The Conference

The conference was held at the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy (DK), which is a location known worldwide among energy experts. At the centre you will be able to experience different renewable energy technologies and have a complete overview on how could a transition towards a 100% renewable energy society occur.

The conference hall is located in SkibstedFjord, which is an example of innovative underground architecture. The building, with its 670 m2 and its 140 places, is the ideal location for conferences on renewable energy topics, and enjoys a very pleasant indoor climate in every season.

Programme

Please, check this section to find the latest version of the programme. For Danish, please click her

09.55: Welcome by Jane Kruse, director of Nordic Folkecenter

Part 1: Political Challenges of Storing Energy in the EU

10.00 – 10.20: The future Role and Challenges of Energy Storage in the EU, Torbjorn Olausson, EU House, Copenhagen

10.20 – 10.40: The Potential of Community Power in Denmark and EU, Hening Bo Madsen, energy expert, NOAH

10.40 – 11.00: Background of the New EU-Directive: Will There Be Place for Community Power?, Leire Gorroño, Nordic Folkecenter

11.00 - 11.20: Towards 100% Renewable Energy Supply within the EU, Examples from EU Countries Including Denmark, Gunnar Boye Olesen, INFORSE-EUROPE

11.20 – 11.40: Coffee Break

Part 2: Storing Energy in a Different Way

11.40 – 12.00: Solar Sun Battery, Mogens Lesch, Germany

12.00 – 12.20: Storing Energy by Saving Energy: The Passive House Construction, Per Clausens/p>

12.20 - 12.40: Wave Energy as Storage, Ian Jordan, Denmark

12.40 - 13.00: Solar Energy Does not Need to be Stored: The Sun Generator, Anker Mardal, Energivagt

13.00 - 13.20: EXYTRON SmartEnergy Technology, Mogens Lesch, Germany

13.20 – 14.20: Lunch and Networking

14.20 – 15.20: Guided Tour Through Folkecenter’s Facilities and Storage System

Part 4: Storage for Large Applications

15.20 – 15.40: Vehicle to Grid: a Danish Concept, Maian Gjelaj, DTU Elektro

15.40 – 16.00: Storage and Transmission of Renewable Energy Surplus in Denmark, 2015-2020 and beyond, Gorm Andresen, Aarhus University

16.00 – 16.20: Heat Pump Energy Storage System, Erasmus Damgaard Rothuizen, DTU, Denmark

16.20 – 16.40: Hydrogen & Fuel cells technology in the future energy system, Vincenzo Liso, Aalborg University

16.40 – 17.00: Coffee Break

17.00 – 17.20: From Biogas to Biomethane through Hydrogen Utilization: a Real Case Scenario, Daniele Pagani, Nordic Folkecenter

17.20 – 17.40: Combigas: Biogas Upgrading without Hydrogen, Morten Victor Petersen

17.40 – 18.20: Networking

18.20 – 19.00: Dinner and Networking

20.00 – 20.10: Closing Remarks and Farewell

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Download the Danish programme

Torbjorn Olausson
Senior Advisor Economic and Financial Affairs
European Commission's Representative Office in Denmark

Born and grown up close to Gothenburg (Sweden), he graduated in Business Accounting, Tax and Finance from the Gothenburg Business School in 1989. After graduated, he worked for eight years as a consultant in corporate affairs for KPMG Sweden.

From 1997 to 2002, he was in the European Court of Auditors (Luxembourg), where he worked within the Agricultural Audit Directorate. Following this experience, he entered the DG TRADE (European Commission), where he stood for 13 years, 10 of which located in Brussels (and frequent overseas travelling) and three in Copenhagen, where he became seconded senior advisor to the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade Policy Unit.

Since 2014, he is part of the European Commissions Representative Office in Denmark, where he covers the role of Senior Advisor for Economic and Financial Affairs.

Leire Gorroño Albizu
Socio-Economics of Renewable Energy
Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy

Leire Gorroño holds a B.Eng. in Industrial Organization from Mondragon University, Spain, and a MSc. in Sustainable Energy Planning and Management from Aalborg University, Denmark.

Socio-economics of renewable energy is her main field of interest. As Specialist in Community Power, Local Development and Local Acceptance at Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy, she develops policy recommendations, information strategies and topic related projects.;

She is currently involved in the EU-Turkish project "Powering Communities" and the Danish project "VVMplus".

Henning Bo Madsen
Energy Expert
NOAH

Henning Bo Madsen Has been working with energy and environment since 1980. He has been employed by organisations and municipalities to promote energy savings and renewable energy.

He was until April 2016 working in NOAH as coordinator of Community Power project and is now a volunteer in NOAH on Climate Justice and Energy, chair of Vestjyllands Energi- og Miljøforening and member of the Energy Council in Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality. He is also working on coordinating the activities in Alliancen for Community Power i Danmark.

Ian Jordan
Board Member
Wave Energy Association Denmark

Ian Jordan has worked since 1973 for the transition to renewable energies in Denmark.

He is currently the leader of the Energy and Environment Office, NIVE (Nordvestjylland Initiativ for Vedvarende Energi)

Additionally, he is the webmaster for the NIVE website (www.nive2.dk)

Gunnar Boye Olesen
Coordinator INFORSE-Europe
Political Coordinator for VedvarendeEnergi

Gunnar Boye Olesen has more than 25 years experience on the field of renewable energy.

He is educated as Mechanical Engineer from DTU, Denmark. Coordinator of INFORSE-Europe, and political coordinator for VedvarendeEnergi, Denmark.

Since 2002, he is a researcher of the 100% Renewable Energy Scenarios in EU and European countries. For Denmark, the 100% RE scenario is by 2030 and it was updated in 2015. Since 2010, he has developing positions to the EU EcoDesign Consultation Forum together with other NGOs within the Cool Products Campaign. Since 2005, he has participated on the UNCSD and the UNFCCC conferences representing INFORSE and the Danish 92-group, and he is working on projects where NGOs are promoting low-carbon development in South Asia and Africa.

Marjan Gjelaj
PhD Student
DTU Elektro

Marjan Gjelaj received the M.Sc in Electrical Engineering with curriculum renewable energy from University of Pavia, Italy, in 2013. From 2013 to 2016, he worked in Milan (Italy) at "ENEL Research" as a control engineer for electric vehicles (EVs) and their impact on the electrical grid.

Currently, he is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Electrical Engineering with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). His Phd. project focuses on integrating control policies on controllable loads, mainly EVs and grid impact reduction from the EV fast-charging stations through the use of stationary applications such as Battery Energy Storage.

Gorm Andresen
Assistant Professor
Aarhus University

Assistant Professor, Ph.d. Gorm B. Andresen (GBA) is conducting research on smart energy systems and thermodynamics at the Department of Engineering, Aarhus University.

His primary research focus is on system integration of weather driven renewable energy sources, in particular wind and solar. This includes continental scale transmission systems, energy storage, the impact of climate change as well as smart cities and local district heating.

Vincenzo Liso
Associate Professor
Aalborg University

Vincenzo is an Associate Professor at the Department of Energy Technology, Aalborg University. He performs scientific research in fuel cell systems for vehicle and residential applications. These research activities have been documented in many conference and journal peer-reviewed papers. Besides, he teaches in the field of modelling of thermal energy systems and fuel processing.

During his PhD project he has been working both at Aalborg University and the Imperial College London on micro Combined Heat and Power systems based on fuel cells.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering from the University of Perugia where he conducted a Thesis together with KTH in Stockholm on a system combining natural gas engine and absorption heat pumps.

Mogens Lesch
 
 

Per Clausens
Architect
MNTarkitekter

Per Clausens is director of MNTarkitekter, an architect office, and he has a special focus on energy saving buildings. His main expertise is in designing houses with very low heat consumption and he was also involved in designing the passive house which is located at Nordic Folkecenter.

His network is considerably large, including several international architects, most of which come from Germany.

Per is the person who have longest worked in the energy savings field, in Denmark.

To learn more about Per's and his colleagues' activities, please visit: http://mntarkitekter.dk/

Anker Mardal
Inventor of the Sun Generator
EnergiVagt

Educated as an electro-mechanic, Anker Mardal has worked for most of his career in the electrical and electronical sectors.

After a practical placement in Bang & Olufsen, a well know Danish company producing entertainment appliances, he was involved in the development of short-wave radio devices, in Aalborg. Next, he designed electronic circuits for a company in Thisted and collaborate with the development of solar panels for Jysk Solenergi.

Currently, he is collaborating with THYmøllen, a local company producing small windmills (6 and 10 kW).

He also invented the Sun Generator, a device which converts the comes from the sun directly into DC current, avoiding therefore the need of a battery or of an inverter. The device was developed and tested in cooperation with Nordic Folkecenter and its 250 W is available for sale. Additionally, together with Nordic Folkecenter he is now developing a 3 kW version of the Sun Generator

Erasmus Damgaard Rothuizen
Research Scientist, Ph.D.
Danish Technical University

Erasmus Rothuizen is a research scientist within the area of sustainable energy with a focus area on thermal energy and energy systems. He holds a Ph.D. degree from 2013 studying the thermodynamics of hydrogen fuelling stations and optimizing different system designs. Erasmus has since 2013 been employed as a research scientist at the Technical University of Denmark where his main focus has been optimizing smaller thermodynamic systems such as new heat pump systems and refrigeration facilities for LNG processes.

Beside the research, he is supervising students and he is a member of the IEA working group considering general key performance indicators for comparison of thermal energy storage technologies.

Daniele Pagani
Sustainable Mobility
Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy

Daniele Pagani holds a B.Eng in Global Business Engineering and a B.Eng in Mechanical Engineering from VIA University College, Denmark.

His main research interests are related to sustainable mobility and on how could the different countries switch from a petroleum-based transportation to a mobility which takes the environment into account as well. In addition to that, he has performed some research on the applications of hydrogen in industrial and agricultural sector.

Since August 2016, he works in Nordic Folkecenter, where he is responsible for organizing conferences and events.

Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy is a non-profit, independent, organisation that provides research, development of technology, training and information for the manufacture, industrial innovation and implementation of renewable energy technologies and energy savings in Denmark and throughout the world. Folkecenter intends to achieve measurable increases in the utilisation of renewable energy technologies and thereby significant reductions in environmental pollution associated with energy use in Denmark and elsewhere. It obtains support from local authorities, national and international agencies, and the industry. The ultimate long term purpose is a complete replacement of fossil fuels and atomic power with renewable energies.

NOAH works to improve the living environment by stopping the destruction of the environment and present alternatives.

NOAH´s vision is a just and sustainable world, where decisions are made democratic.

NOAH is an environmental movement started in 1969. NOAH is the Danish member of Friends of the Earth – the largest global network of environmental NGOes.

NOAH is currently focused on climate, energy, sustainable transport, sustainable food production, bio-diversity and sustainable use of resources.

VedvarendeEnergi works for 100% renewable energy in a sustainable world. We are a member based NGO with activities in Denmark and in developing countries. SustainableEnergy was created in 1975 as a protest against plans for nuclear power in Denmark under the name “Organisation for Vedvarende Energi" (OVE). In 2010 we changed our name into VedvarendeEnergi (SustainableEnergy).

Community-owned energy projects have the potential to transform our energy system. Communities and cooperatives all over Europe are creating projects where they own and are actively involved in running an energy plant using renewable energy.

In the period 2013-2016 European NGOes and institutes from 12 countries have worked together on a project aimed at getting the decision makers improve the conditions for establishing community owned RE plants. They also initiated community RE across Europe.

A result of the project was coalitions for the promotion of Community Power both among Brussel based organisations and at national level.

In Denmark organisations has formed Alliancen for Community Power i Danmark who has been involved in organizing seminars and public meetings and lobbying politicians.

At EU level the coalition has been working on getting community energy into the new Renewable Energy Directive and has commissioned a study from CE Delft on the potential for consumer and community owned RE production in EU.

http://www.cedelft.eu/publicatie/the_potential_of_energy_citizens_in_the_european_union/1845

INFORSE- Europe is one of the 7 regions of the International Network for Sustainable Energy (INFORSE), which is a worldwide NGO network formed at the Global Forum in Rio in 1992.

INFORSE has more than 145 member organisations worldwide and works for implementation of sustainable energy solutions by exchange of information, awareness creation, formulation and implementation of strategies, and lobbying of international forums.

INFORSE-Europe has 85 members from 35 countries. The Danish members include NOAH, SustainableEnergy (VedvarendeEnergi), DIB, and the Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy.