This year's traditional TFD Pentecost excursion was once again a complete success! As part of the event, students from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering were given the opportunity to take a look behind the scenes at successful companies in the fields of energy and process engineering. This year, the first visit was to the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES) in Bremerhaven. With a view of the Weser estuary, we were given an exciting insight into various projects, e.g. for automating the production of wind turbine rotor blades. After finishing the day and spending the night in Bremen, the next day we went to the Center for Applied Aeronautical Research (ZAL) in Hamburg Finkenwerder. In addition to the new ZAL building (see photo), we were particularly impressed by the wide range of research topics on the acoustics of aircraft cabins and hydrogen-powered drones, which were explained to us during an interesting tour of the premises. Finally, the excursion ended with a guided tour of the energy bunker in Hamburg Wilhelmsburg, where we were particularly impressed by the structural conversion of a former bunker from the Second World War for use as a combined heat and power plant. In addition to historical information, we were informed about the various energy sources of the power plant, which supplies the surrounding residential area with local heating. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the participants for the two exciting days and the positive feedback and look forward to an equally successful excursion next year.
