We visited the University of Technology and Science (NTNU), specifically the Department of Energy and Process Engineering, as a part of our first full day in Trondheim, Norway. This department at NTNU focuses on energy production and utilization through both renewable and nonrenewable resource research. NTNU works in collaboration with SINTEF, the research institution we also visited during our first full day in Trondheim. If you’ve been following along with our blog posts thus far, you’ll know that the majority of our lectures thus far have focused on specific energy types and technical aspects about these different energies, also similar to the renewable energy class we took during the spring semester at Colgate. The lecture at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering focused on having hope in current students to solve today’s energy and global warming crises, a welcomed change in focus and a topic that directly addressed our lives as students at Colgate. The lecture began with a quote – “Energy is not just about money and economic growth. Energy is about the lives of the people on this planet.” NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering drives itself with a single question – how can we produce enough clean energy in order to provide for a growing population and to create a sustainable and peaceful society? According to NTNU, it’s up to us as students.
Students at NTNU are creating an energy revolution by finding solutions for how to create a globally sustainable society. The laboratory at NTNU that we visited serves as a homebase for up and coming renewable energy technologies. Technologies we explored included a water heater controlled by carbon dioxide, which means that carbon dioxide can be captured from the air in order to heat water in our homes, a clothing dryer run through a similar process, and carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies, among many others.
Although NTNU serves as a platform for innovative technologies that could potentially solve our global energy crisis, the researchers and students working there also recognize that many of their projects have huge barriers between the current research phase and actual implementation. Public opinion, maintenance and installation costs, and energy costs were all major concerns discussed. Not only is it up to students like those at NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering to dive head first into groundbreaking research on renewable energy technology, it is also up to students focusing on social sciences to figure out how these technologies can fit into the present state of our global society and Today we visited the University of Technology and Science (NTNU), specifically the Department of Energy and Process Engineering, as a part of our first full day in Trondheim, Norway. This department at NTNU focuses on energy production and utilization through both renewable and nonrenewable resource research. NTNU works in collaboration with SINTEF, the research institution we also visited during our first full day in Trondheim. If you’ve been following along with our blog posts thus far, you’ll know that the majority of our lectures thus far have focused on specific energy types and technical aspects about these different energies, also similar to the renewable energy class we took during the spring semester at Colgate. The lecture at the Department of Energy and Process Engineering focused on having hope in current students to solve today’s energy and global warming crises, a welcomed change in focus and a topic that directly addressed our lives as students at Colgate. The lecture began with a quote – “Energy is not just about money and economic growth. Energy is about the lives of the people on this planet.” NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering drives itself with a single question – how can we produce enough clean energy in order to provide for a growing population and to create a sustainable and peaceful society? According to NTNU, it’s up to us as students.
Students at NTNU are creating an energy revolution by finding solutions for how to create a globally sustainable society. The laboratory at NTNU that we visited serves as a homebase for up and coming renewable energy technologies. Technologies we explored included a water heater controlled by carbon dioxide, which means that carbon dioxide can be captured from the air in order to heat water in our homes, a clothing dryer run through a similar process, and carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies, among many others.
Although NTNU serves as a platform for innovative technologies that could potentially solve our global energy crisis, the researchers and students working there also recognize that many of their projects have huge barriers between the current research phase and actual implementation. Public opinion, maintenance and installation costs, and energy costs were all major concerns discussed. Not only is it up to students like those at NTNU’s Department of Energy and Process Engineering to dive head first into groundbreaking research on renewable energy technology, it is also up to students focusing on social sciences to figure out how these technologies can fit into the present state of our global society and how we can make implementation occur on a global scale, a reflection of the liberal arts education we receive as students at Colgate.