Thursday 6 January 2011

Partnership Meeting I (Ankara)

Day I





Renewable Energy is our responsibility to our grandchildren. So, it is our future. People recognizing this reality and working on it will make all the difference. When I meet our group, I saw these kind of people making a difference.

Everybody was so positive and motivated on the subject. Presentations of partner institutions showed that the selection of partners was very successful. I’m amazed that all that structure has been established in only a week.


In the afternoon, a school visit took place. Although our school didn’t have so much to offer especially at the end of the day, it was a nice welcoming of our friends made me happy. Because, I didn’t have so much time to organize school visit, considering I spent most of my time in local directorate rather than the school. Many thanks to the colleagues in our school.

Baris

We arrived in Ankara after a very long flight from London via Munich and got to Ankara around lunch time. We were picked up by a friendly cab service waiting for us at the airport. Then we went to our hotel in the new district of Ankara, just outside the city centre. We noticed that not many people in Ankara wear seatbelts - not even the police. This is a very interesting experience coming from the UK (being born in Germany) where seatbelt enforcement is so strict and the fines (at €60) are prohibitively high.

Dirk Bischof

Day II



At the beginning of the meeting partners presented their institution with interesting information in order to give way for further cooperation. The afternoon’s visit to the Mimar Sinan Vocational School convinced the group that the Turkish are a very kind and hospitable people. The common dinner in the Irish Pub (hooray there is an Irish Pub in Ankara) was a pleasant conclusion of the first working day of the RENEWVET Partnership.

Review of the project outcomes and tasks took place in a friendly atmosphere and we continued by visiting the METU – Middle East Technical University and Center for Solar Energy research and applications. It was a nice experience to return back to the university and remember how we covered thin layers, subsidized semiconductors by ions or created conductive layers of the silicon chips. The evening continued in the traditional Turkish Kebab Restaurant – Mangal and Turkish beer in Hayylam Pub.

Zuzana and Loreta

This partnership project is very exciting for us as we are together with new project partners we've not worked with before. This is always interesting as new ideas and ways of working can be explored collaboratively and new lessons can be learned. The topic of Renewable Energy is at the heart of what Embrace does and we wish to share our experiences with anyone interested. There is still quite a difference in the uptake of renewables in all partner countries and on the first day we heard very interesting presentations from all partners about the state of renewables in their countries and regions, together with a partner introduction.

Dirk Bischof

Day III



I would never have imagined that all the tasks would have been distributed between partners in 20 minutes. Everybody was ready to take responsibility, but special thanks to Dirk and Mete for taking even more. After the meeting we went sightseeing, the mausoleum was magnificent, as it is always used to be.The panoramic war section of the museum was also very good, the emotional speech of the soldier guiding us was really interesting. The Castle offered traditional things to buy , taking this opportunity, Stephen spent all his money . The dinner at the Mangal restaurant was very relaxing after all the mornings rush. Extremely spicy Turkish foods were the main subject of the evening. I am looking forward our next meeting and a walk around Hyde Park, too. Warmest Regards from cold Malmö.

Baris

Its amazing to see how diverse this partnership actually is, from universities to NGO's, vocational high schools to commercial companies. This makes for an interesting learning experience. This project will help us to further understand renewables in a European context and also the similarities, differences and country specific specific context for training and development in this area. Nothing will go forward in this sector unless there are well trained operatives being able to design, install and maintain renewable energy equipment - be it Solar PV, hydro, or wind power. Vocational training should be at the heart of every country establishing feed-in laws and other incentive schemes.

Dirk Bischof

Our impressions of the meeting held in Ankara were very positive. ETP Sicó Penela - represented by Mr. Guilherme Vieira, Director of the vocational school in Penela, and myself, Stephen Thomas, can safely say that all objectives proposed in the schedule organized by Mr. Baris Ozcelik were achieved.

On the first day of the meeting, each of us introduced our respective institutions and explained in English what exactly we did regarding renewable energies. After seeing a presentation on the vocational system in Turkey we were given a very interesting tour of Mimar Sinan Vocational High School. Here we observed how renewable energies were taught on a vocational level.

On the second day of the meeting we began by presenting the situation of renewable energies in our respective countries. After lunch we began by discussing the objectives, results, expected impacts dissemination and communication between partners. All participants agreed that part of our project would consist of creating common country reports that would follow the same layout for each one. Following a short break, the visiting partners were taken to Ankara University where they were shown how photovoltaic solar panels were being developed in Turkey.



Finally, in the morning of the third and last day of the meeting, we established a work plan and timetable of future meetings. All partners made a positive evaluation of the meeting. During the afternoon we were taken on a tour of Ataturk’s mausoleum, which provided a valuable insight into Turkey’s past and present. ETP Sicó Penela was pleased to note that, during the course of all of the meetings, we were accompanied by a member of the Ministry of Education, Mr. Ismet Kebapci, who was also a valuable source of information. In addition to this, we were delighted with the accommodation and transport organized by our host, Mr. Ozcelik, to whom we would like to say a special thank you.

Stephen Thomas