Professor Frederik Christian Krebs was awarded the Grundfos Prize 2011 on 29 September at an event held at the Poul Due Jensen Academy in Bjerringbro. The award was given in recognition of Frederik Krebs' "groundbreaking research on solar cells made of polymers, which is intended to contribute to sustainable renewable energy." Read the news on Grundfos' homepage (in Danish).

Wind farms have become a common sight both on land and at sea – not least in Denmark, where wind turbines supply a quarter of the power. But how does it actually affect wind turbines, if you arrange them closely together, and overall, how do you get the most benefits in terms of financial outcome from a wind farm? TOPFARM, a large-scale EU project led by Risø DTU, has been looking into these matters during the last 3 years. The result: a simulation platform that can optimize the total economic benefits.

A brand new, beautifully decorated Peugeot iOn has been put into use at Risø DTU. It will be part of the EDISON project. In cooperation with companies and research, Risø DTU will test how electric vehicles can be integrated into the electrical system on a large scale. The electric car is furthermore to be used for experiments on the intelligent grid of tomorrow. The idea is that electric cars should be able to automatically absorb periodic surplus power provided by renewable energy sources and return some of the power, whenever the electrical system lacks power.

The present largest wind turbines have a capacity of5-6 MW. Following five years of research at the joint European project UpWind, led by Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, the Technical University of Denmark (Risø DTU), scientists now can present the first design basis for developing mega wind turbines of 20 MW.

Li-air batteries are a promising opportunity for electric cars. “If we succeed in developing this technology, we are facing the ultimate break-through for electric cars, because in practice, the energy density of Li-air batteries will be comparable to that of petrol and diesel, if you take into account that a combustion engine only has an efficiency of around 30 per cent,” says Tejs Vegge, senior scientist in the Materials Research Division at Risø DTU. If batteries with an energy density this great become a reality, one could easily imagine electrically powered trucks.

The focus of the 32nd materials conference at Risø DTU is to increase the strength and durability of composite materials by providing a better understanding of the properties of composite materials, right down to micro scale. This will make it possible to design more innovative, cost-effective and reliable components for wind turbines, ships and aircrafts. The deadline for submitting abstracts to the conference is 15 March 2011.

Troels Friis Pedersen, Risø DTU, has for 18 years headed a technical wind turbine working group under the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC. He has been in charge of several revisions of the international standards for wind turbine power measurements and has received the IEC 1906 award for his efforts.

The prestigious award:”Årets Lille Arne” went to Gottlieb Paludan Architects and to Risø DTU for the Green Power Island project. The project is about storing power from wind turbines using hydropower. The Copenhagen department of the Danish Architects’ Association gives reasons for choosing the Green Power Island project: “In our everlasting debate about the world’s energy consumption, ‘Green Power Island’ has managed to create and communicate a project in a simple way, optimising the use of environmentally friendly energy and also taking account of an applicable architectural whole. The project receives the award for its quite simple innovative impact and for the important collaboration between engineer and architect.”

Four years ago, Risø DTU had the opportunity, in collaboration with Vestas, to set up meteorological masts on the small peninsula Bolund at Roskilde Fjord. Within a few months they provided a unique set of data about the wind flow in a complex terrain. The project, which has aroused great interest among scientists, has now been published in the journal ’Boundary-Layer Meteorology’, giving the public free access to the measurements.

The Danish power system should be based to a greater extent on renewable energy. With Energy Strategy 2050, the government proposes to increase Denmark’s renewable energy targets for 2020 to 33 %. To achieve this goal is not just a question of building more wind farms, it is equally important to upgrade the entire grid to be able to handle large amounts of fluctuating energy without being blacked out.

The Danish hospital sector is facing some major new building and renovation projects where low-energy is to play an important economic and environmental role. But hospitals are used quite differently than other buildings and have special requirements when it comes to lighting and ventilation, among other things. Therefore, the energy optimisation has to be approached in very specific ways. This is the pivot of SEAS-NVE's next energy seminar which will be held in collaboration with Risø Innovation, Risø DTU

Remotely controlled robotic arms will service, maintain and replace components when the large fusion experiment ITER is ready in France in 2019. The Danish companies must already now start to prepare themselves if they are to have a chance in the bidding round of 'remote handling' tasks lying at the end of 2011. Big Science Secretariat-Denmark (BSS) has just held a well attended workshop at FORCE Technology where Danish robotics companies were introduced to representatives of Fusion for Energy (F4E), which is responsible for the European contribution to ITER.

A future power system with more power from the wind must be much more flexible and intelligent than the present one. Monday 22 August, 32 partners met for the official opening of the new iPower consortium and to start on the big job of paving the way for integrating more renewable energies into the future power grids.

Bladena is a new spin-out company from DTU, Technical University of Denmark – a platform from which small wind turbine manufacturers can grow by leaps and bounds. Bladena supplies the know-how and specific patented solutions that can lead to stronger and lighter wind turbine blades.

Super strong nanometals are beginning to play an important role in terms of making cars even lighter, enabling them to stand collisions without fatal consequences for the passengers. A PhD student at Risø DTU has discovered a new phenomenon that will make nanometals more useful in practice.

With more than 1,100 registered participants, the Africa Carbon Forum, the leading regional trade fair and knowledge sharing platform for carbon investments, has demonstrated that Africa is an increasingly attractive destination for Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, as investors seek new opportunities for growth in the voluntary market as well as the CDM.

Risø DTU has held a series of networking meetings between researchers and companies producing biomass. The outcome is not to be mistaken. There are plenty of potential for Denmark to convert biomass into high value products that can be sold at good prices.

Everyone who works with organic solar cell technology is hereby formally invited to participate in the Conference: Global Organic PhotoVoltaic Conference (GOPV). GOPV will be held at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China October 10-12, 2011. Registration must take place no later than June 1, 2011.

The high reliability of wind turbine blades is especially important for large and extra large wind turbines. It can be ensured by the development of strong and highly damage resistant advanced materials. The Materials Research Division at Risø DTU has received a grant from the Danish Council for Strategic Research to develop the scientific basis and computational tools for the microstructural optimization of materials for wind blades.

A strong desire from the hospital sector for super hygienic intelligent bathrooms that will give staff better working conditions and reduce the risk of becoming infected with multi-resistant bacteria has come a step closer to fulfillment through a workshop organised by Risø Innovation (Risø DTU) in collaboration with Region Zealand and Nykøbing F. Sygehus.

DTU invites you, in cooperation with Danish Energy Industries Federation and City of Copenhagen, to a conference on "Energy for smart cities in an urbanised world". The Conference will be held in the City Hall of Copenhagen on Tuesday 29 November 2011, at 10 - 17:30

Although the rain this summer has been pouring down over Denmark, most scientists agree that global temperature increases will intensify periods with summer drought already in 2075. The large scale project CLIMAITE, led by Risø DTU, has published its first synthesis paper in the renowned journal Global Change Biology, and the conclusion is perhaps a little surprising that the predicted increase in plant growth, due to more CO₂ in the atmosphere is noticeably limited when combined with higher temperatures - and especially summer droughts.

From 14 to 18 August, young Danish and Chinese material scientists meet for an intensive week of summer school in China to discuss the topic Nanometals for Energy. The Summer school and a related symposium are organized by the Danish-Chinese Center for Nanometals and the Sustainable Energy Programme of the Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research with Senior Scientist Wolfgang Pantleon from Risø DTU as the prime mover.

The EU has just started a project with the purpose of achieving the 20% renewable energy target for EU countries in 2020 in a more cost-effective and efficient way. Risø DTU is leading one of the working groups in the project.

Media coverage of University of Aarhus thinking about moving NERI to Copenhagen can leave the impression that the move would mean that Risø will lose jobs. It is a misconception. Aarhus University and the Technical University of Denmark are two independent universities. NERI is part of Aarhus University. NERI is today located at the Risø peninsula in Roskilde and is next-door neighbour to Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy, which is part of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).

The mass production of organic photovoltaic cells is both feasible and inexpensive. To prove this, 10,000 solar cell flashlights, produced in cooperation between Risø DTU and Mekoprint, were given away at the LOPE-C conference in Frankfurt on 28-30 June. The project "Industrialization of polymer solar cells" has been funded by EUDP.

On May 13th 2011, the journal Science publishes a paper where scientists from Risø DTU in collaboration with scientists from China and USA, report a new method for revealing a 3D picture of the structure inside a material.

The fifth Risø International Energy Conference is over and the conclusions of the three-day conference are clear: The climate problems are becoming ever more urgent, but the energy systems of the future present even more issues. Technologically, we have good opportunities for creating sustainable energy systems.

Supported by the Big Science Secretariat, which is managed by DTU, the company Kirkholm Mechanical Engineering A/S from Skanderborg has recently signed a contract with ESO (European Southern Observatory). Thus, the Danish company will be influencing the design of the world's largest telescope, European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which is to be constructed in Chile.

From May to July 2011, the Technical University of Denmark carried out a tender for the wind turbine test stands at the test centre at Østerild and the test station at Høvsøre. Risø DTU was in charge of the process.

Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) has established its first regional office outside the Republic of Korea at Risø DTU. This with a view to developing projects aimed at helping developing countries launch initiatives within energy, transport and climate, and based on green growth. The new centre is established on the basis of a partnership agreement between DTU and GGGI aimed at ensuring the green growth in developing countries.

At the Danish Big Science Industry Day 2011, Danish enterprises can meet representatives from four major providers of contracts at European level in connection with the construction of Europe's Big Science facilities. Danish Big Science Industry Day 2011 takes place on Tuesday 3 May 2011 at Risø DTU.

Risø DTU has made its eighth report in the series: 'Nuclear power and Nuclear Safety', which gives a global overview of nuclear energy with a focus on safety and preparedness. This year's report is a bit delayed because of the accident in Fukushima, which is also mentioned in the report that would normally cover only the year 2010.

The world's total CO₂ emissions must be reduced. But it must be done in a way that concurrently ensures economic growth and social welfare for all citizens. This global energy dilemma is discussed at Risø DTUs Fifth International Energy Conference, taking place at Risø DTU from 10th to 12th May 2011.

DTU is one of 34 institutions in 15 countries to contribute the measurements of other greenhouse gases than CO2 in a new EU-funded network, InGOS. The network focuses on providing accurate information on the emissions of methane and nitrous oxide as the basis for a more focused climate action.

A flexible, controllable trailing edge for wind turbine blades has shown that it can reduce the loads on the turbine and in the end provide cheaper electricity from wind power. The idea dates back to 2003 when researchers from Risø DTU was inspired by the prey's ability to maneuver in turbulent air currents, while they at the same time remained at a stable point in the air. Now a three-year project co-funded by EUDP (the Danish Programme for Energy Technology Development and Demonstration), with three industry partners, is launched and is to develop the promising technology forward to a robust and durable trailing edge which can be tested on a full-scale blade.

Two reports are published today on Risø DTU’s investigations into radioactive contamination on land, which took place after the Thule accident in Greenland in 1968. The studies show that in some places pollution is slightly increased, but that staying in the area does not pose any health risk.

Risø International Energy Conference 2011 - Invitation and Programme. The next international energy conference takes place at Risø DTU from 10 - 12 May 2011.

Greater knowledge of storing ammonia in solid materials may prove to be important for the CO₂-free transport of the future. Risø DTU and the company Amminex A / S have received DKK 9,4 million from the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation to develop new materials that can clean exhaust gases from diesel vehicles of toxic NOx emissions. But the technology also has the potential to take on one of tomorrow's big issues: How do we integrate renewable energy into our transport sector?

These years, billions of Euros are allocated to build new, large research facilities in Europe. It is possible for Danish companies to get a share of this money. When work is put out to tender for several hundred million Euros within a wide range of supplies and competences, they will be given the opportunity to enter into commercial contracts. It is important for Danish companies to jump on the bandwagon now if they want to participate in these tenders.

On 10-11 January 2011 Risø National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (Risø DTU) is hosting the kick off seminar for European wind energy scientists involved in the EERA Joint Programme on Wind Energy.

Trine Klemensø, Risø DTU, has received the Siemens climate award 2010 of DKK 100,000 for her valuable work of making fuel cells more efficient.

A 34-metre long blade from SSP-Technology A/S is currently freely suspended inside Risø’s Experimental Research Facility for Blade Structure, and since 2008 the blade has been subjected to every form of twisting, turning, pulling, wearing and tearing imaginable. This has led to the development of a completely new test method for improving blade structures and blade design, which combines the loads acting on the blade. The method is already in use in the industry.

Risø DTU is behind the establishment of a new Nordic EV Interoperability Center (NEVIC) which will enable electric car owners to charge their cars at any EV charging station – irrespective of provider. The purpose is to ensure uniform standards for consumers and problem-free charging for electric car owners all over Denmark.

In the beginning of April, the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation published "Danish roadmap for research infrastructure 2011". The catalogue describes the research infrastructure, i.e. the observation stations, which are used for gathering data about greenhouse gases.

As of 1 March 2011 the present director for Risø DTU, Henrik Bindslev, is appointed as a new vice dean at DTU with a special focus on European research in sustainable energy technologies. To ensure continuity at Risø DTU, DTU’s provost Anders Bjarklev will serve as acting director until a new director is found and appointed.

We probably all remember the newspaper pictures of houses and factories captured with infrared cameras. The heat pouring out. And although it may be great for keeping the sparrows warm, there is probably better ways to use this energy. Therefore, Risø DTU received considerable funding from the Danish Council for Strategic Research to develop a technology that can convert waste heat into electricity.