The Department of Wind and Energy Systems is celebrating two 25-year anniversaries this month, Birte Holst Jørgensen’s and Niels-Erik Clausen’s. Common to the two jubilarians is their years of work in public service with energy and especially wind energy. Today, both are employed in the "Section for Society, Markets & Policy" at DTU Wind and Energy Systems. Senior Researcher and PhD Birte Holst Jørgensen is Coordinator of Scientific Advice at DTU Wind and Energy Systems. Lecturer and PhD Niels Erik Clausen works as a teacher, Head of the Study Board and as a project manager for research projects.
Birte Holst Jørgensen
Birte Holst Jørgensen is an internationally acknowledged expert in energy science, technology and innovation policy. She has more than 20 years of experience in research based consultancy in the energy sector, including leading positions at DTU and Nordic Energy Research. She is chairing various national and international energy committees and groups, too. She holds a MSc in Business Economics from Copenhagen Business School and an PhD in Political Science from the University of Copenhagen.
Birte’s career
Birte tells about her career which has steadily shifted between applied research and administration. For instance, after the Nordic Hydrogen Energy Foresight, she became director of Nordic Energy Research (at the Nordic Council of Ministers) and later she became deputy Head of Department at DTU Management. Since 2019, she has been coordinating the Department’s scientific advice. “None of this has not been carefully planned – I acted on opportunities. A political scientist calls it muddling through”, she says. Another highlight is leading the edition of several DTU International Energy Reports (2018, 2019 and 2021) and the SDC International Report 2021. Birte says: “It has been fun to work together with all the bright people at DTU and beyond to provide state-of-the art descriptions of new energy technologies.”
Birte mentions The International Energy Agency (IEA) as being “close to her heart” and in this forum she chairs an expert group on research and development priority-setting and evaluation and discusses with IEA member countries the development of energy technology policies. Recently, she has become alternate member of the IEA Wind TCP Executive Committee and writes the Danish country report in cooperation with colleagues from the Danish Energy Agency.
When asked about her most exciting experiences, Birte says that she really likes meeting engaged people from DTU and elsewhere. “The university world is fascinating. At best we share the same values, irrespective of our background, age, gender and nationality. I have met some very generous researchers over the years,” she says.
Birte enhances the DTU Commemoration Party. “Somehow it is a nutshell of what it is like working at a university with deeply engaged colleagues, bright students, collaborating partners, distinguished guests, solemnity, good food, loud music and a lot of fun,” she says.
Privately Birte is married to Per and they live in an old town house in Humlebyen, next to the Carlsberg City in Copenhagen. She has two grown up sons and a bonus daughter who has three sons with whom she is happy to travel and - in her words: “explore European capitals and wild attractions”.
Niels-Erik Clausen
As a lecturer and researcher, Niels-Erik Clausen has worked with wind energy for more than 20 years. His interests are wide-ranging and mainly about the planning and development of wind farms, the impact of climate change on renewable energy resources and wind energy technologies. He also addresses issues such as wind energy's impact on the environment and people, including society's acceptance of wind energy.
Since 2007, Niels-Erik has been a teacher at the department’s two-year master's program in wind energy, where he chairs the Study Board, too.
The highlights
During the years Niels Erik Clausen has had various exciting assignments but he highlights one of his first positions in “the Risø era”, in connection with DTU's wind atlas in the Gulf of Suez. "Working in a developing country was novel to me and I enjoyed working with the Egyptians", he says.
Niels-Erik Clausen was involved in a few Nordic projects from 2003 to 2015, which he thought were very interesting. The projects were funded by Nordic Energy Research and were all about different aspects of how to convert the energy systems in the five Nordic countries to a system which is based on renewable energy. Back then, he realized that culturally we do have much in common in the Nordic countries. However, the energy systems of the countries are very different from each other.
Through his work for DTU as a university Niels-Erik got the opportunity to start teaching and to engage himself in administrative tasks in the Study Board. Niels-Erik says: "While many of the results from research projects, which I have contributed to or coordinated, have been implemented in practice, I am convinced that my contribution to society through my teaching and supervision of teaching has been of greatest significance", says Niels-Erik and concludes: "Furthermore, teaching and supervision have – and is – giving me a lot of joy and positive feedback".
Niels-Erik is married to Lis and they live in the small town of Veksø. Together they share the joy of travelling. They have been doing a lot of scuba diving together – nowadays they mostly do skiing. Niels-Erik enjoys riding his bicycle to work every day and he likes longer bicycle trips during weekends, too. Niels-Erik has three grown up children and three grandchildren aged one to nine years.
Today, Friday March 10, DTU Wind and Energy Systems is going to celebrate the anniversaries with a reception at DTU Risø Campus, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, building 112 at 2 pm.
