Supporting young academics is always high on vgbe’s agenda. From the possibility of free participation in vgbe events for regular students, to support for Bachelor’s and Master’s students, to the vgbe Summer School for students, the vgbe group actively supports the promotion of young academics and also offers an optimal platform for networking and professional exchange in this area.
For more than 20 years, the association has organised the Summer School for students together with the scientific advisory board of the VGB-FORSCHUNGSSTIFTUNG. Through the advisory board, students from the field of energy conversion and related topics are selected together with domestic and foreign universities and colleges. An attractive programme of lectures and visits is offered, providing a detailed insight into various fields and aspects of the energy sector. The VGB-FORSCHUNGSSTIFTUNG covers the entire costs of care, accommodation and meals for the students, who in turn only have to organise and finance their travel to and from Essen.
After the vgbe Summer School could only be held as webinar in the last two years due to the pandemic, this year the students´ course was held again as an attendance event.
This year’s Summer School took place from August 15 to 19, 2022 under the motto GENERATION & STORAGE with a total of 14 students from Germany and abroad. The main areas of study of the participants, who had been selected by the scientific advisory board, ranged from mechanical engineering, energy systems and process engineering to thermal waste treatment. In accordance with the main areas of study, the vgbe organisation team once again succeeded in putting together an interesting programme. After the welcome at the Deilbachtal Energy Campus and a lecture on “Flexibility in the Energy System” by Dr Oliver Then, Managing Director of vgbe energy e.V., the students were immediately able to visit the wind energy training facility of KWS Energy Knowledge eG at Deilbachtal. On the following days, different locations were visited throughout the Ruhr region. These included classic conventional plants such as the GMVA waste incineration plant in Oberhausen, the STEAG power plant in Duisburg-Walsum, thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel GmbH and the MAN turbine production facility in Oberhausen, where new approaches and resource- and environmentally-friendly processes are used. In addition, innovative projects were also on the tour programme, such as the CWD in Aachen, e.on Smart Sector Coupling or the climate port in Gelsenkirchen. All the tours were supported by detailed lectures on site and gave a first insight into the respective location. The students got an intensive impression of the individual processes and generation and had ample opportunity to ask specific technical questions and discuss them in detail with the experts at the site.
Such encounters result in classic win-win situations for all parties involved: the students gain a clearer picture of their potential future fields of activity before they graduate, the companies have opportunities to make connections and the vgbe group can present the activities and tasks of the association to young academics at an early stage. The past 20 years have proven that this networking results in valuable contacts that are maintained and continued at e.g., vgbe events and in the association’s committee work and often last throughout an entire professional career.
As with previous Summer Schools, the extensive programme was again very well received. In addition to the purely technical visits and lectures, there was also plenty of social interaction and networking among the students. With the barbecue and get-together on the first evening and joint evening activities in Essen and the surrounding area, this Summer School was once again a complete success for all participants.
The vgbe group would like to thank all participating companies and organisers who contributed to the success of this year’s vgbe Summer School and is already looking forward to next year, when another group of students can be welcomed to the Energy Campus in Deilbachtal with a new exciting programme.
