Profile & Goal

The paradigm shift in energy supply is accompanied by equally fundamental changes and transformations in environmental, climate and resource policy. Moreover, there are interdependencies with other societal challenges, namely digitalization, demographic and cultural change, and urbanization. The transformation of the energy sectors plays an essential role in this context, with the goal of drastically reducing CO2 emissions by 80% to 95% and achieving resource- and energy-efficient coverage of energy needs. The implementation of these goals is becoming increasingly urgent and will significantly impact society by the end of this century. The four main dimensions to be considered are security of supply, environmental compatibility, economic efficiency and acceptance. The necessity of a system-oriented view follows from this, which leads from fundamentally new technologies and their application to economic and legal questions and finally to the acceptable implementation in space and society.

From this, the vision for the competence field "Energy System Transformation" is derived as follows:

We research and teach together to advance the holistic energy system transformation through selected new technologies of energy conversion, transmission and application, and to explore how the process of transformation can be designed to be socially acceptable, economically reasonable and legally secure, so that the agreed European and global climate protection goals can be achieved in the coming decades.

The scope of consideration includes all sectors such as electricity, transport, heat in households, industry and service sectors, with electrical energy as the central future energy source at the center of the considerations. In addition to the implementation of technological possibilities, the transformation is to be understood simultaneously and in particular as a process of negotiation in society, in which barriers and opportunities or drivers are considered.    

One of the key questions of the "Energy System Transformation" competence area is:

How must the transformation of the multifaceted intersectorally coupled energy system be designed to achieve at least an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions while at the same time ensuring acceptance, security of supply, economic viability and legal certainty?   And how can this be realized paradigmatically using the example of the Ruhr metropolitan region as a large European conurbation with very high conventional, mostly coal-based electrical energy generation and large energy demand in all sectors?

The competence field "Energy System Transformation" addresses these questions from a scientific and technical perspective as well as from a humanities, economic and legal perspective. In this context, the already existing strong networking of all participants with energy supply, energy technology and consulting companies located in NRW and especially in the Ruhr region, which are as multifaceted as they are experienced and, for their part, highly innovative, as well as on the customer side in the energy-intensive industry, has a unique effect. Unique research infrastructures in the energy sector have recently been significantly expanded with state and federal funding (HVDC test center, Smart Grid Technology Lab, NanoEnergieTechnikZentrum).