Bringing to light new renewable energy projects is a way of documenting the energy transition in action. I would not have been able to cover the construction of the Luchterduinen offshore wind farm without the assistance of Eneco, the power company that partly owns it. They arranged for me to sail to exclusive zones in the North Sea and took me to the Vestas site in Denmark where the turbines are shipped on oddly-shaped vessels. My ambition is to discover and cover projects leading the energy transition around the world.
My passion for the energy transition derives from my worries about climate change and environmental pollution. Therefore it fills me with great pleasure to see projects like the one led by Greenpeace in Switzerland, where students are involved in building solar roofs. This is about creating awareness, fostering team work for a higher purpose while transferring knowledge efficiently with a long-term positive effect in people’s lives.
The creativity and inventiveness in the field of renewables are astonishing, such as the beautifully-designed solar trees along high- ways, solar cells in bicycle lanes and floating solar panels at a sewage sludge reservoir. It’s a pleasure to capture these innovations as well as the bigger projects. With flood- ing rains hitting werstern Europe at the time of publishing this VIEWS, my motivation to continue this series is growing with every thunderstorm.
