First Quarter 2006
ECN measurement techniques for offshore wind turbine farm in Scotland
An offshore Wind Turbine Farm with turbines in 44 meter deep water? This project with world record ambitions will start next summer at the Scottish Beatrice Wind Farm in the Inverness coastal zone. ECN participates in the realisation of this unique offshore wind turbine farm within the European project DOWNVInD. [more...]
The new weapon in the battle against aerosoles is called MARGA
In the last couple of weeks it has again become very evident: aerosols (i.e. particulate matter) are difficult to combat and difficult to measure. Aerosols are a mixture of solid and liquid particles in our atmosphere and knowledge about their composition and size distribution is of major importance. It is known that these particles form a health hazard in urban areas. [more...]
ECN and Piaggio: cooperation with moving results
On Friday 17th. February a fully hydrogen fuel cell scooter was successfully operated at the test ground of Piaggio & C Spa in Pontedera, Italy. The development of this zero-emission vehicle aims at reduction of greenhouse gasses in our future society where hydrogen will be the energy carrier. Piaggio teamed up with ECN that build the "electrochemical engine" comprising the fuel cells. [more...]
Promoting societal acceptance of energy technologies: Create Acceptance
How are new energy technologies evaluated within society and which deciding factor will lead to deployment of these technologies? In January 2006 the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) started a new project for the European Commission called Create Acceptance in which these questions are stipulated. The research aim is to develop a tool to facilitate the process of societal acceptance. [more...]
Photovoltaic systems now have energy pay back times as low as 1.7 years!
Photovoltaic module production has shown a tremendous increase, with shipments of PV modules accelerating from approx. 80 MWp in 1995 to approx. 1700 MWp in 2005. With such impressive growth figure, and in view of the very large potential of photovoltaics as a renewable energy source, an analysis of present and future environmental performances of photovoltaic systems becomes increasingly important. [more...]
Scientific publications
The research results at the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands are published as reports or as articles in scientific journals like Nature and Science. Presentations, given at international conferences and symposia, are freely available and downloadable from our website. [more...]
