Constitution Day, May 17, is a day of immense celebration in Norway. Along with the patriotic celebration, students graduating high school take to the streets in colored jumpsuits and overalls in celebration of near completion of their high school careers.
Today we toured the opera house and then got to see a performance of The Flying Dutchman. The tour showed us around the entire opera house, including the public foyer,the backstage area, and the stage.
In the backstage area we were able to see the rooms where they make the costumes for all of the performances (except for the shoes), the dressing rooms, the secret garden, and the classrooms for the students of the opera’s and ballet’s dance classes.
After the tour there was a lecture available to explain the plot of The Flying Dutchman; however, the lecture was in Norwegian so we could not understand the summary. The opera was performed in German with both English and Norwegian subtitles in the seats. The performance was captivating and enjoyable although it did have a heartbreaking ending.
It was a great day at the opera!
Portrait of Ibsen
Prior to visiting the Ibsen Museum, I knew very little about the playwright and was unsure if I would enjoy it. Contrary to what I expected, the tour was very insightful, portraying Ibsen as the interesting person he was. After traveling abroad to Germany and Italy, this house was his last and was very elaborate for the time. On display in his study he even hung a large vampire like painting of his sworn enemy. As a famous playwright, he had a large salary, yet he still lived on a budget. However, he had German beer specially imported for himself at the local cafe he visited every day to catch up on current events through German magazines and newspapers. Even his last words were interesting. When he was on his death bed, the nurse wanted to make his family feel better so she lied and said he was looking better that day, then Ibsen responded “On the contrary,” and died.
relaxing in the Statnett lobby before the tour
The Statnett headquarters is a new, distinctively Scandinavian building with clean, open space and sleek furnishings. In the lobby are screens displaying factual tidbits, a rotation of information including the current electricity production in the Nordic countries, the balance of electrical supply and demand, the exact Hertz in Norway’s outlets at the instant, and how many days since the last injury incurred in providing the essential resource to a bustling country. Statnett is the state-owned operator of Norway’s main grid. Their job is to make sure that 50 Hz is supplied to electrical outlets all the time. In reality, though, 49.9 to 50.1 Hz is acceptable. This is a tricky job because electricity cannot be stored; therefore, supply must exactly match demand or else things like blackouts can occur. And, it’s easy to understand how demand can vary month to month and minute to minute. Much more electricity is used during the winter months for heating than during the summer. Electricity use is low at night while people sleep, but peaks in the morning when people are waking up and cooking breakfast. This is followed by a lull and then another peak at dinnertime.
Oslo, Day 2 (5/15/14): Following a morning at the University of Oslo, the group headed to sea on the Bygdøy ferry to the Viking Ship Museum. Read more
On Thursday, May 15, 2014 we visited CICERO, which is the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research. The talk began with the discussion of the key actors in international climate politics. These actors are the largest emitters of greenhouse gases, and they include China, the U.S., the EU, India, Japan, Brazil, and Russia. The individuals at this center study these key actors through in-depth qualitative case studies. They include theory-based variables in their study, which relate to what they expect to contribute to mitigation policies in these countries. The individuals at this center trace complex processes and use both primary and secondary sources to enhance their studies, and their aim is to identify the same variable in all of the cases. When these variables are identified, the cases give more sound backing towards these theories.
(Retrieved from: http://www.biotek.uio.no/english/research/news-and-events/events/conferences/2013/eu-openscreen%205th%20partner%20meeting%20in%20oslo)
On Thursday morning the sun was bright and warm as we traveled to the University of Oslo’s research park to learn about Norway as a green battery. Professor Finn Forsund spoke to us about hydropower, the vital resource that allows Norway to export so much energy to nearby nations such as Sweden, Finland, and Denmark. Hydropower is especially efficient in Norway because small dams are built in the mountains using high-pressure turbines at the entrances of mountain lakes. This strategy reduces the detrimental effects of damming globally, such as landslides and rive obstruction. It was really interesting to hear that while the concern for potential changing landscapes of microclimates further along the river and ocean patterns might be disrupted, the primary environmental concerns surrounding hydropower facilities are displacement of wildlife and recreation. This highlights the noticeable difference between the mentality of Norwegians and Americans with respect to development and the environment. Read more
On Wednesday, we visited Hafslund Energy which provides district heating for the city of Oslo, Norway. I loved visiting the district heating plant because we do not have an equivalent system within the United States so we got to learn about something new.
On our first morning in Oslo, we took a lovely walk from our hostel to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, which works to promote and ensure clean, efficient, and renewable energy creation from Norway’s wide range of energy resources. As an industrialized nation, Norway’s energy consumption is high on a global scale, but comparable to that of other industrialized nations, including the United States and Canada. However, the energy use here is, unlike other countries, predominantly based on electricity. 95% of Norway’s electricity is produced by hydropower from hydropower plants fed by the nation’s many mountain lakes, but the country also takes advantage of wind, marine, bioenergy, and its expansive petroleum reserves. As we learned during our visit, this unique and diverse mixture of resources necessitates the coordination of several Norwegian state ministries in the creation of an integrated energy policy.
This cooperation, as economist Frederik Netland explained in his presentation, is evident in Norway’s body of climate change policy. Netland, of the Ministry of Climate and Environment, began his presentation by defining the joint responsibility of these two ministries as the maintenance of a successful balance of resource use with efforts in climate change mitigation and energy technology implementation. In accordance with this goal, Norway boasts an extensive and multi-faceted climate change mitigation and research initiative.
First whole day in Oslo: a morning of talks and tours followed with a bite of culture at the Munch Museum. Our puffies and parkas were suddenly irrelevant under the pleasant midday sun. We contentedly shed them. Then our flustered group shuffles into the Museum a skinny hour before it closes–just enough time to take in all its bodily paintings that expose our longing, our follies and our conditioned ruin.
Our first academic activity of our trip was our visit to the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. The word “ministry” in Norway is used similarly to the American term department; making the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy a government funded enterprise. We met with three experts at the Ministry who shared the Ministry’s latest work and their own knowledge with us. Fredrik Netland discussed Norway’s role in national and international climate change policy and recent advances in carbon capture and storage (CCS). Astrid Stavseng told us about the latest renewable energy research ideas coming from Norway. Lastly, Peter Brown discussed renewable energy implementation within Norway.
Norway is working independently and in conjunction with several other nations to set goals for themselves in reducing their emissions. Norway’s primary goals are to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and, as mandated by the Kyoto Protocol, to reduce their emissions by an equivalent of 30% of their 1990 emissions by the year 2020. Norway and Sweden have also recently joined forces in the creation of a common electricity certificate market. The two countries have set a target of 26.4 TWh of new production by the year 2020. The Ministry works in association with several public enterprises such as Energi21 and Enova to meet their research goals. Six target areas to focus research have been designated by these organizations: offshore wind, carbon capture and storage, balance power, improvement of the grid system, and electricity to heat conservation. However, most of the annual research budget of $130 million USD is being dedicated to carbon capture and storage. This is due to the fact that Norway has huge carbon storage potential, about 72 billion tons of CO2, and that CCS is the only technology that allows us to reduce emissions while continuing to use fossil fuels. Norway also has many new and exciting renewable energy concepts in the works, for example a new solar cell that absorbs green and blue light waves in addition to solely red ones.
Norway has also enacted many domestic energy policies and implementation strategies in order to reduce their emissions. These policies include strict taxes on CO2 and a carbon trading system throughout the European Union. Norway has already made great strides in their mission to reduce their carbon footprint, and the country has reached virtual carbon neutrality for their electricity usage. This is in part due to the fact that although Norway has a high electricity consumption rate per capita, their low population density of about 5 million individuals makes it easier for them to live off of renewables than it would be for countries with larger populations, such as the United States. Additionally, Norway is home to large hydropower reservoirs with huge energy potential. Although this resource is incredibly consistent, it is largely defined by weather and precipitation, which cannot be predicted. This has caused a need to research other technologies that can be better controlled and predicted. This is where the research enterprises mentioned earlier, such as Enova, come into play. These ventures develop new energy technologies and look into more efficient and flexible uses of energy. Norway has taken advantage of their wealth and favorable geographic circumstances to research and implement many renewable energy technologies and incentives.
After our long journey, our class arrived at the wonderful country of Norway! We picked up our Reisekort cards (to be used on the Oslo public transit systems) and our luggage, and headed over to Anker Hostel! The atmosphere was lovely, and seemed to encourage a traveler’s mindset. Thus, we decided to ignore our desire to sleep and headed for the Botanical Gardens! The gardens were beautiful, and the nice greenery was interspersed with amazing willow sculptures of mushrooms, maple seedlings, and other natural sights, brought in for the garden’s 200th anniversary. The afternoon was a great start to our amazing trip for the next few weeks!
We’re about to embark on an adventure: a 3-week trip to Norway to learn about renewable energy and global warming mitigation. Students will be writing about our trip, so please come back soon to check for updates!
