A Danish Island Touts Clean Energy, But Reality Sets In describes some of the ideas suggested for making Samsoe a “green” island:
Using water-filled tanker trucks to capture heat from the diesel-powered ferries that serve the island. The hot water then would be pumped into a municipal heating system.
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Another of Mr. Johnsen’s ideas, dubbed the “String of Pearls,” met with only partial success. The goal was to build straw and wood-fueled community furnaces that would pump heat into Samsoe’s 18 villages through a network of underground pipes. The straw would be grown by local farmers, and the wood chips would come from trees bought from a privately owned forest on the island. The government offered cash incentives to help finance the new heating plants.In 1998, Mr. Hermansen began holding town meetings to pitch the idea, emphasizing that straw and wood chips would be a cheap, ecofriendly alternative to the heating oil used on the island. He planted an ally in the audiences, local dairy farmer Erik Andersen, to raise his hand when Mr. Hermansen asked for a show of support. “People are afraid to be the first one to try something new. They need a leader,” says Mr. Andersen, 60.
We have a word for “an ally in the audience”: shill.