Engineering Students visit to Copenhagen

Sustainable Energy, Electrical and Civil Engineering Students visit to Copenhagen

25 students from the School of Engineering recently embarked on an Educational Visit to Copenhagen, they were accompanied by their Lecturer’s Colm Tynan, David Williams and Mervin Doyle. Copenhagen which is renowned for its Plan to become the first city to be Carbon Neutral by 2025, has developed some incredible ground breaking projects as part of their CPH 25 Climate Plan, our students were lucky enough to be able to visit and explore many of these projects during their stay.

The students arrived in Copenhagen on Sunday evening and had some time to explore the city before dinner at the Dalle Valle Restaurant, dinner for the students was kindly sponsored by Weltec Engineering Ltd.

Monday morning kicked off with a visit to HOFOR Interactive Energy & Water Centre where students learned about Copenhagen’s Energy & CO2 Neutrality strategy, special thanks to Mette Føns and Lærke Daverkosen for their Presentation and Tour of their interactive visitor’s museum, it’s not every day you get to climb down a toilet and explore Copenhagen’s underground sewer system.

After a quick stop for lunch students then travelled across the city to one of Copenhagen’s newest and most famous landmarks, the Amager Bakke Waste to Energy Plant (better known as Copenhill). This plant amazingly supplies Copenhagen with up to 63MW of Electricity and up to 247 MW of hot water into the city’s district heating system. The roof of the plant houses an all-weather ski slope and café with amazing views of Copenhagen, while you can scale the outside of the building climbing the world’s tallest climbing wall to a height of 85 meters. Thank you to Astrid and Signe for an amazing tour. Students dined at Copenhagen’s Hard Rock Café on Monday night with dinner being kindly sponsored by Prochem Engineering Ltd.

On Tuesday morning students visited another unique project in Ovedore, Copenhagen. The Biofos Waste Water Treatment Plant takes in waste water from approximately 700,000 homes and during the treatment process the plant produces biogas from the waste water sludge. This is then fed back in to Copenhagen’s gas network. The sludge is then incinerated and the heat produced is used to produce both electricity and district heating water. Artur and Lars gave students a great overview of the process and a tour of their facility.

The students returned to Copenhagen’s City Centre and after lunch embarked on a walking tour of the city, taking in such attractions as the Little Mermaid, the Royal Palaces, Copenhagen’s Opera House and the Nyhavn Area, the many facets of Copenhagen’s amazing public transport network were used throughout the trip including Copenhagen’s famous water taxi’s. The group returned to Ireland early on Wednesday morning having been inspired by the dedication and innovation of the Danish people in making a real change and embracing the Copenhagen CPH 25 Climate Plan.

The students would like to thank their SETU Lecturer’s for organising and facilitating the trip and all the Engineers and Tour Guides at the various sites during their visit, plans will no doubt be in motion already for next year’s trip. 

Click here to view the the imagery for the trip to Copenhagen

Related Courses

• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in  Sustainable Civil Engineering
• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in  Sustainable Energy Engineering
• Bachelor of Engineering in  Electrical Engineering
• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in  Electrical Engineering
• Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) in  Engineering (Common Entry)