Students:Day Three - sustainable campus and renewable energy

Began the day at 9am at Leuphana University with a presentation by Dr. Alexa Lutzenberger on renewable energies, which began with a description of the bottom-up movement in Germany to create renewables sources of energy following the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown 30 years ago. Over those years it's been found that production of electricity from renewables is relatively easy in comparison to production of heating from renewables. Something like 65% of the housing stock in Germany is 80-100 years old or older and so is very inefficient in terms of heating insulation. One percent of the housing stock is being refitted each year with the goal of refitting all buildings by 2060. All nuclear power plants are to be phased out by 2022, which if the process up to 2011 is anything to go by, shouldn't be a problem as all phased-out nuclear production to that date had been replaced by energy from renewable sources. Currently, the share of renewables as a proportion of overall energy production stands at 12.6%, including biomass at 8.2%, wind energy 1.8%, and photovoltaics 1.1%.

In 1991, the German energy grid had been made to integrate renewables, and in 2000 the new Renewable Energy Act provide for a feed-in tariff that guaranteed a return on investment for 20 years, leading to a big upturn in renewable energy sources with a guarantee return on investment of 5-8% paid by all customers and not only via government subsidy. Returns on PV can be up to 20%. In terms of wind energy, turbines installed in 2004 are now being upgraded to include new technology, while the German lander have set aside 1% of their total area for wind turbines.

In the case of biomass, 60% is still imported. Fuel crops are taking precedence over food crops for stock, so there is a need to bring down the ROI for biomass. Once oil reaches $170 a barrel, biomass as a fuel source becomes cheaper to use in the chemical industry. Counter-intuitively, the 2008 financial crisis led to more investment in renewables and a big increase in the renewables employment sector.

Overall, renewable energy production is not the main problem, rather it is storage of electricity that poses the greatest challenge. The second morning session was devoted to a tour of the Leuphana sustainable campus by the university environment manager, Irmhild Bruggen, who guided the students around the university premises, including explanations of student initiative such as the book exchange, the plastic coffee mug purchase scheme to cut down on the use of disposable paper cups, the energy consumption monitor for the entire campus, the student-operated bicycle repair shop where students can fix their bikes for free, and the garden where any student can plant what they like.

In the afternoon the students were driven to the former landfill site in Neu Wulmstorf where the manager Tilmann Wolfsteller made a presentation on the history of the site from its closure in 1987, the subsequent capping of the fill to prevent the accumulation of leachate water and the installation of percolator pipes to extract the methane gas from the site and use it as a form of energy (as long as it's 'good' gas, i.e. over 35% methane). In addition, the landfill site has a number of solar panels and three wind turbines for the generation of additional sources of energy, all of which have already paid for the initial investment costs. Tilmann explained the problems of building wind turbines on landfills where the base tends to sink, but which are overcome by packing the base of the turbine foundations. The turbines may only tilt a maximum of 0.5 degrees before damage is incurred to the machine and the insurance becomes invalid. The turbines are therefore constantly monitored to ensure they do not tilt beyond the set limit. Tilmann also guided the students around the site following his presentation. It was without doubt one of the highlights of the entire field trip.

The final part of the day was given over to free time for the students to explore the city of Hamburg, although they couldn't go too far in the allotted two-and-a-half hours available to them. The bus was parked on the banks of the Elbe and the students access the centre of Hamburg by walking under the river along the Old Elbe Tunnel built in 1911.