The excursion for the year 2023 was planned for seven days, from February 5th to 12th in Berlin, a cosmopolitan city and one of the most popular places to visit in Europe. The excursion planning and schedule work started in late October 2022 under the supervision and guidance of Hans Holtorf and Mrs. Heidemarie Aßmuth-Düster. However, the overall management of the project “PPRE Excursion” was conducted by Company Teams and by Organisation Teams. Every student was a member of a company and an organization team. The agenda of the Excursion was finalized in a democratic process based on the company's relevance to the participants and the topics dealt with in the 1st semester.
In this particular excursion, students were able to join institutions from the industry, academia, and public sector. The six institutions visited are currently playing a vital role in the renewable energy field right from the production of energy and transmission of power over the grid to the development of the framework conditions in terms of prosperity and protection of global environmental, and climate goods such as the climate or biodiversity. A short description of visited institutions is as follows:
Photovoltaik-Institut Berlin (PI Berlin) (February 06, 2023)
One of the worldwide leading trusted technical advisors, risk managers, and quality assurance providers for PV plants and equipment. The company offers factory audits ensuring production quality that meets customers’ expectations. Furthermore, they have an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory that provides independent testing of PV modules. The first part of the meeting included a brief introduction of some of PI Berlin’s representatives, led by the PPRE alumni Steven Xuereb, a general overview of the solar energy market, and descriptions of some of PI Berlin’s services. The second and most exciting part corresponds to a tour through the PI Berlin´s PV testing laboratory, where students were able to access real demonstrations of PV module testing procedures, which allow students a better understanding of such processes, and also the importance of quality assurance in a real PV testing laboratory. During the tour, the Test Laboratory´s specialists had a brief interesting discussion with students and answered several questions.
Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energie e.V.(BEE) (February 06, 2023)
Well-founded professional work forms the basis for the political representation of interests. In the specialist committees of the BEE, there is an intensive exchange between committed members on current topics, experiences, and development trends. The BEE unites experts from all technology sectors of renewable energies and from all regions of Germany under one roof. The position papers and statements developed in this way combine the expertise of the industry and enable the transfer of knowledge to politics. Regarding our visit, at the beginning of the meeting, a brief presentation of different representatives of BEE from the political, economic, and technical sides was delivered. Thereafter, it was presented some highlights of the project QLEE-Project. Overall, it was noted how strategic communication is important to reach target groups and deliver core messages regarding climate change and energy transition to politics. A very beneficial discussion with BEE´s specialists took place during the last hour of the end of the meeting.
Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz (BMWK) (February 07, 2023)
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action bodies' major challenges are notably globalization, digitization, demographic change, recent developments within the EU, and the energy transition for German businesses to tackle. The Ministry’s policy is guided by the principles of the social market economy, which have proven very successful, particularly so in times in which the economic environment has not been so favorable. Regarding the representation, students were able to better understand the government policy-making process, and discuss current policy issues and the German energy context from a change driver point of view.
Inno2Grid GmbH (February 07, 2023)
The organization works in the fields of application of mobility, energy, and digitization. Some examples are mobility concepts for the electrification of flotes; energy concepts to reduce consumption and peak loads by using smart energy and renewable energy sources; digitization concepts to reduce administrative costs on campus. The presentation consisted of a brief introduction by the CEO of Inno2Grid GmbH, Mr.- Frank Christian Hinrichs, where participants had an interesting discussion about the importance of managerial skills as a transversal skill for those in the energy field. Thereafter, PPRE alumni from batch 2007 Mr. –Mauricio Rojas guided us through several facilities and infrastructures of the EUREF Campus such as the charging port for electric cars supplied by solar panels, power2heat installations, a big second-life battery made with batteries extracted from electric vehicles, and the Micro Smart Grid, ending in a very extended discussion about automatization improvements and challenges in current and future smart grid systems.
ABO Wind AG (February 09, 2023)
ABO Wind plans and builds wind and solar parks, and battery and hydrogen projects worldwide. For more than 25 years, the in-house specialist departments of ABO Wind have been offering everything from a single source: from site assessment, planning, approval, and financing to construction, grid connection, operational management, and service. The interaction with ABO Wind AG, in particular, started before the visit and meeting with ABO Wind´s representatives in Berlin. A previous lecture imparted by Dr. Simon was held on February 3rd 2023, where students were able to get an extensive introduction to the logistic, and operational processes when developing wind farm projects. As part of the presentation, students interested in wind energy specialization find the opportunity to ask and discuss relevant topics such as the main duties of a wind project manager, the main difficulties in the process of permission acceptance, and negotiations with the landowners and the community. On February 9th, in Berlin, participants visited two wind farms constructed by ABO Wind. Discussion regarding the main characteristics of the wind turbine, requirements, and standards that they may follow took place during the tour. As it was expected, we were able to gain more knowledge on wind farm operations, such as wind energy projects and planning strategies.
BAE Batteries GmbH (February 10. 2023)
BAE's core business is the manufacture of lead-acid batteries for stationary installations, particularly where the flow of electricity is uninterrupted, such as backup power supplies in data centers, hospitals, power plants, and telecommunications facilities. BAE batteries meet all the requirements of modern renewable energy applications with a wide range of sizes and different lead battery technologies suitable for energy storage in off-grid solar systems. Right after our arrival, the CEO of BAE, Mr. Jan IJspeert, made a brief presentation of the company, and its main goals and challenges in the current energy market, pointing out some advantages of Lead Acid Batteries such as their reliability, recyclability, and low-cost maintenance compared with other storage energy technologies. In the following hour, Ms. Ruth Pérez de Azpeitia (Sales Manager Latin America and Iberia) shared additional information regarding different applications and projects based in Egypt, Peru, Jordan, India, etc. The most exciting part of this particular visit took place when students were guided through the facilities where lead acid batteries are manufactured, allowing them to be able to see all the processes taken as part of the fabrication.
Prof. Quaschning @ HTW Berlin (February 10, 2023)
Professor of Renewable Energy Systems at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin (HTW). Prof. Quaschning is a well-known expert in Renewables. In this last excursion meeting students were able to attend a brief presentation imparted by Prof. Quaschning. Prof. Quaschning was thereby invited to think critically about climate change and the current and future energy scenery. A brief but very brilliant dialog and exchange of ideas between the students and Prof. Quaschning took place after his presentation.
Based on the presented facts and details by each company that was relevant to the course, the information we got to learn from the experience is jotted down:
- Helped to clarify the subject details and could dive deeper into the practical concepts more than the theoretical knowledge.
- Created interest in learning about the topics in detail which could be helpful in further developments.
- Amidst learning, we also had an entertaining activity arranged by the team members to make the learned concepts stay in mind forever.
- One of the important things was we established contact with the professional world
- Provided an opportunity for selection of specialization as with the excursion we could get to know which specialization interests us the most to make an impactful career in the renewable energy sector.
The wrap-up meetings in the evenings concluded the lessons learned by the creative methods of the respective company teams. The vivid contributions to the wrap-up meetings by the participants summarized the day in a perfect manner.
The excursion was rounded off by a guided tour to central Berlin and some private activities – e.g., a visit to the “Deutsches Technik Museum”.
The authors would like to thank the entire Organization and Company teams under the outstanding leadership of the colleagues Alisher Aliev (Transportation Team), Margo Stokebrand (Sight-Seeing Team), Ba Htoo Thant (First Aid Team), Anthony Opai (Youth Hostel Team), Temuulen Purevdorj and Eske Kranich (Treasurer Team), and Haitham (Press & Communication team).
Furthermore, thanks go to the companies and institutions (refer to above) for their hospitality and deep insights into their activities.
And last but not least, to Hans Holtorf along with Mrs. Heidemarie Aßmuth-Düster for their extraordinary guidance and support during the organization process.
Authors: Yovitza Romero Ramos, Arasi Maharajan, and Jerry Nwachukwu.