On 24 May 2022, Christa Tobler gave a lecture on 'EU-Swiss Legal Relations: Why do we still not have an Energy Agreement?'

How can we ensure a more resilient and sustainable supply of Rare Earths in the EU in the future?

Both the Dutch government and the European Commission dedicate an increasing share of public funding for research and innovation to mission-oriented programs, aiming to facilitate sustainability transitions. These programs typically involve support fora range of different research activities, from the…

Assistant Professor Vedran Dunjko and his team received a gift from Google to support their quantum research. The research focuses on whether quantum computers can provide new ways of understanding the mysteries of high-energy physics.

Imagine we could convert the greenhouse gas CO2 into synthetic fuels using sustainable energy. This would enable us to reduce the amount of CO2 and at the same time store wind and solar energy in an innovative way. Chemist Akansha Goyal (Leiden University) is conducting fundamental research to make…

Despite the rapid progress in solar and wind energy, a completely clean energy supply remains a huge challenge. Heavy industry, aviation, shipping and road transport are not yet able to do without carbon-based fuels. To reach the climate goals, in these industries energy consumption should be CO2 neutral. In…

Huub de Groot is one of the 55 authors for the book The Colours of Energy. The book consists of Essays on the Future of Energy in Society in which leading energy thinkers explore the future of energy in society.

On Friday 10 July the Towards Biosolar Cells research programme was granted a budget of 25 million euros by the Dutch Government. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality recommended the programme because it will contribute to green energy, improve food supplies and a create a more sustainable…

Time-series forecasting through modelling sequences of temporally dependent observations has many industrial and scientific applications. While machine learning models have been widely used to create time-series forecasting models, creating efficient and performant time-series forecasting models is…

Governments are increasingly facilitating the roll-out of so-called “smart meters”, a technology for measuring energy consumption that are able to transmit and receive data using a form of electronic communication. However, implementation has been slow or even stalled.

This thesis aims to address offshore wind energy (OWE)-related environmental impacts.

Both Leon Jacobse and Thom Hersbach from Marc Koper's research group obtained their PhDs cum laude. They both investigated changes on the surface of a platinum electrode. Jacobse studied this at a positive voltage, Hersbach at a negative voltage. Platinum has the potential to convert renewable energy…

A consortium of international researchers comes with a unique solution to the energy problem. By mimicking photosynthesis, they aim to produce sustainable fuels out of sunlight, water, and CO2. Their secret? ‘Soap bubbles’, says Leiden chemist Sylvestre Bonnet, who is part of the consortium.

Yuvraj Birdja converted CO2 to formic acid to store energy in a sustainable way, with different catalysts. With this new knowledge, scientists are a step closer in industrially converting CO2 to chemicals and fuels. This can help reduce CO2 emission and the greenhouse effect.

A wide range of metals need to be mined for solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. But the overall mining activity is set to decrease as clean energy replaces fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.

A team of researchers at Leiden University’s Europa Institute authored an extensive study on the potential for a Climate and Energy Union within the EU constitutional framework. The study was published by the European Parliament in December 2024.

The theoretical explanation of cosmic acceleration is nowadays one of the biggest puzzles in cosmology.

The STW project Energy Efficient Computer-Brain Interaction (principal investigator for LIACS: dr. T.P. Stefanov) has been granted. Funding for LIACS: 1 PhD student + travel/equipment budget, project duration: 4 years.

The rising energy prices cannot have escaped anyone’s notice. They have dominated the news in recent months. As a university, we too face a big challenge as the prices continue to rise. We will all have to do our bit in the coming months, also in view of the climate crisis that we want to help resol…

In 2009, the European Union adopted the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), mandating Member States to obtain 10% of all transport fuels from renewable sources by 2020.

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The Iran war has pushed up fuel prices and raised concerns about a global energy shortage. How well prepared is the Netherlands? We asked two experts.

This project investigates the role of art in the public and academic debate on biosolar energy

The energy and water consumption and CO2 footprint of all buildings at Leiden University can now be seen on its new Duurzaam in Beeld website. ‘We do a lot about sustainability,’ says Jeroen Waijenberg, Sustainability and Energy Coordinator at the University’s Real Estate Directorate. ‘But our efforts…

Physicist Daniël Geelen has developed a new microscope that uses low-energy electrons. Those are less harmful to biological and organic materials. Geelen defends his PhD thesis on May 31st.

World History — a Genealogy charts the history of the discipline through twenty-five in-depth conversations with historians whose work has shaped the field of world history in fundamental ways.

Submissions are sought for a special issue with Frontiers in Political Science that explores the conceptual and practical aspects of a ‘just’ energy transition both within and beyond Europe. In particular, contributions to the theoretical and interdisciplinary foundations of just transitions, as well…

Recently the WTO panel report on India – Solar Cells (DS 456) was distributed. Under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), solar power developers were required to use certain types of solar cells and modules manufactured in India for power generation projects in order to ultimately…

Understanding the water use of power production is an important step to both a sustainable energy transition and an improved understanding of water conservation measures. However, there are large differences across the literature that currently present barriers to decision making.

Two things are needed to produce fuel from sunlight: an antenna that harvests light, and a light-driven catalyst. The most efficient antennae contain bacteria. An international team headed by Huub de Groot imitated them and discovered how they function.

For the first time, scientists have traced back a high-energy neutrino to its source in space. It was produced by a so-called blazar—a supermassive black hole. Researchers from neutrino detector IceCube report this in Science. ‘This is a milestone for neutrino science,’ says physicist Dorothea Samtleben…

The Afro-Asianism of the early Cold War has long remained buried under the narrative of Bandung, homogenising and subverting the different visions of post-colonial worldmaking that co-existed alongside the Bandung project.

At the largest scales, two ingredients dictate the distribution of matter in the Universe. The first is dark matter, acting as an invisible scaffolding held together by gravitational forces.

On Tuesday 10 March 2015 - 10h Ernst Worrell, professor at the University of Utrecht with a chair on

The gas prices now exceed 300 euros per megawatt hour – a record. The transition from fossil (natural gas, coal, oil) to renewable energy is needed and soon. But how do you get a society (and its citizens) to switch to sustainable energy?

Volume 4 and 5 of the Leiden series 'Dutch Sources on South Asia' are now available, written by Markus Vink (vol.4) and Carolien Stolte (vol.5).

This book explores the intellectual and cultural flows between Asia and Europe which occurred during – and were formative of – the political and social changes of the first half of the twentieth century.

The League Against Imperialism: Lives and Afterlives explores the dramatic and engaging story of a global institution that brought together activists across geographical and political borders for the goal of eradicating colonial rule worldwide.

HomininSpace is an agent based modelling and simulation system in which fluctuating carrying capacity is the key attractor for hominin dispersal. A parameterized and spatially explicit reconstructed palaeo-environment models available energy in the form of secondary biomass using reconstructed climate…

Decarbonizing the building stock is critical for realizing the climate-neutral target for the Netherlands.