Postgraduate Programme PPRE Renewable Energy NEWSLETTER 2010 | Vol. 29 Published by: Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Faculty of Physics, Department of Energy and Semiconductor Research, Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy—PPRE, D - 26111 Oldenburg phone: +49-441-798.3544, fax: +49-441-798.3990, e-mail: [email protected], web: http://www.ppre.de Editor: Edu Knagge Typesetting & Layout: Hauke Beck Printer: Druckzentrum, CvO University Oldenburg - 800 copies Content Editorial 4 News from Oldenburg DAAD summer school and PPRE excursion 5 Biogas Workshop 2010, University of Oldenburg 10 Excursion to Science Box 11 First job and education fair for renewable energies and energy efficiency 12 Personal comments about first job and education fair 13 Company Presentations at PPRE, Oldenburg 14 External /Guests lectures PPRE 2009/10 15 Experience Reports from students / graduates Experience with Lahmeyer Int., Bad Vibel, Germany 16 Practical Training experience in Indonesia 16 Experiences gained at Solar Power Group in Essen 18 Half a million efficient fire wood stoves for Kenya 20 My external practical training experience at TaTEDO 21 My experience gained at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA 22 Wind Turbine Workshop 23 MSc-Thesis Projects 25 News from Alumni Biomass 27 Solar Thermal / CSP 28 Photovoltaics 28 Wind Energy 30 RE related Subjects 33 Careers 38 Reports from Alumni Sustainability of energy supplies in Kenya 42 Training on renewable energy in Kenya 43 International conference on the Developments in Renewable Energy Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh 43 Experience of Solar Energy in India 44 Canada: The wolrd’s next booming PV market? 45 A short discussion on concentrated solar power technologies 54 Photovoltaic rural electrification projects inPeru 62 Bioenergy and renewable power methane in integrated 100% renewable energy systems 65 SESAM/ARTES Alumni Workshop in Vietnam 66 MONUC: empowerd by the sun 68 A growing Eco-Domain in Normandy, France 70 Reports send by guest Building a Scheffler solar concentrator for Peru 73 Solar Drying of Macaproject in Peru 74 Solar Power to the People: A Chilean Experience 75 Wanted: Alumni as Franchise Takers 76 List of former participants 77 Editorial Dear Reader, earlier this year another group of international students successfully finished the Postgradu- ate Programmes Renewable Energy (MSc) available at University of Oldenburg, so that we now surpassed the number of 400 graduates (338 for PPRE and 65 for the European RE Master Programme) from 83 countries. Along with the increasing number of participants we face a drastically increase of inquiries and actual applications (nearly 300 for PPRE 2010/12) sent to our office. The RE markets are obviously still booming worldwide and specially Germany is highly attrac- tive to foreign students interested to work in this field. This was also noticed at the ‘Job and Education fair for renewable energies and energy efficiency’, which took place for the first time in March 2010 in Oldenburg. With 74 companies and institutions from the north-west region of Germany and more than 4000 visitors this fair was quite a success and will be conti- nued next year. Starting with this summer semester there will be an additional research group in Wind Ener- gy, head by Prof. Dr. Martin Kühn. He will also be engaged in lecturing in PPRE and build-up a specialisation within the Engineering Bachelor and Master Programme. This will definitely strengthen the wind research and teaching at Oldenburg University. 6 years after its 1st accreditation PPRE passed the re-accreditation-process in 2010 successfully. The assessment committee positively commended the variety of training methods available, like lectures, lab-work, seminars, case-studies and excursions. Along with the accreditation we improved the transparency of the study programme itself by uploading the revised syllabus and module-handbook onto our homepage. You may have a look yourself at: www.ppre.de We hope you enjoy this news, which contain contributions from about 100 alumni in form of notes, updates and reports. Keep the line open! Edu Knagge THE PPRE-TEAM (fr. left): M. Golba, R. Frels, E. Brudler, H. Holtorf, E. Knagge, U. Kulschewski, K. Blum News from Oldenburg DAAD SUMMER SCHOOL AND PPRE EXCURSION A multicultural excursion which combined didactic and leisure activities by Andreea Costache, Maria Gabriela Gomez and Theodoros Kotsonis REPORT’S CHARACTER ny of the visiting students and alumni by The PPRE excursion in June 2010 had not offering a dinner with flavors from many only didactic character. Students had the different countries. Each PPRE student had opportunity to meet DAAD Alumni as well the duty to prepare a representative plate as to visit magnificent historic cities and of his or her country. This meeting brought places of exceptional natural beauty. This the excursion participants closer and was excursion proved to everybody that Ger- the ideal start for a memorable two weeks many is not only a strong financial power experience. with developed cities and immense facto- ries but also a country with rich history sur- On Monday 31st May and Tuesday 1st June, rounded by a unique natural environment. the participants attended the first two days The present report will focus on the experi- of the Summer School’s presentations in ences received by the students during the TGO buildings in Oldenburg. The subjects PPRE Excursion in June 2010. were covering a wide variety of issues such as renewable energies, energy conserva- PARTICIPANTS / ORGANIZERS tion, rural electrification, lessons learned, The excursion was organized within the etc. frames of the DAAD Alumni Summer School “Applied Solar Energy”. The participants con- The excursion began on Wednesday 2nd sisted of two categories: the PPRE, EUREC June 2010. The meeting point was Ener- and EEM (Energy and Environmental Man- gielabor. The departure time was 6 in the agement, University of Flensburg) students morning. It was then when everybody real- and the PPRE, EEM and ZEF (Zentrum fuer ized the strict German schedule imposed by Entwicklungsforschung, Uni Bonn) alumni. the organizers (6 o’ clock sharp!). Due to the number of participants, two coaches were necessary for the whole trans- As expected, the majority of participants fell portation procedure. The three organizers asleep after the first travel minutes. After 4 of the excursion and the summer school hours of sleeping, the convoy reached the were: Hans Holtorf, Andreas Guenthner and first destination. It was Hoppecke Batteries Yi Zheng. installations close to Brilon. Hoppecke Bat- teries was situated in this area in 1927 to SUMMER SCHOOL AND EXCURSION’S provide financial breath to the whole region CHRONICLE and reverse the emigration atmosphere to- The adventure of summer school accom- wards the big cities. From a visitor’s point of panied by the excursion began on Sunday view, a very impressive fact was the respect 30th May 2010 in Energielabor. The PPRE of the industry for the environment and the students undertook the reception ceremo- very good working conditions given the 5 News from Oldenburg fact that battery manufacturing requires automated thin film PV production was a the processing of chemicals that can have unique spectacle that proves that robots adverse consequences for people and envi- and engines can effectively replace work- ronment. Having attended two lectures, a ers especially in procedures that require ex- guided tour of the company’s facilities and treme precision. Having acquired plenty of being “equipped” with the business cards knowledge in solar PV, we returned to the of the human resources staff, we departed bus in order to start our journey towards with considerable knowledge improvement Würzburg. about batteries and their manufacturing at 15:00 to Erfurt. Würzburg is a city at the region of Franko- nia and according to the majority of par- The trip to Erfurt was much shorter but very ticipants was the key point that made the beautiful as we crossed a spectacular forest. excursion unique. Würzburg combines hills The entrance to Erfurt brought us to a dif- with rivers as well as cathedrals and castles ferent reality. Erfurt is a city influenced by with modern city infrastructure. Some se- the culture of former East Germany, so the cret stories and legends of the city in medi- buildings are much different than the build- eval times were revealed by a Night Watcher ings of Bremen and Oldenburg. Further- who guided us around the city. His spicy hu- more, there are plenty of parks and squares mor in combination with his naivety made that give the sense that Erfurt is a city dedi- all of us laugh and on the meanwhile learn cated to the people, respecting people. De- new things about the city. But as always the spite the fact that the organizers suggested timetable was really strict, so everybody students to sleep and save energy for the should go and sleep early. The reason: Fri- next difficult and tiring days, many of us day’s Workshop. decided to have a walk around the city. The place that drew the attention of most of us After two days of consecutive factory visits was the square of Mariendom and its spec- and plenty of time spent in the coach, the tacular illumination at night. But due to the time for brain-storming arrived. The whole limited free time, we returned early at the Friday 4th of June was booked for work- hostel and tried to rest. shop regarding Rural Electrification. Seven teams were chosen and each team had a Thursday 3rd June began with a quick time period of four hours to prepare a pres- breakfast and after that the visit to Bosch entation over a selected topic. The coopera- Solar took place. Bosch Solar is situated a tion between the alumni and the students few kilometers outside Erfurt and follows proved to be very fruitful as the first were a very strict visitors policy as it was asked coordinating the groups and the second from the students to sign a kind of contract were providing the ideas.