The AEG Elektronprisen Junior Award recognizes research and technical innovation within electrical engineering and related fields and includes a prize of DKK 25,000. For Matti Koivisto, the recognition is both a personal achievement and the result of many years of collaboration. "I'm very happy and grateful to receive the award. It's nice to see my work recognized, and I see it as a reflection of many good collaborations with colleagues and students over the years," Matti says. He also sees the award as an encouragement to continue developing methods and tools that can support the green transition and facilitate the integration of large amounts of wind and solar energy into future energy systems.
Presented by the AEG Elektron Foundation, the award honors research that combines scientific progress with practical relevance and societal impact. For Matti, this aspect of the award is particularly meaningful. His research focuses on providing insights and decision support for transmission system operators, energy agencies, and other stakeholders working to integrate renewable energy into future energy systems. The recognition therefore reflects the importance of research that not only advances scientific knowledge but also helps address real-world challenges in the green transition.
According to Marie Münster, Head of Section at DTU Wind and Energy Systems, the award is a strong recognition of both Matti's scientific achievements and the impact of his research.
It is of great importance to us that our research receives the recognition reflected by this award. Matti has done an excellent job in addressing core challenges of the green transition by quantifying and translating weather and climate driven variability into information directly usable by transmission system operators, energy agencies, project developers and policymakers so we congratulate him on the honour and the award which is very well deserved.”
Research supporting the green transition
Matti Koivisto hopes the award will also help draw attention to the importance of energy systems research and the role that modelling and data analysis play in enabling the green transition. He also sees the recognition as an opportunity to highlight the energy systems dimension of DTU Wind and Energy Systems and the department's contributions to the development of future sustainable energy systems.
Among the contributions that led to the award, he particularly emphasizes the work of his research group in providing high-quality wind and solar data at a pan-European scale for key stakeholders such as Energinet and ENTSO-E. He also points to the group's research on assessing the system-level impacts of the rapidly increasing share of weather-dependent electricity generation. "While academic impact is important, I am ultimately most satisfied when our research is applied and makes a difference," he says.
Recognition of strong collaboration
Matti Koivisto stresses that the award is not only a recognition of his own efforts, but also of the many collaborations behind the results:
"The award is very much a reminder of how much progress depends on collaboration. None of the work discussed above was done by me alone. I'm fortunate to work with talented colleagues at DTU, with great students and with partners across academia and industry," he says.