1. Education
2. Research
3. Demonstration & Information
4. Entrepreneurship

The scheduled guided tours in the grounds of MTEEP can be considered an interactive lifelong learning tool, through demonstration, presentation and function of relevant devices and mechanisms. The possibility of field observation and measurement of device is added to the understanding of concepts such as, solar energy, wind power, heat, pressure, biomass, energy transport and storage, etc. for the visitors. More specific targets of the guided tour programme are:

1. To identify the main forms of renewable energy sources.
2. To comprehensibly understand the energy production mechanisms (thermal, electrical, cooling) from the sun, the wind etc.
3. To distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of energy derived from RES compared to that derived from conventional (non-renewable) sources
4. To perceive the effect of emitted pollutants on the environment (climate change)
5. To discover the concept of energy saving and improve it in a constructive way
6. To discover the energy producer and consumer’s role in the context of an energy community
7. To count the ways of storing the produced energy and to have second thoughts about the choice of means of its management
8. To develop their way of observing, their creative and critical thinking, as well as their cooperation in problem solving
9. Develop “energy consciousness”

Educational goals (indicative) of the MTEEP visit programme are the discovery and familiarization of visitors with modern and current concepts related to energy, such as:

• forms and uses of soft energy sources (wind, solar, biomass, geothermal)
• climate change
• energy issue, ecological/energy footprint
• systems for exploiting soft energy forms
• electricity, heating and cooling from RES
• energy efficiency, energy saving
• Local Energy Community (LEC)
• consumer-producer (prosumer) of an energy community
• energy storage systems (electrical, thermal) etc.

The MTEEP educational guided tours strengthen and enrich the study programs of the students who visit it in areas such as:

• management of Natural Resources (energy, RES, conventional fuels)
• degradation of the environment and highlighting of environmental risks
• sustainable development (energy, environment, life)

Also, it supports the school to cope with modern challenges and needs by:

• raising students’ awareness of issues such as energy management, energy poverty, climate change and sustainable development
• adopting similar standards of energy behavior by responsible and informed citizens
• discovering and connecting concepts such as energy democracy, decentralized energy production, social impact and human dignity
• having a critical attitude to the planning and development of “green” production in relation to the environment and “green pollution” (sound and visual nuisance, carbon footprint, etc.)

The MTEEP educational guided tours programme functions as a kind of educational laboratory (FieldLab) for the educational Institutions (primary, secondary and higher education). Being one of a kind in its category, it is visited not only by the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace but also by visitors all over Greece. The MTEEP for example, can be visited for educational trips by schools both in the Region and outside it and available for the implementation of relevant school work in the field of energy and its impact on the environment.

The MTEEP tours are carried out by the staff of the Mechanical Design Laboratory (http://medilab.pme.duth.gr) of the Department of Production Engineering and Management of the School of Engineering of DUTh, who are well qualified and have been properly trained so that their speech is comprehensive, specific, and understandable, depending on the educational level to which it is addressed.