Chris Rowland - OVESCO & Tom Bourghton - Transition Town Chichester
Warm Jumpers and the BTZ Aus- und Weiterbildung Technical College. Today we visited the
BTZ Technical College, where students young and old can study engineering, building construction and renewable energy technologies. The whole site is very impressive and courses take students through the entire design and build process. We saw CAD modelling, a range of CNC machines, laser metal sintering, rapid prototyping, part scanners, energy efficiency for homes and a wide range of renewables. All the renewables were deployed on site or being tested and included:
Solar thermal (see image above) combined with gas CHP, absorption chillers and a heat exchanger, to heat and cool the building. There are plans to link the college with a chicken farm 2km away by a gas pipe and supply the CHP engine with biogas to run the plant. Excess electricity would be sold to the grid.
A twenty year old facade mounted 2 kW PV system still working at 80% of their original performance. So effectively this system is now as a 1.6kw array and was generating 600W on the day of our visit. Other sites/buildings had been fitted with panels for comparison throughout Germany and it would be interesting to see how they had performed.
One room devoted to testing technology which included a CHP gas boiler with Stirling engine, a range of biomass boilers, thermal stores and thermal batteries.
One block devoted to energy efficiency which included full size sections of homes with a wide rage of insulation measures including solid wall insulation, heat exchangers, innovative thermal stores and pellet fed biomass boilers.
Looking across the valley from BTZ to a 3.5 MW PV solar farm it was surprising to see that the roofs of the BTZ were not covered with PV panels. It was explained that BTZ didn’t want to do so, because it would mean that the college would get less funding (FiT rules) and its primary purpose is training students! We have noticed that the energy needs of this area relay on wood fuel, solar thermal, PV (small and large scale) and thermal heat. There are no large wind turbines in that part of Germany, because of its natural wooded beauty.
At BTZ they have a vision based around training, connections with industry and finance with a long term goal to continually improve. Of course technical solutions alone are not enough to supply our future energy needs and behaviour change is also necessary, but you have to admire the way that Germany is so good at the whole process of developing products which work and are of high quality.
So we end on a comment made yesterday; ‘jumpers are a very effective and simple way to keep you warm’.
NOTES:
Lee Rose - Norfolk Solar
Just yesterday i wrote 'life doesn't get any better'...... how wrong i was.
For a technical nerd like me, today's trip to BTZ Rohr was like opening all the best presents from all of my childhood christmas' at once!
This is a vocational college doing amazing stuff with metal and plastic engineering, and then, i counted a minimum of ten renewable energy or low carbon technology installations, of which some are simply excellent examples of best practice, at least two are pioneering works dating back some 20 years, and at least two more are at the cutting edge of thermal renewables. The phase change equipment is so new that they haven't finished installing it yet! and i have never seen not just one, but two working examples of ammonia absorption chillers (one of which fed by solar thermal). have i died and gone to heaven?
Jake Rendle-Worthington - Solar Aid
Today we started with a trip to the Chamber of Crafts for Thuringa. Quite an amazing facility with all kinds of resources for tradesmen to up-skill and become Master-craftsmen. They have several large workshops onsite with state of the art equipment for welders, mechanics, metal engineers and plastics engineering, carpentry and joinery amongst many other skills. They even had a converted monastery equipped with two bowling alleys!
The most interesting part came after lunch as we were shown around the newly opened energy in buildings facility. It was served by a 130m¬¬¬¬¬2 array of flat plate solar thermal collectors which fed into a 3,000 litre storage tank for heating. There was also a refrigeration unit attached so the heat energy from the solar thermal could also be used for cooling. As well as serving the practical and classroom areas of this building this system also connected to a loop in the ceiling of a lecture hall so that on balmy summer days cooled air could drift down into this hall making lectures more bearable!
The practical area of this facility was also phenomenal with several styles of German buildings from different eras semi constructed in a large hall. This was so that students can see all the different methods used for retrofitting energy saving and energy efficiency measures. Each building also has several mistakes in built into them and an interactive monitor to help you identify these mistakes. An excellent tool for best practice for builders and tradesmen, the kind of thing that would blow the mind of any British builder! We also looked at the utility room of the whole place which had several different types of heating system installed, pellet boilers, wood boilers, a gas CHP plant with hot water storage tanks. They also had ready to install a number of tanks for hot water storage using salt in water as a method of phase change heat store.
These were to be tested here as well at a number of other establishments to find out their potential for the manufacturer.
We made a visit to the ancient village of Rohr with its Church and crypt on the way home at which we were given a great insight into the history of the village by an old lady who ran the museum. It seems for at least 1000 years everyone had picked on the inhabitants of Rohr. There was the travelling Kings who ate all their food, local knights who stole their harvests, Bavarian Barons who stole their baby King, Saxon administrators who got them into massive debt, the neighbouring village who lent them money and stole their village and the Croats who put their priest in an oven. The Swedes where at least quite nice and came back after the 30 year war to marry some of the locals. All in all an interesting and exhausting day, no more car park party for me tonight!
Andrea Berardi - Funky Renewables
Today we had the opportunity to visit the local buildings of the Chamber of Crafts and adjacent areas, dedicated to the training of students. It is the first time I see a training center where Selective Laser Sintering is used. It is an additive manufacturing layer technology that uses laser in order to fuse together particles of plastic or metal powders, creating the desired three-dimensional shape. The results are impressive.
The center also has an advanced division, dedicated to renewable energy and energy savings. The building can be considered an exhibition in itself, as it uses the most different techniques you energy production and distribution, including an absorption refrigerator powered by solar collectors.
Lui Hepworth - Brighton Energy Cooperative
Highlight of today was to see innovative ways of storing heat. Excellent for storing excess heat produced from solar thermal in the summer to use used into the winter months. I loved the big rubber storage tank that be easily squashed down to get it into the basement of existing homes, where the system is then assembled. This system cleverly stores and uses heat in different temperature layers and can provide enough heating and hot water to get through the whole winter.
It was also good to see the wall mounted solar panels, still working at 80% of their original capacity after 20 years of use. Those are panels made 20 years ago. Since then PV technology has moved on greatly, with panels now generating more and loosing less efficiency over their long life span. They are only going to get better and better over time. Good stuff.
John Shaw - Burnley College
Dirk shared breakfast with the group and then accompanied us on a short drive to BTZ Rohr... Today we went to the BTZ training centre in Rohr... A really modern facility for training in the areas of Building crafts, Engineering, plastic moulding and Rapid prototype equipment. The centre has training courses funded by companies and the chamber of crafts and chamber of commerce...and BTZ provides the practical element of the Apprentice training. The Chamber of crafts provides opportunities in 42 disciplines. Master craftsmen also train here ... This is similar to a degree level education and you must have Master craft status before you can secure funding to start a business. Or have been in a leading position in a company for at least 6 years!
Being a Master craftsman opens up more opportunities and some people have gained 2 aster craft status areas... Including the Carpentry teacher...who is also a Master bricklayer...
Master crafts courses are self-funded through State owned student loans or a local bank or company. School links provision is a carousel type course where the school youngsters attend one day pre week and have a taster to sample the craft areas prior to choosing the one they would like to study.. There are specific courses manufacturers can choose for their own product design...including up to three days design and make rapid prototype and testing welding equipment at the centre. Michael Bickel then gave the group a tour...starting at Carpentry on top of the hill and working our way back down via, engineering, electrical and rapid prototype and welding workshops...
We had lunch in the sunshine before visiting a brand new facility dedicated to low energy and low carbon building...including a brilliant fault finding centre with six differing full size models of construction types in Thuringia...that has two hundred deliberate faults installed that the students have to locate within two hours ... I found five in the hour I was there ...but then again I wasn't really looking!!! The centre is open to the students and once a month to companies and members of the local populace... Who can come to view the house types before deciding to renovate a property or pursue a business idea... What abreast idea that is!!!
This new centre is something i would definitely like to replicate back in Burnley college... What a fantastic way of showing people what building do and what they can do to use less energy an still be comfortable to live in...
We stayed over an hour longer than we should and so we were late for our visit to the crypt in Rohr Closter ...Germany's oldest crypt at 811AD
We had a very interesting talk from the lady there who explained in detail all about the traveller kings and Otto the third.... Married at 17 and died at 27... But left one of five children to survive as his heir at the tender age of 3.5 years old!!
The church is surrounded by a walled area to protect it form centuries of pillaging and raiding by Croats , travellers and even the local monks and nuns did their share of extortion form the locals ...it is a beautiful place for a photo or three!!
David Aspin - Burnley College
The crypt was freezing and I was glad to take some photos and get back up to the sun outside... Following a short talk in the visitor centre we returned to the BCS Gastehaus and a dinner with the team
This morning we visited BTZ Rohr Aus- Weiterbuildung. This is the most modern Vocational / Renewable energy centre in Germany.
The centre caters for students who wish to learn a certain craft such as Engineering and provides a level of study to enable the student to progress to become a Master Craftsman.
As part of the visit we had a tour of the facility which included visiting the wood machine area with a demonstration of the CNC machine. The tour progressed to the welding workshop and testing area and finally concluded with a detailed discussion of injection moulding CNC engineering using both plastics and metal. The session included a brief overview of the manufacturing process including the drawing of the component using CAD Inventor.
The afternoon session included a visit to the recently opened Renewable Energy Centre which includes several construction models identifying various build forms and techniques. The models have been carefully constructed utilizing the actual materials and construction methods which have been copied from the different types of construction that have been adopted throughout the years from traditional construction to ultra modern construction methods.
Actual building defects / faults have been purposely built into the models to provide a training exercise for students to identify the faults or areas of bad practice.
The facility also includes the latest energy saving equipment which is all on display.
The final session of the day was a visit to the Rohr-Closter. This is Germanys oldest crypt dating from 811 AD. The visit included a talk which covered the history of the area and the building. The group visited the actual crypt before ending the session in the Museum.
This project will work with professionals employed in business and/ or training, responsible for designing or delivering training, professional development or career guidance. The participants will come from the Third Sector (charitable, non-profit making organisations), from the VET (vocational education and training) sector, governmental bodies, private training providers & SMEs. Participants are involved to design, plan, deliver training focusing on renewable energy technologies ranging from training in Solar PV, Solar Hot Water, Domestic Wind Generation, raising awareness on using sustainable construction methods and materials as well as delivering CO2/ Climate Change awareness training. With this Best Practice exchange we would like to give the opportunity to experience first hand how Germany has dealt with the integration of renewable energy technologies as part of their energy mix and what this meant for the development of training programmes as well as from an investment point of view. There are many lessons that can be learnt and mistakes avoided experiencing a country that has fostered renewables strategically since 1990s. The UK has made a lot of progress in the last couple of years and we wish to foster a cross-country dialogue amongst professionals in the sector to work together on local, national and international level. 
