Cooperation from the land to the sea

More than a century ago, in 1920, a Faroese fishing boat, Puritan, tragically wrecked on an uninhabited island in the Outer Hebrides, during a powerful storm on the Atlantic. ”There were only two survivors that were washed ashore and saved two days later. Six brave fishermen lost their lives. Two of them were young men, 26 and 29 years of age, from my island, Nólsoy, just outside Tórshavn,” Bjarti Thomsen shares. Even though it has been over a century since this tragic accident, it was only last year when the descendants were finally able to visit the remote place where the men were lost.

With good help from local contacts the trip was a huge success. It was quite a journey. ... The family was finally able to place flowers on the grave.

This mission also revealed a surprising connection to the present day. “The only remains of the wrecked ship, the Puritan, that we found on the island, was an old rusty oil tank. This reminds us of how important and widespread oil had become,“ Bjarti continues, connecting the historical story with our current fight against oil dependency. This connection is deeply personal to Thomsen. He works at the Faroese Environment Agency, focusing on the energy transition in the Faroe Islands with the goal of moving away from oil toward environmentally friendly energy. 

Many steps have already been taken, with cars and houses on the islands using mainly green energy. But now, the focus has shifted to the marine industry and finding a route away from fossil fuels. The desire for change is strong, and people are actively looking for the right solutions.

My workplace, the Faroese Environment Agency is central to this development. And the participation in NPA funded project has been very valuable in the process.

Over the past decade, Thomsen has participated in several projects funded by the Interreg NPA programme. His journey began ten years ago with the launch of the SECURE project. This initiative tested two different types of solar energy systems in the Faroe Islands. As one of the very first solar installations in the area, the project provided important data and direction for future green initiatives. Since then, solar energy has remained a central theme in Thomsen's work. In one the most recent projects, called Copower, the focus shifted toward smart integration. The main goal of Copower was to build an advanced energy system capable of combining personal electrical consumption with local energy intake.

The NPA Programme has also been a part of funding three projects focusing heat systems and energy storages. These evolved from knowledge sharing in EMERGREEN to practical applications in SMARTRENEW and to the HYBES project, which tested storing surplus wind energy in public building heating systems. “The NPA projects, that I have been part of, have been a gradual development of important elements in the energy sector. I have really enjoyed working with our neighbors to the west, east and south in the NPA projects,” says Thomsen.

Concluding his speech, Thomsen highlighted the deep historical roots of this transnational cooperation, noting that connections across the NPA region go back over a thousand years to the Viking Age. He pointed to Aud the Deep-Minded, a historic figure who influenced Norway, Ireland, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, and Iceland, as a symbol of this durable bond. “We can say that Aud the Deep-Minded covered and connected almost the entire NPA area more than a thousand years ago,” Thomsen noted.

I would like to conclude by urging and encouraging you to continue the good work of supporting the people in the Northern Periphery and Arctic in a sustainable way, so that these small communities can survive.

The Monitoring Committee meeting was held in Nólsoy, on the Faroe Islands on 3rd of June. During the meeting the Monitoring Committee approved 15 new projects for funding. All of them aim to strengthen transnational cooperation and help the region find common solutions to shared challenges. 

You can read the full list of approved 6th call projects from here. 

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All photos credit to Interreg NPA.