- Hotel room, good sized, clean, cosy and well equipped.- Good night sleep.
AM – Pscherer gGmbh (FE College)
- Lovely crisp autumn morning. Beautiful walk through a very sleepy town to the College. Approx 25 min walk.
- Introduction by Herbert Pscherer about training college, it’s relationship within the German economic/social/education sector.
- An introductory talk on members expectations from the week ahead. Some very diverse and useful expectations were noted.
- A very instructive tour of the training facilities and demonstration rooms/equipment. This lead me to be shocked at how well equipped the place is, how expensive some of the kits are but also excited about the prospect of what can be achieved with the right approach and partnerships.
- Brief lunch break, small but pleasant cafeteria. (I think the word pleasant is going to become a cliché if it hasn’t already – sorry).
PM – Pscherer gGmbh (FE College)- Doris Wildgrube (Certified Energy Assessor), ably assisted by Dirk (translator).
- Brief overview of historical prospective on how the renewables movement started and took hold of the German psyche.
- pleasantly surprised to see the Germans embracing the agenda very early on. The Oil Crisis of the early 1970’s was a major catalyst.
- Looked at and went into some details about what legislation (federal and regional) were introduced to push the agenda forward.
- Looked at some of the standards and incentives introduced.
- A good summary of the feed-in tariffs and how they were introduced and implemented.
- Looked at how the Heating Incentives are being phased in.
- Surprised to find that the general public a little resentful of having this ‘imposed’ on them by the state. However, as stated by Doris, when the Germans decide to do something, they do it right. To the best of their ability at least. This can only be a good thing for the rest of the world. If it’s got any chance of succeeding, here is as good as any and the rest will have a positive role model to follow rather than a negative one that the saboteurs of this agenda would love to use.
- Though the subject matter seemed dry, I for one found it very instructive and from the number of questions generated during and at the end of the presentation I can only say there was a wealth of useful information and insight to be gleaned from there.
If the rest of the week is as useful as I’ve found the first, it’s going to be a real treat. Hospitality shown throughout the two days so far has been exemplary – my heart-felt thanks to all concerned
Wahid Khan
Today has been a good start to the week ahead. In the morning we had an introduction to the Pscherer gGmbH, our host. Considering that I saw some most of it already last year some of the equipment had changed and was updated, notably the heat pumps and boilers. We were shown around by Dr. Matthias Delling who explained how the equipment is being used as well as how they managed to secure such high-tech facilities.
In the afternoon we had a session on renewable energy legislation surrounding renewable energy in Germany, its roots in the 1970s oil crisis as well as early concerns by scientists and economists that we’ll run out of stuff if we continue to consume without regard for the limited nature of the earth’s resources. Again, I heard this/ translated this presentation before but since then so many small nuances in the laws and regulations had been updated to reflect the continued support by the EU, German government as well as regional interpretation of these laws. The key differences were the changes in the feed-in tariffs (length of payment, amounts paid out) and the possible combinations of renewables and the increase in funding combining solar thermal technologies (i.e. Solar Termal plus pellet boiler). The most interesting was also the final statement being made by Mrs Wildgrube on the question: “What do you think is the best renewable energy technology”, followed by the answer “There is no single best technology; it is the mix of all of them. Each technology has its application with a specific local/ regional focus.”
Dirk Bischof
I enjoyed the morning session and the tour of the facilities. The training rooms were excellent and offer a very wide range of training facilities. The afternoon session was very informative with a great deal of information shared with the group on the approach Germany is taking to support the introduction of renewable technologies with financial aid. I am looking forward to going back on Friday to the practical facilities.
David Pridmore
It was very interesting to hear about all the legislation the Germans have introduced to try to manage the market for renewable energy and create the right incentive structure to achieve a good level of take-up. It highlighted that this is far from easy and that any approach you take will have serious repercussions and needs very careful thought. The most useful thing to think about what the importance of the role of energy assessors who can genuinely help people to identify the best renewable energy solution for them – but that this requires considerable expertise and depth as well as breadth of knowledge – both of technologies and of legislation, etc..
Nick Rousseau
The training facilities were excellent and demonstrate the advantages of sustained investment and continuity in policy. The afternoon session provided a comprehensive analysis of the development of renewable energy policy in Germany. An important insight was the dangers of over regulation as a deterrent to adoption of policies which would provide tangible benefits.
Matt Dean
I also found the rigs used for the PV training and the heat source pump equipment very interesting and will seek to try to replicate some of the rigs that I have seen at Lambeth College. The range of building materials used for insulation was very comprehensive and show how much more can be done in the construction of energy efficient homes in the UK.
Martin Roach
The day demonstrated the need for a coherent national policy for renewable energy. The session provoked lots of ideas on how community action could be used to boost the renewable sector in the UK. It was clear from the presentations that no single approach is the solution. A mix of technologies and strategies is likely to be the best option for the development of renewables in the UK.
Martin Abraham
First day and have already learned so much from our kind friendly hosts. The training centre is World class and years ahead of any UK technical training facility that I have attended . The training centre has been going since 1990 and they reinvest yearly to improve on the courses and actual renewable equipment. We had a highly experienced energy assessor explain the German legislation in detail. I found this interesting as we can compare directly to the UK Government policies. Asked what technology she favoured, her response was ‘you need a holistic approach. Not one technology but an integration of different technologies depending on the site and energy reduction measures is the minimum needed’. We can learn a lot here and hope to bring back some fresh ideas.
Fergal McEntee
