Research

Research at the department is centered around two main questions: How to develop sustainable energy systems in developing economies of the global South; and Where to draw the boundaries between centralized energy infrastructures and the development of distributed, local energy solutions. Research is interdisciplinary, involving systems engineering, technology appraisal, spatial analysis, feasibility studies, environmental impact analysis and socio-economic analysis.

As a member of the sEEnergies project consortium with several partners around Europe, our department develops a Pan-European Thermal Atlas (Peta), which delivers high-resolution geographical data on heating and cooling demand in Europe, and the costs and system properties of district energy systems. These data form the basis of studies of future integration of renewable energy by means of district heating and cooling.

About 10 PhD students are doing research at the department; please find their project descriptions and short biographies here.

Through the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems (ZNES) the department is linked with other researchers in the field of sustainable energy technology, systems and economy at the two universities at Flensburg.

Publications can be found here.