Hi all! So obviously my resolve to update every few days was shoved by the wayside soon after it was established. But now I'm back with a vengeance!...at least for now since I am sitting in Hong Kong International airport with free wi-fi and a 3 layover. In any case, I'll try to cover everything that's gone on since my last post. I believe I left off in Berlin.
My last few days in Berlin were quite fun. I met a few very nice people who were staying at my hostel, including an Australian couple with whom I was able to watch the Germany-Australia match, and an American student who was finishing up a semester of studying abroad. We spent a lot of time just talking at the hostel, all hanging out together, which was very nice. I'm glad that I've been able to meet a few people along the way!
My last meeting in Europe was with Hartmut Gassner, a lawyer by profession and the president of the German Geothermal Association, and Nicola Moczek, the director of the organization. We had a great chat about German energy policy over lunch in a small cafe in the lobby of their office building. I had a typical German kids' meal, which I won't even try to remember the name of. Essentially it was a kind of potato salad with a hot dog-type sausage. We discussed a lot about the potential of future development in Germany, and discussed a bit about the structure of the feed-in tariff system and how it might change when it is put up for reevaluation in 2012. Both were extremely good-natured and also provided me with some further reading materials about current projects.
My last touristy day in Berlin was spent on Museum Island. I spent the most time in the Pergamon museum, which is awesome, and I highly recommend to anyone heading for Berlin. The scale of the artifacts in the collection is phenomenal--some highlights including the Pergamon altar itself, the Gate of Miletus, and the Ishtar Gate and Procession of Babylon--all well worth seeing. I also picked up a few books to take along with me since I had a horrendously daunting leg of travel ahead of me--Berlin to Tokyo over the course of more than 24 hours (7 hour time difference included).
The trip was insanely long and at an annoying hour. I had a layover in Doha, Qatar for several hours and didn't depart for Tokyo until 1 am. After that I had a brief hour or so long layover at Kansai in Osaka before finally arriving at my final destination, Narita International Airport. Since my rail pass would only be valid for a week, and I needed to save those rides for the Shinkansen to and from Kyoto, I held off on validating my rail pass and took a fairly inexpensive local line to my hotel. Japan has pretty cheap economy hotels for business travelers, so I was able to get a really cheap room for about the same price as a hostel in Minami-Senju, a small area in Asakusa, about 15 minutes away from Tokyo Station. It took about an hour and a half to get there from Narita. The hotel was tiny and sort of tucked away in an alley. Add the fact that Japan doesn't really do street names, I walked by it several times before finally realizing where it was. As it was nearly 10:30 pm by the time I arrived and settled in, I was exhausted and promptly passed out. The room was tiny, as is customary for Tokyo (literally just enough room for a bed and small tray table), but it had air conditioning and internet access, which is all I needed.
The next morning I had my meeting with NEDO, sort of the equivalent of Iceland's Orkustofnun (National Energy Authority)--the administrative and fund distributing arm of METI, which handles renewable energy industries. Also present at the meeting was a representative from Kyushu Electric, one of the 12 electric companies in Japan. I was very nervous, because I had to give a presentation on the current status of geothermal in the U.S. as well as current policy mechanisms being employed in the U.S. I also gave a brief summary of my findings in Europe and an overview of the remaining stops in my project. I had to hire a translator due to the rather complex nature of discussion. My translator was superb and extremely helpful. He even treated to me a delicious soba lunch after the meeting. The presentation went very well, and the meeting was extremely informative. A good deal of what I learned overlaps with and supports with some of my later meetings, so I'll detail my conclusions at the end.
I stayed in Tokyo another two days, but didn't really get to doing much sight seeing as I was rather exhausted. Though I'm not usually affected by jet lag, my sleeping schedule was hugely interrupted by the entire day of travel and sudden 7 hour time change. Having just gotten over a cold in Berlin, I didn't want to push things, so I took it easy, opting to just kind of wander along a nearby river and spent some time reading in nearby parks. I spent a lot of time sleeping off my jet lag and catching up some much needed rest in wonderful comfort of my air conditioned room. If you've never been to Japan in the summer, you wouldn't know about the heat and general mugginess--but take my word for it, it's bad.
After my brief rest it was off to Fukuoka, which is located on Kyushu, the southern-most island in Japan. Even on the shinkansen (bullet train), it was about a 6 hour ride from Tokyo to Hakata. I had forgotten how fast the shinkansen is! I left in the morning and arrived at around 3:30 in the afternoon. I opted for a hotel right outside Hakata station since I was only staying for a night and would need easy access to transportation. Almost immediately after arriving I had my first meeting with Professor Ehara of Kyushu University and the Geothermal Research Society of Japan. We met in the lobby area of my hotel, as he was on his way home from giving a lecture. Our discussion was extremely interesting, focusing primarily on the reason for the lack of development in Japan and the challenges that the geothermal industry faces. We discussed quite at length the relationships between the academic/research arms of the geothermal industry and the onsen (hot spring) industires. The following day I had an hour bus ride to Kyushu University's new Ito campus, where I met with Professor Ehara's colleague, Professor Itoi. Again we discussed the geothermal industry generally and talked more in depth about the national park laws and the relationships with onsen owners. He briefly showed me some of the student facilities, and introduced me to a few fourth year students in the Earth Sciences program.
It was then back to Hakata station where I immediately hopped on the next shinkansen back to Tokyo. 6.5 hours later, I checked into another economy hotel, though this one was much nicer (I got a great deal online!). Again, exhausted, I shot off a few emails and passed out. My last set of meetings called for even more travel and a rather stressful schedule. First thing in the morning I headed to the American Embassy where I met with the Machi Dilworth, who handles the National Science Foundation in Tokyo. She also called in her colleague who works for the DOE at the embassy to sit in our meeting. We discussed general S&T Policy in Japan and the various funding mechanisms for individual programs. It was interesting to get a broader picture of how such programs are funded by the government, as well as to contrast general societal difference between Japan and the U.S. and how that affects the renewable industry.
After that I had a quick meeting with Dr. Matsunaga, who works for AIST, the research-focused partner to NEDO (kind of like ISOR is to Orkustofnun, except that AIST is still part of the government). I had to meet Dr. Matsunaga en route to Tsukuba, where AIST Central is. He was on his way down to Hiroshima from Tsukuba, and I was on my way up to Tsukuba from Tokyo. We met briefly at Akihabara station over coffee. Dr. Matsunaga is one of the few people I had to the opportunity to meet with who also has specific expertise in enhanced geothermal systems, or as the projects were termed in Japan, Hot Dry Rock. Our discussion focused primarily on the two former national projects, both of which were shut down, and what it would take for Japan to reexamine a EGS projects.
After our brief meeting, I dashed off to catch my train up to Tsukuba, which is a little over an hour away. At AIST central, a rather sprawling complex (relatively speaking), I met with three people in the geothermal department of renewable energies. I received a brief history of geothermal in Japan, and got a quite a bit of information regarding the current status of geothermal in Japan--including written statistics that should prove very useful.
Overall, through my many meetings in Japan, it seems that there are several barriers to geothermal. The two that have received the most consensus are the resistance from the onsen industry and problems with the national park laws. The onsen industry in Japan is huge and most owners are hesitant to allow development for fear of temperature loss for their water resource. However, as I've learned, the onsen aquifer is actually a distinct resource, often separated by capstone from the geothermal reservoir seated deeper in the earth. There is still a degree of uncertainty from what I understand, regarding the effects of sustained production, but it seems that it can be done without significant effects to the onsen aquifers. In recent years, the communication between the academics of the onsen and geothermal fields have been expanded, and hopefully the increased transparency between the two entities will pave the way for a better mutual understanding of the science affecting both resources. The other major problem that the majority of high potential land (more than 80%) for power production lies within national parks, which face strict regulation for development. As a result, it is extremely difficult to develop power plants under current legislation. These laws are currently under review by the Ministry of Environment with the possibility of revising certain portions of the law to allow for geothermal development with the use of directional drilling. Also being considered is a revision of the feed-in tariff system in Japan, which currently only include solar PV. There are discussions going on between METI and the Ministry of Environment to expand the system to other renewable technologies, including geothermal. Details of the systems, including a general or technology-specific price determination, have yet to be decided. The new tariffs are expected to be announced in the fall.
My meetings completed, I returned to my hotel. The next morning, it was off on a 3 hour shinkansen to Kyoto to meet Uncle Gene, a close family friend. I got to see Honzan, and wander a bit around that area while he finished up at the Hongwanji International Center. I stopped in for a drink at a Lawson's and ended up chatting with the clerk for a good 15 minutes about Hawaii. I even gave him a bit of an english lesson. I've rather enjoyed these little opportunities to practice my Japanese. Last semester I passed my proficiency exam at school and will no longer be taking Japanese, though my visit frequently reminded me that I am far from fluent.
Around 5:30 Uncle Gene and I began the journey back to Wakayama, where his family lives. Because its a rather far trip (over 2 hours in total), he only commutes back and forth once a week. It was nice to see Makiko, his wife, and two children Shiho and Ryuto, both of whom are adorable. I spent the weekend with them, which was a welcome break from all the back and forth travel. I got to go to Shiho's kindergarten reunion (in Japan kindergarten is not part of elementary school, and students attend for 3 years before starting first grade at different elementary schools). In the afternoon I went to a department store with Makiko and finally got a new pair of sneakers (mine broke in Europe and I was holding out for a cheap pair)ーーUncle Gene and Makiko were generous enough to treat me since I wasn't able to any omiyage with me. It was Uncle Gene's birthday, so we celebrated with some cake and then I played with the kids for a while. I also spent some time chatting with Makiko's older sister, Reiko, who had come over with her daughter Aya to play with the kids. We took a quick walk aroudn the neighborhood, and returned home in time for dinner. The next day we did a bit of sight seeing. We went up to Wakayama-jo, the castle, and took a nice drive to coast area. It might be odd of me to notice, but I really love bridges in Japan. They're always so impressive-looking! And since there are rivers and islands everywhere, there's always cool looking bridge nearby.
Since my flight was out of Narita rather early in the morning, I had to head back to Tokyo that evening. One last night in Tokyo was spent squaring away my arrangements for the Philippines. Now I'm sitting in Hong Kong, waiting for my flight to Manila. Japan will be greatly missed. It's an interesting society. I think it'll be nice to be out of Tokyo. I'm not a very big fan, especially in the summer. It's just too crowded and busy for my liking. But I will miss the polite people, the safe city, and the delicious food. Even 100 yen nigiri were a welcome meal after being deprived of good rice and nori for so long.
Well my battery is getting rather low and I think this post is certainly long enough for now. My flight boards in just under an hour, so the next time anyone hears from me, I'll be in the Philippines! 日本、ありがとう！じゃまたこんどね！
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
EGEC Conference and Travel Challenges
Hello all! In an attempt to more frequently update this, I've set some time aside today to relay some of my experiences in Pisa and the long and arduous journey back to Berlin.
The EGEC conference was a very interesting and, I think, worthwhile stop on my journey around the world. Not only did I get to spend a few nights in Italy, but I also got to rub elbows with some of the field's leading experts. Since it is such a "hot (pun definitely intended) topic" in the geothermal world, EGS made several appearances in the 2 day conference and was discussed quite in detail, much to my delight.
The first day of the conference primarily focused on geothermal heating and cooling. It was still rather relevant though, as the overall focus of the meeting was on the geothermal technology platform and its roadmap for deployment. As such, there was a great deal of discussion on how the European Commission allocates resources for technology research and development, and how geothermal technologies can best receive a portion of those funds. There was also a brief discussion on current EU legislation affecting geothermal and renewable technologies more generally, which was very informative for me, as I had very limited knowledge of EU policies.
The second day was more geared towards my particular focus, that is, geothermal electricity. Again there was a nice focus on how the development plan for geothermal will hugely affect the funding it receives from the European Commission. It was also encouraging to see that all of the future project scenarios for geothermal development are completely dependent on the successful commercialization of EGS. It was stressed in several presentations that without the development of EGS, the predicted growth of the geothermal industry would be severely limited. When I say this is nice, I don't mean because the fate of geothermal energy's future rests on a rather uncertain branch of technology, it's more because I'm very excited that the experts of the geothermal world share my belief that EGS has huge worldwide potential and are encouraging its development.
It was very interesting to me that several debates were prompted regarding the definition of EGS itself. As I've mentioned before, the term EGS is constantly debated, and there are several other names that it goes by. In Germany, for example, the EGS feed-in tariff doesn't use the term EGS at all, but instead calls them "petrothermal resources". EGS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) is also often referred to as "engineered geothermal systems", hot dry rock, hot fractured rock, and the list goes on. It seems almost silly to debate over things like this for so long, but because so many reservoirs have unique characteristics that make them difficult to classify, the definition of terminology has huge political and financial ramifications for projects. Just as an example, in Germany, the Landau project, which I visited, is NOT granted the EGS feed-in tariff. Because of the way Germany defines a pertothermal system, Landau doesn't qualify, even though it is recognized by the geothermal community as an EGS project. Additionally, Soultz, the long-time champion project of the EGS industry, is not necessarily considered to be EGS since it is a partially open system. Very interesting stuff. Something so seemingly simple as the name of the term used can hugely affect the financial and public resources available to a particular project. Furthermore, classification as EGS or non-EGS would hugely affect the favorability for investment of a specific project.
My time in Pisa not spent at the conference was very enjoyable, but very hot. The temperatures there ranged from 75-85 degrees, with a humidity level similar to that Hawaii. I was able to visit the Leaning Tower, which, as I've heard is more or less the only thing to really do in Pisa. I also was able to watch the France vs. Uruguay game of the World Cup in a hilariously tiny little bar around the corner of my hostel. Italians sure know how to appreciate "football". I befriended a jovial old man who shared my table because it was so crowded, and although he didn't speak any english other than, "Hello, how are you today?", we had a great time cheering against each other (he was rooting for Uruguay and I was rooting for France). Other than not being cool enough for my liking, the hostel I stayed at was very nice and the staff very friendly. I did get attacked by mosquitos during the night since we left the window open, but I had a rather pleasant stay in Pisa in spite of that.
My journey back to Berlin was rather interesting. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, as is characteristic of me and my nervous traveling tendencies. The flight to Frankfurt was quick and easy. However, at this point in my journey, I hit a little snag. Due to poor planning on my part, I didn't realize that there is no quick way to get to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (the central station) from Frankfurt Hahn, the airport that Ryan Air flies to. I luckily found a bus that made the hour and a half trip for only 10 euro. For the first time in my life, my over-allocating time in between legs of travel paid off. I arrived at Frankfurt Hahn at 1:20. My train was scheduled to leave at 4:13. I made it to the train station at 3:45 before realizing that I printed the wrong train reserveration confirmation. Desperate, I went to the ticket center where one of the attendants basically saved my life and printed off my reservation for me. I then had to dash to the other end of the 14-car long platform to get to my wagon. I made it with literally seconds to spare (as soon as I stepped on the train, the bell sounded, the doors closed, and it left). It got in to Berlin a little behind schedule so I took a taxi instead of taking the bus to my hostel. When I arrived, no one was there to open the door and check me in. Luckily another guest let me in, and shortly after, I found someone to check me in.
Today was spent organizing my research, preparing a presentation for Japan, and setting up some things for Australia. Tonight I will be hopefully be watching the Germany vs. Australia game (which should be insanely exciting to watch here).
Hope everyone is doing well! We'll see if I'm able to keep up with this updating schedule.
The EGEC conference was a very interesting and, I think, worthwhile stop on my journey around the world. Not only did I get to spend a few nights in Italy, but I also got to rub elbows with some of the field's leading experts. Since it is such a "hot (pun definitely intended) topic" in the geothermal world, EGS made several appearances in the 2 day conference and was discussed quite in detail, much to my delight.
The first day of the conference primarily focused on geothermal heating and cooling. It was still rather relevant though, as the overall focus of the meeting was on the geothermal technology platform and its roadmap for deployment. As such, there was a great deal of discussion on how the European Commission allocates resources for technology research and development, and how geothermal technologies can best receive a portion of those funds. There was also a brief discussion on current EU legislation affecting geothermal and renewable technologies more generally, which was very informative for me, as I had very limited knowledge of EU policies.
The second day was more geared towards my particular focus, that is, geothermal electricity. Again there was a nice focus on how the development plan for geothermal will hugely affect the funding it receives from the European Commission. It was also encouraging to see that all of the future project scenarios for geothermal development are completely dependent on the successful commercialization of EGS. It was stressed in several presentations that without the development of EGS, the predicted growth of the geothermal industry would be severely limited. When I say this is nice, I don't mean because the fate of geothermal energy's future rests on a rather uncertain branch of technology, it's more because I'm very excited that the experts of the geothermal world share my belief that EGS has huge worldwide potential and are encouraging its development.
It was very interesting to me that several debates were prompted regarding the definition of EGS itself. As I've mentioned before, the term EGS is constantly debated, and there are several other names that it goes by. In Germany, for example, the EGS feed-in tariff doesn't use the term EGS at all, but instead calls them "petrothermal resources". EGS (Enhanced Geothermal Systems) is also often referred to as "engineered geothermal systems", hot dry rock, hot fractured rock, and the list goes on. It seems almost silly to debate over things like this for so long, but because so many reservoirs have unique characteristics that make them difficult to classify, the definition of terminology has huge political and financial ramifications for projects. Just as an example, in Germany, the Landau project, which I visited, is NOT granted the EGS feed-in tariff. Because of the way Germany defines a pertothermal system, Landau doesn't qualify, even though it is recognized by the geothermal community as an EGS project. Additionally, Soultz, the long-time champion project of the EGS industry, is not necessarily considered to be EGS since it is a partially open system. Very interesting stuff. Something so seemingly simple as the name of the term used can hugely affect the financial and public resources available to a particular project. Furthermore, classification as EGS or non-EGS would hugely affect the favorability for investment of a specific project.
My time in Pisa not spent at the conference was very enjoyable, but very hot. The temperatures there ranged from 75-85 degrees, with a humidity level similar to that Hawaii. I was able to visit the Leaning Tower, which, as I've heard is more or less the only thing to really do in Pisa. I also was able to watch the France vs. Uruguay game of the World Cup in a hilariously tiny little bar around the corner of my hostel. Italians sure know how to appreciate "football". I befriended a jovial old man who shared my table because it was so crowded, and although he didn't speak any english other than, "Hello, how are you today?", we had a great time cheering against each other (he was rooting for Uruguay and I was rooting for France). Other than not being cool enough for my liking, the hostel I stayed at was very nice and the staff very friendly. I did get attacked by mosquitos during the night since we left the window open, but I had a rather pleasant stay in Pisa in spite of that.
My journey back to Berlin was rather interesting. I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, as is characteristic of me and my nervous traveling tendencies. The flight to Frankfurt was quick and easy. However, at this point in my journey, I hit a little snag. Due to poor planning on my part, I didn't realize that there is no quick way to get to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (the central station) from Frankfurt Hahn, the airport that Ryan Air flies to. I luckily found a bus that made the hour and a half trip for only 10 euro. For the first time in my life, my over-allocating time in between legs of travel paid off. I arrived at Frankfurt Hahn at 1:20. My train was scheduled to leave at 4:13. I made it to the train station at 3:45 before realizing that I printed the wrong train reserveration confirmation. Desperate, I went to the ticket center where one of the attendants basically saved my life and printed off my reservation for me. I then had to dash to the other end of the 14-car long platform to get to my wagon. I made it with literally seconds to spare (as soon as I stepped on the train, the bell sounded, the doors closed, and it left). It got in to Berlin a little behind schedule so I took a taxi instead of taking the bus to my hostel. When I arrived, no one was there to open the door and check me in. Luckily another guest let me in, and shortly after, I found someone to check me in.
Today was spent organizing my research, preparing a presentation for Japan, and setting up some things for Australia. Tonight I will be hopefully be watching the Germany vs. Australia game (which should be insanely exciting to watch here).
Hope everyone is doing well! We'll see if I'm able to keep up with this updating schedule.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Benvenuti in Italia!
Hi everyone! Wow, sorry for the long absence. My internet access has been somewhat stunted as I traveled through the French-German border, back to Paris, and on to Berlin. I'm now in Pisa for the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) conference.
Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to.
Soultz and Karlsruhe:
I traveled to Soultz sous Forets, which is located near the French-German border, approximately 50 km north of Strasbourg in the Alsace region of France. The train ride out to Soultz took me through the French countryside, which is absolutely beautiful and exactly what I pictured. Tons of farmland, cute little houses and towns, very old and quaint. Soultz itself is an adorable little town. I met Dr. Albert Genter, one of the lead scientists at the Soultz project, who incidentally was making the same journey from Paris that I was, as he commutes every week from Orleans, just south of Paris. He drove me to the project site itself, which I was very excited about as Soultz is one of the oldest "EGS" projects, and (I'm fairly certain) the oldest currently in operation. I put EGS in quotes because, as I mentioned before, EGS is a somewhat amorphous term, and Soultz is not a purely EGS site. In actuality, it taps into an existing reservoir that greatly contributes to the flow rate and connectivity of the network. We discussed the history of Soultz a great bit, and spent some time talking about some of the unique geographic characteristics of the site. I got a tour of the facility, which was very short because Soultz is actually a very small project. It was very interesting to see what was going on there because Soultz is purely a research operation, it is not used at all for generation of commercial energy and none of the electricity produced is fed into the regional grid. Instead, the project managers are waiting for France's feed-in tariff revisions to be officialized (raised to .20 cents per kWh) before officially connecting into the grid. The delay is entirely political and is quite interesting in that everyone agrees that the tariff should be implemented, it is just waiting to be signed. Interesting effect of bureaucracy on the industry.
Dr. Genter treated me to a delicious lunch at a very cute little restaurant nearby. One of the site's managers and the financial administrator of the site joined us. When we completed our discussion, Dr. Genter drove me back to the train station, where I moved on to Karlsruhe, Germany, which is quite literally just on the other side of the border. I checked in to the Barbarossa Hotel, dropped off my things, and explored a little bit. It was already getting quite late, so I stopped in for a quick schnitzel and beer at a small restraunt. The waiter was hilarious and friendly and sent me off with what I think was a shot of licorice liquor, which seemed to be the standard. I arrived back at my hotel thoroughly exhausted and promptly fell asleep.
The next day, Dr. Thomas Kolbel, also a manager at the Soultz plant, picked me up from the hotel and drove me to Bruchsal, which is about 30 km northeast of Karlsruhe. The site there is one of the few Kalina cycle power plants in the world (versus the organic rankine cycle). The primary difference is that they use different fluid mediums--Kalina cycles use a mix of ammonia and water, whereas most ORCs use isobutane or something similar. Each cycle experiences different levels of efficiency at different temperatures. Dr. Kolbel was extremely nice and we discussed quite a bit about the German feed-in tariff system and how it differs from the feed-in tariff in France. As a side note, to get to Bruchsal, we had to drive on the Autobahn, which was very exciting! We were driving somewhere around 200 km per hour!
Unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well and developed quite a bad cough. When I arrived back at my hotel that day, I wanted to walk around the town a bit but instead fell asleep for a good 3 hours. I woke up with a slight fever so I decided to take it easy the rest of the day. The next day I left early and caught a train to Landau, still in the Rhine graben. I was picked up from the station by Dr. Joerg Baumgaertner, again, a manager of Soultz, and one of the lead people at Landau. Landau, it can be said, is a baby of the Soultz project, as are many in the area. Dr. Baumgaertner is an extremely jovial and good-natured man, and we had a very nice chat over a cup of coffee at the site. It was particularly interesting to discuss the permitting process for new sites, and the prospective of new projects in the Rhine graben. Landau is also one of the only successfully operating commercial EGS projects. It was essentially undertaken to prove that EGS can produce a commercial project, though the scale is still less than what is needed to demonstrate large-scale viability. After a tour of the facility, I traveled back to Karlsruhe and then back to Paris.
Paris round 2:
My second stint in Paris I stayed with a friend from Georgetown, Frank, and his family. They were extremely generous hosts and treated me to a nice French meal in addition to a few home-cooked ones that were quite enjoyable. This bit in Paris was really more for my enjoyment than the project, as my contact in Ademe rescheduled our meeting for the conference in Pisa. I got to do a lot of sightseeing, which was a lot of fun. I went up the Eiffel Tower with Frank and saw Paris beautifully lit up. I also went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe with Sam, which offered another incredible view. I went to the top of Notre Dame, visited the Lourve, spent some time at the Musee d'Orsay, and got to spend a bit of time basking in the beautiful weather in some of Paris's public parks. I spent a lot of time with Sam and Frank, which was nice after so much traveling alone. I had the most delicious pain au chocolat I've ever tasted, and ended up watching quite a bit of tennis as the French open was going on (and Frank's family are huge tennis fans). I was rooting for Soderling, but oh well.
Berlin:
After a fabulous couple of days in Paris, it was time for me to move on. I took an overnight train to Berlin. That was an experience in and of itself. I was in a compartment with six beds, two columns of three stacked up, and I was on the top bunk. It actually ended up being not so bad, except that I had a very poor view from up there. In the end it didn't matter much since I essentially slept the entire way. I awoke in Berlin around 8 in the morning and traveled to my hotel. Unfortunately, on the train ride there, my cold made a come back and I was stuck in my hotel most of the day with a very bad cough. I did a little exploring but got very tired very quickly so I returned for an early night. The next day I was happily feeling much better, so I decided to go on a walking tour of Berlin. It was very interesting and the tour guide was excellent. The tour focused a lot on the history of Berlin, which is as complicated and fascinating as I expected. Berlin is a very interesting city because, despite its rich history, or alternatively because of it, the city itself is extremely new, with lots of development still going on. My tour guide explained that it has been said of Berlin that it is always doomed to become, and never to be. Because so much of was destroyed in the war, and then later much of Eastern Berlin was redone by the Soviets, many of the old-looking buildings are total reconstructions of their predecessors and are actually not that old at all. Quite the contrast to Paris which is literally over-flowing with beautiful historical buildings and monuments. In any case the history of Berlin and Germany more broadly is hugely interesting and I am embarrassingly ignorant about much of it. I hope to rectify that upon my return to the city. I noted a few museums that I would definitely like to hit when I get back there. After having some dinner I headed back to the hotel since I had a very early flight the following morning. After making some arrangements and preparing for my day of travel ahead, I went to bed. As a quick side note, Germans (bless their souls) are quite generally fantastic at English, which made my life blissfully easy in Berlin. Berlin is also much more...not necessarily westernized, but has certainly absorbed much more of western influence. In Paris there were McDonalds around, but in Berlin, there are Burger Kings literally everywhere, tons of McDonalds, a few KFCs, and a bunch of Starbucks.
En Route:
The journey to Pisa took almost the entire day. Since I'm a rather nervous traveler, I left a big cushion of time at the Frankfurt airport. I arrived there early, because Ryan Air is apparently the most ontime European airline, at around 9:15 in the morning. My flight to Pisa departed at 2:45. Obviously I had a great deal of time to kill. I spent this time reading, writing a bit, walking aimlessly around the tiny terminal, and grabbing a snack every now and then. Finally I got on my flight to Pisa.
Pisa so far:
I arrived at my hostel at around 5:00 pm. After a brief recuperation I set out to find a sim card and to buy a big bottle of water since it's not drinkable from the tap here. I also had to find some tights since both the pairs I brought have since gotten rather horrible runs. That was the hardest part of my expedition as it's currently about 75-80 degrees in Pisa and pantyhose are not in very high demand. As a general rule, most of Europe is not air conditioned, and I find myself a bit spoiled. It wasn't too big of an issue in Berlin, which hovered around a pleasant 72-75 degrees, but Pisa is much more humid and I've caught myself being rather whiny about it. Despite that, I summoned the will to walk over the Leaning Tower. It was already quite late in the day so I didn't get to spend much time there, but I did take a few photos of the area. It's almost surreal seeing it in person after seeing so many photographs. Half of my trip so far I've spent unable to really process that fact that I'm actually experiencing what I'm experiencing. In any case, I spent some time just lying the grass, staring up the tower and cathedral and listening to some music. It was rather relaxing.
Tomorrow morning it's off the conference, which I'm rather excited, but quite nervous about. I hope that it will be useful to my research and that I'm able to meet and talk with some of the people in attendance. It should be quite the experience!
I promise I'll try to update a bit more frequently from now on! Hope everyone is doing well!
Here's a quick recap of what I've been up to.
Soultz and Karlsruhe:
I traveled to Soultz sous Forets, which is located near the French-German border, approximately 50 km north of Strasbourg in the Alsace region of France. The train ride out to Soultz took me through the French countryside, which is absolutely beautiful and exactly what I pictured. Tons of farmland, cute little houses and towns, very old and quaint. Soultz itself is an adorable little town. I met Dr. Albert Genter, one of the lead scientists at the Soultz project, who incidentally was making the same journey from Paris that I was, as he commutes every week from Orleans, just south of Paris. He drove me to the project site itself, which I was very excited about as Soultz is one of the oldest "EGS" projects, and (I'm fairly certain) the oldest currently in operation. I put EGS in quotes because, as I mentioned before, EGS is a somewhat amorphous term, and Soultz is not a purely EGS site. In actuality, it taps into an existing reservoir that greatly contributes to the flow rate and connectivity of the network. We discussed the history of Soultz a great bit, and spent some time talking about some of the unique geographic characteristics of the site. I got a tour of the facility, which was very short because Soultz is actually a very small project. It was very interesting to see what was going on there because Soultz is purely a research operation, it is not used at all for generation of commercial energy and none of the electricity produced is fed into the regional grid. Instead, the project managers are waiting for France's feed-in tariff revisions to be officialized (raised to .20 cents per kWh) before officially connecting into the grid. The delay is entirely political and is quite interesting in that everyone agrees that the tariff should be implemented, it is just waiting to be signed. Interesting effect of bureaucracy on the industry.
Dr. Genter treated me to a delicious lunch at a very cute little restaurant nearby. One of the site's managers and the financial administrator of the site joined us. When we completed our discussion, Dr. Genter drove me back to the train station, where I moved on to Karlsruhe, Germany, which is quite literally just on the other side of the border. I checked in to the Barbarossa Hotel, dropped off my things, and explored a little bit. It was already getting quite late, so I stopped in for a quick schnitzel and beer at a small restraunt. The waiter was hilarious and friendly and sent me off with what I think was a shot of licorice liquor, which seemed to be the standard. I arrived back at my hotel thoroughly exhausted and promptly fell asleep.
The next day, Dr. Thomas Kolbel, also a manager at the Soultz plant, picked me up from the hotel and drove me to Bruchsal, which is about 30 km northeast of Karlsruhe. The site there is one of the few Kalina cycle power plants in the world (versus the organic rankine cycle). The primary difference is that they use different fluid mediums--Kalina cycles use a mix of ammonia and water, whereas most ORCs use isobutane or something similar. Each cycle experiences different levels of efficiency at different temperatures. Dr. Kolbel was extremely nice and we discussed quite a bit about the German feed-in tariff system and how it differs from the feed-in tariff in France. As a side note, to get to Bruchsal, we had to drive on the Autobahn, which was very exciting! We were driving somewhere around 200 km per hour!
Unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well and developed quite a bad cough. When I arrived back at my hotel that day, I wanted to walk around the town a bit but instead fell asleep for a good 3 hours. I woke up with a slight fever so I decided to take it easy the rest of the day. The next day I left early and caught a train to Landau, still in the Rhine graben. I was picked up from the station by Dr. Joerg Baumgaertner, again, a manager of Soultz, and one of the lead people at Landau. Landau, it can be said, is a baby of the Soultz project, as are many in the area. Dr. Baumgaertner is an extremely jovial and good-natured man, and we had a very nice chat over a cup of coffee at the site. It was particularly interesting to discuss the permitting process for new sites, and the prospective of new projects in the Rhine graben. Landau is also one of the only successfully operating commercial EGS projects. It was essentially undertaken to prove that EGS can produce a commercial project, though the scale is still less than what is needed to demonstrate large-scale viability. After a tour of the facility, I traveled back to Karlsruhe and then back to Paris.
Paris round 2:
My second stint in Paris I stayed with a friend from Georgetown, Frank, and his family. They were extremely generous hosts and treated me to a nice French meal in addition to a few home-cooked ones that were quite enjoyable. This bit in Paris was really more for my enjoyment than the project, as my contact in Ademe rescheduled our meeting for the conference in Pisa. I got to do a lot of sightseeing, which was a lot of fun. I went up the Eiffel Tower with Frank and saw Paris beautifully lit up. I also went to the top of the Arc de Triomphe with Sam, which offered another incredible view. I went to the top of Notre Dame, visited the Lourve, spent some time at the Musee d'Orsay, and got to spend a bit of time basking in the beautiful weather in some of Paris's public parks. I spent a lot of time with Sam and Frank, which was nice after so much traveling alone. I had the most delicious pain au chocolat I've ever tasted, and ended up watching quite a bit of tennis as the French open was going on (and Frank's family are huge tennis fans). I was rooting for Soderling, but oh well.
Berlin:
After a fabulous couple of days in Paris, it was time for me to move on. I took an overnight train to Berlin. That was an experience in and of itself. I was in a compartment with six beds, two columns of three stacked up, and I was on the top bunk. It actually ended up being not so bad, except that I had a very poor view from up there. In the end it didn't matter much since I essentially slept the entire way. I awoke in Berlin around 8 in the morning and traveled to my hotel. Unfortunately, on the train ride there, my cold made a come back and I was stuck in my hotel most of the day with a very bad cough. I did a little exploring but got very tired very quickly so I returned for an early night. The next day I was happily feeling much better, so I decided to go on a walking tour of Berlin. It was very interesting and the tour guide was excellent. The tour focused a lot on the history of Berlin, which is as complicated and fascinating as I expected. Berlin is a very interesting city because, despite its rich history, or alternatively because of it, the city itself is extremely new, with lots of development still going on. My tour guide explained that it has been said of Berlin that it is always doomed to become, and never to be. Because so much of was destroyed in the war, and then later much of Eastern Berlin was redone by the Soviets, many of the old-looking buildings are total reconstructions of their predecessors and are actually not that old at all. Quite the contrast to Paris which is literally over-flowing with beautiful historical buildings and monuments. In any case the history of Berlin and Germany more broadly is hugely interesting and I am embarrassingly ignorant about much of it. I hope to rectify that upon my return to the city. I noted a few museums that I would definitely like to hit when I get back there. After having some dinner I headed back to the hotel since I had a very early flight the following morning. After making some arrangements and preparing for my day of travel ahead, I went to bed. As a quick side note, Germans (bless their souls) are quite generally fantastic at English, which made my life blissfully easy in Berlin. Berlin is also much more...not necessarily westernized, but has certainly absorbed much more of western influence. In Paris there were McDonalds around, but in Berlin, there are Burger Kings literally everywhere, tons of McDonalds, a few KFCs, and a bunch of Starbucks.
En Route:
The journey to Pisa took almost the entire day. Since I'm a rather nervous traveler, I left a big cushion of time at the Frankfurt airport. I arrived there early, because Ryan Air is apparently the most ontime European airline, at around 9:15 in the morning. My flight to Pisa departed at 2:45. Obviously I had a great deal of time to kill. I spent this time reading, writing a bit, walking aimlessly around the tiny terminal, and grabbing a snack every now and then. Finally I got on my flight to Pisa.
Pisa so far:
I arrived at my hostel at around 5:00 pm. After a brief recuperation I set out to find a sim card and to buy a big bottle of water since it's not drinkable from the tap here. I also had to find some tights since both the pairs I brought have since gotten rather horrible runs. That was the hardest part of my expedition as it's currently about 75-80 degrees in Pisa and pantyhose are not in very high demand. As a general rule, most of Europe is not air conditioned, and I find myself a bit spoiled. It wasn't too big of an issue in Berlin, which hovered around a pleasant 72-75 degrees, but Pisa is much more humid and I've caught myself being rather whiny about it. Despite that, I summoned the will to walk over the Leaning Tower. It was already quite late in the day so I didn't get to spend much time there, but I did take a few photos of the area. It's almost surreal seeing it in person after seeing so many photographs. Half of my trip so far I've spent unable to really process that fact that I'm actually experiencing what I'm experiencing. In any case, I spent some time just lying the grass, staring up the tower and cathedral and listening to some music. It was rather relaxing.
Tomorrow morning it's off the conference, which I'm rather excited, but quite nervous about. I hope that it will be useful to my research and that I'm able to meet and talk with some of the people in attendance. It should be quite the experience!
I promise I'll try to update a bit more frequently from now on! Hope everyone is doing well!
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