Wednesdays at DIS means Field Studies. Yeah that's right. There is no class, which means it gives professors a chance to schedule field study trips in and around Copenhagen, and students a chance for some rest to catch up with the week. this feels so right coming from a University that treats holidays like they don't exist in the calendar.
Today I had a trip for my Environmental Policy in Practice class to the wind farm right off the Copenhagen harbor. Copenhagen is not know for any big skyscrapers the way New York likes the Empire State Building or how China and other middle eastern countries advertise its development through monumentally tall structures. Copenhagen has this: wind mills! If you ask me, I think I prefer them. In subjective design, simple and slick, what a modernist would ooze for. In practice, a symbol to clean energy that still allows you to see the harbor and the rest of the ocean.
Today I had a trip for my Environmental Policy in Practice class to the wind farm right off the Copenhagen harbor. Copenhagen is not know for any big skyscrapers the way New York likes the Empire State Building or how China and other middle eastern countries advertise its development through monumentally tall structures. Copenhagen has this: wind mills! If you ask me, I think I prefer them. In subjective design, simple and slick, what a modernist would ooze for. In practice, a symbol to clean energy that still allows you to see the harbor and the rest of the ocean.
We made our trip in a tiny little boat, which made the main cabin feel like you were in a washing machine with the waves hitting it up and down and the wind blowing it forth. I decided to stand in the back of the boat instead, before everyone discovered just what my breakfast had been earlier in the morning. Our lecturer was saying a lot of interesting facts about both the history of the mills and how economic and political policy worked in terms of wind energy in Denmark. However, I don't think I have ever experienced a moment in my life where I've felt colder. It was a good day to be a windmill, and a bad day to be a human. Leading up to the windmill was a whole lot of me coming into terms with the fact that I was probably never going to feel my toes again. As I was saying my last good bye to my big toe, we got right up close to one of the wind turbines. It was magical. You always hear of people recognizing what a wind turbine is and being able to tell what it does. But being a couple of feet from them is way different. They make a distinctive sound the way power lines do when you approach them. They are tall, unfaced, and are rhythmically swirling around with the power of the wind. What an sea oil drill must look like if it came into the good side.
Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers. Wind power provided just over 30% of electricity production in Denmark in 2012. And, In 2012 the Danish government adopted a plan to increase the share of electricity production from wind to 50% by 2020. Things are moving in the right direction here. Just like the a wind turbine, I'm a big fan.
Denmark was a pioneer in developing commercial wind power during the 1970s, and today a substantial share of the wind turbines around the world are produced by Danish manufacturers. Wind power provided just over 30% of electricity production in Denmark in 2012. And, In 2012 the Danish government adopted a plan to increase the share of electricity production from wind to 50% by 2020. Things are moving in the right direction here. Just like the a wind turbine, I'm a big fan.