TU Delft | Delft Energy Initiative

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TU Delft Energy Initiative

The Delft Energy Initiative DEI is TU Delft's scientific community on sustainable, affordable, reliable, and inclusive energy. 1000 researchers, supported by an even larger army of PhD and other students work on technology, methods, principles, insight, and solutions for the energy system of the future. The DEI serves as a catalyst between research, society, industry, and businesses in order to accelerate the energy transition. It is your entry point to TU Delft's vibrant ecosystem of future energy.

The initiative consists of 4 main cross-faculty energy institutes: Wind Energy; Urban Energy; PowerWeb and e-Refinery. Of course there is some overlap; that is why the institutes are in close contact with each other. Themes like Social Innovation and Governance cross each institute. The energy platforms Ocean Energy; H2 and eBattery are also involved. Below you will find the links to the institutes and platforms.

A startup related to the energy transition can obtain a voucher through the Delft Energy Initiative and researchers can win an amount of money with their publication annually. Our 'Energy Club' ensures that all TU Delft students can exchange knowledge about the latest research and energy education through interesting events.

Welcome to the TU Delft Energy Initiative

Our Energy Accelerators

The 4 energy Institutes

Wind Energy Institute

Urban Energy Institute

PowerWeb Institute

e-Refinery Institute

Energy Platforms

H2 Platform

Social Innovation in the Energy Transition

Other energy related platforms

The Green Village

Activities

Energy Startup Voucher

Do you want to know how Delft Energy Initiative can contribute to your startup with €5000?

Best Energy Paper Award

Annual event where you can win up to €1000 with your energy paper

TU Delft Energy Club

Check out what our energy students can do for you!

All Energy Day

Annual student event

News

Pivotal moment for humanity as tipping points in Earth systems and society accelerate

The report says current global governance is inadequate for the scale of the challenge of accelerating tipping points and makes six key recommendations to change course fast, including coordinated action to trigger positive tipping points.

Building an ethical framework to assess offshore wind park projects

Due to controversies surrounding the installation of wind parks on land or near the shore to generate renewable energy, there is an increasing interest in installing turbines offshore in the North Sea. Placing wind parks offshore raises new ethical dilemmas and concerns. TPM researchers Andrea Gammon, James Hutton and Udo Pesch, led by Anna Melnyk and Behnam Taebi, have won a tender from the Topsector Energie and will be working on composing and refining an ethical framework for assessing offshore wind parks projects. More renewable energy projects need to be installed to bridge the emission gap and achieve the goals set by the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to limit temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. For the Netherlands, meeting national climate goals along with dealing with the European energy crisis and closure of the Groningen gas field entails more investment into wind and solar energy projects. However, such projects raise social controversies and can have negative externalities on ecosystem services. Visual impact The placement of wind parks, for instance, have been especially contested for their visual impact on the land- or seascape, therefore undermining place-based identity or threatening tourism. Due to controversies surrounding installation of wind parks on land or near the shore, there is an increasing interest in installing turbines offshore in the North Sea, as described in Missieprogramma 1: Renewable Energy at Sea of the Dutch Klimaatakkoord. This is also the only way to accommodate the incredible growth of wind energy in the Netherlands, upon which meeting the mitigation targets largely depends. Ethical dilemmas of offshore wind parks The societal urgency is clear, but this doesn’t mean that controversies are avoided. Placing wind parks offshore raises new ethical dilemmas and concerns, in particular with respect to the ecological risks. Think of disruption of seabird foraging and migration paths or the potential destruction of marine habitats. Spatial issues also arise with respect to the already overcrowded North Sea. To address the call from the Topsector Energie, the researchers will develop a framework for systematically assessing the ethical acceptability of offshore wind parks in the North Sea. Based on a moral deliberative approach to stakeholder engagement, the framework will help to consider the complex interplay of societal, environmental, and technological factors and risks, from which ethical dilemmas may arise. The project starts in November and the framework is expected to be ready in July 2024. Anna Melnyk Behnam Taebi

More efficient electrodes for CO2 recycling

CO2 electrolysis is a promising way to store energy whilst recycling carbon dioxide. By applying electricity, CO2 and water react and produce more complex molecules. A study published in Nature Communications lead by Hugo van Montfort at TU Delft has presented a new design of electrodes that improves the efficiency of CO2 electrolysis.

Behnam Taebi in "Groendoen" - Technique, ethics and policy as triangle

In the autumn edition of Groendoen, Behnam Taebi is interviewed about technique, ethics and policy that should form a nice triangle. Read more via this link page 40. (Only in Dutch)

Kornelis Blok appointed as Honorary Professor

On 12 October, Kornelis Blok was appointed Honorary Professor at the Institut Teknologi Sumatera by the rector, Prof I Nyoman Pugeg Aranthya. Kornelis Blok, together with Jaco Quist and others, is involved in a collaborative project aimed at making electricity supply in Indonesia more sustainable.

More news

Agenda

December

Climate Action Programme lecture: "Climate Edu-Action!"

Doctoral defence J. Steiner

Doctoral defence Y. Zhao

Screening of the itinerant film club 'Reporting the Delta' - Limits and Inevitabilities

Doctoral defence S. Fu

Doctoral defence S. Çetin Öztürk

Doctoral defence A. Hosseini

January

Best Climate Action and Energy Paper 2023 - Call for papers is open

March

Best Climate Action and Energy Paper 2023 - Call for papers is open

September

The 28th Thermodynamics Conference

More events