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CenSES annual report 2012
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Message from the Centre Director
In our second year as a Centre for Environmentally-friendly Energy Research (FME), CenSES had three
main focuses: establish the cooperation within the centre, start to deliver relevant results through user
cases and other research and involving our international partners more in the research. We started hiring
PhD candidates in CenSES already before we got the FME status, and in 2012 the first of these defended
their thesis. In 2012 we also start to see the effects of the new types of cooperation coming up as a con-
sequence of the FME.
2012 was a productive year for CenSES. Activities in CenSES have increased, and we now have 24 PhD can-
didates and 6 post docs with their funding from the centre. In 2012 the Research Council of Norway funded
5 new research projects with CenSES partners. Another 24 PhD candidates are working in these and other
related projects and are part of the CenSES PhD network. In addition 26 master students wrote their thesis
related to the centre, mainly at NTNU and UiO.
The 5 Research Areas are productive, with 21 journal papers and book chapters, 82 conference presenta-
tions and around 100 presentations for user partners, media and other disseminations channels. Several
of the research areas have initiated and strengthened the international cooperation. This is visible in the
2012 annual conference with its profile on scenario studies, commercialization of energy technology, and
energy effciency where several of our international partners were present, as well as in the more special-
ized international workshops we arranged.
UngEnergi.no was launched as a website for high school students in 2012. All the material at the website is
written and collected by the UngEnergi group of six youths between 16 and 21 years of age. These pages
explain both the environmentally friendly energy technologies and challenges/opportunities for society
in the transition phase we are in. The objective is to increase the knowledge of these topics among youths
in general and increase reqruitement to the field.
Two user cases were established in 2011, one investigating the value of Norwegian energy resources form
a flexibility perspective, the other looking at energy efficiency policy. The user cases are cross-cutting ac-
tivities integrating work form several research areas and involving the user partners. Both user cases had
progress in 2012 and will finish in 2013. We see that the user cases increase CenSES relevance for the user
partners, and new user cases will be established in 2013 and 2014.
Over the first two years we established 13 new research projects in renewable energy, policy and strategy
between the CenSES partners. These come in addition to our original FME budget, and to me this indicates
an eagerness to cooperate on these important topics. Many of these projects are direct consequences of
the work and discussions initiated by the FME and will strongly support and enhance our work . Through
our annual conference, user conference and different workshops, the interactions between researchers
and the users of the research leads to some of the best moments in CenSES in 2012. This interaction is im-
portant, and we will try to have even more of it in years to come.
Asgeir Tomasgard, Centre Director, CenSES