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While the plan of not planning can take you to the more unexpected corners of a country, it can teach you a lesson in just how much to plan further on in the future with, say, other trips. Studying abroad in the UK has yet been my biggest adventure and I have yet to regret the decision of leaving a comfortable life behind to settle for a month in an unfamiliar place with so many unfamiliar faces. The residents of Dundee and all cities surrounding have been welcoming and comforting to myself and the Purdue Study Abroad group attending. Some more welcoming and excited than others, such as Ronnie at the Ninewells Hospital.

After about a long roaming tour of the Ninewells Hospital here in Dundee, I trust that I know the ins and outs of the hospital. From Frank Gehry’s “Maggie’s Centre” out back above the landscape to the hospitalization learning center for students underground, the Ninewells hospital is equipped with many features I was seeing for the first time. The atmosphere gathered an entirely new focus and theme regarding the student’s performance skills. Hands on activity is emphasized in an entirely different fashion with microphones about the ceiling and mirrored windows for supervision purposes.

Aside from the post-industrial aspects of Dundee’s newer technologies, we went back a few years or so to the Dunnottar Castle dating back to the late 16th early 17th century in Stonehaven, Scotland. Cliffs as high as 5 story buildings held the ruins of a castle so old, only sea gulls and pigeons dared to live in the dark fireplaces and cracks of its remains. Dunnottar Castle inhabited some of the most beautiful sights I had ever witnessed in life with shores similar to that of what you would find in a Pirate of the Caribbean film, large rocks where the sea meets to the shore for daring adults like ourselves to hop across for a simple look into the life under its waters. And the waters of Scotland, let me tell you about the waters of Scotland.

Our next big adventure as a group consisted of fish, bridges, and airplanes just meters overhead. On our trip to the Pitlochry Dam, streams lined the streets and cottage houses along the way. The dam was quiet and content on one side while it’s process created stirring and blundering water over the rocks on the other side. Myself and two other group members walked into town after learning about the dam, discovering a bridge not so still with pedestrians walking across, and not to mention my first fish and chips since arriving in Scotland.

 Next up was the Edradour Distillery in Pitlochry which was my first experience at a distillery. This trip gathered a many first for me as it was my first hiking experience, my first tall waterfall (which was not man-made as I was expecting the entire time), and my first beverage tasting experience.  Above the treelines we stood on our hike to to the distillery taking in the range of green fields like nothing I had ever experienced. At 800 feet we continued to the distillery where we learned of casks worth a quarter of a million pounds alongside 3,000 other casks all stacked in one warehouse for the next several years.

Having not planned any of the trips thus far, Scotland has been an incredible exploitation of many firsts for me. There is much more to look forward to being only two weeks, or a third of the way into the study abroad trip here in Scotland.

Environmental Technology

It's About Dam Time

   When you tour a dam, the discussion will invariably turn to that dam's "worlds first," "world's only," or "world's best." It seems to be a unique ability of dam builders to always come up with a first, only, or best that makes their project unique. 

   The self-guided walking tour at the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder, then, came as a pleasant surprise. In contrast to the other dams I've visited, the focus wasn't about construction or how much power the dam produced, but instead focused almost exclusively on the environmental impact of damming, and the need for green energy sources in the future. 

This first sign aptly set the theme of the tour for visitors walking to the dam from the north side of the river.

The  first sign most visitors encounter on the dam. Photo by author

This turbine is fish-friendly. It acts like a revolving door to allow fish moving downstream to pass through the dam unimpeded.

The turbine spins on a vertical axis instead of a horizontal one. Photo by author

A dam, by definition, blocks the flow of a river. This fish ladder allows more than 5000 salmon and other species each year to pass unimpeded to their spawning grounds upstream.

The ladder is composed of a series of tiered pools that allow the salmon to move around the dam. Photo by author

 The pools of the fish ladder are designed to allow fish to easily move from one to the next.

The murky environment of a pool. Photo by author

A downstream view of the dam from downstream shows the main structure partially hidden by the surrounding forest. 

   The Pitlochry Dam doesn't focus on its first, only, or best. Instead, throughout the tour it discusses the importance of green energy and how to lessen the environmental impact of large industrial and post-industrial projects. With Scotland's deadline of 100% sustainability by 2025 rapidly approaching, it is important that projects like the Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder continue to pay careful attention to the affects they have, not just on the energy grid, but also on the environment in which they are built.

Green Scotland

Scotland has always been very green in color, but now they are a global leader in the “Green” energy movement. Scotland has a plan that will have renewable energy sources producing 100% of Scotland’s total energy need by 2020 and possibly 185% by 2030. These are not lofty goals or pipe dreams. Scotland is using all of its natural advantages to follow through with this plan. They are currently ahead of their projected schedule, in 2012 over 40% of Scotland’s energy was produced by a renewable energy source.

The first question asked when these types of claims are made is “how?”
Scotland has the full support of its government and its people, which is the first factor that makes this plan possible. When a whole country works together to achieve a goal it becomes very attainable. This is probably the factor missing in the push for renewable energy in the US. The second factor that makes this goal attainable is having a realistic and sensible plan. Scotland plans to reduce their demand of energy as well as increase renewable energy production.

They will reduce demand by installing smart meters, which will switch unnecessary power usage off during peak times, and postpone the usage until low usage. This will greatly reduce the stress put on the grid during peak usage. In addition, many new government policies are in place to incentivize demand reduction. Some estimates predict the demand will drop by 14%.

The increased production will come predominately from the new and expanding wind, wave, and tidal programs. Currently wind is the only one of these sectors that provides a substantial amount of renewable energy, but over the next 15 years Scotland has plans to harness the massive amounts of energy available in the movement of the oceans. Along with introducing wave and tidal they will expand onshore wind and offshore wind production. Another major sector they plan to expand is microgeneration, which is small scale private energy production, farmers with harnessing wind power, solar panels on homes, etc. Last but not least the already flourishing hydro program will continue to grow.

Graph of renewable energy production estimates (from "The Power of Scotland")
 http://www.foe-scotland.org.uk/sites/files/possv6final.pdf

Hydro electric is one of Scotland’s main energy sources, with tall mountains, large inland lochs, and high rainfall, hydro power is viable, and highly productive. We Visited the Pitlochry dam and hydro power station to get a first hand look at renewable energy production. The site is not one of the biggest hydro sites in Scotland, but it is in a very lovely setting, making the visit both educational and pleasant. It was very cool to see green energy production in progress. First we walked across the dam, looking at the infrastructure of the site. You could peak into the housing area of the turbines and generator, and we saw the tops of the two generators at this location. There was also a retired turbine on display, which was a bit smaller than I expected. Another important aspect of this dam is the fish ladder, which allows fish to bypass the dam, lessening the environmental impact the dam has.

Top of Pitlochry dam (photo by author)

A view inside the power station (photo by author)

Retired Turbine (photo by author)

View of the dam from down stream (photo by author)

I think the steps Scotland is taking to reduce their energy consumption and carbon emissions are things the whole world needs to take as an example. I only hear about how more renewable energy can be produced, when part of the problem is the amount of energy we use in the first place. Sustainability is much more attainable when we are using less energy. I hope we see plans similar to Scotland’s being proposed and accepted in many countries in the years to come.

Trip to Pitlochry

New energy sources are something that people are always looking for, especially the ones that are environmental-friendly. They even have a proper name called sustainable energy. Nowadays, people tends to notice the importance of being “GREEN” because once the natural resources have been depleted, human may have nothing to use for most of the activities. Another disadvantage of using traditional fuels is that they pollute the environment in various ways, such as greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, air pollution..etc. Therefore, many countries dedicated money and time to discovery new ways to obtain energy sources.

Before attending to the study abroad program, I have already heard that Europe countries have been using many new methods to obtain energy. However, I have not seen them myself until today and I have been amazed!

View from the Dam

In the morning, my class gathered at the Dundee train station and boarded the train to travel to Pitlochry to see the hydroelectric dam. After arrived at Pitlochry, we walked to the dam which was not far away from the train station. As soon as we stood on the dam, a view that only one could see from the movie just suddenly appeared. I began to rush for taking out my phone because I had a feeling that the scene I saw was just an illusion and might be disappeared after a few seconds. Then, I took many photos from different angles and planned to send them to my parents to share that beautiful view.

The fish ladder

 I looked far away and saw the salmon ladder that professor Salvo mentioned. I was curious that whether or not that I could see fish from there. So, I headed towards the direction of the fish ladder with a friend. On the way, there were different boards that explained how the hydroelectric dam works for obtaining energy. When we arrived at the fish ladder, we were somewhat disappointed since we did not see any fish even though we knew that it was not the season for spawning. We even went to the observatory to see if we were fortunate enough to see salmon pass by or any kind of fish would be fine. Again, we were disappointed! Although we did not see the fish, the view at the dam was already surprising and awesome.

Boards about Dam and Power Station

When the time approached noon, we finished touring around the dam and started to feel hungry. Then, most of us went to the town centre and had our lunch. My friend and I walked around the centre after the mean and saw a few gifts shops and a tourist centre. Then, we started to wonder the reason that it had a tourist centre. Pitlochry did not seemed like a place that one would go for a vocation, but somehow we sensed that we might be wrong because they were different people from various places and also, the prices for meals were generally higher than in Dundee, the fourth largest city in Scotland. After ambled around the town centre, we went back to train station and on the way, we also stopped and adored the flowers along the road side. The short wonderful trip ended as we boarded the train that was going back Dundee!