Maine delegation heads to Denmark on climate tour
A group of 14 Maine business and municipal leaders, legislators, educators and others is heading to Denmark on Aug. 31 to learn how that country has reduced its fossil fuel use to address climate change.
“We hope to learn what can be done on the community level, with towns or a grouping of towns,” Nancy E. Smith, executive director of GrowSmart Maine in Portland, told Mainebiz. GrowSmart Maine is a statewide nonprofit focused on conserving natural resources, community revitalization and economic development.
Smith says the tour participants hope to come back with actionable ideas after meeting with Danish business, government and nonprofit leaders “to explore opportunities for economic improvement through renewable energy development.”
The trip, which runs till Sept. 6, was organized by Sue Inches, a community development consultant who will lead the trip. Inches spent 14 years in state government, including serving as former deputy director of the Maine State Planning Office. Tour partners are Hurley Travel and State of Green, a Danish agency.
Denmark is a world leader in addressing climate change, according to Smith, and has cut its fossil fuel use by more than one-third since 1971. The country aims to be a net zero “emitter” in 2050.
“Maine towns want to reduce the financial burden and environmental impact of relying on fossil fuels,” Inches notes, “and the Denmark program will provide the tools and inspiration to do just that.”
Denmark is heavily using a distributed or local power generation model rather than large utilities. Smith says Maine’s delegates hope to learn about financing, technology and community incentives.
In addition to Smith and Inches, the other Maine participants scheduled to go are: Daniel Hildreth, chairman of Diversified Communications Inc.; Sen. Roger Katz, Committee on Appropriations and Financial Affairs in the Legislature; Rep. Martin Grohman, Joint Standing Committee on Energy and Utilities; Tyler Kidder, sustainability coordinator, University of Southern Maine; Carla Dickstein, vice president of research and policy, CEI; Donna Larson, town planner, Freeport; Lynn Bromley, regional advocate, Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy; Kate Dempsey, director of external affairs, The Nature Conservancy; Matt Hancock, owner, Ski Mt. Abram; Erica Mazzeo, education administrator, Falmouth; Elaine Abbott, city manager, Eastport; and John Egan, senior vice president of lending, CEI.
Ski Mt. Abram has been acknowledged for its sustainability efforts. An August 2013 Mainebiz article noted that it was awarded a $235,000 grant to install a solar energy system expected to generate 422 kilowatt-hours per year.
The project will include 869 photovoltaic panels. The grant is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program.
Danish tour participants will meet with counterparts in the city of Copenhagen, which has a strategy to become carbon neutral by 2025; the Danish Wind Industry Association; Ramboll, an engineering, design and consulting company that is interested in establishing connections in the Northeast and already has a small office in Portland; Maabjerg Bioenergy, a large plant that plans to use manure and industrial waste from the food industry and turn them into heat and electricity; Braedstrup, a small town with a local district heating plant that includes 18,000 square meters of solar panels to produce hot water and that includes the first neighborhood in the world where solar cells were installed on private homes; and the Samso Energy Academy’s sustainable building.
Group participants are scheduled to share their findings at GrowSmart Maine’s Annual Meeting on Oct. 20.
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