Sunday, 23rd August to Saturday, 5th September: Falera - Switzerland

2009ISUenergy: International Summer University on Energy: Renewables

Organized by the Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy &

the Head of the Department Heterogeneous Material Systems Prof. Martha Lux- Steiner

THE PROGRAMME

Monday, 24 August

Prof. Louis Schlapbach Advanced materials for energy technologies

Dr. Thomas Dittrich p-n junctions

Prof. Daniel Lincot Thin Film Solar Cells (CdTe, CIS)

Dr. Sven Bonisch Solar radiation

Public Lecture - Prof. Daniel Lincot - Can we meet our energy needs with solar power?

Tuesday, 25 August

Prof. Daniel Lincot Deposition methods in thin films

Dr. Nicole Mathys Determinants of gasoline demand & Learning curve in renewable energy production

Practical Workshop “Electrical characterization of solar cells”

Public Lecture - Dr. Nicole Mathys, Consumer Behaviour and Energy Saving Products

Wednesday, 26 August

Prof. Rolf Wustenhagen Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy

Prof. Rolf Wustenhagen Influence of political framework in renewable energy financing

Practical Workshop “Solar water pumping system”

Public Lecture - Prof. Louis Schlapbach - Pierre & Marie Curie

Thursday, 27 August

Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal Modelling of solar thermal plants

Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal Middle temperature parabolic receiver systems: components, design and operation

Practical Workshop “Numerical simulation of solar thermal systems with T*SOL

Public Lecture - Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal - Supplying Europe with energy from deserts?

Friday, 28 August

Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal High temperature central receiver systems: components, design and operation

Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal Thermal energy storage for parabolic and central receiver systems

Practical Workshops “Intensity dependency of the solar cell efficiency”

Public Lecture - Dr. Henner Kerskes - Solar Architecture

Monday, 31 August

Prof. Sigurd Wagner Large Area Silicon Solar Cells

Prof. Franz Baumgartner PV Systems Components (Module, Storage, Power conditioning and regulation, BOS)

Public Lecture - Dipl-Ing. Astrid Schneider - The era of cheap oil is past - a travel to the renewable future with BIPV

Tuesday, 1 September

Dr. Henner Kerskes Low temperature solar thermal system components

Prof. Franz Baumgartner PV Applications (Stand alone, grid connected)

Public Lecture - Mr. Louis Palmer Solartaxi: Around the World with Solar Power

Wednesday, 2 September

Prof. Sigurd Wagner Techniques for Light Trapping in Solar Cells

Dr. Henner Kerskes Solar thermal system applications

Site Visit - Oerlikon Solar / Trubbach – Switzerland (info: http://www.oerlikon.com/solar/)

Public Lecture - Prof. Franz Baumgartner - Solar Electromobility

Thursday, 3 September

Dr. Henner Kerskes Solar thermal air conditioning

Dr. Thomas Dittrich Maximum efficiency in Solar Cells

Public Lecture - Prof. Sigurd Wagner - Storing solar energy

PROFESSORS & SPEAKERS

Prof. Louis Schlapbach, National Institute for Materials Science (info: http://www.empa.ch)

Prof. Daniel Lincot, ENSCP École National de Paris (info : www.enscp.fr/)

Dr. Nicole Mathys, Bundesamt für Energie BFE (info: http://www.bfe.admin.ch/)

Prof. Rolf Wustenhagen, Institute for Economy and the Environment - University of St. Gallen (info: http://www.iwoe.unisg.ch/)

Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal, DLR German Aerospace Center (info: www.dlr.de)

Dr. Henner Kerskes, University of Stuttgart (info: http://www.itw.uni-stuttgart.de/)

Prof. Sigurd Wagner, Department of Electrical Engineering - Princeton University (info: http://www.ee.princeton.edu/)

Prof. Franz Baumgartner, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften (info: http://www.engineering.zhaw.ch/)

Dipl-Ing. Astrid Schneider, Solar Architecture Design, Research & Communication (info: http://www.astrid-schneider.de/)

Mr. Louis Palmer (more info: http://www.louis-palmer.ch/)

Dr. Thomas Dittrich & Dr. Sven Bonisch, Department Heterogeneous Material Systems - Helmholtz Centre Berlin for Materials and Energy (info: http://www.helmholtz-berlin.de/)

Apart from the ppt presentations that will soon be available

through ISU energy webpage here are my notes through these two weeks:

Prof. Daniel Lincot referred to energy payback time or energy reimbursement: the time required for any energy producing system or device to produce as much energy as was required in its manufacture. Today we spent water to have energy when renewable energies don’t! But there is also a matter of toxicity depending on the chemical elements used in solar cells but its always a question whether its better to have a safe process (e.g. use of high toxicity elements in the production with the ability to recycle at end-use than depending on nuclear power which is ‘a completely not recycling process’.

Mr. Louis Palmer went around the world with his solartaxi (info: http://www.solartaxi.com/) and through this experience he is in favour of the renewable energy practises implemented in Asia (e.g Mazdar city* - cooled house with the use of car tires in Kuala Lumpur / Malaysia) – against the energy policy in Australia and initiator of ZERO RACE (info: http://www.zero-race.com/). He calculated that a corn field of about 100 m x 100 m (one hectare) can give biofuel for 36.000km distance but what if this corn field in the U.S.A. was covered by solar panels? Approximately the energy produced could charge a car for about 2.500.000 km.

Prof. Sigurd Wagner mentioned that ‘by the trapped light we live’ and that most important for ozone is the water vapor and then the carbon dioxide but there is an effect in different wavelength!

Dr. Nicole Mathys, is fun of NUDGES & the relative literature (info: http://www.nudges.org/).

Prof. Robert Pitz-Paal, head of the solar research department at the German Aerospace Agency (DLR) believes that DESERTEC (info: www.desertec.org) is a political level decision. As it was a political decision between France, Egypt and Nigeria to call all nations into a ‘UNION FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN’ he mentioned. He also referred to the following projects:

- MED-CSP Concentrating Solar Power for the Mediterranean Region- http://www.dlr.de/tt/med-csp

- AQUA-CSP Concentrating Solar Power for Seawater Desalination - http://www.dlr.de/tt/aqua-csp

- TRANS-CSP Trans-Mediterranean interconnection for Concentrating Solar Power - http://www.dlr.de/tt/trans-csp

Dr. Henner Kerskes spoke about a European funded research - new4old – New technology for old buildings (info: http://www.new4old.eu/) and explained in detail the T*SOL, a simulation programme for the design and optimisation of solar thermal systems (info: http://www.valentin.de/index_en_page=tsol_pro). Orientation (Socrates first mentioned that...), construction and material used are the three most important elements for a building as far as solar utilization is concerned. Interesting project, funded by the 6^th Framework Programme is NEGST - New Generation of Solar Thermal Systems (info: http://www.swt-technologie.de/html/negst.html)

Prof. Louis Schlapbach, strongly in favour of sustainability presented the advertisement of F-CELL car: ‘The primal element of all things is water – all things come from water and all things return to water’ Thales of Miletus (circa 625 – 547 BC.). The most important thing that we should never forget is that there is NO NEUTRONS IN HYDROGEN!

Prof. Rolf Wustenhagen is in favour of ‘the energy you don’t use is the most environmentally friendly one’. For Greece as soon as administrative process are initiated and clearer, it is expected to attract in future more the interest of international companies.

Prof. Franz Baumgartner wondered why we speak about climate change when we don’t change our everyday life; He referred to Yukinori Kuwano, who in 1989 spoke about a Global Energy Network equipped with solar cells and international superconductor grids (The GENESIS Project).

OUTLINE: Greece is a country with abundant sun but no high costs for electricity like other – mostly central – EU member countries…maybe that’s the reason why we don’t care about grid parity, e.g. the point at which photovoltaic electricity is equal to or cheaper than grid power and is achieved first in areas with abundant sun and high costs for electricity.

Other interesting links:

- Fassade, Swiss magazine for window & façade technology - http://www.fassade.ch

- European Renewable Energy Council - http://www.erec.org/

- Photovoltaic Geographical Information System (PVGIS): http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/pvgis/

- KEY WORLD ENERGY STATISTICS 2008 from the International Energy Agency (IEA): http://www.iea.org/textbase/nppdf/free/2008/key_stats_2008.pdf)

- The Renewable Energy House / Brussels - ntegration of innovative renewable energy technologies in an old building: http://www.erec.org/reh

* A planned city in Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates, being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company with the majority of seed capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster + Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology. It will host the headquarters of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA - http://www.irena.org/).

Friday, 7th August to Sunday, 9th August 2009, Prespes, Greece

Balkan Amfiktionia – Association of Young people of Balkan Countries made the following announcement:

Project title: InterBalkan Youth Meeting.

Dates: 7-9 August 2009.

Venue/Country: Prespes, Region of Florina, Northern Greece, Greece.

The First Inter-Balkan Meeting of Young People of Balkan Countries includes: Prespes Declaration, Conclusion of Youth Cooperation of Balkans, Development of Youth Interbalkan Network, Meeting of common cultural points of Balkan people, Approach of Young People through the Intercultural Dialogue and Intercultural learning activities, Participation in cultural activities such as the “Balkan Symposium” where all the Balkan Countries will present their culture, society, local traditions that characterizes each Balkan Country.

Partner Countries: All the Balkan Countries as Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, FYROM, Albania, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece.

Total 11 countries

Participants: 2 persons per Country, representatives of Youth Organizations, Institutions, Universities, Associations and Youth Clubs.

Age Group: 18 – 60.

Accommodation & food: 100% will be covered by Municipality of Prespes and Balkan Amfiktionia – Association of Young People of Balkan Countries.

Travel costs: Will be covered by the participants themselves or their organizations.

Local Transportation: 100% will be covered by Municipality of Prespes and Balkan Amfiktionia – Association of Young People of Balkan Countries.

Aris and I, as representatives of United Societies of Balkan (U.S.B. NGO) participated in this first Interbalkan Youth Meeting of Balkan Amfiktionia.

- There were supposed to be participants from all Balkan countries, but there weren’t. The vast majority of the participants are living in Athens.

- There were supposed to be representatives of youth organizations, but that was only the case for the Turkish participants.

- There were supposed to, there were supposed to …

I WOULD SADLY SAY THAT YOUTH MEETINGS SHOULDN’T BE ORGANIZED JUST TO FULFILL A PERSON’S AMBITIONS.

Thankfully, all people in Prespes were more than great to us. Visiting the region, we had the chance to:

- visit the Information Centre at Pyles & Ag. Germanos, speak with Amalia, Alexandra, Christina, Pavlos & Vasilis from the Prespa National Park Management Body,

- have a guided tour around the area, visit the Prespa Information Centre and a chance to speak with Kaiti from the Society for the Protection of Prespa (info: http://www.spp.gr/),

- discuss with Eli from the Cultural Triangle of Prespa (info: http://www.ctp.gr/).

The Pelecan is everywhere…alive

or as a symbol:

Society for the Protection of Prespa (info: http://www.spp.gr/)

Prespa Park Coordination Committee (info: http://www.prespapark.org/)

Prespa National Park Management Body

Wednesday, 22 July to Friday, 31 July 2009 / Olympos Karpathos / Greece

Summer volunteer work program 2009

in Northern Karpathos & Saria Island.

Accepting the invitation from the Management Agency of Karpathos & Saria (http://www.fdkarpathos.gr/)*, we both organized a summer program for volunteers that worked in the pathways, cleaned beaches and organized on their own games in the afternoon for the children in the Management Agency Office in Diafani. For 8 days (22/7 – 31/7) the volunteers [Aspasia, Katerina, Maria, Alexandros, Giannis, George and Manos] worked for the pathways in Xyloskala, Papamina and Axordea and helped cleaning Alimouda, Palatia, Tristomo and Brykounta beach. We were lucky to witness a traditional wedding (26/7) and visit Saint Panteleimonas' celebrations (28/7). Girls where dressed in traditional costumes with the precious help of Mrs Anna Nioti. Many thanks to Yiannis V. Hatzivassilis for giving us - once more - the opportunity to learn more about Olympos tradition through a visit to the museum (http://www.hatzivasili.gr). Many thanks to my colleague Victoria and of course to George and Ntinos, all workers of the Management Agency.

* (Management Agency of the Northern Karpathos, Saria and the surrounding marine area / NATURA 2000 Network – code GR4210003)

All photos are a courtesy of Alexandros Pertsinidis

Saturday, 18 July 2009

Challenge Europe, a three-year project that aspires to make a definite and lasting impact on the climate change debate, and is ambitious in its aim to accelerate change to a low carbon future (more info: http://www.britishcouncil.org/greece-science-challenge-europe.htm). Honored to have successfully, after selection process, become a Climate Change Advocate of the British Council in Greece.

Programme presentation at Ethnos Newspaper (18/07/2009)

Thursday, 18th June to Friday 19th June 2009 / Athens

Training Course in water reclamation and reuse

at National Center for the Environment and Sustainable Development –

Villa Kazouli (info: http://www.ekpaa.gr/)

Welcome speech by Mr I. Sympetheros Expert Secretary of the Central Water Agency of the Hellenic Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works, Greece & Mr S. Tsivili coordinator of MED POL Programme at the Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme.

The speakers of the seminar were:

Mr G. Kamizoulis, World Health Organization – United Nations Environment Programme – Mediterranean Action Plan.

Mr I. Kalavrouziotis, Assistant Professor of Planning and Management of Land Department of Environmental and Natural Resources Management, University of Ioannina, Greece.

Mr P. Gikas, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Greece.

Some Key Notes during the lectures (the introducer and the theme is mentioned as an overhead in bold):

Mr Kamizoulis ‘Conseptual Framework’

Started with an introductory speech about water reclamation and reuse and the conceptual meanings to be discussed during the training course and ended up saying that water reclamation and reuse is not only a technical matter, not only a health issue, not only an economical matter, not only a regulation issue, not only a management issue, not only a common perception but above all a political issue!

Gikas P. ‘Ways of water reuse’

- Historic settlements – evidence of water reclamation and reuse (Ancient Crete)

- Nowadays water reuse (Cyclades – cisterns)
- Changes due to water use (Aral lake & Karla lake)

- “De facto” reuse of water: Axios River. Sewages are discharged from lead & zinc mines & VESNA – SAP factory for batteries in Probištip and from Veles in F.Y.R.O.M. These discharges are used for irrigating cultivations along the Greek side

- Syros island, Greece – in the northern part of the village, water is desalinated and on the southern part water is being treated biologically and discharged in the sea…

- Tunisia started filling deep water basins in 1962 & 1968 Namimbia was the 1^st to drink reused water.

- In Greece, water is reused after secondary treatment to irrigate land areas and plant trees inside the waste water treatment system area (e.g. Chalkis, Psytallia)

- Israel & Palestine: Water wastes in Palestine belong to Israel…

- Solaire building – New York – Water reuse from the whole building in a 197 sq. m. unit!

- Tokyo: every building > 3.000 sq. m. obliged to reuse water

- Singapore Water Reclamation Study (NEWater Study), initiated in 1998 (info: http://www.pub.gov.sg/newater/)

- Roof installations in Australia (info: http://www.healthyhomeproject.com/)

- Greek wall painting against golf’s “SHIT TO GOLF’S – WATER TO THE VILLAGES” can with water reuse actually happen!

THE MOST INTERESTING FACT IS THAT IN THE GREEK ISLANDS THE PERIOD OF HIGH WATER NEED IS CHRONICALLY THE SAME WITH THE HIGH WATER DEMAND PERIOD (more at: Gikas P. & G. Tchobanoglous, 2009. Sustainable use of water in the Aegean Islands, Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 90, Issue 8, 2601-2611pp.)

Kalavrouziotis I. ‘Ways to reuse water’

Reuse water for: Agriculture - Urban use (fires, to clean roads, cars etc) - Industry (freezing towers, cleaning vehicles etc.) - Fun activities (lakes) - Protection & restoration of natural environments (wetlands, river flow) - Deep water enrichment

Special reference to Abel Wolman (1892 – 1989) and his article in Scientific American (9/1965) ‘The Metabolism of Cities’ were among others, he stated that:

‘In the U.S. today attention is focused on shortages of water and the pollution of water and air. There is plenty of water, but supplying it requires foresight.’

‘While New Yorkers were watching empty reservoirs, Californians were building aqueducts. Thanks to foresight people in California were watering lawns and filling their swimming pools, while in New York lawns were dying and pools stood empty.’

He ended up saying that: Water reclamation and reuse is something that need political will / scientific contribution and is by origin a geochemical procedure and as such it should be considered! He also stressed upon the valuable role of the NGO’s in informing and sensitizing the public.

Kamizoulis G. ‘Standards & Principles’

The quality of reclaimed water depends on criteria that have to do with health - environment and agriculture/geology. Many different criteria are published by various organizations:

WHO - the directing and coordinating authority for health within the United Nations–info: http://www.who.int/,

USEPA-United States Environmental Protection Agency–info: http://www.epa.gov

CEDEX-Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Públicas–info: http://www.cedex.es/

California Water Recycling Criteria–info: http://www.cdph.ca.gov/certlic/drinkingwater/)

The WHO quantifies environmental health impacts as stated below:

The environmental burden of disease quantifies the amount of disease caused by environmental risks. Disease burden can be expressed in deaths, incidence or in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY). The latter measure combines the burden due to death and disability in a single index. Using such an index permits the comparison of the burden due to various environmental risk factors with other risk factors or diseases (info: http://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/en/).

Gikas P. ‘Monitoring & Conformity’ & ‘Development - Treatment methods’

Advantages of satellite wastewater treatment plants for reclaiming water in comparison with regional wastewater treatment plants commonly used in Greece:

- satellite systems reclaim water without processing the sludge that is forwarded to the regional/central system

- a central wastewater system combined with smaller satellite systems can have lead to a decrease of the hydraulic load sent to the central unit, to economically advantageous reclamation on the spot with more opportunities for reuse, a decrease of the economic cost of managing water waste and to less environment impacts

- these systems can happen in areas without infrastructure, with less economic costs and can be combined with watertight containers.

Gikas P. ‘Disinfection methods’

Kalavrouziotis I. ‘Irrigating for agriculture – irrigation’ & ‘Designing & Analyzing’

- canals used for water supply and water outflow are essential for the removal of salts from the water, meaning that if we irrigate for a many years the same land, there should be a good outflow canal in order to avoid salt concentration.
- important detail is that in order to reuse water for irrigation, industrial wastes shouldn’t be mixed. (but what happens with the pipe systems in most – if not even all – cities of Greece where - rain water, urban and industrial waste water - all fall in?)

- results from experiments with water and reclaimed water in the same species are found at: Kalavrouziotis I. et al., 2004. The reuse of wastewater and sludge for cultivation of forestry trees in desert areas in Greece, International Journal of Environment and Pollution, Volume 21, Number 5.

Management plans like those need information actions for the public & coherency by the ministries of health, agriculture and environment. THE INCLINATION (of river flow) PHILOSOPHY SHOULD CHANGE TO A RECLAMATION PHILOSOPHY (obviously referring to Acheloos river inclination…).

Kamizoulis G. ‘The Mediterranean perspective’ & ‘Management of reused water’

Practises, interesting statistic figures and information about water reclamation and reuse in the countries around the Med. Tunisia is an example that we shall all imitate, Spain is also checking for Legionella sp. before water is reused, Turkey has established quality parameters the last 2 years, Lebanon and Syria should start reusing water, Cyprus and Israel have high rates of reclaimed water, Italy and France reuse water basically in their northern territories, Malta desalinates the 90% of the water used. Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Slovenia, Croatia and Monaco need to do more. In Libya, the world's largest irrigation project, known as the Great Man-Made River supplies water from the Sahara Desert.

Overall, high environmental protection results in high reclamation ability. It is time to stop speaking about pilot projects and speak about demonstration projects in Greece.