Bayer - Eco-Minds

New Zealand | March 03, 2009

Eco-Minds Youth Forum set to challenge students

Eco-Minds New Zealand partner, The University of Auckland, is set to challenge students in a number of areas.

There is general agreement that the electricity generation sector is a good place to start when promoting Sustainability and Climate Change objectives.

For the Eco-Minds Forum in New Zealand we have decided to try and help the students understand the complexity involved in matching the aspirations of improving the sustainability of a country’s power supply system while facing the practical realities of actually implementing change and ensuring the system is still reliable and economic for the populace.

New Zealand has a variety of electricity generation types with major hydro, geothermal, oil and coal-fired, modern combined-cycle gas turbine and wind generation. Thirty years ago New Zealand considered nuclear energy.

While New Zealand has untapped renewable resources for generating electricity these come with associated practical and other problems. New Zealand has good wind velocity but the wind does not always blow and many do not like the visual pollution of a large wind turbine. Some additional hydro may be possible but irrigation, fishing, boating and other physical uses will suffer.
In addition, New Zealand’s rainfall is variable and water storage is modest. New Zealand has untapped geothermal resources but also has concern about permanent degradation of geothermal reservoir pressures. As the country moves to less thermal generation, short term wind variability and longer term rainfall issues become more critical.
Impacts on the environment and the political issues of regional impacts vs national objectives become significant.

We intend to have an Eco-Minds programme where we will challenge the students to understand the climate benefits of increasing renewable generation in parallel with plant visits to operating electricity generation stations to understand the realities of running a system which is expected to be reliable and secure.

We intend to use the options available in New Zealand to help the students understand some of the challenges and opportunities in the electricity system in their own countries. Additionally we want the students to understand that Climate Change is a global issue where all countries must co-operate to achieve an acceptable outcome. Some individual countries may be blessed with renewable power opportunities, while other countries may be able to contribute to global climate change in other ways.

We commence our programme with a keynote address from New Zealand’s acknowledged leader in renewable power projects, Dr Keith Turner, and then a presentation on the New Zealand electricity market operation. We follow this with visits to old-fashioned coal fired thermal stations, more modern gas fired combined-cycle stations, hydro stations, geothermal stations and then a virtual tour of our wind generation stations. At each location the staff involved will discuss the challenges and opportunities with the technology involved. While travelling within the country, students will observe the transmission system and understand the planning issues involved with new transmission.

We are challenging the students to listen, look, question, and try to understand the compromises in New Zealand as a window into similar issues in their own countries.

At the beginning of the forum, students will be divided into groups and given the task of putting together a group presentation on the last day. The presentations will outline their ideas on sustainable energy opportunities and challenges, not only for individual countries, but the region as a whole.

The presentations will be judged by a judging panel and an award given to the winning team.

Ť back