News 2007

Risø DTU and Vestas are planning to develop smart wind turbine blades. The wind turbine blades are able to adjust according to the wind. The idea has already been tested in a wind tunnel. The trailing edge of the blade is transformed into a movable flap as it is known from airplanes. The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation granted 15 million DKK for the project yesterday.

A prerequisition for optimum control of the giant wind turbines of the future is to be able to measure wind speeds, wind direction and turbulence in a three-dimensional volume around the turbine.

The photo measurements at Risø's wind turbines will continue today. The authorities have been informed.

Vindenergiafdelingen på Risø DTU vil foretage fotomålinger på vindmøllerækken der står langs med hovedvej A6. Dette vil starte ved middagstid onsdag d. 12. december og fortsætte ca. et døgn frem. Målingerne vil kunne ses som kortvarige lysglimt fra området mod den største af vindmøllerne.

John M. Christensen blogs from the Bali climate change conference. He is head of the UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development URC).

The 4th Nordic Wind Power Conference focused on electrical systems in wind turbines and on the integration of wind farms into the existing energy system. Earlier the conference has been held in Norway, Sweden and Finland. This year it took place at Risø DTU. The conference is held every two years and will be held in Norway again in 2009.

Fossil fuels provide about 80 % of the global energy demand. IPCC (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) says that if we want to limit the global average temperature rise to 2.5-3.0 °C, CO2 emissions must peak within the next year and then decline.

It almost sounds too good to be true – power generation by microbial fuel cells utilising wastewater and residual products from the pretreatment of straw! But that is precisely the object of a new project launched by the Biosystems Department and the Fuel Cells and Solid-State Chemistry Department on Risø DTU.

The project ‘Best on the Internet’ measures the quality of public websites once a year. Risø DTU is one of three nominees in the category Research and Education Institutions.

Energi Industrien and Risø DTU are holding an energy conference Thursday 1 November 2007. At the conference Risø Energy Report 6 will be presented.

Risø DTU is pleased that IPCC receives this recognition and that the climate issue gets the attention it deserves. We are proud to have contributed to IPCC’s work.

Just as Bolund’s neighbours, Risø wants to preserve the beautiful landscape around Roskilde Inlet.

Energi Industrien and Risø DTU are holding a conference Thursday 1 November 2007 in Industriens Hus at Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen from 10.00 - 17.00. At the conference Risø Energy Report 6 "Future options for energy technologies" will be presented. There will be speeches by companies and investors in the energy sector. At the end of the day there will be a panel debate with members from the Danish Parliament's Energy Policy Committee and representatives from the business community, research and venture capital. See the programme.

The PC program WAsP celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The program is able to predict the production from a wind turbine or a wind farm fairly accurately. Since 1987 Risø National Laboratory has sold more than 2000 licences to companies and institutions in over 100 countries around the world.

Henrik Schiøtt Sørensen is co-author on a paper accepted in the respected journal Science. The paper describes measurements conducted in the period from 2003 to 2006 at Vanderbilt University in USA by Professor Darryl J. Bornhop and five graduate students including Henrik Schiøtt Sørensen, who is now employed at Risø DTU as a post. doc.

Today the UNEP Centre at Risø DTU is introducing a global web portal for climate projects under the Kyoto Protocol. The web bazaar enables developing countries to make contact with more buyers after having developed projects such as the establishment of wind turbines or energy efficiency improvements. More buyers imply higher prices to the developing countries for their projects. The buyers may be European companies and governments. The ”product” is CO2 credits, in return for investments in sustainable energy supply or climate protection in the developing countries.

Risø DTU is participating in the industrial fair ‘Messecenter Herning’ from 4 - 7 September. We share a stand together with Århus University, Aalborg University and the National Tech Trans Network near by the stand of the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation.

The first milestone in magnetic cooling has been achieved.  Between 5 and 10 degrees of cooling – this was the success criteria for the first milestone in a project involving magnetic cooling at Risø National Laboratory – Technical University of Denmark (DTU). And the figure is currently at 8.7°C – this means that a refrigerator at room temperature (20°C) can be cooled to almost 11°C. Of course, this is not quite enough to keep the milk cold, but the project’s test setup also has only the one objective of conducting research in different materials, varying operating conditions and the strength of the magnetic field.

The biennial international graduate summer school Biophotonics ’07 is over. It is the third of its kind and has already been recognized internationally. Therefore Journal of Biomedical Optics (JBO) has decided to make a recurring special section, only on this topic, with Peter E. Andersen from Risø DTU as one of the guest editors.

The first issue in 2007 has focus on UNEP Risø Centre that supports UNs environmental programme UNEP in its goal on integrating environmental aspects of energy planning and energy policy, not at least in developings countries. See the English edition here. The English edition is only published as pdf, the Danish edition is also published in a printed version, which can be ordered here.

Risø DTU is signing a collaboration agreement with the leading American research laboratory for renewable energy (NREL) on Wednesday 27 June 2007. The agreement will strengthen existing collaboration on wind energy research, but also ensure progress within other renewable energy technologies. Read the press release from NREL here. Read the agreement here.

Risø has together with the Danish Emergency Management Agency published the yearly report "Kernekraft og Nuklear sikkerhed 2006" - Nuclear power and nuclear safety 2006. Among other things, the year 2006 presented a new initiative from US Department of Energy, that shall help prevent the increase in nuclear weapons and Russia is on its way with a floating nuclear unit.

Winner of second price in Venture Cup 2007 was a business idea based on technology developed and patented at Risø DTU. The technology enables functional biomolecules to be welded into plastic surfaces. It is a team of three people, with very different backgrounds, that has worked with the business idea for the company InMold Biosystems A/S.

The opinion-research institute Universum presented their yearly awards as conclusion to the image analysis conducted among students in engineering and economy. Risø came in third best. Last year we were number eight and got the prize as highest flyer. This year we received the prize as third most attractive company among engineering and technical students.

Risø has just concluded a three day international energy conference, with 140 participating energy experts from all over the world. The conclusion was clear: The world is facing a huge energy challenge, but we can meet the challenge if we go into action now.

’Development of LED light sources and lamps’ is among four projects nominated for the Elforsk Prize 2007. The project combines technology and design showing how the energy-efficient diode light may replace incandescent and halogen light in the lamps of the future.

The possibilities of applying nanotechnology in the building sector are many, but still an increased level of cooperation and knowledge sharing is needed between the research and the building industry, if the potential is to be carried out. So Risø DTU concludes in a new report, which, as part of the research project NanoByg, describes the perspectives and possibilities of applying nanotechnology in the building sector.

Head of Department at Risø DTU Erik Lundtang Petersen has received the Poul la Cour prize at the European Wind Energy Conference held by the European Wind Energy Association in Milan.

The scientific experiment CLIMAITE, investigating the consequences of the future climate for terrestrial ecosystems has just been granted 15 million kroner from Villum Kann-Rasmussen in addition to the ongoing activities.

In this week government representatives, UN organizations, NGO people and researchers from all over the world meet in New York to follow up on the decisions from the environmental summit meeting in Johannesburg in 2002. This year’s subject is sustainable development and energy, industrial development, climate change and pollution. Head of the UNEP Centre at Risø DTU John M. Christensen participates and he is blogging from the meeting (only in Danish). Follow the blog here.

During these days researchers and government representatives from all over the world discusses the conclusions in UN’s climate report “Mitigation of Climate Change”. The meeting takes place in Bangkok, Thailand. One of the co authors of the report is research specialist Kirsten Halsnæs from UNEP Risø Centre at Risø National Laboratory.
From Bangkok she will on a regular basis update her blog on her reflections during the meeting. Only in Danish, follow the blog here.

Festival of Research is an annual national event intended to arouse public interest in and enhance public understanding of the methods, processes, and outcome of research and science. Festival of Research 2007 takes place from 15 pm, Friday the 27th of April to 15 pm, Saturday the 28th of April.

Risø participates in Roskilde at Stændertorvet with presentation of our engagement in the Galathea expedition, solid oxide fuel cells, a virtual windtunnel for testing large windturbines and finally how Risø can help with turning research into new business opportunities.
Find more about the Festival of Research here.

Now PhD students interested in biomedical optics get the opportunity again of meeting the world’s best scientists within this field. The graduate summer school Biophotonics '07 takes place 9-16 June 2007 at Ven.

We are facing a big challenge to provide sufficient energy to meet the needs of the world, especially when it comes to the growing needs in the developing countries. We have to find new energy solutions which allow economic growth and increase the security of supply. The demands for sustainability and reductions of the CO2 emission are growing.
Risø international energy conference 2007 takes up the challenge focusing on new energy solutions that can stabilize the CO2 concentration of the atmosphere within the next 50 years.

Since 2003, Jyoti Painuly from the UNEP Risoe Centre at Risø, DTU has been working at providing sustainable energy for thousands of Indian households using solar home systems financed in an unconventional way. On 11 April, the work was rewarded with the prestigious Energy Globe Award at a TV show in the EU Parlament building in Brussels.

The Technical University of Denmark (DTU) entered last year into a strategic partnership with the global German company Siemens. The agreement is named Center of Knowledge Interchange (CKI). Now Risø’s managing director Jørgen Kjems is appointed as head for the alliance. Read more at DTUs news page.

As part of Vestas’ continuous expansion of the development activities and in order to strengthen the cooperation with leading institutes within the wind energy industry, Vestas has decided to establish a development office at Risø National Laboratory/DTU.

A new research project is using nanotechnology to make environmentally friendly bioplastic suitable for food packaging. Possible toxic effects related to the nanoparticles will be examined. The project involves seven partners from the industry and universities and has senior scientist from Risø National Laboratory, David Plackett, as co-ordinator.

Electrochemical cells are important in an environmentally friendly and sustainable energy system. That is why the Programme Commission on Energy and Environment under the Danish Council for Strategic Research has granted 25 mill. Dkr. to the Strategic Electrochemistry Research Centre - SERC. The centre is located at Risø and professor Mogens Mogensen is the head of centre. The centre, holding a kick-off meeting on 9 March, consists of universities and industrial partners.

Your mobile continues to get more functions. Now it can help you catch your plane when you find yourself in a remote part of the airport, busy shopping duty-free goods.

Scientists at Risø have developed a model to calculate how different components in an electricity system interact during varying circumstances. At the moment this model is the best on the European market. Now it is coming into use helping the Irish energy planning.

Realdania is funding the project NanoByg which is going to look more closely at the nanotechnological perspectives for Danish building activities. The ambition is to strengthen research-based innovation in building activities and to prepare Danish building activities for an innovative push.
Nanobyg is holding an innovation and vision workshop on 22 January from 12 – 5 p.m. at Risø. Risø is one of the collaborators in NanoByg. Read the press release from  Realdania