Like Ethiopia (Progress Report 3) and Costa Rica (Progress Report 4), Denmark is a little country with big plans. Its capital, Copenhagen, is making a capital improvement with its Copenhill project, the project of the decade, in my very humble opinion. Who said  alternate energy can’t be fun? Imagine turning something you don’t like into  something you need and then some. You can  do this  in Copenhagen.
​The Amager Bakke (Amager Hill), also known as Amager Slope or Copenhill, is a
combined heat and power waste-to-er plant in Copenhagen that doubles as a ski slope.
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First, a brief history
Denmark is remarkable for its long history of engineering skills. Danes were master shipbuilders and navigators. They built windmills to pump water. This, in turn, helped to build polders an engineering structure still in use today. That created highly tillable soil. It also served as a deterrent to invading forces. Polders were easily  turned into  marshes that would either trap or bog  down the adversarial forces. The Danes discovered North America over  900 years ago.
Today,  they are responsible for Legos  (today’s  toy for future engineers), Skype  and Bluetooth. While Denmark still burns a signicant amount of coal, it also  produces 42% of its energy through wind power. While Denmark exports petroleum products, it also  has its eye on being carbon neutral by 2050.
What  makes the country interesting is that its innovations just  keep on pushing the envelope. Denmark has some of the largest wind turbines in the world. Someday the Danes will push 15 megawatts of power per  wind turbine once the economic climate permits. The current highest rated output installed is 8 mw. Denmark also  is the largest wind turbine producing country in the world with Vestas as the leader. It has stopped building nuclear power plants. In fact just before the completely avoidable Chernobyl tragedy, Denmark voted to never build  another nuclear power plant ever again. Couple this  with the amazing technologies of Bluetooth and Skype  for a country of only 5.5 million  that is saying something. And then there’s this  (drum roll please) …

Feature story: Copenhill Project
What  strikes me  about the Amager Bakke  (Amager Hill) or Copenhill project is not  just  that it is an intense and well-thought-out site  for energy and material reconstitution. Copenhill is a model for the future, a model for handling one of our  most sinister and rapidly increasing problems, waste.
As a snapshot from a previous column on the energy of waste, it takes energy to make the waste, and it takes energy to get rid of the waste. Therefore, more waste equals more energy expenditure. Copenhill is as much a technological wonder as it is an architectural wonder. It is built right  in the heart of Copenhagen. This way, waste does not  have to travel far to be recycled. That solves a number of problems: transportation costs, accidental spillage, and the not  so accidental spillage caused by corrupt shippers. At one time toxic waste had a habit of being dumped along our  Thruway by organized crime as well as some private rms. Toxic waste is otherwise very expensive to dispose of legally. This is one of the many reasons we need a strong EPA. I don’t have to tell anyone in this  area about what it means to have regionally restricted waste transportation.
With Copenhill situated in the heart of the city, the plant generates enough electricity to light 30,000 homes and enough heat to warm an additional 32,000 homes. The ash generated at most trash burning plants is sent into  the air, but  this  plant is 99% clean at the stack output.
The highest rate so far. The ash -- 100,000 tons of it during its rst full year in operation -- was precipitated out  and is used for road construction. All this  ash is generated from 500,000 tons of trash which  otherwise would have to be consolidated into  a landll  site.  Nearly  100% of the metal was  reclaimed. Some of the plastic from the waste is being used to create a new  kind of road material that not  only provides quick  repair but  has an intrinsic infrastructure that would allow access to public  services such as water, electricity, and any new  communications that comes along.
Not only that but  this  plant has a unique method of catching water which  feeds the living plants along its side.  Take this  one giant step further and the roof  of this  waste-to-energy miracle is a year-round ski slope!

Conclusion
Denmark is clearly  on the threshold of tomorrow. We need to follow its example to restructure our  cities,  better manage our  resources, consolidate our  space, minimize out-sourcing of waste to other locations, and bury  our  waste. 
I hope one day that America will realize that we can’t go on handling our  waste and resources as we do. Today  even after years of ecological resolve the President has reduced public  access to three national parks. He is turning these national treasures into  mining pits  for the most dangerous and toxic minerals, i.e. yellow cakes of uranium and the most pollution prone of fossil fuels,  coal. While doing this  he is restricting the power of the regulatory bodies by eliminating the laws that protect and hold accountable the use of such lands. It’s an insult to our  health and the environment and it’s an insult to our  leadership in technology.
Denmark is yet another small country setting a worldwide example. Denmark, Ethiopia, and Costa Rica do not  have anywhere near the natural resources that the United States has. Yet look what they have accomplished.

Some friends of mine are teaching in Ethiopia. They had been teaching there in the late 1970s as missionaries but had to leave due to political upheaval. Today, they have the valuable opportunity to renew old friendships, and I obtained valuable insight of a great ancient biblical country which is empowered today by renewable energy.

A brief history and description
Ethiopia has an ancient history. It has innumerable biblical ties. The faithful claim the country has the writing of Enoch and the Arc of the Covenant. They claim that Phillip of the apostles, baptized the first non-Jew, was from Ethiopia.
King Solomon took time from his busy schedule to accept a guest from Sheba, believed to be part of Ethiopia today. King Solomon was busy indeed. Running a nation in constant turmoil, not to mention having 300 wives and 700 concubines, can be exhausting. Talk about juggling your schedule! Of course, we’re talking about the Queen of Sheba, which was the commerce center of its day. The Queen wished to bestow gifts upon Solomon. Her visit with King Solomon wasn’t to establish trade relations, per se; it was more of a “joint venture.” Nine months after this joint venture with the Queen of Sheba, Ethiopia was assured of a successor to the King. It is upon this heir, Menelik, that the kingdom of Ethiopia established its place in the world. As Mel Brooks once said: “It’s good to be king.”
But seriously folks, Ethiopia was the center of trade, a rich and prosperous nation over 2,000 years ago. This ancient world is believed to be the cradle of human civilization too. The first hominoids were found there. Wars and regime changes, however, brought Ethiopia down.
Today, it is somewhere between the size of Texas and Alaska with a population of 108 million. Ethiopia still has a royalty aspect to its government. Most of the industry is state-owned, though, that is changing. It has a parliamentary government and also is something of a statistical anomaly in that nearly 50% of the population is under 18. Poverty is everywhere. Elevated population growth is another problem.
It is in the throws of a total makeover. Its GNP is rising at an unprecedented rate and the country is moving into the 21 century “wisely” like its native son, Menelik, who presumably inherited his wisdom from Solomon. Apartments are going up rapidly to meet demand, along with the necessary infrastructure. Four new hydroelectric projects are in the works. The future looks bright indeed. Along with economic growth comes a reduction in population growth. Couple those with the women’s movement, and a better life for all in Ethiopia is anticipated.

It’s the geography
Ethiopia is in the enviable position of having a convergence of the largest rivers in the world, including the Nile. Most of its electricity comes from hydro-power. It has immense tributaries, though unfortunately, these rivers tend to reduce their flow in the summer. To offset these predictable dry spells, huge wind farms have been built and more are planned within the next 2-4 years. Ethiopia has the land to accommodate wind turbines plus the wind which is stronger in the summer.
The country also has a high solar index and will be investing heavily in solar power as well. There is, however, the problem with deforestation. Currently the estimate of existing forests is one-third of what it was at the turn of the 19th century. Ethiopia is taking on the task of reforesting and cutting back on wood for charcoal. Africa will, in the foreseeable future, be the bread basket of the world. It has water, arable land, and a huge labor force. No one know this better than China.

Why Ethiopia stands out
Ethiopia is a nation that has seen more than its share of turmoil. It is a nation that has known war, famine and disease for decades. Today its survival depends on the strength of its leaders. It has its share of corruption; recent court cases have demonstrated that billions have been taken as the country moves forward, but there is a heavy hand of justice there too.
What is truly impressive, though, is that Ethiopia has significant coal reserves but has elected not to use them. Instead its policy is to go with hydro, wind and solar power. This discipline will pay off as the nation goes forward. It is the goal of Ethiopia to be carbon neutral by 2025. While it appears only the United States and Russia seem disinterested in reducing their carbon footprints, China has a stated goal of being carbon neutral by 2030. I will elaborate on this in a future article.

In conclusion
One can certainly admire a country that has its share of domestic problems but doesn’t shirk its global responsibilities. I am not saying that Ethiopia has the answer to our global warming problem, but I can say that it is not making excuses for not addressing it. Ethiopia will have a large youth workforce in the not too distant future, and this will be another challenge. It is expanding its solar fields as the cost of the solar panels have come down dramatically. Wind farms already provide nearly 10% of its electrical power. Although potential jobs may be lost, this nation has chosen to avoid the use of coal. It will pay dividends down the road. Ninety-seven percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources.
Ethiopia truly has a plan to make itself great, while China also is a great facilitator of the country’s success.

Surprisingly, a large portion of Russian electricity comes from a renewable source. However, that’s where things end. It was not done out of concern for the environment nor for the people that it serves. This “renewable source” is hydroelectric and the plants were built during the Soviet Union period. These plants were “mega” projects designed to make the then Soviet Republic seem superior on the world stage. They had an image issue in those days, not that they don’t today.
The Soviets undertook amazing projects. However, all of them had underlying costs in lives and property. For example, there was the space race, where over 250 Russian Cosmonauts died prior to our landing on the moon. Lives were expendable for the prestige of Mother Russia. Soviet failures were never publicized. Yet the failures were deadly and occurred frequently. Soviet national pride was the foundation of Russian people’s strength and ergo its weakness.
If you have ever watched the Netflix series “Lucifer” when Lucifer asks “What is your deepest desire?” you know what I am talking about. In my humble opinion (which is always humble, just ask me), the diplomatic way to approach Russia is to incorporate its national pride in every conversation.

Is Russia going to do anything?
They are, but ... there’s that pregnant pause. Circa 2010, Dmitry Medvedev, then president of Russia and puppet of Vladimir Putin, proposed Russia get started in renewable energy. This effort required foreign investment, however, and Russia’s means of doing business is hardly user friendly. In fact it discourages most foreign businessmen from even considering it, since investment will inevitably involve some serious palm greasing.
To demonstrate this, Donald Trump’s foray into the Moscow Trump Tower was not some mere misstep. It was an involvement that started in 2013. In 2015 Trump signed an agreement with a Russian construction company to go ahead and build the new facility. Evidence now suggests that Putin was to receive the $50 million penthouse as a gift. Even if one does gets by the aforementioned, then there’s the bureaucratic hoop jumping.
For example if an investor is going to build a wind turbine or set solar panels the current requirement is that the interested company must purchase 70 percent of the resources from Russia, but there’s one small problem. Initially there were no Russian solar or wind equipment providers. As soon as China expressed an interest, well, now Russia has at least one solar plant, named Hevel and that is now primarily owned by one of Putin’s billionaire buddies, Vekselberg, though he has reportedly divested some of his share in Hevel.
Picture Putin as a toll bridge operator. If you want something done in Russia he will let you pass for some kind of “service charge.” That could be “loan shares” in the company you plan to own or a penthouse suite in downtown Moscow or a palace on the Black Sea.
The failure of Russia is its elected oligarchy’s power grab and its historical propensity for isolation. These two factors constrict Russia’s growth. An example: Russia has the world’s largest natural gas reserves (proven fields), are seven times that of its nearest rival. In certain parts of Siberia you can literally punch a hole in the ice and hit a vein of natural gas. Without the expense of complicated infrastructure Russia could easily undersell the natural gas market, yet with all this, America — not Russia — is the world’s number one producer of natural gas. This is because America still holds the forefront of innovation coupled with a free market while Russian industry is at the whim of dictator who barely made it out of law school.

Putin’s power grab
Yokos Oil run by Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the largest and most financially successful gas and oil firm in Europe. In 2003 at the height of Khodorkovsky’s popularity he became the No. 1 contender against Putin in the soon-to-be-held election. Unarmed and sitting in an airplane with a legal flight schedule, Khodorkovsky was arrested at gun point for, of all things, tax fraud.
Yukos Oil was the most profitable oil company in the world until Putin sold it off at a “discount” to a firm that eventually ended up in the hands of his buddies at Rosneft Oil Company, which is associated with organized crime. Some of these connections trace to the construction company owned by Andrey Rozov whoTrump personally signed in 2015 to build the Trump Tower Moscow project.
Russia is a failure on the world stage especially in energy. You need managers, engineers, planners to make energy a viable commodity not people who murder for hire, run prostitution rings, sell heroine and interfere with elections.
Also wholesale mismanagement is so bad it make’s Dilbert’s pointy haired clueless boss look like Lisa Su. For example consider the Sayano Shushenskaya Hydroplant which produced over 6 percent of all of the Soviet Union’s electricity. Considering all the different electric power generating plants, nuclear, coal, gas and oil a hydroplant is the easiest and the cheapest to maintain. This is primarily because there in no “engine” to power the turbines to drive the generator, and there is no volatile fuel to handle. The power is simply run by the proper operation of gates and the gravity of the water behind the dam.
Under the “guidance” of the Putin administration, warnings were given that the concrete structure was waning from a number of geological events such as plate tectonics and the shear mass sitting in one spot for 50 years, settling the earth unevenly. Such warnings went unheeded, repairs weren’t done, corners were cut. Finally the turbines succumbed to frailties and ruptured. This was a huge power producing facility. Seventy-five people died needlessly because of this oligarchic neglect.
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In conclusion
Russia has done little to engage alternate energy. It appears in part because there is a lack of incentive, because there is plenty of natural gas so why bother? Russia lacks the skill to create an industry that would support alternate energy, and it lacks the moral courage to do what is right for the world at large.
In spite of the fact that Russia has the world’s largest land mass, it has virtually no wind turbines and less than less than 2 gigwatts in solar most of which was produced in the last two years. Most European countries, even where land is limited such as the Netherlands and Germany, still manage to derive over 20 percent of their power from wind and solar. Russia had proposed solar energy deals with China since 2014 which recently came to some fruition only after Putin’s buddy Vekselberg got first dibs on Hevel.
Russia’s alternate energy commitments are at best symbolic. Its failure to promote a truly free economic environment is clearly the obstacle to any alternate energy future. Russia has a moral obligation to the rest of the world in regard to energy. Polluting the air and the water is now a global issue and should no longer be ignored by the Russian Federation.

I like Chinese thought
The wisdom that Confucius taught
If Darwin has anything to shout about
The Chinese will survive us without any doubt
​— Monty Python, “I Like Chinese,” 1980



​Who is doing the most to move ahead in energy? Who will be the trendsetter in the alternate energy world to come?
Spoiler alert: It isn’t us.
The recent Climate Change Conference held in Katowice, Poland provides some clues. So does the Paris Agreement, from which our President has ordered America’s withdrawal.
At the conference in Poland, while the representative of the U.S. committee was extolling the virtues of clean coal, he was interrupted by the chuckles of the visiting international scientist and the hissing of the other attendees.
Meanwhile, the Chinese clearly took the lead. China also is taking the initiative to consolidate the Paris Agreement and is working to advance global collaboration. Even though our Katowice Conference representation was “misguided,” China remains committed to working within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. China is hoping that the United States will abide by its accord with the UN’s obligation and principles. We still have the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is willing to work within the framework of its agreement. However, this Alliance represents only a fraction of our nation — 17 states and territories.
The Katowice meeting was to create the roadmap for implementing the Paris Accord of 2015. China wants to participate in the Talanoa (see info box) dialogue, which promotes a free range of ideas on actions, outcomes and challenges in dealing with climate change. It appears that we do not. This is a far cry from our commitment to the Kyoto summit.
China has set many goals in which it plans to grow economically while curtailing CO2 emissions. This is an amazing feat considering the country’s growth rate and ability to fuel that growth while running at that pace. They have the stats to back it up; couple this with the country’s amazing financial growth. The rate of CO2 discharge by China has declined over the last four years. They are setting goals so that by 2030, 50% of the energy created will be produced by non-fossil energy. China is allocating $1.44 trillion to achieve its non-fossil fuel growth.
They have pledged to reduce carbon output of their most energy intense industries such as their ore and specifically their steel production. They have committed to increase their non-fossil fuel based electricity production to 1 billion kilowatts by 2030. This increase is more than the electric power generation of the entire United States.

China, a breath of fresh air
America used to be the leader in everything: landing on the moon, human rights, technology. We were a real progressive entity. Then after President Kennedy’s assassination everything went sideways. Energy is a field that must go forward. It must be sustainable and renewable.
China is economically and morally conscious of this while America’s current leadership is not. This is not the America I used to know. The current leadership’s legacy will be a combination of arrogance, narcissism, and backward digression. This will come at a huge price for the average American.

Who will be the Energy Leader?
In my opinion, it will be China, which, unlike most of the world, has a unique position in history. China is ripe to receive the advanced technology available. The technology for energy production and clean air provisions are already mainstream technology. So China can put these technologies in action right here and now.
To top that off the Chinese have the brains, discipline, and motivation. All those things that America used to have. China too, is breaking out of its past. This forward thinking is what makes a nation truly great. It did for us.

A very brief observation
My understanding of China is that it is a richly advanced, independent, culturally unified nation spanning 5,000 years. Its culture is very advanced in science, government and the arts, though it came at a great cost.
What cost, you ask?
China was comparatively technologically undeveloped going into the early 1990s as per industrialized (or as they say “western”) standards. Its leaders had to make an assessment of its situation in the world and had the determination, sense of responsibility, and vision to move forward. It is a nation of determined and motivated people driven in large measure by national pride, and the country’s improvement speaks for itself.
China also has a plan, and it’s working, but there is always a cost. An example: The Three Gorges Dam, a wonder in itself, rather abruptly displaced 2 million people. Chinese labor conditions are improving, however, and the government is doing more to accommodate its people, other than just issuing orders.

In closing
I believe that we can count on the Chinese to live up to the expectations of the Climate Change Conference. I believe that every developing nation needs to take a cue from them.
The continent of Africa is in dire need of energy, and I hope that African nations will build their infrastructure with China in mind.
My concern is: Can China sustain a model of expansion while curtailing personal freedom? This will be China’s — and the ultimately the world’s — largest conundrum. I do want to make it clear that we Americans still have many freedoms in place. China has let the leash on freedom out a little bit. However, if China wants to maintain its role as a world leader, it will have to let that leash go, maybe entirely.
Technology is moving at an unprecedented pace and unlike the past, the world will someday soon be on the same plain. Will nationalism give way to globalization? Will this change be an inevitable silent revolution?
Time will tell.