Samso Island, as of recently, has been announced as one of the first entirely energy self sufficient industrialized places on the planet. Samso Island is a small Danish island with a population of only 4,300. The island is 100% dependent on energy provided by wind power provided by the various wind turbines across the island. Along with wind power the island also benefits from home grown biofuel, solar power, and biomass energy.

In 1997 the island was entirely dependent on coal and oil energy which could only be retained by importing. During that time Samso won a government competition to become a model renewable energy community. Samso was chosen due to the mere fact that it was entirely dependent on imported products and thus, would make a perfect candidate for a controlled experiment. Due to this “competition”, the island will never look or operate as it did before. Samso Island is now the largest carbon neutral settlement in the world.

The island’s wind turbines are so successful that it even sells some of the energy manufactured by other offshore turbines to the mainland, thus making it more than 100% energy self sufficient.