To mark the visit of the Dutch royal couple, the university is inviting renowned experts from Germany and the Netherlands to a symposium in co-operation with the affiliated EWE research centre NEXT ENERGY. The key question: How can key technologies in the expansion of renewable energies be further developed?
High-ranking visitor for the University of Oldenburg: The Dutch royal couple, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander and Her Majesty Queen Máxima, will pay a working visit to the university on Monday, 26 May at 10.00 am. The guests will be received by Lower Saxony's Minister President Stephan Weil, University President Prof. Dr Katharina Al-Shamery, Lord Mayor Prof. Dr Gerd Schwandner and the head of the affiliated EWE research centre NEXT ENERGY, Prof. Dr Carsten Agert.
To mark the visit, the University of Oldenburg is inviting 40 renowned experts from Germany and the Netherlands to a symposium in co-operation with the affiliated NEXT ENERGY Institute. The focus is on the question of how key technologies can be further developed in the cross-border expansion of renewable energies. The aim is to jointly develop a German-Dutch key issues paper. The symposium will be opened by President Al-Shamery and Prime Minister Weil. Afterwards, His Majesty King Willem-Alexander will address the scientists in a speech.
Prof Dr Ferdi Schüth, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim, Vice President of the German Research Foundation (DFG) and member of the University Council of the University of Oldenburg, will give the keynote speech. This will be followed by a panel discussion with German and Dutch scientists.
The royal couple will then take a tour of the NEXT ENERGY laboratories to find out about selected energy storage concepts being researched there. In addition to the functioning of the vanadium redox flow battery, Institute Director Agert will also explain lithium-ion and fuel cell technology to the royal couple. In conjunction with photovoltaic storage systems, these are considered to be key components of future building energy management systems. A tour of Germany's first battery exchange station for electric vehicles, which is also located on the Institute's premises, is also planned.
More than 30 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 led to the development of an energy research centre in north-west Germany, which, in addition to the university, includes other research institutes and companies that develop modern, efficient and climate-friendly energy systems. Together with its two affiliated institutes NEXT ENERGY and OFFIS as well as ForWind, the University of Oldenburg forms the research network ENERiO - Energy Research in Oldenburg. Renewable energies also play an important role in teaching: the international Postgraduate Programme Renewable Energy (PPRE) was founded back in 1987 - one of the world's first Master's programmes in this field. The programme is aimed at engineers and science graduates from industrialised countries, but in particular also from developing and emerging countries.
To date, over 400 PPRE students from 85 countries have graduated from the University of Oldenburg. They form a global network and hold leading positions in research, administration, development cooperation, politics and industry in the field of renewable energies. In addition, the University of Oldenburg offers numerous courses in Computing Science, Physics and Economics with a focus on energy, thus ensuring a diverse study environment.
NEXT ENERGY was founded in 2008 under the umbrella of the non-profit association "EWE-Forschungszentrum für Energietechnologie e.V.". This was founded a year earlier by Oldenburg-based EWE AG, the University of Oldenburg and the state of Lower Saxony with the aim of actively helping to shape the technical changes on the way to a climate-friendly, economical and secure energy supply. With a focus on photovoltaics, fuel cells and energy storage, the Institute has expertise in three key technologies that are becoming increasingly important in the transition to a decentralised energy supply. NEXT ENERGY's cross-divisional research concept enables building energy management systems to be analysed using a holistic approach. Another research focus is on strategic issues relating to the technical design of future electricity supply systems. The research centre on the natural sciences campus of the University of Oldenburg, which was opened in 2009, currently employs around 110 people.
Note to the public:
Interested parties have the opportunity to see the arrival and departure of the royal couple from the sports field on the Wechloy campus. Access by car is not possible. Please use the footpaths from Drögen-Hasen-Weg.