Peter Jones

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Amager Bakke has to say a landmark in Copenhagen

"There are absolutely no hills or mountains in Denmark", the Danish architect Bjarke Ingels .

"So we came up with the idea That we could create, actually, an artificial mountain for Alpine Skiing . "

His company, which is built behind the design of a new artificial ski slope in Denmark's capital, Copenhagen, on the roof of a huge incinerator That burns waste to generate heat and electricity.

"don't have A power plant, Some sort of ugly box, blocks, views or cast shadows on its neighbors. It may actually be, perhaps The Most popular park in a city," Mr Ingels, tells me enthusiastically.

Amager Bakke is set to in the bill, as one of the cleanest waste-to-energy plants in The World , thanks to technology That Filter the emissions.

It was on, in the year 2017, and this Friday, the ski area opens for The Public . The Project was Build almost a decade in the making and cost €550 ($600m; £490m) to.

Some residents, such as the idea of a ski slope in the neighborhood

Bakke means hill in Danish. For a country whose highest point is only 170m (550ft), the new 85m is-the summit has to become a landmark, and has also stirred debate about The Best course of action for the town.

"It was a whole series of construction challenges," explains Christian Ingels, The General manager of Copenhill. The roof terrace is rented, the His company runs the recreation area.

Additional safety precautions had to be on the spot, in front of The Public to be allowed to ski in front of the combustion system and the high-pressure Steam system.

"It is Made for the First Time That someone [is] daring, in this way... a lot of security installations. "

From the installation on the roof terrace there are views over The City , the port and The Heavy industry in the vicinity. Residential block only a few hundred meters Away .

Up to 300 Trucks arrive, on Amager Bakke every day

Soon skiers can whizz down the 450m climb That wraps around the aluminium-clad building. About 50-60,000 skiers each year.

residents in the area, I spoke to seemed positive about The Project .

"To be completely honest, I don't even know, thinking about it-That it's garbage," says Cecilie Sjoeberg, who lived in the area for five years.

"you are Skiing in the backyard. Not many people can do That in a city. "

"I think it is a good idea, it is good to combine all of these things," says His roommate, Hanne Mendel.

"I see from my room, The Smoke from the pipe, and I think it is clean. "

The plant, built by Waste Management company, Amager Resource Center (ARC) and are owned by The Five municipalities, while the engineering company Babcock and Wilcox and more and more, The Most important infrastructure for the plant.

Chief engineer Peter Blinksbjerg

Up to 300 lorry-loads of waste coming into the plant every day, from the households and businesses in the Metropolitan area. It is waste left over after the Copenhagen waste was sorted and sent for recycling.

Two huge ovens, the waste is burned at temperatures of around 1000 C. "you have to get water to these vaults," says ARC's Chief engineer, Peter Blinksbjerg. "We cook it is generated by the water and Steam . "

A turbine and generator to produce electricity That is fed into the grid. The leftover energy from the Steam is used to the heating up of 72,000 apartments, through a system called district heating, which is common in Denmark.

It is a series of Advanced filters, the ARC claims this system makes cleaner than others. Particles and pollutants are removed from The Smoke , and a process called Selective Catalytic reduction breaks down the harmful nitrogen oxides (NOx) into nitrogen and water vapor.

"I only said a plant in The World , this type of catalytic reduction of NOx," Mr Blinksbjerg.

Large safety hurdles had to be cleared to allow Skiing in a power plant

The resulting gas is released through a large chimney on the roof.

"Come out of the stack is nitrogen, which is also in the air, it is a little bit of leftover oxygen, water vapor, And Then carbon dioxide," says Mr Blinksbjerg.

With high cost and initial technical problems, the plant is not problem-free. The main criticism is That it is simply too large, and it is not enough to feed local waste, the huge stoves.

"It's never been built, in a size That the waste in The Five municipalities in Copenhagen", says Jens Peter Mortensen, an environmental expert at The Danish society for nature conservation.

"We argued That of course we should recycle, we should use it again. So there was no reason for the construction of a large waste incineration plant. "

the ARC of imported waste materials from abroad to feed the huge furnaces. By 2024, it is That almost half of Burning of The Material , are forecast for the imported waste and Biomass .

waste is to be imported to feed the giant-Amager Bakke stoves

Mr Blinksbjerg argues, it is green for foreign waste to be incinerated, as it is dump in the landfill.

He argues That the emissions from the combustion are lower. "So, in the waste from the UK to here, we have the reduction of The Greenhouse effect. "

In Europe, the Nordic Countries (except Iceland) have the highest proportion of the waste to generate electricity, which is reflected in low use of the landfill, according to the Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants (CEWEP).

The European Union has recycling targets for the countries, 65% of Municipal Waste and the reduction of the prices of the landfill to 10% by the year 2035.

The raises the question: should the other countries in Nordic and burn to follow the example of waste?

CEWEP Managing Director Ella Stengler, says not all waste can be recycled effectively. "For this part of the waste, but then sending it to the landfill, The Best and most sustainable treatment of waste, into energy, into electricity and heat for the cities, for homes and industries. "

the combustion of waste to carbon dioxide emissions. But it is argued That the methane emissions from landfill, a much higher greenhouse effect than the same amount of CO2.

It is also a revenue earner. "It's pretty much the only fuel where the people actually pay you to Burn It ," says Peter Jones , of the environmental consultancy, Eunomia .

"Advanced Filter" not to keep pollution from Amager Bakke to a minimum

But as a source of energy, it is particularly effective. "You're talking about something That about the third of the energy content compared with wood. And significantly less in comparison with fossil fuels. So you have to burn to produce a lot of stuff That a lot of energy," says Mr. Jones.

the environment is more friendly than the combustion of fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, he adds: "As we move to a bigger share of renewable energies in the electricity mix, as is the case for the combustion of weaker. "

environmental groups don't want incinerators. You will advocate for more prevention, reuse and recycling.

"There are better ways to produce energy, as in the case of the incineration of waste. You use a lot of plastic, because plastic is calorific value, and paper, and wood. All those That can be recycled if collected separately," says Piotr Barczak, the European Environmental Bureau in Brussels.

"With the current situation with Climate Change , we need to us. to each plant, which generates CO2, including the Burning "

denmark, recycling, european union

Source of news: bbc.com