Last Wednesday, December 3 we were since Renovables Verdes at the awards ceremony Contest Power Matrix Challenge from Siemens Spain. A competition that has been carried out since last September and with which engineering students from all over Spain have designed a city with a sustainable energy system. The novelty of this system is that it was an online game very similar to the Sims that has helped participants to learn, while playing, how to combine renewable energy with conventional ones and thus create a sustainable system.
The game was very well received and more than 1150 students enrolled. From all of them, Siemens chose 5 finalists who presented their projects on December 3. The winning team will become part of the Siemenes Energy sector in Spain for a year, with a specialized training plan in power plant generation, transmission and maintenance technology.
The jury made up of Rosa García (president of Siemens Spain), María Cortina (communication director of Siemens Spain), Víctor Martínez (journalist of the newspaper El Mundo), Amanda Mars (editor of the newspaper El País) and Javier Monforte (director of Energética XI) They chose as winners the Ciudad Mecanotopía of the ICAI University, for being the most innovative, viable and sustainable project.
Interview with the winners of the Power Matrix Challenge
Manuel Ramirez - What does it mean for you to win this award?
Mecanotopia City - For us to win the prize It is an opportunity that I do not know how many times it could be repeated in life and having been able to win it can help us a lot for our professional future, apart from the fact that it is something that interests us and we like. It is a train that passes once in a lifetime and which we have taken after spending two months with the project in tow and we never thought when we started that we were going to win it.
Little by little we got involved and we were learning While we saw how in the ranking we were well positioned, being impossible to leave it and wanting more. When we were contacted two weeks ago we couldn't believe we were among the finalists.
MR - What has been the objective of your winning project?
CM - At first we create it as a small energy matrix. Later, when we saw how it could be proposed, we began to expand cities, we interconnected them, which was our main idea, and we decided to support it on what renewable energies are.
We have come to a conclusion that Yes, a sustainable energy system could be achieved only with renewable energies with a constant generation base and relying very little on fossils. At first, we thought that nuclear energy was very good, but we have realized through these two months of the project that maintenance is very difficult and without forgetting the waste it causes.
MR - What future do you see for cities with a sustainable energy system?
CM - I think it is an important step that China and the United States signed to the Kyoto agreement so that cities in the future can be seen with this sustainable energy system. Since these two countries are the ones that pollute the most, they are taking a step forward to say «Okay, we are loading the planet«.
New energies have to be developed, besides that every time we have more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and this is going nowhere.
MR - Would it be possible to implement your winning project in a city like Madrid?
CM - Right now it would be complicated. Firstly because you have to develop an energy storage system, promote more renewables and reduce the consumption of coal and gas. Right now, I say again, it is very complicated.
Madrid can collaborate, and we can all collaborate through energy efficiency in our own homes. A low-consumption light bulb is not the same as a traditional one. An appliance is not the same, that although it is more expensive, that a greater efficiency that in the long run will come out at the same price, but that you are contributing more to the environment. We all have to collaborate.
MR - How do you see renewable energy at this time in Spain?
CM - You can always do more, although right now wind energy in Spain represents a fairly high percentage of renewables and it is very powerful. It is mainly a base here in Spain and we must continue to develop it. We also have a lot of hours of sunshine having a very good geographical position. But on the other hand, it is necessary to take advantage of it more than what is being done.
MR - Thank you very much for the interview and congratulations again for the one-year scholarship you have with Siemens. I'm just telling you what to do with everything. Pleasure.
CM - Anyway and thank you very much.