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TU Delft Energy Initiative

The Delft Energy Initiative is the gateway to energy research, education and innovation at TU Delft. This initiative serves as a catalyst for collaboration and discussion between scientists and students and between TU Delft and the business community, governments and politicians. In this way, the Delft Energy Initiative wants to contribute to energy innovation and ensure that sustainable energy supply remains a priority for society.

he initiative consists of 4 main cross-faculty energy institutes: Wind Energy; Urban Energy; PowerWeb and e-Refinery. Of course there is some overlap; that is why the institutes are in close contact with each other. Themes like Social Innovation and Governance cross each institute. The energy platforms Ocean Energy; H2 and eBattery are also involved. Below you will find the links to the institutes and platforms.


A startup related to the energy transition can obtain a voucher through the Delft Energy Initiative and researchers can win an amount of money with their publication annually. Our 'Energy Club' ensures that all TU Delft students can exchange knowledge about the latest research and energy education through interesting events.

Welcome to the TU Delft Energy Initiative

The 4 energy Institutes

Wind Energy Institute

Urban Energy Institute

PowerWeb Institute

e-Refinery Institute

The Delft Energy Initiative works closely together with more TU Delft platforms and initiatives

― Click here! - Prof Peter palensky, Director

Activities

Energy Startup Voucher

Do you want to know how Delft Energy Initiative can contribute to your startup with €5000?

Best Energy Paper Award

Annual event where you can win up to €1000 with your energy paper

TU Delft Energy Club

Check out what our energy students can do for you!

All Energy Day

Annual student event

News

Understanding Extreme Weather Phenomena: PHARA's 3D Radar Project's first official Summit

Under the name PHARA, a collaborative team of scientists and engineers aim to develop a pioneering phased array weather radar – first of its kind in Europe and one of the first worldwide. This joint effort TU Delft, TU Eindhoven, TNO, Robin Radar, Astron, KNMI, and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, officially kicked off with a summit held on May 30.

Protecting a Sustainable Future

For Marjan Popov it is clear: our society is at a crossroads. “We are undertaking perhaps the biggest engineering challenge of our time – we are radically changing the electricity grids.” According to him, the complexity of the electricity grids is comparable to the human body. “Similar to how patients are treated, in terms of taking care of their health, we should always monitor, control, and protect the electricity grids. I make this comparison because both the human body and the electricity grid are vulnerable to many different diseases, or disturbances, and some of them can have serious consequences. Therefore, undertaking comprehensive security and safety measures is an essential part of our energy transition.”

Innovative aviation liquid hydrogen project launched

TU Delft is one of the academic partners in an innovative aviation hydrogen handling and refuelling project, led by Airbus and supported by academic partners, airport operators and leading hydrogen-industry companies that was launched on 16 May in Brussels. The project, co-funded by the European Union, has been launched to demonstrate small-scale liquid hydrogen aircraft ground operations at three European airports, including Rotterdam The Hague Airport.

Untapping the hidden resources

During mining activities to extract valuable materials and minerals, waste streams are generated. But what was once considered waste, isn’t waste with today’s knowledge. Piles of rock, tailings, or metallurgic slags contain materials of economic interest. Intelligent re-mining of the waste streams can provide critical raw materials and reduce the environmental impact of the mining residues. Feven Desta is developing a framework to accurately map and model which minerals are still in the waste streams, how much, where exactly they can be found and how they behave under different circumstances. With secondary mining, she aims to recover critical raw materials from the waste of abandoned and active mines, while simultaneously minimizing possible environmental impacts. “I believe that re-mining mine waste can present a win-win scenario for the economy and environment. It aligns with responsible mining principles and fits in the circular economy concept.” Valuables end up in waste Mine waste often holds minerals of economic interest for several reasons. Firstly, during the extraction and processing of minerals, not all valuable metals can be efficiently recovered, leading them to be deposited in mine waste. Secondly, mining operations tend to focus on specific commodities, such as gold in gold mining, leaving behind other valuable metals like silver, copper, and cobalt, which may also be present in the ore (depending on the geology of the deposit). Also, natural processes like weathering and erosion over time can concentrate certain metals in mine waste, further contributing to its economic potential. “There is a huge volume of mine waste all over the world, and these can have a good potential to serve as an alternative future source for metals and other minerals. However, it is a challenge to extract these metals of economic interest, thus we need to be innovative”, explains Desta. Mapping the minerals in waste Together with colleagues, Desta is working on use cases in different parts of Europe, such as Spain and Germany. They analyse samples using multiple sensor technologies to identify the material and model the composition of different mine waste streams in 3D. This is not as simple as it sounds, for various reasons. Mine waste is a complex system and subject to change due to environmental influences. Considering the multisensory approach , it is possible to fuse data and enhance the accuracy of the quantification and modelling of volumetric compositional variability within the mine waste. “Such approaches allow assessing the potential for secondary mining and help to achieve resource efficiency and waste reduction . Thus, it is one of the key factors to enable us realise economic and environmental benefits and social acceptance,” she says.

Disorder improves battery life

What determines the cycle life of batteries? And, more importantly, how can we extend it? An international research team led by TU Delft has discovered that local disorder in the oxide cathode material increases the number of times Li-ion batteries can be charged and discharged. Their results have been published in Nature.
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Agenda

September

04
06

The 28th Thermodynamics Conference
12

Climate Action Programme lecture "Sustainable ICT: Call for action!"
24

Battery Day 2024

October

10

Climate Action Programme lecture Herman Russchenberg
More events