Public lecture: Designing the Energy System of the Future

Information on the lecture topic:

The transformation of the energy system to a clean, stable, affordable, and sustainable system is a major challenge of the 21st century in the world. We have to be very careful to come up with a balanced approach that takes not only the environmental concerns into account, but also accommodates an increased standard of living and a healthy economy. In view of the total scale of the energy system, this is, however, more easily said than actually done and there is no ‘quick fix’. It requires a clear vision, long term strategy, and persistence. Politicians are quick in getting into a bidding war as far as promising to reduce carbon emissions over the coming decades, without specifying how this is going to be achieved. When it comes to actual measures and implementation of policies, this is falling short of the formulated goals and very often not coherent. The energy transition involves major policy changes. We can design an energy system, largely based upon renewable energies and electric power, which satisfies the demands for transportation, industry, and buildings in the society of the future, despite of the worldwide growing population. This system is affordable, and also allows for economic growth without sacrificing our standard of living.

Reference: W. Eberhardt, ‘Designing the Energy System of the Future’, ISBN 979845872873-7, Amazon Direct Publishing (2021).

Public lecture is part of the programme of the International Conference on Electronic Spectroscopy and Structure (ICESS) conference held in Oulu.

More information of the lecturer:

Wolfgang Eberhardt studied Physics in Giessen and Hamburg, where he graduated in 1978. Afterwards he spent more than twelve years as a researcher in the US – first as postdoc and Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania, afterwards at Brookhaven National Laboratory and more than seven years in the corporate research laboratory of EXXON. In 1991 he was appointed director of the Institute ‘Electronic Properties’ at IFF Jülich, jointly with a professorship at the Universität Köln. From 2001 to 2008 he was the scientific director of BESSY with a professorship at the Technische Universität Berlin. In 2003 he was awarded an honorary PhD from Uppsala University (Sweden). From 2009 to 2011 he was Director at HZB for ‘Energy Research’ and since 2011 he is at the Center for Free Electron Laser Research (CFEL) at DESY in Hamburg. In 2016 he retired from his position at the TU Berlin and is working as an independent consultant.

He has more than 350 refereed publications and three patents. He is a world-known expert for the generation and application of synchrotron radiation in condensed matter and nanoscience. His research interests are the Experimental determination of the electronic properties of atoms, molecules, and solids; Electronic structure and magnetism of thin films and nanostructures including ultrafast (fs) magnetization dynamics; Electronic properties and structure of nanoparticles and clusters; Energy Research, Renewable energies, Photovoltaics.