Soon in Russia!

I got my Visa for Russia a couple of days ago! The main stop will be the International Youth Forum 2011 in Seliger. With areas of focus such as innovation and enterprise, sustainability and renewable energy, world politics, civil and social development and mass media, the result is certainly a perfect blend for useful learning! It will be wonderful to learn more and meet so many outstanding people from all over the world.

Altogether my stay lasts for three weeks, split between Moscow, Seliger and St. Petersburg. It will be an experience of a lifetime!

Photo: St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, Russia. Photographer: dattho

Bamboo for sustainability

Bamboo may be a major contributor to the development of sustainable materials. It´s actually a type of grass, with an extremely rapid growth. Incredibly, the length can increase with up to one meter per day! This is where the sustainability of bamboo comes in: where a common forest uses 60 years to re-vegetate, a similar area of bamboo is fully grown in only 60 days.

As a great alternative to tropical timber, bamboo can re-grow where the rainforests never grow back. Another great thing is the fact of the extreme durability: bamboo is three times stronger than oak!

To give you an idea of the volumes we´re speaking about; bamboo can grow as much as 40 meters high and 25 cm thick. The hues appear from yellow and green to dark brown and black, so the application ranges from houses, furniture, paper and tools.

Here in Norway, the company Northern Light Bamboo Centre distributes goods made of bamboo.

Solar Energy

Do you know how a solar panel actually works? The way of exploiting the energy stored in photons is quite spectacular; seemingly simple, but very complicated in a microscopic level.

The effect of a photovoltaic cell is not even close to a hundred per cent, more like sixteen to twenty. There is still lots of work to be done! The dream scenario is reaching a hundred per cent. Whether it´s physically possible is another matter... I know scientists have reached fifty in laboratories here in Norway, so we´ll get closer every day. I´m positive we´ll find even better ways of extracting the energy from sun rays in the future!

Testing an EUV in the city centre!

I have arranged an event where people can test drive an EUV (Electric Urban Vehicle, an Electric Vehicle specially adapted to urban driving) in the city centre of Trondheim. Starting twelve o´clock this Saturday and next!

The idea is to give people a chance to test an EUV in a convenient way downtown. That way people can get information about practical and environmentally friendly alternatives in everyday life, without having to take a great initiative themselves. Accessibility is the key word!

The fact that Norwegian EVs and EUVs are run by 100 % renewable energy makes them a great alternative to vehicles run by fossil fuels. With the economical advantages the Norwegian government have promoted, the total situation is in favor of the environmentally friendly alternative for transport.