Today we woke up bright and early to take a three-hour bus ride deep into Norway to visit a mini-hydropower station. This hydropower station was owned by a man named J.B. Ugland, who also owns quite a few of the buildings within the University of Agder, where we have been staying for the past three days. The bus ride inland was filled with lots of beautiful scenery that was so mesmerizing that none of us even noticed we had been sitting on a bus for three hours.
The hydropower station was located on Mr. Ugland’s beautiful, private, mountain estate. A picture of the view from behind the main building on the estate can be seen below.
Once all of us were finished admiring the very scenic estate, we were given a presentation about the businesses that Mr. Ugland is involved in, and some details behind the construction of the hydropower station, by his daughter.
This presentation was followed by a walking tour of the hydropower station. The hydropower station itself was also very amazing and one of the engineers that works on the station everyday was there to explain the whole process to us. This included the power that the station was able to provide and the design that was employed to funnel the water from a dammed reservoir into a pipe that ran the length of the hillside into a generator.
Not only was the tour of the station very interesting and informative, afterwards Mr. Ugland's daughter also provided us with an amazing catered lunch! This lunch was truly a fine dining experience and provided those of us who were sitting next to Mr. Uglands daughter the opportunity to talk to her about her family business and the growth of renewable energy in Europe.
After lunch, the hydropower station visit was over, and the group took another three-hour bus ride back to the University of Agder. At this point, most us decided to head down to the sand volleyball court located by the beach on campus to play a few riveting and competitive matches of volleyball. We were able to borrow a volleyball from a University of Minnesota student who has been studying abroad at the University of Agder all semester, but unfortunately, he could not participate with us because he had a final the next day.
This was our last day at the University of Agder. Tomorrow we are headed to Oslo!
Over and out,
-Sagar P.
