A successful case of Networking

The collaboration between SELECT and EPPEI

Living the Innoenergy experience means that soon or later, you must face "networking". This word will be told you with the solemn tone of a religious commandment, with the gravity of a fundamental law. The principle states that every situation is good for introducing yourself, for connecting with other people and catching opportunities. Even though it may be perceived as an unnatural effort in the beginning, it is the perfect approach to tackle the big challenges in front of us.  

I understood this more clearly recently, having had the opportunity to collaborate for a project, with a South African university, together with my group mates from SELECT. 

Meeting at North West University, one of the partner institutes of EPPEI, with Prof Stuart Piketh

Everything started during the SELECT Spring Seminar, last May in Eindhoven. One of the presentations was held by Prof. Louis Jestin, the creator and director of Eskom Power Plant Engineering Institute (EPPEI). One step back: Eskom is the main electricity public utility of South Africa. Within this company, five years ago, EPPEI was launched, a master program that connects the 8 most important technical universities of the country, with the purpose of creating skilled power engineers that will solve, in a medium-term perspective, the challenges of the national electrical infrastructure: grid robustness, environmental impact, asset renovation, start-up of renewables and many others. Does this sound familiar to you? 


Innoenergy and EPPEI happen to be very similar in the trust put in education, but they are somehow complementary in the means to achieve the objective: while we constantly look for the “game changing” idea (our second holy commandment), our South African friends are focused on the creation of dexterous engineers, masters of power plants, and reliable choice makers. The match between the two entities comes natural, and this is why Louis Jestin was giving a very animated presentation in Eindhoven last May, foreseeing the chance of a fruitful collaboration.
The group (almost) complete at NWU

Thanks to Davide Liviero’s incredible networking skills (he will kill me for this), we got in contact with Louis and we decided to get involved in one of the Eskom-EPPEI projects, that became our “integrated Project of the Year” (one of the curricular courses of SELECT). We focused on the Eskom offset plan, that aims to improve standards of living in the poorest settlements of the country, while reducing air pollution, mainly due to domestic coal burning. But I will not spoil any further. In the next post I will reveal more about this project, for which I have a particular enthusiasm. I would just like to thank Innoenergy for funding the flights of our trip to South Africa, and EPPEI professors, staff and students of course, for being so welcoming towards us. Because it was not only about the knowledge we got, but also about the inspiring people we met: professionals with a vision of the goal and a clear idea of the ways to reach it.

Two SELECT students remained in South Africa and they are already writing their thesis in Stellenbosch in this moment. We hope that this collaboration will be fueled by new projects and new exchanges soon, and to see South African students next year, sitting in KTH or UPC classes. Because we believe in the value of networking. We called it community, it echoed ubuntu.

A Case for the Best Master's Program


Today marks two years that I applied for the InnoEnergy Master’s program. Little did I know how much my life would change just by taking that step. The deadline for the first round to apply for all programs is rapidly approaching – only a few days away! If you have any doubt about applying for this incredible adventure, read this and you will be scrambling to fill in your application.

Being a part of the SELECT Master’s, I have travelled to Krakow, Poland, Eindhoven, Netherlands and Stockholm, Sweden, each for one week; on top of the fact that I lived in Barcelona, Spain for one year and Lisbon, Portugal for five months. We have learned about so many other cultures and made friends from several different backgrounds.  InnoEnergy is truly a program of mobility and through this, we have met other students from all over the world who are all striving for the same thing: create a sustainable future.

Some fellow SELECTers and I at the 2016 European Utility Week in Barcelona, Spain - an opportunity afforded to us by being a part of InnoEnergy!
The InnoEnergy CommUnity has also been one of the most incredible parts of the Master’s for me. Being a representative has helped me enrichen my leadership skills and learn how to plan events that inspire and educate. Through the CommUnity I have also been fortunate to participate in meetings around Europe that show the drive and determination we all have to become the largest community of students striving for sustainability in the world.

This is a unique Master’s program, unlike any other: you get an education from two different universities in two different countries, friends from around the world that will be your InnoEnergy family for life and skills that will open many possibilities for you when you (sadly) finish.

Two years ago, I could not have imagined the person I would be today. InnoEnergy has helped develop me into a leader, one that aims to inspire and create the most sustainable world we want to be a part of. So what are you waiting for? Go apply and become the change!

Sharing – how far it can go ?

This is not a post about the popular Facebook option. Still, feel free to share this J
In todays fast and modern lifestyle, quite often we neglect some things which on first sight might appear irrelevant or not significant. Sharing is one of them. Although it is not popular topic, for sure it has importance and affects our lifestyle.
Throughout the history, people shared most of the key resources for their survival – the caves as cover, fireplaces, water wells and many other things. Along with development, the key resources were increasing, but the sharing was decreasing. Since the start of construction of houses, and having private properties, the effect of sharing started to decrease.
Today we live in a world where personal goods/devices are at the highest possible level. Most of the people have their own home, car, electronic devices, cooking equipment and the other necessary things for their daily activities. Why would we need sharing now?
Well, that was a good question and in the same time it was quite difficult to answer – since Uber. Uber is considered one of the pioneers of the emerging sharing economy. Using Uber while being in the cities and BlaBlaCar when you are looking for longer distance travelling have you quite well covered, wherever you may want to travel. By sharing the transport, you care for your budget and the environment. Shared transport means less fuel consumption – which brings double benefit – less expenses and less emissions in the atmosphere. Win-win situation.

While Uber is worldwide known, there are some very interesting ideas growing that haven’t got that much attention yet.  First in the line is – the sharing of tools. This “library of things” is growing fast, and most of their customers are delighted with their innovative approach. Being able to rent a specialized tool which you can’t afford to buy and/or don’t use often, is a great way to have your work done, keeping your budget safe and your storage place not overfilled in the process. Globally, this should result in decreased production of certain devices, leading to smarter use of resources, and decreased energy consumption for production and reducing the waste. This is a growing trend, displayed in several different ways around the global, according to local preferences.

Next coming are the smart cities. This is quite fancy term, used frequently in this period. But what about sharing cities? This initiative in Europe is concentrated on sharing experience in the effort of implementing smart solutions in several cities, with shared funding. Sharing the costs and the risks, comes as a mutual benefit for all the participants in the initiative.


In today’s world, driven by innovation and entrepreneurship, the question arise – Is there a limit in the sharing world? All the positive examples show that it can find its place in many different situations, and most of the time the benefits are multiple. Sharing comes as one more approach directed to improving life quality of citizens, due to decreased costs for same services, and in the same time decreasing the impact of our modern lifestyle on the environment. Once again, win-win situation.

Flipped class room with distance education



Can you imagine learning from teachers far away from your country in staying your home country? As we know now in the world most of the potential teachers are from the northern hemisphere and most of the postgraduate students are from the southern hemisphere. So many of the students moves to get an education from foreign countries by leaving their home two years, three years, maybe more than by spending more money on it. Some students are wasting time and waiting for many years to get an opportunity with scholarship due to their low economy.

But can you think about learning for those potential teachers from your home, your home country by hanging with your computer? Answering teacher’s questions as well as asking and clarifying your questions live from them. Connect globally student network, make some friends all over the world from your place, without leaving your country?

Here is that, for now that is not just a concept, KIC InnoEnergy have pitched their first trial on flipped classroom regarding MSc SELECT (Pathways for Sustainable Energy Systems) two-year degree programme. Teachers from Sweden, Spain, Italy and other European countries teaching their lessons through the online portal. Students from Barcelona in Spain and Stockholm in Sweden connecting partly online and Students from Sri Lanka (http://www.innoenergy.com/the-future-of-global-education-the-remote-select-programme-has-launched/) taking all the lessons, Quizzes and submissions through the Internet. While final examinations are getting through local invigilator and send those to the teachers. And the same time, students and teachers are gathering for the few occasions like fall seminar, spring seminar, ESADE business crash course and master school kickoff event to interact remote students each other in their first year.
Image may contain: 9 people, people standing and indoor
2016/2017 MSc SELECT remote Sri Lanka Batch with Prof. Torston (Left: Janitha Ekanayake, Lalitha Srilal, Sachintha Rathnayake, Ruchira Abeyweera (Sri Lankan Coordinator, Sachini Wimalasiri, Pfof. Torston, Mihirani Kathumalika, Lathika Attanayake)

As the student of first fully remote student group I have gotten many opportunities from flipped classroom concept. I got an opportunity to stay in my home and attend all the lectures through this and build lots of contacts from various students in various cultures. And the same time with interactive sessions in Stockholm, Germany we may able to strong connection between teachers as well as other students in Sweden, Spain and another country in the consortium. Then we may able to expend more with my family rather than move to another country.

But as well as the remote studies programme is designed to take second year from another Europe university except first year university and move there to complete the degree programme. But we can reduce time period that expends in the abroad and get maximum out from the new concept called flipped class room. Therefore, this is the modern era of the educated and each of the students in all over the world can fulfill their educational requirements easily and this is a good choice for future students who are seeking to spend more in the home country.

How Sustainable is your Lifestyle?


We live in a time of rapid change, a time of progress. Filtering the huge amount of information, we receive every day is a difficult task. One major problem that has received a lot of attention and discussion the past years is our ecological footprint. But before starting to elaborate on this topic and in order to have an overall understanding, we need to establish a clear definition of the term “ecological footprint”.

According to WWF, the most accurate way to describe ecological footprint would be to call it the impact of a person on the environment, expressed as the amount of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods and services necessary to support a particular lifestyle. If this is confusing to you, I would dare to propose another definition and call it the amount of environment we sacrifice daily in order to continue our way of living. The questions that arise immediately in my mind are; Do we know our impact to the environment? Can we measure it? Can we (at least) estimate the damage we do every day?

Environmental science tries to find answers for all these questions. Nevertheless, there are many powerful ways to live more sustainably and that involves action that can be taken from us, e.g., energy conservation can become an energy source itself. Consuming energy wisely in our daily lives can reduce drastically the total amount of energy consumption in our households. Energy awareness might sound a cliché topic but is important to realize how much can be achieved daily, monthly, or even yearly if we simply consume the amount of electricity we need. Although energy efficiency, including thermal building conventions, has improved greatly during the years, studies have shown that energy use does not seem to be on the mind of the typical consumer. It seems that we are putting so much effort on creating more sustainable and efficient energy systems while human behavior does not change easily, even when small economic incentives are used to reduce electricity consumption.

Moreover, several other practical ways to reduce our environmental impact can be found including recycling, proper disposal of plastics, saving water, move with public transportation, eating locally etc. Even if it is just one person, collectively, difference can be made. With knowledge and information becoming more accessible nowadays, environmental awareness can grow and going one step further, innovative solutions inspired by young entrepreneurs can support this movement.

Today, while the majority of people talk about sustainability, the serious environmental organizations have a common goal; to save what is left. A recent documentary that addresses the impact of human activities to climate change can be found here. Most people when the conversation shifts to environmental issues, they will all agree, but this is not enough to solve the current situation. Now, more than ever, it becomes a necessity for people who want to create a better future, to share their knowledge and inspire other people, not with words, but with action.

How to gift green this year


If there is one time of the year where you are missing family and friends more than ever whilst studying abroad, it is the Christmas season. This is exacerbated by the fact that the majority of fellow foreign friends that you have undoubtedly made in your new city, go home if their homes are near enough. Coming from South Africa, 13 hours or so of flying and exorbitant airline prices over the festive period made it difficult for me to return home, and although I sorely missed our warm summery Christmas-by-the-pool-side traditions, Stockholm brought many wintry delights my way: snow, ice skating and beautiful Christmas lights. I was also grateful for one other thing: no requirement to purchase Christmas presents.

Not that I don’t love presents (giving and getting!), but over Christmas this tends to become a feeding frenzy and marketing teams are working their hardest to ensure you purchase things your most likely don’t need. The generation of waste in developed countries such as Europe is quite astounding to investigate (see this article for more stats on this), and although European countries have some of the best waste handling programs in the world (recycling, re-use and minimum waste-to-landfill), it must be noted that much of the old clothing and technology that people get rid of here, ends up in a second-hand market somewhere in a developing country. And although that sounds like everything is fine and well, the generation and consumption of these consumables still greatly outweighs the second-hand benefits, and leads to an accumulation. Synthetic materials, as you can imagine, take many, many years to break down (up to 1 000 years for sneakers)!

Fortunately for the world over, there are many alternative presents to buy in order to let your loved ones know you are thinking of them. My particular favorite, is the buying of trees. Greenpop, a South African-born social enterprise that plant trees, food gardens and perform workshops on eco-education, have a nifty ‘Gift Trees’ option on their website. The trees cost very little, and are planted in reforestation projects in Southern Africa. When you buy one, it comes with a cute personalized certificate that you can pass on to your family and friends – over email – with no waste generation at all on your part, and all the warm fuzzies for bettering the planet in the festive period, where I’m sure transport-induced CO2 levels sky-rocket (quite literally). And there are more just like this: check out Grow-Trees, and Friends of Trees and find the one which best embodies your tree-planting dreams.

Now, this post would surely have been more useful before Christmas than after, I am aware – but as the Chinese proverb goes: ‘The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.’ -  I hope you can find a use for tree-gifting in 2017!

 [Image source: http://www.presreed.com/sites/default/files/press-release/files/Image_3.jpg ]

Namaste InnoEnergy - Mastering Renewable Energy

नमस्ते !
India plans to build and execute massive solar power projects as part of its renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022. Furthermore, the country's solar potential is estimated to be higher than 750 GW with wind potential around 300 GW, where each GW could provide electricity to around 700,000 families. Now, take a look at the current scenario - India's total installed electricity generation capacity is around 310 GW and its coal based electricity generation capacity exceeds even the peak demand in India. However there are still around 300 M people waiting to get electricity as India faces challenges on coal supply shortage, transmission losses and poor financial health of the utilities.

Do we see an opportunity here? Can India bypass the constraints of coal supplies and long distance transmission losses to provide electricity in far-out villages with limited carbon emissions? India needs renewable energy specialists with technological as well as business acumen, who can critically assess suitability of different renewable technologies for a given location and scale. 

I considered it imperative to build my professional career in a field where I can create a positive change in this world and be satisfied about my accomplishments. In August 2015, I resigned from my corporate life in a financial advisory firm and boarded a flight from New Delhi to Stockholm to start my journey of InnoEnergy Master in Renewable Energy.

Through this program, I got the opportunity to attend the world-class universities of Europe working closely with the companies and governmental organizations in renewables sector. In these two years of masters, I studied at KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), ESADE Business & Law School (Spain) and École Polytechnique (France). KTH offers opportunities to work in close links with EU commission and Swedish utilities like Vattenfall, and Polytechnique opens your door to be involved with French companies like EDF and Total. 

With motivation to work for India's growth, I knew why I enrolled for the InnoEnergy's masters program and today, as I finish my courses, the perspectives have broadened and became more global. InnoEnergy has provided me a solid technical expertise with fresh business experiences which I can use for India or any other country. Now, it's time to seize the opportunity we started with!

Exploring the Uncomfortable


I must admit that after months of the "thrill" of the idea of studying abroad, which undoubtably started the day I received my acceptance letter, my departure had arrived and I was nervous. Sitting in the front seat of my parents car as they drove me to the Calgary airport, I realized that I was physically, but not necessary mentality, prepared for this new reality. I had checked all the tedious checkboxes for moving - apply for visa, pack up my apartment, quit my job, etc - and said all my goodbyes to my awesome family and friends back home. However, I never thought about this until that moment in the car: "why am I leaving everything, stepping outside my comfort zone, to move to some country I have never visited and to start a Masters program at a school I've never heard of??!"

The unknown can be terrifying. Being uncomfortable is uncomfortable. But over the past four months in the KIC InnoEnergy (IE) Program, I have fully embraced this new opportunity - what once was the "un-comfort-able zone" is actually an amazingly new experience filled with almost limitless chances to develop and grow personally and technically.

I have been lucky to meet so many cool people here in Lisbon from all over the world - those on Erasmus and through InnoEnergy. IE really sees the value in its students making connections from those of other countries and cultures and goes the extra mile for us to do so. The first years from all the seven different Masters programs met in November at the annual 2-day KIC-Off event near Frankfurt to introduce each other and explore ideas in the sustainable energy field. Afterwards, all the students from the ENTECH program went to a castle in a small German village for 4 nights and as a group worked on personal and team building skills. But it was in the evenings when the bar opened, the music and laughter started flowing, you got a sense that this is where the REAL connections were being made.

Moreover by doing my masters with IE, I have the opportunity to grow technically by taking advantage of the renewable expertise in two locations which will provide me with different perspectives on these technologies. Also, the IE Community support of alumni and events help students connect and gain access to the startup environment.

These past four months have been a blast mainly because of the awesome people I've met and things we have done together! I plan on updating this blog on the wonderful experiences I am having on this 2-year journey with them - here's to a Happy 2017!

- the chilled-out Canadian

The role of natural gas in energy transition

Energy transition, a term, an idea, a movement or however we classify it, looked highly unlikely several years ago. However, slightly, shy, it gathered pace and momentum, and here it is. It is not a desire or a wish, but a necessity, a must! Although still it is not clearly defined how exactly this process will be executed, it is ongoing and we have to reevaluate which energy sources will stay there and which will need to be changed. The main goals here are to: reduce greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions, reduce pollution and environmental impact from energy use, to develop energy sources which will be renewable and sustainable, to improve energy efficiency etc.

Natural gas, as part of the energy mix, roughly covers 1/3 of primary energy consumption. Compared to other fossil fuels, natural gas has a trend of constant stable growth and the predictions are this growth to continue in the future. Natural gas is regarded as the most practical fuel because of its advantages compared to other fossil fuels - more environmental friendly, easy to transport, high calorific value, and compared to renewable sources – it gives stable power output and is used to cover intermittency of renewables to avoid blackouts. Natural gas is used for: power generation, heating, hot water generation, cooking production processes in industry and transport.

Similar as oil, natural gas reserves are not evenly distributed around the world. Very often gas fields are located next to oil fields. Because of this, international trade of natural gas is very important factor, when we evaluate the possible use of the fuel. Gas transport in the past was price competitive only through long pipelines, but recently the trade of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has the highest increase and it is predicted to be one of the main factors that will contribute to higher natural gas use. Although LNG terminals require huge investment, many ongoing projects around the globe verify its price-competitiveness.

Additional advantage of natural gas is the possibility to conversion to liquid fuels and to store energy from renewable sources. Gas-to-liquids (GTL) is a technology to use gas feedstock to produce liquid fuels such as diesel and gasoline. Power to gas is a conversion technology which utilizes electricity to generate gas, and it is used to store energy.


Natural gas, with all its advantages, is a fuel that will play strong part in every scenario for energy transition. It will be used together with renewable energy sources in the drive for clean, renewable and sustainable energy supply in the world. 

InnoEnergy Master School energized journey

As the New Year arrived, it is time to start working on the to-do-list created for 2017. For those of you, that this list contains joining InnoEnergy Master School, you are on a great path, and below you will read why.

Your energized journey usually starts with a team-building weekend, open studio or something similar, depending on your university. It can’t hurt to start the new academic year in a friendly relaxed atmosphere, right? But don’t get too comfortable. After the welcome package, you will slowly see all the features coming from your new environment. They will come to you in the form of more travel, attending conferences (and participating in them), additional courses/training and much more. By the time you notice that you were too fascinated by all the events previously mentioned, it’s already November, which is generally known here as the Kick-off month. This is a great opportunity to meet all your new colleagues, which are on the same journey as you. Regarded as a motivational event, through different activities you will get the opportunity to see what InnoEnergy stands for. You will get to know that except from your contribution as a student and future engineer, you can significantly contribute as a member of community. In order not to spoil your whole journey, I stop here. Just as a brief hint, the remaining of your program will be fulfilled with a lot a lot of activities. One of your main doubts may be what works best: reduced time for sleep, increased coffee intake or most probably both combined?


With all the effort put in to facilitate your application and integration process, the ball is passed to you. When you get surrounded by people with high determination to help and contribute, you will see the importance of good aura around you. Then it comes up to you, your desire and your vision to contribute in all the work done here. It is up to you in which way you will contribute – through engineering, innovation, entrepreneurship or as a community member. All counts, every contribution from new members gets us closer to our targets. 

Sincerely, I wish you find your place in this network, the Master School is one of the best journeys you take in life and to make your 2017 a year to remember.
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Innoenergy Master School

This is a blog for the students of InnoEnergy Master's School.