Saving energy at Nastved

In the good old days, before Ithe oil-crises of the 1970's, not many people in Denmark cared about energy. Energy was cheap. In recent times, however, consumption of energy, and more importantly, rise of energy prises is very much in focus.

Nastved is handling the question of energy in two ways: 1. Production of energy, mainly heating and electricity. 2. Saving energy in the public administration, i.e. houses and institutions.

Regarding production of energy, all household-waste is incinerated at the "Fasan" plant at Nastved. A total of 105.000 tonnes waste is collected and burned every year. In this way waste is transformed into heating for approx. 11.000 houses in the town of Nastved. Apart from producing heating a total of 250.000 MWh electricity is produced at the nearby electric power station, also using heat from burning of household waste. The plant is built and run by the municipalities in the local area.

Saving energy is quite another matter. As the largest quantities of energy are used in private households, the municipality can only advise people how to use energy in an economic way. This is done i.e. by showing how to reduce use of electricity, heating and water. Good advice is sent by mail to every household, and of course made public through newspapers.

When it comes to buildings owned and operated by the municipality itself, every year a budget and an account is made, not only regarding the financial Thgures, but also the consumption of calories and electricity. Almost every school and kindergarted has a central energy registration system.

Last, but not least, it should be mentioned that there is a new development area at Nastved that will be reserved exclusively for building of "zero-energy" houses. These are houses, where you do not have the heating turned on, as long as the outside temperature is above 0 degrees centigrade. In these houses the yearly consumption of energy is approx. 3.000 kWh, which is only a third of the normal consumption. This is achieved by using passive solar heating and insulation.

by Mr Soeren Revsbaek