Scandinavia

the largest offshore wind farm in the world will be put into opperation on thursday of this week 30km offof the coast of Denmark. It consists of 91 turbines spread over a 35 square km area, and will produce around 201 magawats of electriciy a year- enough for one year's supply for 200,000 homes in Denmark. the entire plantation will cost around 1 billion US dollars, exclulding expected repair costs. The reason that it must be offshore, is because the population density is so dense in this area of the world, so permission for onshore mills is hard to get- an where there aren't people, there are mountains, and wind energy is usually harvested better on flat land. Reusable eneregy had become an increasing phenominon in europe, and it has seemed to be diffusing contagiously according to this map of the wind power companies in the world. One of the reasons that this is so, is probably because there is a general lack of natural resources for the europeans (especially scandinavians-- in their mountainous terrain) to utilize, they are initally drawn away from non-reusable energy sources. Another reason for this is that europe, (and denmark, being very small) has a very high population density, so when all of the land is beig lived on, people need to find other sources of energy. Another thing that I gathered from the article, was that maybe Denmark was doing this, not only because of the environment, and the pressure of their neighbors, but also to get put on the map for something. Scandinvia is a region that is not that extrordinary in any way, in that there aren't any active disputes or problems that they are in the middle of- they are simply minding their own business, but perhaps Denmark is trying break free of this, by building the LARGEST offshore wind farm in the world.
 * __​​LARGEST OFFSHORE WIND FARM TO GO ONLINE IN DENMARK__**
 * connection>> **denmark's decision reminds me of this little town in death valley, california, that is home to the largest thermometer in teh world- it is obviously an attempt for attention, and it is also a response to the environment.**

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The company that manages this huge new windfarm is Dong Energy. Their website has a great semi-interactive map showing all the places in Denmark (and Europe) where they capture energy. After you get to their website, click on Where we operate>Business activities>Generation. You'll learn how impressive the energy business, even in a small country like Denmark, can be.

__**POPULATION POST**__ countries in my rejion- Denmark, Sweden, Norway (Finland and Greenland are also in Scandinavia though) DENMARK-> population 5,500,510 (#111 in the world), annual growth rate 0.28%, 87% of population is in urban areas, total land area 43,094 sq km SWEDEN-> population 9,059,651 (#88 in the world), annual growth rate 0.158%, 85% of population is in urban areas, total land area 450,295 sq km NORWAY-> population 4,660,539 (#170 in the world), annual growth rate 0.341%, 77% of populaton is in urban areas, total land area 323,802 sq km []

 sweden, as a solution to an overpopulation of rabbits in city parks in stockholm,has decided to harvest them annually and ship their bodies to a heating plant in Karlskoga where they are burned with various other sources of biofuel, such as wood chips, and animal wastes. while this seems to make sense to most swedish citizens, as it is econonmic and environmentally friendly, however, burning bunnies is not a reliable energy source for the country. infact, in terms of biofuel, the burning of wastes is only 3.1% of biofuel. i looked into other sources of biomass production, and as it turns out, european countries actually have more potential energy sources in with biodiesel. further more, this energy solution is pretty controversial among animal rights activists in the area. however, this brings the problem of disposing of the bodies, and and the bodies of the bunnies that are already dying of as a result of the high overpopulation. despite these two factors, sweden in one of the most environmentally sound countries in the new world, along with the whole of europe.
 * __SWEDEN BURNS BUNNIES FOR BIOFUEL__**



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