Students are blown away by renewable energy

Strong winds blow over Southern Thy, while we blow German students from Karl-Peter-Obermaier-Schule Passau full of theoretical and practical knowledge about renewable energy.

They have come here via the Erasmus+ programme, to complete the training course “Renewable Energy A-Å”, which we offer at the Nordic Folkecenter.

The program is very practical, and the teacher, Alexander Sommer, already noticed this in the beginning of the course:

“It’s not enough to know, you also have to use; It’s not enough to want, you also have to do – we can experience that here,” Alexander Sommer on LinkedIn

And we have made sure that most of the subjects will contain practical exercises.

The programme: An all-round learning experience

The title of the program tells off very well what the training course entails; everything. In less than two weeks, the students are taught the basic principles within most renewable energy technologies. Including:

  • The Danish energy system and renewable energy – a collaboration
  • Solar heating and district heating
  • Renewable energy in practice (based on the installations at Nordic Folkecenter)
  • Green mobility and hydrogen
  • UN’s Sustainable Development Goals
  • Solar cells
  • Wind turbines

Most of the subjects involve practical exercises, construction and installation, so the students have to build prototypes and test them.

It gives a unique insight into the material when the students get hands-on and have to go through a development process themselves, e.g. with paper wind turbine blades.

We know a lot, but not everything = Excursion

We pride ourselves on knowing a lot about renewable energy technologies, but sometimes it makes more sense if the words come straight from the horse’s own mouth.

That is why we take the students on excursion to various energy plants in Jutland;

First on the ferry from Agger to Thyborøn. With this group we had lovely sunshine and windy weather on the trip. Perfect. When entering Thyborøn, the students could see 4 x 7 MW offshore Siemens wind turbines, which are owned by the local population, as well as a 15 MW Vestas wind turbine, in which every fifth household in the municipality has a share.

Next, we took a detour past Harboøre Varmeværk (heating plant), to hear more about the gasification of wood chips – and in general about our district heating system in Denmark – told by Kim Jensen, operations manager at Harboøre Varmeværk.

We also stopped by Lemvig Biogas to get up close to the processes in this type of energy production – we did that together with biologist Jørgen Kamp.

The trip ended at Tvind, where the students experienced the iconic Tvind turbine. The tour of Tvind was led by Elmer Værge, and he focused on Tvind’s energy system and history.

This is one of the aims of the training course; that the students open their eyes to the fact that renewable energy is not just wind and sun – and that the green transition must include many different technologies to cover consumption, now and in the future.

That’s why we go on an excursion.

And we’re doing it all over again

The training course “Sustainable energy A-Å” is available in different formats; the German students from the Karl-Peter-Obermaier-Schule Passau had signed up for the entire alphabet.

But there are several formats.

Enerjisa Istanbul Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School (org.: Enerjisa İstanbul Meslekî ve Teknik Anadolu Lisesi) has signed up for a course that lasts just three days and focuses on wind energy.

The amount of information is compressed so that it fits the number of days, which is why the Turkish students were first on a tour of the Nordic Folkecenter, where we told the story of renewable energy in Denmark. The next day they grabbed the glue guns and built paper blades.

And we are not a test center for nothing, so of course the paper blades were tested, improved, and tested again.

If you want to hear more about “Renewable energy A-Å”, contact Daniele Pagani by writing an email to info@folkecenter.dk.

Gallery

Karl-Peter-Obermaier-Schule Passau

Enerjisa Istanbul Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School