About RWE
RWE is one of the largest and most prominent players on the European energy market as the number two global offshore player and the largest producer of electricity in the Netherlands. We develop, engineer, construct and operate electrical power producing installations in almost 30 countries. With our passion for technology, we are a partner in the energy transition. We achieve this by actively and realistically developing sustainable and innovative solutions. Our objective is to be climate-neutral by 2040 with net zero emissions across scope 1, 2 and 3.

About TNO
TNO is an independent research organization. We connect people and knowledge to create innovations that boost the sustainable competitive strength of industry and well-being of society. For this purpose, TNO is established by law as a legal public entity. The TNO-law allocates certain tasks and responsibilities to TNO while also providing the parameters for the execution. The reasoning behind it is to safeguard TNO’s independent position to conduct the research needed to create reliable solutions for the challenges society faces. Parts of TNO will be involved in the mentoring of the PhD projects, like the North Sea energy systems in Utrecht, Wind, solar energy & system integration in Petten, Energy Transition Studies in Amsterdam (large modelling suite, policy, implementation, innovation expertise), and Heat Transfer and Fluid dynamics in Delft (energy infrastructure). Overall, an interdisciplinary team at different facilities can be mobilized, providing direct R&D capacity, capabilities and supervision capacity for collaboration with academic partners.

The PhD project will advance insights into the North Sea region energy system development in 2030-2050. Scenarios and tools assessing this are available, but miss emerging and refined representation of the energy infrastructure. The PhD encompasses modelling and making use of state of the art methods to represent the entire energy system and the electricity system in particular, and improving the modelling capabilities by granularity, faster computation and higher accuracy.

The implementation of achievable improvements will demonstrate that combined use of model framework components lead to improved scenarios.

Faculty of Geosciences, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.
Promotors: Prof. dr. Madeleine Gibescu (UU) and
prof. dr. André Faaij (UU and TNO).

A key challenge in the development and realization of off-shore wind parks is matching the fluctuating wind electricity production patterns with the demand side. This PhD project will, starting from existing modelling tools and capabilities, develop a method and simulation system for describing, analyzing and optimizing the techno-economic performance of wind parks making use of a wide diversity of flexibility and storage options in the North Sea region as a whole and of the region(s) where the off-shore generation connects to the on-land energy system.

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Department Electrical Energy Systems.
Promotors: Prof. dr. Koen Kok (TU/e) and
prof. dr. André Faaij (UU and TNO).

Increased shares of renewable energy and changing energy demand will result in an increased integration of energy end-use and the electricity supply sector, which will pose challenges for grid stability and supplydemand matching. Successful integration is key to forging costefficient and reliable energy systems. To generate this understanding, this PhD will provide a systematic analysis of the impact of defossilizing heavy industry on demand patterns, assess the level of flexibility of current and (new) industrial processes under different scenarios, and evaluate and identify optimal strategies to increase flexibility in industrial processes.

Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Chemical Engineering.
Promotors: Prof.dr.ir. Andrea Ramirez Ramirez (TUD) and
prof. dr. André Faaij (UU and TNO).

This PhD project aims to successfully develop roadmaps for the North Sea energy system to facilitate the massive upscaling of offshore wind and related sustainable energy technologies, such as batteries, electrolysers and floating solar. A mission-oriented innovation systems approach to tackle grand societal challenges will be used, furthering resilience and avoiding unsustainable lock-in.

Faculty of Geosciences, Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.
Promotors: Ass. Prof. Dr. Adriaan van der Loos (UU) and
prof. dr. André Faaij (UU and TNO).

The integration of large amounts of new renewable energy in the existing energy system is a challenge and requires large changes on the demand side. This includes the development of electrolysers, demand side management,e-boilers and storage. New technologies have to be developed and ready to be integrated into the system as renewable energy becomes available. In this PhD project, you will combine insights on technological learning with energy systems modelling to study this coordination problem in the context of the OranjeWind wind farm.

Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences
Promotors: Prof. Dr. Floor Alkemade (TU/e) and
prof. dr. André Faaij (UU and TNO).

The PhD project aims to inform international strategies for balancing offshore electricity generation with other offshore uses and ecosystems. The project will develop and compare spatially explicit scenarios to help identify future locations and trajectories for infrastructure and energy generation capacity on the North Sea. The project will use and expand analytical tools and methods that combine spatial and institutional analysis. These pathways are combined with key technical, geopolitical and ecological uncertainties into spatially explicit scenarios regarding offshore electricity generation expansion on marine basin scale. The PhD project identifies and analyses risks, trade-offs and associated costs and benefits of the developed scenarios.

Faculty Ruimtelijke Wetenschappen, Department Spatial Planning and Environment.
Promotors: Prof. dr. Christian Zuidema (RUG) and
prof. dr. André Faaij (UU and TNO).