Issue 2 - June 2013

Top sectors full steam ahead

Global green gas from waste using Dutch technology

International recognition for 14Credits method

First pile in the ground for new high-tech lab in Eindhoven

Research contract with POSCO Energy

ECN launches annual overview 2012

Have a look at the overview

From 5 to 7 June 2013, ECN is represented at the Materials Event in Veldhoven and can be found at booth no. 48.

From 16 to 19 June 2013, ECN will be present at the World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in the Canadian city of Montréal.

From 16 to 21 June 2013, ECN will give several presentations during the Photovoltaic Specialists Conference in Tampa, Florida.

Jelle Blekxtoon

‘Squinting at a candle so you can see twice as much light: yet another way to save energy!’ For me, this quote of the Belgian Cartoonist Kamagurka symbolises the search for alternative energy applications. After all, the versatility and complexity of energy make it impossible to make our energy system sustainable with one single solution only.
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Valuable wind science

A product that can reduce the cost of wind energy, thorough, fundamental-scientific publications and a cum laude PhD; these are the results of a successful partnership between ECN and the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI). Michiel Houkema of ECN and Barry Koren of CWI explain how they found each other in the modeling of air flows of wind farms. 'The PhD research was mathematically sound and practically oriented as well. The CWI fed ECN with fundamental knowledge, whereas ECN provided the CWI with experiences and wishes from practise.'

High-risk technology? Prevent an impasse

Will shale gas face the same fate as CO₂ storage and die a silent death due to a lack of support? Two recent debates on technological risks of energy innovations are showing a similar patter as the heated debates of a few years ago about plans for CO₂ storage in the Dutch town of Barendrecht. Both in the discussion on test drilling for shale gas in the Netherlands (with a risk of affecting environment and landscape) and in the discussion on extraction of natural gas in the province of Groningen (with a risk of earth quakes) an enthusiastic industry is again facing direct opposition of concerned citizens.

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Ammonia standards under pressure

Has the Dutch government been too harsh on farmers in the last twenty years; should they be allowed to get their slurry tanks out of the barn once again? Discussions about this question reached as far as the Lower Chamber, which was partly the result of a scientific article published by Arjan Hensen with fellow researchers from Switzerland and France.

Energy policy for the future

To ensure sufficient options for drastic CO₂ emission reductions in the long term, we need to invest in innovation today, said Sander Lensink of ECN in the Dutch television discussion programme Watt Nu? 16 per cent renewable energy for the Netherlands in 2020, as targeted by the Dutch cabinet, should be feasible, provided that we put our shoulders to the wheel.

Watch the episode of Watt Nu

Lower maintenance costs for wind turbines

The extreme growth of nitrogen pollution in China in the last decades predicts what our future holds in store if we do not rethink the situation, now that all over the world people are using increasingly more fertilizer and eat more and more meat. That is the message of an opinion paper written by Albert Bleeker of ECN and Mark Sutton of the 'Centre for Ecology & Hydrology' in Edinburg in Nature.

Source:Nature

Citizens should be more closely involved in energy issues.

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