MODESPO training session in Finland

The third
MODESPO training session took place in Finland between the 20th and 30th of
August. A group of eight teachers and lecturers from the ITC (Institute of
Technology of Cambodia) arrived to Helsinki-Vantaa airport on a cool +14C
Sunday afternoon, very typical for the Finnish summer. 

The first
week of the visit consisted mainly of lectures by different experts of TUT
(Tampere University of Technology) on different kinds of renewable energy
technologies, transmission grids and the kind. The ITC staff also got to see
many of TUT’s fancy research equipment, among all the ‘regular’ testing and
research equipment at the university. The first week also included a day visit
to the summer seminar of the Doctoral Program of Electrical Energy Engineering
(DPEEE), which is a Finnish national doctoral program organised in
collaboration with a number of research institutes and educational units. The
summer seminar was held in Murikka, which is located an hour north from Tampere
right by a lake called Näsijärvi. 
After a
week of very interesting lectures (really, most of them were interesting) the
second week was reserved for various site visits. On Monday we drove to Lahti
where we visited a Lahti Energy’s Kymijärvi II power plant. It is presumably
the first gasification power plant in the world to “efficiently generate
electricity and district heat from Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF)”. The raw
material of the SRF is energy-containing waste. At the plant the SRF is
gasified and then the gas is purified. The resulting clean ecogas is combusted
in an ordinary natural gas boiler. After a presentation of the plant and a tour
around its facilities we headed for Energon – a renewable energy research
facility funded for the most part by Lahti Science and Business Park and the EU
– where we had a close look at different biofuel testing equipment. 
Tuesday was
spent in Tampere with visits to Demola – an open innovation platform for students
and companies, Moreenia – centre for urban environment, and the Tampere power
utility. On the final day of the site visits we went to western Finland to have
a look at a wind power park and a biopower plant of Porin Prosessivoima Oy,
both located in Pori.  On our way home we
did a quick visit to the visitor centre of Olkiluoto nuclear power plant, not
renewable energy, but an interesting site nonetheless. 
All in all
the third training period turned out to be quite successful. The Cambodian delegation
headed back home with many new experiences and knowledge acquired on the latest
developments in renewable energies. The Finnish experts were also left with a
number of insights and a broader viewpoint to their own field of expertise.