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Location Oldenburg
At the beginning of the 1980s, a research and demonstration building with its own energy supply based on solar and wind was built on the Wechloy campus in Oldenburg. The “Energy Lab” laid the foundation for the research focus on “renewable energies” at the University of Oldenburg. After more than 40 years of success, the internationally renowned Oldenburg energy research now has a core of around 30 professors with their respective working groups.
From the research community originally focused on materials and technology, an interdisciplinary forum of Oldenburg energy researchers has emerged through the systemic organisation of renewables, which brings together several faculties and thus various topics. All of the university's key topics in energy research are served across several profile-forming focal points.
The energy researchers meet approximately on a quarterly basis. The meetings are organized and prepared by the actors from the faculties and the EFZN site coordination. The so-called “Energy Round” is in close contact with the University Executive Board and the Department for Research and Transfer and is well networked locally and regionally with numerous non-university actors in energy system transformation.
Characterized by interdisciplinary exchange with other Lower Saxony university locations in the scientific centers ForWind (wind energy) and EFZN (networked energy systems), Oldenburg energy researchers are active in all research lines of the EFZN (material and hydrogen technologies, networked energy systems, techno-social energy systems, digitisation, sociology energy system transformation).
Core Topics
The university research focus “Energy of the Future” is organized in two clusters:
The overarching goal of the “Systems and Networking” cluster is the networking of energy system components, technologies, materials and models, which have been successfully researched in Oldenburg for decades, into large-scale systems and, further, the transition of existing structures to networked, digitalized systems. This is a relatively new research and development field, which is complemented by energy-related economics and social sciences from the University of Oldenburg.
Oldenburg energy research is characterized by its interdisciplinary integration and collaboration with non-university partners. The content structure and the range of topics have a relevant research, laboratory and staff strength.
The working groups from the faculties involved are involved in a large number of (inter)national research associations that cover the entire research spectrum from the basics of energy conversion, technical conversion systems, technological integration and systemic networking to the sociology and sustainability of transformation.
This comprehensive research approach is complemented by unique and internationally unique experimental fields (wind tunnel, smart city real world laboratory, cyber resilience lab, attosecond laboratory, ultra-fast electron microscope, network laboratory of the DLR Institute). The transfer of research results into practice benefits from long-term cooperation relationships with regional companies in the energy industry (e.g. EWE, Enercon), which are organized at the location together with the university in the Oldenburg Energy Cluster (OLEC).