The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has signed a research collaboration agreement with the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN). NREL and ECN will join forces on areas such as policy studies, energy analysis, wind energy and solar photovoltaic energy.
The cooperation between ECN and NREL ranges from an exchange of expertise, to participation in joint projects, to making use of each others' research facilities and conducting research on their behalf. In addition, NREL and ECN will support each other in the arenas of technology transfer and commercialization.
‘The increased global emphasis on clean energy development has created an urgent need for effective leadership and support from the world's leading research institutions for accelerated research and development, demonstration and deployment on a much greater scale,’ says Dan Arvizu, NREL's director.
ECN is seeking to be a leading institute in energy research in Europe and is one of the founding partners of the 2008 European Energy Research Alliance. The memorandum of understanding with NREL is the next step in acknowledging the need to address urgent issues such as climate change and security of supply on a global scale and also affirms the need for global acceleration of the development and deployment of key technologies such as wind and solar energy.
SOURCE: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
