Thirty years ago, the University of Oldenburg was one of the first European universities to make research into renewable energies a central task for the future. This has resulted in the development of an energy research centre in north-west Germany, which has also led to the establishment of numerous companies. In the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan region, the number of jobs in this branch of industry is now estimated at around 20,000.

Oldenburg's research is supported in particular by the Energy and Semiconductor Research working group at the University of Oldenburg with 130 employees alone, the wind energy Centre of Excellence ForWind (40), the EWE research centre NEXT ENERGY (50), the "Energy" department at the Computing Science Institute OFFIS (40) and a recently founded research group for storage technology at Bremen's Fraunhofer Institute IFAM.

Oldenburg's energy research will be presented in Shanghai with a film that the university had made by the Bremen-based production company fact & film. It also shows that the topic of energy plays an important role in the range of courses on offer - including teacher training programmes - and in further education.

At the EXPO, the Oldenburg-based energy company EWE AG will be exhibiting the E3 electric car developed with Karmann. EWE wants to use it to demonstrate the integration of electric vehicles into the energy networks of the future. The vehicle batteries could be used as storage in the future. For example, they could be charged when a large amount of electricity is fed into the grid, such as when there is a lot of wind, and feed electricity back into the grid when production from renewable energies is lower than current demand.

The third project in Oldenburg is the "Smart House", which is being built in the centre of Oldenburg as a house of science and whose model will be presented at the EXPO. The starting point is a historic residential building, which is being renovated and given a very modern extension. The 1,200 square metres of floor space will reflect architecture from the 16th century (construction of the old building) to the 21st century. The internationally renowned Stuttgart-based architectural firm Behnisch developed a concept for a low-energy building that can host events and conferences, while at the same time presenting scientific core competences in the areas of "Energy & Climate Protection" and "Living & Life in the Future". The project takes up and carries forward the idea of the "City of Science 2009" - the popular scientific communication of education and research. The centre will be built and maintained by a company in which the University of Oldenburg and the Jade University of Applied Sciences will be partners. From summer 2011, it is to become an attraction for visitors to Oldenburg and the people in the region

Further information can be found at:

• www.oldenburg-energy.net (no longer available)