By David Graff, ENGINEERING

Research in energy is conducted from different perspectives across all departments at The Faculty of Engineering and Science. The number of researchers in the field is vast and counts several which are acknowledged as world leading within e.g. Power-to-X, materials development, green fuels and transition of the energy system to renewable sources.

Addressing complex challenges

On December 2nd, The Faculty of Science and Engineering held a workshop with the theme Sustainable Energy. More than 75 researchers from all the faculty’s departments were engaged in discussions and collaborative processes on solving complex challenges such as:

1. Both the residential and industrial sectors are major energy consumers. Significant efficiencies and energy savings are needed through new materials, components, processes, and control in addition to the need for behavior-change and user acceptance. The focus must also be on flexibility via energy storage, demand control etc.
2. A significant expansion of renewable energy, storage, and sectoral integration must be developed to achieve the national carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction targets. In particular, sectoral integration with Power-to-X requires expansion with sustained electricity and distribution. Developing and ensuring a sustainable and robust electricity system is a core challenge now and in the future.

Suggestions on interdisciplinary collaboration within the energy sustainability area more specifically included:

• Flexible energy systems
• Management of systems
• New renewable energy sources
• Efficient energy storage technologies
• Robust and reliable power distribution
• Energy savings and efficient systems and components
• Technology use – behavior and everyday practice
• Integration of buildings in the energy system
• Digital solutions incl. AI, IoT and big data

The workshop also included an overview of some of the faculty's state of the art infrastructures, and an invitation to make even better use of test and lab facilities across the faculty.

In the spring, a workshop on sustainable production will again gather researchers from the faculty’s departments around innovative research collaboration.