INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightDRAGOER LUFTFOTOImage caption
Amager Bakke has become a landmark in Copenhagen
"There are
absolutely no hills or mountains in Denmark", says Danish architect Bjarke Ingels."So we got to the idea that we could actually create a
manmade mountain for alpine skiing." His firm is behind the design of a new artificial ski slope in Denmark's capital Copenhagen, built on
the roof of a huge incinerator that burns waste to produce heat and electricity
"A power plant doesn't have to be some kind of ugly box that blocks the views or casts shadows on its neighbours
It can actually be, maybe the most popular park in a city," Mr Ingels tells me enthusiastically.Amager Bakke is billed as one of the
cleanest waste-to-energy plants in the world, thanks to technology that filters its emissions.It was switched on in 2017, and this Friday
the ski area opens to the public
Some residents like the idea of a ski slope in the neighbourhood
Bakke means hill in Danish
For a country whose highest point is a mere 170m (550ft), the new 85m summit has become a landmark and has also stirred debate about how
best to handle the city's waste."There has been quite a lot of construction challenges," explains Christian Ingels, the general manager of
The rooftop is leased to his firm which runs the recreational area
Extra precautions had to be in place, before the public could be allowed to ski above the incinerator and high-pressure steam system
there are views over the city, harbour and the heavy industry close by
Apartment blocks stand just a couple of hundred metres away
Image copyrightAdrienne MurrayImage caption
Up to 300 trucks arrive at Amager Bakke each day
Soon skiers
will be able to whizz down the 450m slope that wraps around the aluminium-clad building
Around 50-60,000 skiers are expected each year.Residents nearby that I spoke to seemed positive about the project."To be totally honest, I
don't even think about it - that it's waste," says Cecilie Sjoeberg, who has lived in the area for five years."You can go skiing in your
Not a lot of people can do that in a city.""I think it's a good idea, it's good to combine those things," says fellow resident, Hanne
Mendel."I can see from my bedroom the smoke coming out from the pipe and I believe it's clean."The plant is run by waste management firm,
Amager Resource Centre (ARC) and owned by five local municipalities, while engineering firms Babcox and Wilcox Vollund built the main
infrastructure for the plant.Image copyrightAdrienne MurrayImage caption
Chief engineer Peter Blinksbjerg
Up to 300 truckloads of waste arrive at the plant each day, from households and businesses across the metropolitan area
It is the rubbish left over after Copenhagen's waste has been sorted for recycling.Two huge furnaces burn the waste at temperatures of
"You have water coming in to these vaults," explains ARC's chief engineer Peter Blinksbjerg
"We boil the water and produce steam." A turbine and generator produce electricity which is fed into grid
The leftover energy from the steam is used to provide heating for 72,000 homes, through a system called district heating, which is common
It is a series of advanced filters, that ARC claims, makes this facility cleaner than others
Particles and pollutants from the smoke are removed, and a process called Selective Catalytic Reduction, breaks down harmful nitrogen oxide
(NOx) into nitrogen and water vapour."I have heard of only one more plant in the world having this kind of catalytic reduction of NOx," Mr
Image copyrightCopenhillImage caption
Big safety hurdles had be cleared to allow skiing on a power plant
The resulting gas is released through a large chimney on the roof."Coming out of the stack is nitrogen, which is also in the air, there's
a little leftover oxygen, some water vapour and then carbon dioxide," says Mr Blinksbjerg
With high costs and early technical issues, the plant has not been problem-free
The main criticism is that it is simply too big and there isn't enough local waste to feed the huge furnaces."It has never been constructed
in a size which fitted the waste in the the five municipalities in Copenhagen," says Dr Jens Peter Mortensen, an environmental expert at The
Danish Society for Nature Conservation
"We argued that, of course, we should recycle, then we should reuse
So there was no reason for constructing such a big incinerator."ARC is importing waste from abroad, to feed the giant furnaces
By 2024, it forecasts that almost half of the material it burns will be imported waste and biomass
Image copyrightAdrienne MurrayImage caption
Waste has to be imported to feed the giant Amager Bakke furnaces
Mr Blinksbjerg argues it is greener for foreign waste to be incinerated, than to dump it in landfill.He argues that emissions from
incineration are lower: "So in taking waste from the UK to here, we're reducing the greenhouse effect."In Europe, Nordic countries (except
for Iceland) have the highest proportion of waste used to generate electricity, resulting in low uses of landfill, according to the
Confederation of European Waste to Energy Plants (CEWEP)
The European Union has set targets for countries to recycle 65% of municipal waste and reduce rates of landfill to 10%, by 2035
That raises the question: should other countries follow the Nordic example and burn waste too?More Technology of BusinessCEWEP's managing
director, Dr Ella Stengler, says not all waste can be recycled effectively
"For this part of the waste, rather then sending it landfill, the best and most sustainable treatment of the waste is to turn it into
energy, into electricity and heat for cities, for homes and industries." Burning waste creates carbon dioxide emissions
However it is argued that the methane emitted from landfill, has a much higher greenhouse effect than the same volume of CO2
It is also a revenue-earner
Peter Jones, from environmental consultancy, Eunomia says: "It's pretty much the only fuel, where people will actually pay you to burn
it." Image copyrightAdrienne MurrayImage caption
Advanced filters keep pollution from Amager Bakke to a minimum
However as an energy source, it's not particularly effective
"You're talking about something that has about the third of the energy content compared with wood
And considerably less compared with fossil fuels
So you have to burn a lot of stuff to produce much energy," says Mr Jones
While it is greener than burning fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, Mr Jones adds: "As we move on to a greater share of renewables
in the electricity mix, the case for incineration gets weaker."Environmental groups don't want incinerators
They argue for greater prevention, reuse and recycling."There are better ways to produce energy than burning waste
They use a lot of plastic because plastic is calorific, and paper and wood also
All those are recyclable if they are separately collected," says Piotr Barczak, from the European Environmental Bureau in Brussels."With the
current situation with climate change, we have to look at any facility that generates CO2 including incineration."
