Working as a researcher at renewable energy company

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While I was at the exchange program to Japan (GoGlobal), I worked in a renewable energy company (developer) for five months as an intern. I was a researcher at the division of the project initiation team. I read a substantial amount of articles both in English and in Japanese related to renewable energy: global trend, technological breakthrough, local content and price of electricity regarding renewable energy.

Job content

  • Analyzing a substantial amount of articles regarding renewable energy and presenting the key points to the company's decision-makers.
    • I summarized and translated the English documents (Bloomberg documents, IEA, Academic Journal etc.) into Japanese and presented that to the company's decision-makers. The aim of this job was them to understand the "world-trend" of renewable energy and make use of it for navigating and investment.

 

  • Preparing draft offshore wind farm plan to discuss with the local authority. By using GIS and deriving data from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan （国土地理院), I measured the wind speed and seafloor composition to see if the installment is feasible.
    • Not only I practiced using GIS to create a map that has real-world impact, with the document I created, but I also discussed it with local authorities. I learned to make responsible maps and communicate with stakeholders.

 

  • Engaging in entrepreneurial effort within the company. The aim shared by the division of business initiation team was to look for new business opportunities. The project specifically I engaged in is waste-to-gas. Knowing that modern society has massive food and other organic waste, I did a complementary feasible study on methane production by food and excrement waste from livestock. I found that there are such power plants in the UK and China; however, to collect a large amount of organic waste is still problematic in Tokyo.

 

  • Analyzing where to procure biomass fuel for 300MW biomass powerplant. In order to operate 300MW biomass powerplant, one needs 2 million tons of wooden chip. How to procure such a large amount of wooden chips sustainably was challenging. I investigated many biomass companies in numerous countries: Canada, the US, Argentina, Uruguay, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia etc. For each company, I investigated the financial stability, the quality of wood chips and the sustainability of those chips. I learned how to read financial statements and developed to have eyes for discovering where important information is hidden.

Skills developed:

  • Presentation skill
  • Interpersonal communication skill
  • System analysis skill (especially in the energy industry)

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