For three weeks (10th July - 30th July 2004) young people from seven European countries (Germany, Lithuania, Sweden, Spain, Bulgaria, Macedonia and BiH) gathered in Bad Oldesloe for a youth exchange about energy efficiency, renewable enegry resources and enviromental friendly ways of building.
During the first days the participants were presenting their organisations and their work as well as some projects they have prepared especially for the event: lighting technologies, solar collectors for warming water, etc.
Visits to wind parks and biogas farms were especially organised in order to see how renewable energy resources are put into practice. Lecturers provided the participants with a lot of information and answered the many questions the young people had.
Seeing how a wind turbine works from inside or following the process of producing electricity from bio waste gave the young people a lot of new ideas.
A few days the campers spent on the Nordsee island Pellworm, a wonderful recreational area, where people enjoyed environmental friendly lifestyle living in small farms, breeding horses, cows and sheep.
During the youth exchange the usage of bycicle transport had priority. The participants used bycicles to get to the biogas farms. Bikes were also the only means of thansport on Pellworm.
Workshops about environmental friendly and energy efficient ways of building houses were also organized. Visits to passive houses in Schlezwig-Holstein provided the participants with the visual knowledge. During the last week though the young people had the chance to experience everything they have learnt in the prqactival workshops for constructing a solar collector for warming water as well as plastering the walls of one room with clay.
The participants went home with a lot of ideas on how they can use the energy efficiency strategies in their home countries. Follow-up projects are expected.
