Week 8 March 23-29

This week was a continuation of Life Cycle Assessments with Dr. Sergio Pacca from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. When discussing renewable energy options for the near term future, it is important to think about the economic side of the project as well. This is important in comparing technology options and how feasible they are on a large scale. This week we looked at cost-benefit assessments for various technologies and compared them to various energy scenarios. The last topic we looked at were 'No Regret' investment options, which are those with a long term cost savings. These investments are thought to have a negative cost, meaning that the benefits, whether implicit or explicit, are greater than the expected costs. Such examples with a negative cost range from the switch from incandescent lighting to LEDs, to full hybridization of automobiles, to converting landfill gas to electricity.

A group presenting their findings:

While turning in some paperwork at the Sheriff's Office (not pertaining to any crimes, I assure you) we came across this snowman being constructed during our lunch break in the Radhustorg, the main square in town. It appears to be a solution to both the morale problem of gloomy weather and the quandry of trying to remove vast amounts of snow from the middle of town.

Apparently the appearance of the huge snowman is an annual tradition in town and signals that Easter is not far away. This was becoming clear to RES students as well, who were looking forward to some free time away from the classroom. We were looking forward to the 1 week break just as much as the grade school children in town (and maybe a few of the younger RES students also) were looking forward to their Easter baskets. Signs of Gleðilega Páska (Happy Easter) were appearing everywhere from bilboards to junk adverts in our mailboxes.

It seems like the weather in Iceland is unpredictable at best. Our trips to the environs around town have shown how drastically the weather can turn from sunny to snowing to sideways rain, all over the course of a few kilometers. However, this week seemed to be snow, and lots of it. The above picture shows a rare clear afternoon. The view is of the Kjalarsida apartments in the foreground and the ski resort, Hliðarfjall, in the background. If you look closely on the second floor, you can almost make out how clean my place is.

Week 7: March 16-22

Life Cycle Assessment & Energy Efficiency Analysis was the topic for this week’s course. Dr. Paulo Ferrao of MIT Portugal led us through the basics of life cycle analysis and the concept of industrial ecology. I’ve heard a lot about bio-mimicry where nature inspires the design of a product (the bone structure of fish for vehicle frames, modeling hurricanes to improve propeller design, etc.) but industrial ecology was especially interesting as it was a systems approach which didn’t copy a specific design from nature, but rather how processes and components should interact with each other and the surroundings as a whole. The project for this week involved assessing the impact of energy created from wind turbines compared to that of other energy sources.

This week also brought some of the first real hints of spring. Although there was still a ton of snow, it was sunny and warm enough to take a bike out and explore a little bit around Skjaldarvik.
Over the weekend was out second big trip as a group. We took two vans and headed across the fjord and north to the quite town of Grenivík where we had reservations to take a snow cat up the mountain called Kaldbakur. It was a relatively short drive and we had the van for the whole day so we took our time getting there. On the way, we stopped at Laufás, which had some very cool sod houses and a nice church. Unfortunately, they were closed for the day but it was still fun to walk around and explore a bit.

When we made it to Grenivík, we went to the coast and had lunch and walked around. We had to kill a couple of hours until we were scheduled to go up the mountain so we decided to see how far we could continue driving north. Turns out, not so far but we were able to hike around the side of the fjord.
After some time, we drove to where we meet the snow cat driver. He pulled up in a huge 4x4 and even had a wireless credit card machine for everyone to pay. Luckily, he had enough extra sleds for us so we did not have to go down the mountain on the baking pans and trash bags as we had originally thought we might. There were two snow cats and each had a few rows of benches in the back. We jumped in and starting to drive up the mountain.

Wow. I still cannot believe how amazing this was. The weather was perfect and you could see for miles (which is saying a lot for being in Iceland). I was so in awe I ended up taking about 150 pictures in about an hour.

Once on the top, we took some more pictures including a group shot and of course some jumping shots.
Now, it was time to start the decent.

Turns out, sledding really fast down a mountain for about 6km can kick a lot of snow in your face. But, some were more prepared than others.

The snow was a little bit hard and it was difficult to hold an edge. I was bold/stupid enough to try to ride down holding my camera while continuing to take pictures. Luckily, I didn’t crash! Some others were not so fortunate and a few even lost their sleds in the wind and off a cliff. When we finally made it to near the parking lot area, the sun was just starting to set. We had an impromptu snowball fight, took another group picture, and loaded up to head back to Akureyri.

Week 6 March 9-15

View from the balcony at Kjalarsida:
This week was the last course for our section titled Energy Conversion and Storage Systems. Our professor was Dr. Domanski from Warsaw Institute of Technology. This week's class focused on expanding the ideas of thermodynamics and adding context to renewable applications. The ideas were related to efficiencies and how they play into policymaking decisions. We learned that the true amount of energy that is lost in the conversion and storage process is staggering. Coal power plants, for example, are usually about 40% efficient. This means that of the energy contained in a piece of coal, only 40% of it is converted to electricity. An additional 7% of this value is lost in the grid transporting it to your home. Couple with this with a traditional incandescent lightbulb, which is only 5% efficient, and we can see that less than 2% of the original energy in our lump of coal has been converted into light energy. If this process seems wasteful, this is because it is. Closing the gap in these inefficiencies is one of the easiest and pain-free ways to get some easy electricity savings. The switch to fluorescent bulbs, which will become mandatory in 2012, increases this efficiency by 4 times and would cut electricity use, and thus the cost, by 75%.

These ideas are especially important on the grand scale. It seems almost cliche to ask every household to switch just one lightbuld from incandescent to fluorescent. But it is less the act itself as the changing of minds. One fluorescent bulb is trivial compared to the lights used nightly at Fenway Park (btw opening day in a month!) It seems like fluorescent bulbs are simply a 'gateway' to other things. Changing opinions before implementing the big stuff.

The Krafla geothermal plant:

So with the end of this class days away, it was time to learn all the things that had eluded us during the lectures. Surprisingly, a large percent of the students had no thermodynamics background. The cross cultural educational differences were interesting to observe. Speaking generally, students from Eastern Europe tended to have a very numerical approach to studying, showing a quick mastery of equations and numbers. Other Europeans seemed to take a more analytical approach, easily understanding problems and working through solutions. Americans, on the other hand, seemed to have a grasp on the theory and ideology of the situations. Alltogether, this made the study sessions easier when different groups were naturally good at different topics. These subtle differences are one of the things that make our class amazingly compatible and cohesive.

Continuing with this topic of cultural differences, it is also interesting to show the influence of culture on Icelandic society.

The above picture of an Icelandic pizza with a fried egg on top shows a typical meal at a local restaurant. The invasion of fried eggs seems to extend to other dishes as well, notably pastas and hamburgers. This is presently inexplicable, but I'm sure there is some good reason for eggs invading other dishes. Other dishes laden with salt, such as fish jerky and smoked meats show how the Icelandic people adapted to the need to preserve food for the long winter months way back when. Use of salt even today shows this throwback to the old cultural need to preserve their food.
While preserving food was important, the fresh foods are also second to none. It is nice to find fish packaged in town the same day it was caught. Milk bottled within throwing distance from my apartment, and vegetables grown in geothermally heated greenhouses right up the Eyjafjordur valley. Not only is it much tastier than the less than fresh foods I have been used to at Dominick's for the past 4 years, locally sourced foods do not have to be flown in from all parts of the globe.

Week 5: March 2-8

After a nice weekend traveling as a group, we were refreshed and ready to begin the second week of RES602. Our professor for this week, Dr. Dusan Holoubek, was from the Technical University of Kosice in Slovakia. Similar to last week, he had entirely too much information to cover in a very short amount of time. Nonetheless, with our heads down and our eyes forward, we pushed on. Surprisingly for me, much of the subject matter focused on non-renewable energy technologies. We worked specifically on the details of a number of coal fired power plant technologies and nuclear reactor designs. Although a bit confusing at the time, it was important we cover this, I think, as energy solutions in the future we be from a variety of sources and to think we will be able to simply kick our addiction to fossil fuels is delusional. How it will all fit together is anyone’s guess. This culminated in a project at the end of the week. I worked in a group, which evaluated hydrogen production using next generation high temperature nuclear reactors.

The anticipation for the weekend was high as we had two big upcoming events. The first was organized by one co-author who could probably explain it much better than I. In any case, dinner was prepared and served for practically the entire class. The apartments in Kjalarsida were used. The scene was chaotic as plates, silverware, and pots and pans were used from any willing donor and the entire 3rd floor was used as the dining hall. In this picture you really can only see half of the hall that we took up.

The food was well worth waiting for and had contributions from a number of students. There were also some good drinks which was a nice change since many people were getting tired of the Viking brew, especially the Polish students who had not had any proper vodka for over a month! I think everyone had a good night.

Saturday evening held a party at the home of RES rector, Dr. Bjorn Gunnarsson in the south of Akureyri. Students from last year had told us a few stories of these parties and expectations were high. Getting to Bjorn’s home a bit difficult though. We only had the van for the Skjaldarvik students and we had to run a makeshift shuttle service. To make matters more trying, this particular night was one of the worst snowstorms I have experienced since I had arrived. The snow was heavy and wet and once outside the city, the visibility was about 30m. Once we all got to Bjorn’s, everyone forgot about the treacherous time we had getting there and had a good time. There was pizza, drinks, some board games, good discussion, and dancing - lots of dancing:


And a congo line:


Even Bjorn showed us some of his moves!

I remember specifically the short speech Bjorn gave sometime that night. He mentioned that he hoped our experience at RES would be not only educationally challenging but also one that allows us to grow outside of the classroom.