We Have the Energy

It sure is good to be an engineering student in the Nordic leader of energy technology.  Vaasa may only be home to about 2% of the Finnish population, but the companies here are responsible for 30% of Finland's exports in energy technology. EnergyVaasa, the nickname for the cluster of companies, turns over 4.4 billion euro every year and employs 11,000 people. I'd say that's pretty cool for a town the size of Rapid City.

Every year Vaasa holds EnergyWeek, a week-long conference for engineers, scientists, investors, and anyone who is interested in energy technology.  I was looking forward to this since before I arrived in Vaasa, expectant of the skills that this semester could teach me to enhance my ability as an upcoming engineer.

And the week did not disappoint. I got a refreshing dose of lectures on wind and solar energy management, energy efficiency of buildings, liquid natural gas networks, biogas, and the future of energy production in Europe. I came home to my apartment at the end of the week with 19 pages of notes to go through, a pile of booklets about the energy cluster and some of its companies, and a renewed desire to use my career to improve the environmental sustainability of the built environment.

I got to talk to the General Secretary of the European Biogas Association about how scary winter bike riding in the Nordic countries can be, I heard a speech from the Ministry of the Environment, I heard how Scotland is using Finland's influence to improve their journey to carbon neutrality. I heard about the next big city planning project for Vaasa and how the engineers are planning to incorporate up-and-coming energy technologies to make the massive building project more environmentally friendly. It was just a really cool week.

And who knows? Maybe one day I'll get the chance to attend it again during my own career.