Holmene located south of Denmark's capital of Copenhagen is the site of a proposed green development project centred around a waste to energy plant able to generate up to 25% of Denmark's electricity needs.

Holmene on Design Boom.

But how can an incinerator on reclaimed land aspire to be green?

Primarily because the alternatives are worse. Our modern lifestyle generates a lot of waste - estimated currently to be around 2.12 Billion Tonnes annually. Landfills generate the super greenhouse gas methane and anything that reduces its generation, or captures it for energy generation prevents it from entering the atmosphere.

Landfills also fill up and no one wants one site near where they live and so the waste mounts up. Attempts to reduce, reuse and recycle only go so far - the waste needs to go somewhere. But no one wants an incinerator where they live either. The Danish solution is to create a new island to house the incinerator and create a series of islands and wetlands around it that can serve to moderate storm surges and provide habitat for wildlife.

Prior to 1964 the area was home to extensive wetlands and the new islands will replicate some of the amenity lost in the 55 years since. The development will also house an expansion of the industrial and technology parks that are now at capacity. The project is set to grow over the next 20 years and it will be interesting to see how it progresses and what the impacts will be.

See the project's homepage here for more detail.