativity. And most of it still untouched. Their website had an application where people could subscribe and tell what you spent the hour doing, and suddenly one could see that there is a global conscious mind after all.

I came to participate in this event through WWF-Norway, which is a global organization with local contributors. Working together with another organization in Norway, called Gronn Hverdag this time, showed and proved that co-operation in the green field is essential for attracting people at the same goal, and also that the actions are common by all after all. No one is a king or a queen in the name of the big mother earth.

It was good for me to join some active ones in Norway finally, after meeting so many danes and swedish and german with solutions that we`ve just seen a rough outline of in Norway so far. But I`ve learned that things are happening in my country step by step and I am proud of it (the country) more than anyone could imagine after all I`ve been saying, just because what I see in Norway that lies in the future is a lot of the same beauty that only the chinese seem to discover here. They wouldn`t care about electric cables in the Hardanger Fjord! The fjord is way too beautiful to them! What to do instead is to prepare for local electricity in much larger scale than what Norway is able to do at the moment. Preparing is the nature that we lack of, in the positive and the negative sence on the same time. The nature of Norway is quite monoistic, but to grow up is about preparing for your adulthood, on the same time the playfulness from childhood should not be forgotten. The union of these is to discover the possibilities of the imaginative nature. And this is, what Norway still needs. An imaginative nature on the same level as the World Cup Ski Championships on national broadcast and especially in the heart of Oslo.

Childrens` future; touching and feeling the melting ice bear.

WWF Staff on top of the Plaza hotel with the panorama view over Oslo

Eco in Denmark: World's largest solar district heating plant

Yesterday I went for a daytrip to city Marstal (on island Aeroe/ Aero), mostly famous for its sailor history and where the very last transport by sailboat happened. "Farewell To Sails" had its exhibition when I went there, restoring an old ship that drowned and I went for a museum ride. Apart from my enthusiasm for boats and everything that floats, I went to see another tale - how the trial supplement of a solar collector plant for the city's single swimmingpool became the world's largest district heating plant to cover 30 percent of whole Marstal's requirements for heating! I think it is so nice when a little try-out turns into something expansive and re-used, like this one!:)

The plant in whole, 18,354m2. The markers are pointing at the different producers of solar panels and collectors delivered to the plant (four), also the tank for storage, as well as the circulating system and the pit heat store.

Budget of such a project. Supported by EU and Danish Energy Authority

Originally, the story begins with Marstal wanting their swimmingpool to be heated from "alternative energy" because the oil heating had a way too expensive bill. This was in 1993, and economy pushed the island into thinking differently and it was after several meetings an idea of a solar heating system. At the same time Marstal District Heating was interested in replacing some of their waste oil consumption by more eco-friendly fuel. With alittle midwifery from the Danish Association of Consulting Engineers, it resulted in a solar collector on the swimmingpool roof in 1994. The 75m2 solar collectors were to heat the pool only. However, the system also served another purpose: It was a test system to show if solar heating on a major scale was worth staking on. And it was. After six months, the results on paying the heating bill looked so promising that they decided to develope 8,000m2 of solar panels on the field behind the heating plant - and connect them to the district heating network. This was the beginning of the great success! From May till October, Marstal's consumption is 100% covered by solar heating. Source: http://www.solarmarstal.dk/

In danish: A district heating storage, to store heat from solar panels.

Sailor city Marstal. Collecting muliple creativities from all over the world when travelling by the sea.

the restoration of an old sunken ship.