The Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US research institute NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) to start cooperation between the two institutes. This cooperation comprises a number of specific areas such as policy studies and energy analysis, wind energy and solar photovoltaic energy.

NREL is the leading research organization in the area of renewable energy of the Department of Energy (DOE). NREL has a staff of 1300 and is located in Golden, Colorado. The cooperation between ECN and NREL ranges from exchange of knowledge, experiences and of personnel to participation in joint projects, making use of each others research facilities and conducting research for each other. In addition, NREL and ECN will support each other in the area of knowledge and technology transfer to commercial companies.
The cooperation follows from the ambition of ECN to be a leading institute in energy research. ECN is one of the founding partners of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) that was established at the end of 2008. The memorandum of understanding with NREL is the next step in acknowledging the need to address urgent issues such as climate change and security of supply on a global scale and also affirms the need for global acceleration of the development and deployment of key technologies such as wind and solar energy.

Join forces
Ton Hoff, chairman of the board of directors of ECN: “I am very enthusiastic about this cooperation. It is a unique opportunity to be able to join forces with such a leading institute in the US. The mutual exchange of knowledge and skills will accelerate the development of energy technology and market implementation. In the USA, under the leadership of Obama, a fresh wind is blowing in the field of research and implementation of renewable energy. NREL is a leading institute that is directly involved in these new developments and it has the ability to strongly increase the R&D efforts. The cooperation enables us to be involved in this growth.”
Dan Arvizu, Director of NREL, has high expectations for the cooperation with his European colleagues: “The increased global emphasis on clean energy development has created an urgent need for effective leadership and support from the world’s leading research institutions for accelerated research and development, demonstration, and deployment on a much greater scale. NREL is delighted to participate in the ECN MOU, which is designed to directly address these issues in the context of a broad international network of cooperating research institutions.”

Contact
Harm Jeeninga
ECN Corporate Development
Tel.: +31 (0)22 456 4788
E-mail: Harm Jeeninga