Competence Field "Energy - System - Transformation"
All three universities of the UA Ruhr have complementary and interdisciplinary research foci and structures in the field of energy research. Based on the existing close cooperations and joint projects, transdisciplinary energy research at the UA Ruhr is being expanded - with the central focus on interdisciplinary analysis of the overall system and in particular its transformation towards an energy system based on renewable energies. This will result in a strong strategic concentration on this future-oriented topic in the Competence Field "Energy - System - Transformation".
By bundling the existing and complementary research foci of the UA Ruhr-Universities in the field of energy research, a platform has been created that is highly visible and unique in its transdisciplinary form. This platform promotes research into sustainable solutions and promotes their use in practice. The focus is on making the process of transformation socially manageable, acceptable, economically meaningful and legally secure. In this way, recommendations for action can be developed in order to achieve the agreed European and global climate protection goals in the coming decades.
The four main dimensions of research to be considered are security of supply, environmental compatibility, economic efficiency and acceptance. This inevitably leads to the necessity of a system-oriented approach, which ranges from fundamentally new technologies and their application to economic and legal issues and acceptable implementation in space and society. This comprehensive view of the overall system represents a unique selling point of the EST competence field compared to other approaches, which are mostly purely technical.
A key question for research is how the transformation of the sector-coupled energy system must be shaped, using the example of the Ruhr Metropolitan Region as one of the largest European conurbations with currently predominantly conventional, mostly coal-based electrical power generation and high energy demand in all sectors. Aspects to achieve CO2 emission reduction while at the same time ensuring acceptance, security of supply, economic efficiency and legal certainty will be taken into account.
The Competence Field "Energy - System - Transformation" involves intensive cooperation with relevant industrial partners in the Ruhr region, such as E.ON, Siemens, RWE and Evonik, some of which are among the largest in Germany and Europe. The results are integrated into the international scientific landscape through a variety of international collaborations with South America, China, Russia, Australia and others, resulting in solutions that meet the global relevance of the topic.
