The Energy of Adventure in Iceland

Today, two young Russians began their world journey to research global energy and explore how the most challenging energy problems are being dealt with in different parts of the world. Later this week they will be heading for Iceland.

Maria Khromova (24) and Egor Goloshov (21) are on a backpacker-style tour of the world to talk with energy leaders around the globe about their energy challenges and innovations. Over their journey, they will meet with an array of energy experts, including scientists and academics, and visit a variety of companies and organizations.

The pair plan to visit almost twenty countries n the next three months to assess how energy challenges are being dealt with. They began their tour in Germany, which has more installed solar energy generation capacity than any other country in the world and has plans for decommission all of its nuclear power plants and replace them with renewable energy sources. Iceland, with its 100% renewable electricity market, will be their next stop.

Besides Germany and Iceland, Maria and Egor are also scheduled to visit China, France, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, and South Korea in the first weeks of their trip. Then they will be going to Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India, Japan, Spain, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the USA before finishing the trip back in Moscow. Their plan is to talk to country leaders and authorities about how they are preparing to meet the energy challenges the world is facing.

They intend to report about their findings, discussions, and observations over the course of their tour in hopes of inspiring and triggering new thinking and ideas for addressing today’s interconnected energy challenges. Through social media, incorporating video blogging, Facebook and Twitter, the pair will share their stories with the world. The story of the Energy of Adventure will not only be educational, but also personal,  as the pair encounter different environments and cultures, develop their own friendship, and face challenges with only each other to rely on.

Maria Khromova is trained in the power industry and Egor Goloshov is an economist. They were selected in last May out of a competitive pool of 49,000 applicants from across Russia as part of the non-profit Energy of Adventure project.

Energy of Adventure is one of the programs of the Global Energy Prize; an “independent award for outstanding scientific research and technological development in energy, which contribute to efficiency and environmentally friendly energy sources for the benefit of humanity.”  The award was established in Russia, with the support of leading Russian energy companies such as Gazprom. Energy of Adventure is describes as an initiative to draw public attention to critical energy issues in Russia and abroad, to encourage the search for new solutions to energy problems of the present and future.

Maria and Egor are said to be looking forward to their journey in the whole and are impatient to see the world of energy in all its diversity. It will be interesting to hear their experience from visiting Iceland. Not least after they have visited almost twenty of the most interesting energy hot-spots in the world.  According to Icelander Þorsteinn Ingi Sigfússon, Director of the Innovation Center in Iceland and a Global Energy Prize Laureate, this is “a great opportunity for the younger entrants into the energy-business-world to see firsthand how actors across the energy supply chain and in different parts of the world are coping with their unique set of energy challenges and problems.”