More stringent standards for soil and dredgings in sand excavation pits
The Soil Quality Decree of 2008 states that lightly polluted building site soil, sludge and dredge spoil may be used to make the sand excavation pits shallower. The decree also includes statements on the degree of pollution permitted. However, are they sufficient? Surrounding residents, farmers and environmental organisations felt unsure. More...
High-quality raw materials from waste
“Plastics in our waste should be recycled, which would save a lot of energy. And you convert the residual waste from the sorting and recycling industry into a flexible product gas.” That's what ECN's Rian Visser is proclaiming. She coordinates the Energy from Waste research programme at ECN and is currently focusing on Fluff. More...
Governments pleased with Integrated Policy Analysis
The broad umbrella of the United Nations includes think tank EGTEI (Expert Group on Techno-Economic Issues). The think tank includes experts from various countries who are jointly delineating the technical options that are available for reducing emissions of environmentally hazardous substances into the air. In its proposal, the group of experts roughly distinguished three variants according to ambitiousness. More...
Viewing Europe as one big power market
The sustainable energy sources wind and sun have a disadvantage beside the advantages: they don’t produce power to order. What happens to the clean energy if the wind picks up around midnight and everyone in Western Europe turns out the lights? At ECN, researchers are already considering this issue. More...
Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference
ECN was well represented on this Conference. The unit Solar Energy hosted an exhibition stand and presented many papers. Also, the chairman of this conference was ECN’s own Wim Sinke: “PV solar energy is taking off." More...
Omnivore likes hydrogen from ammonia
ECN is looking for the best fuel cell components. “We want to increase its lifespan and save on manufacturing costs,” says Bert Rietveld from ECN Hydrogen and Clean Fossil Fuels. “The newest anode for SOFC works 5 times better than the control.” More...
Sustainable energy along IJsselmeer Dam
Now that the sea level is rising and we increasingly have to contend with storms or heavy rainfall, IJsselmeer Dam can only protect us if we adapt it to the new circumstances. That calls for renovation but why not ‘upgrade’ at the same time? ECN Policy Studies was asked to conduct a critical investigation of the claims concerning options for harnessing energy. More...
Silicon - a question of purity
One megawatt of peak power - comparable to the capacity of a small wind turbine - requires about ten tonnes of silicon. Therefore much work has been done to develop cheaper 'solar grade' material. ECN Solar energy proved some impurity's hardly affect the efficiency of solar cells. More...
Extreme Wind Power
Using current technology, offshore wind power is one and a half times more expensive then onshore wind power. Maintenance and repair are the main culprits, representing about a third of the total project expenses. ECN-researchers found that improved control systems can reduce the cost of offshore wind power by 10 to 15 percent. More...
ECN website revamped
As of early September, a new and improved version of the ECN website is available. Much attention has been paid to the design. The pictures on the unit homepages in particular contribute to a more attractive page layout. To find out if we did a good job, we have prepared a questionnaire. Visitors of our website are requested to complete a questionnaire. More...
Job opportunities
ECN, the leading Dutch energy research institute, is at the cutting edge of European efforts in the development of new technologies that meet tomorrow’s energy demand. ECN conducts research and development over a large range of energy technologies, carefully selected by impact over the next decades. More...
Recent publications
Results of the research done by Energy research Centre of the Netherlands are published in reports or articles for scientific magazines. Furthermore, presentations at international conferences and colloquia are fully published. Last month the next publications became available. More...
Over the next four years, a consortium of nine parties will be investigating how to...
>>ECN is front runner in the field of solar energy technology and together with the Dutch...
>>4th MWT Workshop held in Amsterdam MWT (Metal Wrap Through) technology is ready for the...
>>
