Journal Entry #18- Finished draft

I have finished the first draft of my report now and the final draft is due in three days. I have worked for many hours and weeks on my project, currently my major issue is that I still need to cut down on the word limit by around 1,000 words, which I am in the process of doing at the moment. Also, my mentor mentioned that overall I have done a good job with my report, however there were a couple of minor things that still needed to be improved in order to fit this to the criteria of the MYP even more.

For me this was a great opportunity in order to receive precise and constructive criticism in order to improve my report. It is always a great idea to hand in a first draft, since one has the possibility to improve. My mentor had given me a lot of feedback, especially regarding punctation and sentence structure, which I have worked on a lot since then.

I now have a couple of days left to finish my work and do my very best at it!

Journal Entry #17 - Interview with Prof. Dr. rer.pol. Georg Erdmann

A couple of weeks ago, I interviewed a specialist about energy:

I interviewed him about general things that were happening in the world right now, German Energiewende or the UN Coference in Paris. For me it was very interesting to talk to an expert, I learned a lot about what is going on in the world at this point in time. In my opinion, it is very important when researching, to always know what is going on in the world right now and have a sense of how it relates to your topic of interest, in my case the improvement of energy efficiency.

Below is the interview:

Interview with Prof. Dr. Erdmann

Member of the independent expert commission – energy of the future on behalf of the Federal German government

1.     What do you think about the German “Energiewende“?

·      A very ambitious project

·      Which was decided in the context of facing out nuclear power

·      Does not only address the transformation of electricity sector, but also development of renewables and energy efficiency in the field of heating, cooling and transportation

·      The time horizon of the energy is 2015

2.     Are we progressing with the German Energiewende?

·      Ambigous

·      In the field of renewable electricity generation Germany is ahead of schedule, whereas in the field of energy efficiency the progress is insufficient

·      However, it is not so easy to be successful in the field of energy efficiency, because rather many consumers are involved.

3.     Do you agree with the concept?

·      I would say it has a lot of possible benefits, the most important one being innovation

·      Germany represents a market for new technologies and energy solutions, which go far beyond the renewable innovation technologies

·      An example is smart meters and smart grids, which aim to integrate renewable energy sources into electricity markets

·      The Disadvantage of the system is that politicians have the intention to steadily increase interventions into energy markets, this creates an uncertainty on the side of the market participants which itself is a reason for slow progress

4.     Which energy sources in general to do you agree with most? What do you think about renewable energy sources in general?

·      In principle it should be without environmental emissions, it particular green house gas emissions, thus wind energy and solar energy are attractive

·      However, in evening periods without wind, a system of wind and solar energy alone cannot provide a sufficient supply.

·      Therefore, it is the task to accomplish the wind and solar system with technologies that could solve this issue.

·      To mention some storage devices, like demand response systems, backup generators based on natural gas

5.     What do you think about measuring for the project?

·      I think you project is an important element for the energiewende, because only if the structure of the energy consumption is known, generators and the energy market can solve the supply issues including these technologies.

·      The follow up issue is, that with the digitalization of the industry and the society, more and more data will be avaliable

·      The next step is then how to take optimal use of this information.

6.     What do you think about the declining oil and coal import prices around the world?

·      The decline of oil prices is a challenge to the energy transformation

·      The declining oil and coal import prices represent a challenge for the Energiewende, because it reduces the competitiveness of new technologies

·      The price drop is partly the result of geopolitical development, but I would assume that if the energiewende become a model for other countries, we should expect other countries to also use less oil and coal so that the prices will remain low

·      When the energy transformation was developed, this price scenario was not expected, perhaps because the government has not thought deeply enough about this problem.

7.     The climate conference in Paris is just recently over, what do think about their goals? Are they achievable?

·      Of course, the goal is achievable, however the question is whether there is enough happening.

·      It is quite challenging to move from international negotiations and statements because there is resistance of many actors has to be expected and is quite ambitious to overcome.

Journal Entry #16 - Reflection of the last workshop

Yesterday I had my  last workshop.

The workshop lasted around 40 minutes and I first explained the best and worst scores for each students. After that I made concrete suggestions for how the energy efficiency for each of the six appliances can be improved. After that I passed out the documents with a graph and table of values for each of the six appliances for each individual student. The group was very attentive and asked interesting questions. The workshop was very successful, since not only the other contests learned a lot, but also myself. Now everyone knows more about the energy efficiency in their household and nows what specifically can be done to improve this, by saving money whilst helping the environment.

Journal Entry #15 - Preparing for last workshop

I have now finished to plan for my last workshop.

In this workshop I will create documents for each individual student about the energy consumption in their household. Each document will include graphs and tables. Also, throughout my workshop I will always include suggestions on how people are able to improve the energy efficiency in their household. These suggestions can include using a different appliance or how your appliances can be made more efficient. For this I have always constructed detailed background information including analyzing the students data in depth.  My suggestions are based on how the environment can be helped but also costs can be saved, I included quotes, statistics and tables.

The workshop then took place on the: 18th January. 

Journal Entry #14- Reflection of second workshop

At the beginning and in the first workshop, I had a lot of complications with transferring the data, since it was unable to read the data. I have therefore placed in new batteries and was able to transfer the data more easily and accurately. Luckily the batteries were the issue and for the four people in the second workshop, I was able to transfer their data.

I then decided that i should have at least 5 sets of data, therefore I also measured the energy efficiency in my household. Now for my final project report I will have five sets of data.

The workshop worked really well, everybody was attentive and quickly new how to use the data instrument. i reminded every student every day not to forget to measure the instrument, which helped the people to measure more accurately over the 24 hour period. Overall, my workshop was very effective ;)!

Journal Entry #13- My second workshop

A couple of days ago I had my second workshop with four other classmates. Again, I can say that it was a very attentive group who will measure 6 different instruments over a time period of 9 days. I have also for this group started to remind them every day, to make sure I have accurate data in the end. Here are some pictures of what it looked like:

Journal Entry #12- Reflection of first workshop

After now having completed the first workshop already, I have now transferred the data onto my laptop.

Using an SD card which was inserted into the laptop, I was able to transfer the data onto my laptop. Unsing a self-instlling program, the data can be analyzed using graphs within the program. For me personally, this was a completely new experience since it was the first time I had ever used this program. At the beginning, I had a lot of complications with transferring the data, since it was unable to read the data. The data that appeared on my laptop was unable to transfer into the program. Sometimes the data did not transfer onto the laptop, and sometimes the SD card would not work.

I have then decided to re-visit the Technische University Berlin, to talk to a professor, however he was also unable to find the issue. Later that evening, she called me to tell me that the Batteries might have been the problem. I have therefore placed in new batteries, however had to take into account that all other data from the first workshop was lost.

I now hope that the second workshop will be better and that due to the new batteries in the instrument, the data is able to transfer in the second workshop.