On Wednesday 19th October we visited the town of Penela, where we went to the ETP Sico school (Escola Tecnologica Profissonal de Sico). We viewed an electrical engineering class of students aged 18-19, who were happily designing and connecting simple household lighting circuits. The school has achieved the top Eco-Escolas Green Flag award for having a very low energy consumption.
We also visited Penela Castle, which was built to defend the town from being re-conquered by the Moors in the 11th Century. We then were received by the President of the Camara Municipal de Penela, Sr. Antonio Alves, who very kindly welcomed the delegations of Turkey, Slovakia, and the UK, and explained the administrative difficulties of a region such as Penela, with a small population of just 6,000, but with 92 villages. The education system in the region had recently been streamlined from 13 schools into just 3, with a great deal of investment, meaning that the administrative overhead had been greatly reduced, enabling much greater opportunities for the students.
Bill
The 3rd transnational meeting turned out to be very successful. We achieved all the planned activities in less time than predicted. We decided to follow what had been agreed upon at the previous meeting in London – one day would be dedicated to visits and the other would focus entirely on the meeting at the hotel. The last day should consist on the guests doing some exploring of their own.
On the first day of the meeting, we aimed to provide our guests with a general impression of how the RE vocational training course operated at ETP Sicó, from beginning to end. Our guests visited the school, where the students have their theoretical lessons; they visited the workshops, where they learn the practical side of the course; and also a company where ETP Sicó’s students get real work experience.
This last destination consisted of a visit to the Fajão Windfarm (the biggest in Portugal), in Pampilhosa da Serra, operated by the Danish firm Vestas. Here we were received by Mr. Rodrigo Pena, who is responsible for supervising all wind farms in central Portugal.
We ended the first day with what Portugal does best, Bacalhau (roasted cod fish) and red wine. Our host, Ricardo Reis did his best to receive us in his wine cellar where he had laid out a huge table amongst the wine vats. Everybody used the opportunity to get to know each other a bit more.
We began the second day of the meeting at 9:30am in the meeting room of the hotel in Coimbra. Each group gave an oral presentation of their National Report with the aid of a video projector. After we had all given our presentations we discussed possible adjustments and corrections to be made. The group coordinator – Baris Ozcelik did an excellent job moderating the work. Following this we began to discuss the preparation of the Benchmark report. All groups committed to a workplan and distribution of tasks of partners.
Following a delicious meal in a typical Portuguese restaurant near the hotel, we began planning the next meeting. It was agreed that it would be from the 29th February to the 2nd March 2011.
Finally, each group wrote an evaluation of the meeting to be placed on the group’s blog. To conclude the day’s activities we all walked to the riverside and had a farewell coffee.
Since many of the groups’ participants had to leave the following morning it was agreed that on the last day we would not meet formally, since all the objectives regarding the meeting had been achieved.
Stephen
The visit to Penela, Coimbra was quite good for we have the opportunity to see the VESTAS wind power plant and the renewable education issues are being taken seriously in this nice small town.
Renewvet team visited the workshops and the classrooms (located in different sites) of the Escola Tecnologica e Professional de Sico.
The visit to the castle and the kind reception of the local president were sparkled the day. The evening was also very enjoyable with the nice surprise of having dinner in a local wine production facility. The meetings next day helped country teams to come up with finalized outline of the country report and the deadline for completing the country reports (30th Nov., 2011) was determined.
İlker Ongun
The visit of the Portugal is very impressive for me. We see the fantastic places of Lisboa and Coimbra and also the meetings are effective. We visit the Vestas wind farm which include about 35 turbine with 115 MW rated power. We talking with Vestas technician and talking about experiences. Also we visit the Portugal group's education center ETP SICO, we talking with their vocational students about renewable energy technologies and their vocational education system. Then at the meeting, we were listen to the country reports and I think the benchmark report is will be success with this working
groups. We were compare the renewable energy status for each country group, and i think its a good chance for us to listening the country representations. We were talking about next meetings and it's
contents. Thanks for Portugal groups kind hospitality.
Fırat Salmanoglu
The 3rd project meeting started with pleasant welcome of the lovely country of Portugal at the Porto airport. We appreciated especially the warm weather The whole „Slovak“ group of participants managed to find the way to Coimbra thanks to clear instructions received from the organizers. We enjoyed the first day of interesting excursions and the visit of the wind park (not so much the travelling there, but we have managed also this part ). The overall program of the meeting went on very well, things have become clear - we all know our further tasks and finally we are looking to the organization of the next meeting in lovely winter atmosphere in Slovakia – don’t forget to bring your skis and warm gloves and caps!
Slovak Group
It was our longest trip in this project.We came to Lisbon first andstay two days.It was very enjoyable to see Lisbon from sightseeing bus. In first day in Coimbra It was a good experience to see second large wind farm of Portugal.(the way of wind farm was excellent. I feel my self on the clouds)Vestas is one of the biggest company related with wind power.we got good knowledges about capacities
maintenance, controlling the system etc. I think it is very good value to get %15 of energy from renewable for Portugal.My friends from Ankara decided to transfer as technical theacher to Penela to work with Mr Vieira after seeing conditions in his school. In the dinner no one afraid of the vine glasses will empty.Becouse it was guaranteed by the producer.At the end we nearly completed our country reports. Every thing is ok. It means we understand each other clearly. After one more step we will get main outcomes of our project. I have to say thank you for their hospitality of our Portugal partners.
Serdar
Thanks for the hospitality of ETP SICO team in Portuguese. I enjoyed much during our visitation to Penela. It was also nice to share the happiness of the 20th year of the school. I was surprised very much at our dinner and liked it too much. Considering the Renewvet project, we are coming to the end of the project and I am pretty sure that the project outputs will be useful. I am also so pleased that the partners are agreed to participate in Ege International Energy Symposium (www.egeenergy.org). This event will enable us to share the products of the project internationally. Looking forward to seeing Renewvet team in Slovekia for the next meeting.
Mete Çubukçu
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