Copenhagen’s Ski Slope-Power Plant
The eco-friendliness of the future depends on making Green Tech more appealing, accessible, and inspiring. That's a mighty task, but some are stepping up to the challenge. This includes Denmark, a nation that has effectively made it a non-negotiable goal to turn waste into energy. This can be much more exciting than it sounds, and that's the point, as exemplified in the Danish capital of Copenhagen.
Amager Bakke: A Game-Changer For Clean Energy
The $670 million Amager Bakke, also known as CopenHill, began operations in 2017. Its primary fuel source is municipal waste, and it treats a lot of it, encompassing "the residual waste of 645,000 inhabitants and 68,000 companies." It receives the aforementioned waste in increments of truckloads, getting between 250 and 300 daily. It transmutes this garbage into energy via incineration, in impressive proportions: in 2020, it transformed "599,000 tonnes (660,000 tons) of waste into heat and electricity."
That was enough to provide "electricity to 80,000 households and district heating to 90,000 apartments." It also outputs more clean water than it uses, because why not. Equally importantly, it's the only waste-energy facility in the world that's also a majorly popular and beloved recreational hub for locals and non-locals.
CopenHill Puts The “Fun” In Functional
CopenHill shows us what could be expected in the following decades: a more publicly engaging form of eco-strategy. Waste-to-energy facilities don't inspire much zest, but CopenHill turns drab, utilitarian construction into a fun social opportunity. Its main attraction is a 1,500-foot ski-and-snowboard slope that draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
Because in a place without mighty hills, the Danes built one. With a 246-foot vertical drop, a freestyle area, a slalom course, chairlifts, and equipment rentals. Yet hidden below one’s feet, an incinerator vaporizes trash in an 1832-degree Fahrenheit inferno.
In addition, CopenHill features the world's biggest climbing wall. It's nearly 280 feet tall, 30 feet wide, and resembles a natural mountainous façade with obstacles for the vertigo-defying crowd. Other fitness enthusiasts can get awesome (i.e., exhausting) uphill cardio on the CopenHill Track, which hosts unofficial competitions to decide who can most quickly summit the structure. The more sheer ascents were designed for elite runners, but athletes of all levels and ages are welcome to test their wheels on inclines ranging from 5% to a downright torturous 35%.
Thoughtfully, CopenHill offers year-round sledding for those who are younger, or potentially less coordinated and don't trust themselves racing down a slope on a snowboard or skis. The open-air setting is also a recreational green roof and "home for birds, bees, butterflies and flowers, creating a vibrant green pocket and forming a completely new urban ecosystem for the city of Copenhagen."
A (Green) Blueprint For A Better future
It's multi-purpose civic initiatives like this that could lead to a more efficient and sustainable future. After all, everybody has trash, so why not do something useful and fun with it? Accordingly, the World Architecture Festival awarded CopenHill the World Building of the Year in 2021, in the category of Production, Energy & Recycling.
Looking forward, the metaphorical vista is as breathtaking as Amager Bakke’s literal vista.