On Monday, 5/26 we had our first full day of activities. We were to spend the day at the Nordic Folkecenter, which is a non-profit institution that, according to their own description, "provides research, development of technology, training and information for the manufacture, industrial innovation and implementation of renewable energy technologies and energy savings in Denmark and throughout the world." After visiting the Center for the day, it is clear that they are serious about this mission. The Center hosts students from all over the world (just during one day, we met people from Canada, Mexico, Greece, and China) to train in various aspects of renewable energy a energy efficiency.
The main building of the Center is 8,000 square feet, and has never used air conditioning. The heating and electricity are all provided through renewable energy. (In fact, the entire region of Thy (46,000 people) gets 100% of its electricity from renewables and 85% of its heat supply from renewable energy.) The Center was established in 1983, and has been providing a site, expertise, and support for sustainable energy research since then. Among the highlights of the day:
We had a nice packed lunch overlooking the fjord, a local body of water. After lunch we had a 2 hour lecture about wind energy from Preben Maegaard, Founder and Director of the Center and a world-renowned wind expert.
We were accompanied throughout the day by Sunny, perhaps the sweetest and happiest dog I've ever seen. She has free reign of the property, and appears to be in hog heaven all day every day.
After I went home and had an early dinner with my host family, we went to volunteer at the local YMCA. I helped unpack ketchup bottles and place the into displays. The Ketchup bottles were to be sold at local stores. The YMCA makes money by virtue of the free labor. About 20 of us worked (hard) for about 3 hours. By my very rough count we set up about 40,000 ketchup bottles. I spoke for a while with Trina, who spent some time in the U.S. (Iowa) and spoke English pretty well. The Danish pilsner tasted very good last night. I will be putting mayonnaise on my fries for a while moving forward.
The main building of the Center is 8,000 square feet, and has never used air conditioning. The heating and electricity are all provided through renewable energy. (In fact, the entire region of Thy (46,000 people) gets 100% of its electricity from renewables and 85% of its heat supply from renewable energy.) The Center was established in 1983, and has been providing a site, expertise, and support for sustainable energy research since then. Among the highlights of the day:
- Saw a "Finnish mass oven," which is made of natural bricks and is used for heating the building, cooking, and baking. It is one giant piece.
- An explanation of the hybrid heating system. The building uses hydronic heating. Most of the heat is provided by a combination of geothermal heat pumps and solar thermal heating, but in particularly cold times electricity from some of the on-site windmills is used to heat the water. It can get pretty cold for extended periods of time during the Danish winter. (See picture below)
- An on-site, soon-to-be certified Passivhaus. Passivhaus is a German home efficiency standard. Passive houses use almost no energy, and are almost entirely heated and cooled through natural ("passive") means like solar heating in the winter and cooling through natural air flow in the summer. The house at the Center is a moderately sized home (probably 1,000 square feet or so) that will use 15 kWh of heating energy per year. To give you perspective, that is less than the amount of energy in 1/2 a gallon of gas. The house is very sharp-looking, and was designed by Peter Claussen, who is apparently a famous architect.
- There is a straw bale home on site. A straw bale home has walls that are constructed with bales of straw. Straw is a very good insulator, and is abundant in the local area. The inside walls are covered with a clay plaster and painted with yogurt. Believe it or not, you would not know this unless someone told you. It is a fully functional two story house. People stay in the house while they are doing research on site, as well as other visitors. The kitchen has a built in root cellar (see image below), and is very nicely designed. It does not use any grid electricity, and is fully powered by a 2 kW wind turbine.
- We saw a few experimental and other wind turbines. They built one of them during a workshop in 1 week mostly with off-the-shelf parts (on the right side of the first image below). Most of the workshop attendees were non-professionals, yet it has lasted for over 10 years (I think). We also saw an experimental vertical axis turbine (see below), and a few other turbines. Wind energy research and education is one of the primary things the Center does.
- We test drove some motor-assisted bicycles. There were a few kinds, but all of them had a lithium ion battery that helped move the bike forward, some with rear-wheel assist and some with front-wheel assist. I could ride one of these bikes up hill with one hand and not break a sweat. A few of them automatically provide power when you pedal, so you feel like a bionic person! The Danes we talked to said that this is mostly for "old people," but I certainly would not mind having one. I think a 5-10 mile commute would not be that bad on one of these.
- The last stop before lunch was the Biodome, which is a nearly self sufficient garden and aquaculture installation. It is the Epcot Center-looking thing in the pictures below. It is three stories high, and does not use any extra heating. It is like a big greenhouse. There are fish tanks on the first floor that are fed with water that drips from the garden beds on the 2nd floor. The water and nutrients fall into the tanks and help grow the surface plants called Azolla (see below). The fish eat these, and the people eat the fish. The plants are also edible for humans, and can be used as compost. They have an almost invisible flavor. They grow a variety of crops on the 2nd floor, including many that are difficult to grow in Denmark's cold climate (e.g. watermelon, cucumber, tomato, hot pepper, and squash). They also grow leafy greens, beets, rhubarb, and other crops. The place is kept very warm, and is very humid. It has fruit trees as well. See the images below.
We had a nice packed lunch overlooking the fjord, a local body of water. After lunch we had a 2 hour lecture about wind energy from Preben Maegaard, Founder and Director of the Center and a world-renowned wind expert.
We were accompanied throughout the day by Sunny, perhaps the sweetest and happiest dog I've ever seen. She has free reign of the property, and appears to be in hog heaven all day every day.
After I went home and had an early dinner with my host family, we went to volunteer at the local YMCA. I helped unpack ketchup bottles and place the into displays. The Ketchup bottles were to be sold at local stores. The YMCA makes money by virtue of the free labor. About 20 of us worked (hard) for about 3 hours. By my very rough count we set up about 40,000 ketchup bottles. I spoke for a while with Trina, who spent some time in the U.S. (Iowa) and spoke English pretty well. The Danish pilsner tasted very good last night. I will be putting mayonnaise on my fries for a while moving forward.