Today State Secretary Stientje van Veldhoven officially opens the new energy institute of the TU/e: EIRES, the Eindhoven Institute for Renewable Energy Systems. She does this in the talk show that marks the opening of the academic year of Eindhoven University of Technology. According to the State Secretary, there is a strong need for an institute that focusses on energy storage and conversion.
“One of the biggest challenges of sustainable energy is the storage of energy,” says the State Secretary at the opening. “So this new energy institute comes just in time, and I am proud to launch it today.” Van Veldhoven opens EIRES by switching on a CO2-free burner developed at TU/e, which uses iron powder as fuel.
“With EIRES the TU/e is making an important contribution to the energy transition,” says the President of TU/e, Robert-Jan Smits. “We want to achieve maximum impact by bringing together our smartest energy scientists, and by working together with industry”. In this context, the TU/e already signed an agreement with VDL-Groep last month to work together on technology development for electrolyzers, devices that can convert electricity from solar panels or wind turbines into hydrogen.
“With this kind of projects we try to help solve the biggest challenge of the energy transition: making energy, transport and chemical sectors sustainable at the same time”, explains EIRES director Richard van de Sanden. “It’s not only about energy, but also about sustainable and high quality raw materials for chemistry”. In this way, material cycles are closed and become circular.
In the talk show the State Secretary makes a plea for more circularity in the economy. She emphasizes that investing in the required technology and products offers opportunities to help us overcome the current economic crisis. Her vision is perfectly in line with Smits’ look-ahead on the new year, in which he says: “We are going to further strengthen our cooperation with industry in the Brainport region, in order to contribute to a new and sustainable growth capacity for our economy.”
Besides this, the talk show guests look ahead to education in the new academic year, which will largely be online due to Corona. Fortunately, however, the virus has not led to a lower intake of Dutch or international students reports Rector Frank Baaijens in the talk show.
The English-language talk show, which is more than half an hour long and has some nice video interludes, can be watched by anyone on YouTube; https://youtu.be/u9OEl80G7sI.
