Archive

A while ago we thought it was no longer needed within TU Delft: a group entirely dedicated to maintaining and developing the use of high voltage. After all, the expectation was that the grid would become decentralised in the Netherlands, and that households would start generating their own electricity. This has partly become true, however, a vast amount of the renewable energy comes in large ‘chunks’, for example through offshore wind farms and large solar fields. "The fact is that we need high-voltage more than ever," Prof Peter Vaessen emphasizes. "This is also the reason we have a new, revived high-voltage group at TU Delft: the High Voltage Technologies Group."

Increasingly extreme weather conditions and a steadily rising sea level are unmistakable signs of the deepening climate crisis. Climate action and an accelerated energy transition can make a difference, with a crucial role for technology and engineering – and thereby for the thousands of students, PhDs, and postdocs of TU Delft. A total of nine TU Delft researchers are in the running for the Best Climate and Energy Paper of 2023, including two from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS). Two winners will be announced on Tuesday, 19 March.

On Thursday February 15, President and CEO of Siemens AG Roland Busch visited the Control Room of the Future (CRoF) Technology Centre, showcasing the shared ambitions of Siemens and TU Delft to explore the frontiers of energy management innovation. TU Delft's CRoF, led by Assistant Professor Alex Stefanov, is a Technology Centre aimed at making the future power grid intelligent, digitally resilient and cyber secure.

In a recent interview, Professor Arno Smets shared his insights regarding the importance of inspiration in the educational process.

On 13 October 2023 Alliander and the TU Delft Powerweb Institute signed a letter of intent to collaboratively foster innovation to find intelligent solutions that will accelerate the energy transition and contribute to a more sustainable and greener world.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has announced that the HybridLabs consortium will receive 10.4 million euros in funding within the National Research Agenda programme: Research on Routes by Consortia (NWA-ORC). The HybridLabs consortium project will accelerate Dutch innovations in offshore renewable energy through data-driven hybrid labs. The consortium consists of around 40 partners and is led by the TU Delft Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, with a valuable contribution from the team Dynamic Stability of Sustainable Electrical Power Systems of EEMCS’ Intelligent Electrical Power Grids Group (IEPG). 

Considering geopolitical tensions and power shifts, there is an increasing need for better understanding climate safety and security

It is vital to the increase the reliability of the European electricity system. The electricity grid needs to be ready for a drastic increase of renewable energy and more resilient to future shocks (such as cyber-attacks). That is why 77 partners, from 15 European countries, have come together through the TwinEU consortium project to create a digital twin of the entire European electricity grid. TU Delft is one of the prominent partners within this project and is very excited to have won the grand proposal together with all the leading stakeholders.

The Veni grant is a funding instrument from the Talent Programme of the Dutch Research Council (NWO). It allows researchers who have recently obtained their PhD to conduct independent research and develop their ideas for a period of three years. The Veni grant amounts to a maximum of EUR 280,000. A total of 17 researchers from TU Delft received a Veni, including 6 promising young researchers from the EEMCS faculty. A fantastic achievement by these researchers!

By participating in six of the eighteen prestigious Dutch 'Groeifondsen', the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) has strengthened its commitment to a sustainable and responsibly digital future. With these funds, the Netherlands' positions in sectors such as 6G technology, complex microelectronic communications systems, battery technology, and sustainable solar panel production will be consolidated, spearheading the development in these critical areas.

A sustainable future is the only future. That is why the energy transition is so important. It is a worldwide, structural change to reshape energy production and shift away from fossil fuels, towards clean sources like hydro, wind and solar power. But even though this transition is a movement at the forefront of change, it is still lacking in certain areas. Most notably, women are significantly underrepresented in the energy sector and transition. TU Delft, together with many international partners, are working on solving this issue within the FemPower project and trough the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Gender Equality in the Clean Energy Transition.

On 30 June, the Dutch government announced a new set of National Growth Fund investments, which will enable the Netherlands to gain and maintain a strong position in areas such as battery technology, 6G and sustainable steel production.

Building a world wherein solar energy and agriculture can have a mutually beneficial relationship

Electrical power grids worldwide are becoming overloaded. This makes it essential to further develop solutions to ensure the stability of our increasingly sustainable energy system. TU Delft is proud to work at the forefront of renewing energy systems, together with industry partners like grid operator TenneT. During a symposium on the topic of net congestion and innovation, experts from the industry and academia presented their joined efforts in this field.

A major challenge in the energy transition is the efficient and flexible storage and transportation of renewable energy. Batteries will play an important role in this. However, much research and innovation are still required. In order to encourage this, on Thursday 11 May 2023 TU Delft will be launching e4BatteryDelft: a brand-new platform that will focus on electrochemical storage of renewable energy – with respect for the world around us, in a way that is affordable and also totally European.

Solar energy is the cheapest and most accessible form of energy. Now, it will be more efficient than ever.

The Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science is proud to announce that Professor Peter Palensky has been appointed as the new Head of the Department of Electrical Sustainable Energy. He will start his term on July 1. Peter Palensky brings with him a wealth of experience in the digitalisation of the energy grid: a crucial aspect of the ongoing energy transition.

As of April 1st, Prof.dr. Peter Palensky will take over the role as chair Delft Energy Initiative from Prof.dr. Kornelis Blok.

From suggesting a better topological configuration of the energy grid, to detecting anomalies in the energy trade and suggesting more efficient energy trading strategies: there are countless ways in which AI can help streamline the energy transition. In fact: these are just the first three research directions Jochen Cremer and his team are investigating together with the Austrian Institute of Technology. To find out what other green pastures lie beyond these three approaches, this week TU Delft organized a Hackathon, together with the Austrian AIT.

On Friday, December 16th 2022 Peter Palansky was awarded the Hidde Nijland Penning.

The ICAI Lab 'AI for Energy Grids' is one of 17 new ICAI labs recently launched as part of the NWO LTP ROBUST programme. The lab will research the application of AI to distribution networks. It will combine Alliander's considerable industrial capabilities with the academic strength of TU Delft, Twente University, Radboud University and the HAN University of Applied Sciences. The lab represents an excellent fit with TU Delft's ambitions to accelerate the energy transition.

The Netherlands should be carbon neutral in 30 years’ time. Researchers are meeting this challenge with new technologies and smart solutions, from more efficient solar cells to green kerosene and sensors that monitor our power grid.

Today TU Delft and TenneT TSO B.V. welcomed Robbert Dijkgraaf (the current Minister of Education, Culture and Science | Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap) to the ESP Lab. The ESP Lab is the place where the Dutch electricity grid is being prepared for the future. This morning we spoke with the minister about promoting and encouraging gender diversity.

Today, the NWO announced that it is awarding the ROBUST programme 25 million euros. ROBUST, an initiative from the Innovation Centre for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI), is a collaboration of 51 partners from industry, government, and the knowledge sector, including TU Delft. ROBUST's total budget is over 87 million euros, and with the new impetus from NWO, 17 labs and 170 PhD students will be added in 10 years.

The Order of Ĺudovít Štúr, second class was awarded to Miro Zeman.

On October 18th, Professor Peter Vaessen, Head of the High Voltage Technologies (HVT) group, received the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate for a visit to the ESP-Lab. This organization is in charge of promoting the Netherlands as a country of enterprise with great attention to sustainability.

TNO, TU Eindhoven, imec and TU Delft – partners in Solliance – joined forces to further push the conversion efficiency of tandem solar cells to beyond the limits of today’s commercial photovoltaic (PV) modules. For the first time, four-terminal perovskite/silicon tandem devices with certified top cell pass the barrier of 30%. Such high efficiency enables more power per square meters and less cost per kWh.

Our energy network, from high voltage to low voltage, is becoming increasingly complex. Economic and demographic growth requires more and more connections, while the energy transition makes those connections more demanding: houses need more electricity, but sometimes also deliver current back with solar panels. The result is an energy network that threatens to become completely congested in some places. Take the Buiksloterham neighbourhood in Amsterdam, for example. There, the medium-voltage network can no longer cope with growth, while local industry wants to expand and homes want to become more sustainable.

The brand new research facility, where the digitalized electricity grid of the future will be shaped and formed, starts a new collaboration. Technolution, a technical consultancy firm from Gouda, the Netherlands, and their subsidiary Phase to Phase, invests € 525.000, in both hardware and software to the Control Room in the Future technology centre. Together, researchers and engineers will work on developing a new power grid that is more intelligent, resilient and cyber secure.

We are delighted to share that Francesca Grazian's poster entitled "Voltage/Current Doubler for Wireless Charging of Electric Vehicles" won the best poster award sponsored by the European Center for Power Electronics (ECPE) and Associazione Nazionale Azionamenti Elettrici (ANAE) during the 2022 edition of the European PhD School! We are proud that our research on wireless charging carried out at TU Delft in the DCE&S group got this acknowledgment.

The increased digitalisation of the power grid comes with its own set of cyber threats and risks. In TU Delft’s Control Room of the Future (CRoF) the power grid gets put through its paces. This remarkable research facility offers both industry and academics unique opportunities to research, develop and test the integration of new energy management technologies into the smart grid.

It isn’t often that a scientist wins a prestigious film award, but it happened last week to Miro Zeman, a solar energy expert at TU Delft. In his mini-documentary on energy transition, he elaborates on his scientific dream and how he is pursuing it at the brand new ESP Lab. The film was awarded a Green Heron during the Evening of the Corporate Film – The Golden Herons are awarded annually to the best commissioned films. The Green Heron is bestowed specifically on young film makers.

Solar foil represents the future. It can be applied in countless and unique ways – all the way from integrating it into traditional roof tiles through to creating new large-scale solar parks that reduce the price of our electricity. By signing a new four-year research contract, TU Delft and HyET Solar have sped up the introduction of the next generation of solar foil, bringing this vision of the future a significant step closer.

On 8 February 2022, TU Delft launches a programme of four new massive open online courses on Intelligent and Integrated Energy Systems.

Alex Stefanov explains a little about his project called RESCUE: Resilience and cyber security of integrated cyber-physical energy systems. It is one of five explainers that talk about multiyear research about energy system integration.