Green Power Island – A renewable energy haven for Denmark

Renewable energy island to generate renewable energy from sun, wind and biomass.

With a focus on the abundant wind energy in Denmark, Copenhagen-based architectural firm Gottlieb Paludan has proposed an innovative design for renewable energy storage called the Green Power Island. The country already generates a decent percentage of electricity using the wind and the proposal tries to even better the credentials.

The conversion of the Danish energy system to accommodate renewable energy sources is well on its way. The island proposal helps solve the problem of how to store the growing amounts of green energy from the country’s ever-increasing wind power capacity. The Green Power Island’s main function is to store excess energy as pumped hydro power. The technology uses energy during low demand to pump water from the lower to the upper reservoir between two vertically separated reservoirs. As demand increases, water is allowed to flow downhill to the lower reservoir, generating electricity in the process.

The island has a water reservoir with a volume of 31,350,000 cubic meters, with a generation potential of 2.75GWh, which equals the total electricity consumption of all households in Copenhagen. In addition to providing energy storage, the Island also includes 25 wind turbines, which are rated at 5MW each, bringing the total capacity to 125MW. The sea water in the reservoir is also used for growing marine biomass by way of macro algae. Moreover, the island will also include photovoltaic and concentrated solar generators to provide more renewable energy.

The island also serves as a future traffic link stretching between the island of Zealand and the peninsula of Jutland. The architects believe that the Green power Island will become a hub for producing and storing renewable energy and be a cornerstone in the system providing power to the Copenhagen area.

Source: Ecofriend

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