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Trip to Denmark ENERGIZES Brown County Region 9 representative Borchert

Borchert among 16 US elected officials getting ideas on conserving energy

Tivoli Gardens Amusement Park in Copenhagen, Denmark is pictured at Halloween during Borchert’s tour

A brief but intensive fall trip to Denmark to learn what the country does with green energy gave Brown County Region 9 Representative Dave Borchert of New Ulm a number of ideas about ways to conserve energy locally.

Green energy is energy generated from natural and sustainable sources with zero, low or neutral greenhouse gas emissions during energy generation and operation.

“I think it’s (green energy) important,” Borchert, who was among 16 program participants representing U.S. elected officials, green energy leaders and two Danish commercial advisors.

Borchert is part of a Region 9 Development Commission climate-smart collaborative.

His week-long visit entirely paid for by the Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs began in Copenhagen with a site visit to Copenhill, a waste-to-energy plant with ski and snowboard hills and mountain climb including an 85-meter climbing wall on top of a waste to energy power plant.

Brown County Region 9 Representative Dave Borchert, right, and Le Sueur County Township Representative Stephanie Hilpipre stand in a Danish farm near a wind turbine and anaerobic digester in October.

“It’s a large hill where trash is incinerated with minimal carbon emissions because of state-of-the-art filtration for the plant that provides steam heat for Copenhagen (a city of 1.4 million people) and the region. They literally made a park out of landfill. You literally have to be there to appreciate it,” he said.

Borchert said Denmark imports trash from Great Britain.

He said the Danish have a holistic approach to green energy with lower consumption an important part of life. Danish freeways have bike and motorized vehicle lanes.

“They’re a world leader for this because of their lifestyle. They’re very committed to it,” said Borchert.

The Denmark visit prompted Borchert to think about how Brown County could work with green energy.

Borchert photographed a view of Copenhagen harbor while climbing a waste to energy facility on top of Copenhill, a former landfill site

“If we pursue waste-to-energy or biogas production at the Brown County landfill, we could consider offering groomed, walking/biking trails, a Cottonwood River canoe landing or recreational options on decommissioned (landfill) cells or other unused parts of the landfill,” he said.

The Brown County landfill activity uses five acres while 58 acres are permitted. Twenty-five acres have been closed with grass growing over it.

“A lot of what I learned could be applied to the landfill to decarbonize, extend landfill life and generate revenue with waste-to-energy, hydrogen and methanol production. At the very least, I’d like to look at opportunities using our landfill. At the very least, creating waste to energy and adding solar panels. It wouldn’t take cropland out of production. We could also look at adding an anaerobic digester. An incinerator could save the life of our landfill. It’s life is about half used up now,” said Borchert.

He visited a Danish supermarket in which 78% of its heat consumption was generated from refrigeration cooling.

Borchert said heat from machinery operation could be reused. He said heat pumps can keep a home warm at one-third the cost of conventional energy usage.

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