I just finished an informative class on renewable energy, and we had a 5 day trip to Germany, where we saw a lot of interesting things. Considering both Denmark and Germany have had a strong shift to renewable energy, I feel like they have been the perfect place to learn about it.
The first night, we stayed at a place called Artefact in Glueksburg. It's a renewable, sustainable farm where they educate people on how you can transform your home and community into one that runs on its own energy. They collected rain water for all toilets and showers, had solar panels on the roofs, grew grasses that they burned for heating, and had energy-efficient buildings.
They used different techniques, like using bottles in the floor for insulation, clay walls, and specific shapes in their building design to help better insulate the guest house. It was interesting to see just how much a few design motifs can help save energy.
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| Solar stove |
We visited a farm that has been converted to an energy farm with solar, wind, and biomass. The money to create it was all raised by locals and every share of the farm is owned by members of the community. I think it is so cool that all of this was done by locals instead of by the government or big business. It shows how much change we really can bring if we all start working together.
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| Biogas fermentation tanks |
We also saw the prototype of a VERY sexy electric car that was designed with speed in mind. It was made for racing whereas cars like electric BMW's are designed for daily use. It really goes to show that we have the potential to convert all of our cars to an electric system, assuming we can figure out the whole battery waste issue.
After that, we spent 3 nights in UfaFabrik, a sustainable community in the middle of Berlin. The site used to be a factory where they made film for movies until it shut down when the Berlin wall went up. A bunch of hippie-folk in the city had a large festival where they dreamed about ways to live a sustainable lifestyle off the grid. After the festival was over, they decided they wanted to live that lifestyle permanently, so they started squatting in the old factory. Now, the community is actually owned by them.
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| The green roof |
They test different ways to easily and efficiently have solar panels and wind turbines at homes. They also had green roofs (grass and gardens) on all of their buildings, although they were not in bloom when we were there. The plants actually function to keep the interior of the buildings cool so UfaFabrik does not spend energy on air conditioning.
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| Close-up of inexpensive solar panel |
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| Guide telling us about solar roof |
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| They also made their own bread! |
They also had a "free school" where students do not have a schedule or lesson plans. Rather, they are allowed to run around and explore while teachers are there to explain anything to students are curious about. The idea is to put the students' educations in their own hands, which I found very interesting.
Overall, it was a wonderful class trip and I learned a lot.
The first night, we stayed at a place called Artefact in Glueksburg. It's a renewable, sustainable farm where they educate people on how you can transform your home and community into one that runs on its own energy. They collected rain water for all toilets and showers, had solar panels on the roofs, grew grasses that they burned for heating, and had energy-efficient buildings.
We visited a farm that has been converted to an energy farm with solar, wind, and biomass. The money to create it was all raised by locals and every share of the farm is owned by members of the community. I think it is so cool that all of this was done by locals instead of by the government or big business. It shows how much change we really can bring if we all start working together.
We also saw the prototype of a VERY sexy electric car that was designed with speed in mind. It was made for racing whereas cars like electric BMW's are designed for daily use. It really goes to show that we have the potential to convert all of our cars to an electric system, assuming we can figure out the whole battery waste issue.
After that, we spent 3 nights in UfaFabrik, a sustainable community in the middle of Berlin. The site used to be a factory where they made film for movies until it shut down when the Berlin wall went up. A bunch of hippie-folk in the city had a large festival where they dreamed about ways to live a sustainable lifestyle off the grid. After the festival was over, they decided they wanted to live that lifestyle permanently, so they started squatting in the old factory. Now, the community is actually owned by them.
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