Skiing in October!

Snow arrived in Trondheim three days ago! I got a wonderful, almost mid- March feeling. I´ve been skiing three days in a row, and I don´t plan to stop until the snow melts.

It will be fantastic if we get a snowy winter! Not like the much talked- about season three winters ago, when the snow arrived on the 12th of February...

I took this photo on my way back from one of my skiing trips (skating, just in case someone wondered). It was just as beautiful as it seems!

Going to India!!

I can´t believe it! My friend Leon Prebeau Menezes from Canada and I got to the finals in Mind Odyssey! We´re going to the WPC- Petrotech Youth Forum conference in India next week.

The conference is about solving the energy crisis and securing energy in the future, emphasizing clean power and innovative ideas. The conference will be held in New Dehli from 1st of November.

We got to the finals for our paper about the intersecting geothermal energy and the oil industry. In short, it´s about the transformation of the oil industry; from drilling after fossil fuels to producing renewable energy.

Right now, I´m absolutely thrilled! I would love to go to India, learning more about the energy future and presenting our idea. A great opportunity!

I´ve got one concern though: I need a VISA! It´s got to be fast, so I really hope it works out. I´ll get up at 6:00 am tomorrow to call the embassy.

Solar Thermal Energy

Here is another way of exploiting solar energy. Using the heat from the photons to produce steam is even more effective than using photovoltaic cells. That´s why this technology is used for most solar power plants. For now it´s the best solution, but I´m positive we´ll find even better ways of extracting the energy from sun rays in the future!

How Solar Energy Panels Work

I´m deeply fascinated by solar energy. There are several ways of exploiting the energy from the sun, some more effective than others. It´s great to know how things work. I think this is a good (though quite simplified) explanation!

Thoughts about energy

In general: human attempts to tame the nature tend to give a backlash. We create more problems than we solve, hurting ecosystems (and thereby ourselves) rather than helping. The frightening thing is that we often don´t realize the damage until it´s too late, and so we have to put out the fire instead of treading carefully and avoiding it in the first place. Preventing problems is always better than mending.

No energy source is without complications, so it´s not easy finding the perfect solution. Maybe there is none; maybe we have to pick "the best of the worst options" That´s a little pessimistic, but it´s obvious we can´t keep going like the western countries have done since the industrialization.

It´s really hard, isn´t it? There´s no way we can find all the raw material needed for renewable energy constructions in a sustainable way. The technology used for covering all our energy consumption is complex, no matter what energy source is used. Also, they often demand rare and/ or valuable raw materials.

I guess the best option is to NOT waste energy in the first place. Increased efficiency, saving energy and recycling might be the best ways to reduce emissions. The less we use, the less energy we need, and a larger part can be covered by renewable energy.

Geothermal energy revolution?

One of the reasons why I wanted to visit Iceland was the volcanic activity. The island is located on the crack between the tectonic plates of America and Europe, making the geography ideal for using geothermal energy. As a matter of fact, sixty per cent of Iceland´s inhabitants use energy from communal geothermal power plants, and in total as much as eighty per cent use the heat from the ground.

Geothermal heat is pure, renewable energy. As 99 per cent of the earth has a temperature above 1000 degrees celsius, the potential is enormous. Think about the immense opportunities!

For the best results in geothermal energy, we´re looking for the so-called "super critical water", which is found at almost four hundred degrees celsius and 10 000 meters plus. Energy

extracted from these resources can be compared with nuclear energy, but without any waste problems. It´s all natural energy!

But wait; 10 000 meters. That´s deep! But not unaccessible. I know an industry that has specialized in deep drilling...

I think the oil industry could be of invaluable help for geothermal energy; just think about it. They can, with some upgrades, provide the technology for utilizing geothermal heat resources. The industry has money, power and technical knowledge of how to drill to such depths and bring liquids up to the surface. Some oil test sites actually operate down to 12 000 m. Meaning

they know how to calculate and operate the equipment at the immense pressure and

temperature down there.

We need the financial and technical power behind the oil industry, and the industry itself needs to adapt to a green future. Isn´t geothermal energy ideal

for the case?

Geothermal heat can be extracted directly outside cities and energy intensive industry, so transportation problems for the electricity are limited. You can also produce it anywhere on earth, as long as you get deep enough into the ground.

To get geothermal energy cheaper and more available, we need a strategy. My idea is a cooperation project for exchanging knowledge, financial power and technology accross borders and academic fields.

The pictures are from my visits to Geysir and the geothermal power plant producing energy to all of Reykjavik. Impressive indeed! One last fun fact: did you know that they transport the hot water underneath the roads to keep them free of ice during the winter?

I just arrived home from my wonderful trip to Iceland. The diving course in Silfra was great, so I really want to keep up my progression! It´s like discovering a new world. And to think about all the amazing possibilities! I´m seriously going to enjoy visiting new diving sites in the coming years.

The fact that we used dry suits in 2 degrees cold water is great, because I feel like I became comfortable with diving in really tough conditions. Going to dive in 25 degrees in Indonesia doesn´t seem so frightening any more...