The Department for Sustainable Energy Transition (NEW) is being lead by Professor Pao-Yu Oei and Junior Professor Frauke Wiese. They have succeed the previous director of the master proegram, Prof. Dr. Olav Hohmeyer, who moved to a senior professorship in March 2021. The EUM department is comprised of a 30-member team of professors, post-docs, PhD students, and student assistants, who work together on various interdisciplinary research projects on the energy transition in Germany and globally.

Both the teaching and research work within the department focuses on the transformation from fossil energy systems to 100% renewable energy systems in order to achieve the goal of having a maximum increase of the global average temperature of 1.5°C by the year 2050. In order to achieve this, energy system models are built, and measures are developed to allow for the implementation of renewable energy systems. Additionally, political economy studies help to identify barriers of the transformation and to develop appropriate local solutions. In doing so, we do not lose sight of the socially just and environmentally compatible perspectives in addition to the technical and economic perspectives. The possibilities of energy sufficiency and sustainability as well as the investigation of justice and gender aspects also play special role within the team’s research.

Two BMBF junior research groups, CoalExit and EnSu, are an important part of the department.

CoalExit strengthens the research on the implementation of 100% renewable energy systems through the research of the global coal phase-out. Additionally, since 2020, research has also been conducted on the global gas phase-out, also known as the end of the fossil fuel era. The team also works intensively with colleagues at the TU Berlin and DIW Berlin.

The junior research group EnSu investigates the role of energy sufficiency in the energy transition and society. This BMBF junior research group conducts its research on interdisciplinary cooperation between energy modeling in the engineering sciences, political science, and socio-ecological transformation research. The underlining goal is to make the effect of sufficiency measures measurable, and thus, presentable for energy system modeling. This is done in close cooperation with team members at the Norber Elias Center, the Öko-Institut, and the Wuppertal Institute.

Open Science, i.e. the public accessibility and provision of data, models and results, is the basis of all our research work. We develop open source energy system models and publish our results in open access journals whenever possible. Open science is an important prerequisite for being able to understand the quality of statements that are intended to inform policy and society. In addition, we also specifically try to bring our findings closer to people outside the research community through other formats in order to increase understanding and thus acceptance of the energy transition and the changes it entails.

The Department for Sustainable Energy Transition is part of the Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (ZNES). The Center for Sustainable Energy Systems aims to research, develop, and implement energy systems and energy technologies that are permanently compatible with the environment and climate. The research and development work of the center ranges from the details of individual technologies to the development of consistent target scenarios for 100% renewable energy supply systems or the elaboration of strategies to ensure fully climate compatible local or regional development.

The center is jointly supported by various professors from both the Europa University and the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences. It sees itself as an interdisciplinary research and development center that networks and bundles the special research and development experience of the participating professors and scientists in order to provide answers to the urgent questions of the necessary further development of our energy supply, especially against the background of man-made climate change.

The center is closely linked to the teaching of the Master's program in Energy and Environmental Management, as well as the Bachelor's program in Energy Sciences (HS), and current research content makes up a large part of the teaching content.

The Industrial Engineering program - Energy and Environmental Management (EUM) was founded in 1997 as a diploma program at the Europa University Flensburg (EUF, then University of Flensburg). In 2006, through the Bologna Process, the diploma program was separated into a Bachelor's degree in Energy Science with a specialization in Energy and Environmental Management (coordinated by Flensburg University of Applied Sciences) and a Master's program in Energy and Environmental Management (coordinated by EUF). Prof. Dr. Pao-Yu Oei coordinates the specialization for students with the focus on "industrialized countries" (for more info). For more information on the Master of Energy and Environmental Management with the specialization in "developing countries", click here.

Teaching in the program is directly related to a variety of both research and practical projects. External lecturers are often given by EUM alumni, who thus pass on their knowledge and experience to the new students. Students in the program come from different regions of the world and bring different expertise to the program, contributing to the diversification and internationality of the course content.