Henock Tuhafeni Hakaala - B. Eng Engineering 2nd Year student
Brief: Attended summer school in Germany
You recently attended a summer school in Germany, kindly tell us more about this; what was it all about, where in Germany did you go, and how did you get to know about it. The summer school was an invitation from the University of Applied Sciences which was sponsored by DAAD responsible for academic exchange services, which was on energy and development challenges and opportunities in Germany (Jena) which Started from the 19th June to 2nd July 2016.The summer school was a success and students had to go back to their country with some solid foundation in Renewable Energy Resources which was delivered by experts in the field of energy from all over Europe.
How did this experience enriched you and how will you use this to the benefit of the NUST community? As an Engineering student, I have accumulated some knowledge in renewable energies that I wouldn’t have gained in this short period of time if I haven’t attended the summer school. The main topic that caught my attention was the Introduction to Rural Electrification, delivered by Prof. Andreas Schleicher. It is evident that around 1.1 billion people are lacking an access to electricity, which most of them are located in the Rural Areas. So, the Lecture was on a short introduction to the strategies of overcoming this problems, Which in our country is really a great concern, which I would like to recommend an easily way to provide clean Energy by introducing one of the Renewable energy methods (Concentrated Solar Power, CSP) to reduce the electricity crisis in the northern part of our country and the country at large. Namibia is listed as one of the countries in the world that has good Solar regimes with an average direct normal irradiation (DNI) of about 2,200 kWh/m^2/year and in some areas it can be more than 2,500 kWh/m^2/year. By Setting up this type of CSPs all over the country, we will be assured that Namibia will not have to suffer any more on importing Electricity from South Africa and the neighboring countries. Also, CSP plants will be a great contribution to Namibia’s plan to be an industrialized nation by 2030 by providing security of supply in Energy. Moreover, CSP plants will contribute to the countries ways of mitigating Climate change compared to coal which is a great contributor to the carbon emission in the atmosphere, which could lead to Global warming over a period of time.
Compared to Namibia, how is Germany in terms of culture, climate and transportation? It’s a life time experience traveling out of the continent, and being one of the students who visited Germany was just a dream come true. Germany is beautiful with a green nature surrounding Jena, a person can really have an ease of mind. It was summer time when we were there. It was sad I didn’t have a chance to see the snow that I wanted to feel which is normally during winter, but I will go back soon to go do my masters in material Engineering, so I will be able to see it by then. I have to say this, the German students were much welcoming and they had a good heart with their foreign students and that’s one thing I will never forget in my life. When it comes to the mode of transport, Trams, trains and buses available every second you blink. But most of the people (students) prefer to use bicycles when going to school simply because it’s much cheaper and good for exercising. In addition to this, the food there is like its prepared for people who are on a diet, because everything tastes different and much healthy compared to the Namibian food, although they don’t have “Kapana” , they have the most wonderful sight-seeing places especially the Berlin Parliament its so big and beautiful with strong structures and their surrounding forests.
What are your major accomplishments so far? First of all, I would want to say that just by flying out of the continent is a major accomplishment. Getting on a plane is not like a walk in the park for young people like us. Secondly, I have passed my First year which was not a chase and catch. It was through determination and zeal to conquer any obstacle that was in my way. Lastly but not least, I was selected to be part of the NUST dream team; The Student Brand Ambassador (SBA) 2016 and during the mid-semester I was selected to be part of the first Mr. and Miss. NUST pageant committee member. So I can really say that I have achieved some of my goals so far.
What are your plans for the near future? In the next 5 years I want to be part of an organisation raising and educating the young generation to be self-dependent and Innovative and realize that the country without them it’s like a car without fuel. No matter how beautiful the car might be, Mustang, Mercedes bens or ever a GTI the car won’t move if there is no fuel. All in all, I want to be a motivational speaker travelling around the globe.
Success quote! “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough” Og Mandino