On 22 May, the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building, Rasmus Helveg Petersen, attended the opening of EMBRACE, DTU’s vision of the energy-generating dwelling of the future, a concept which is being entered in the international Solar Decathlon competition in France later this summer.
The sun was blazing away, and temperatures soared to well above 20 degrees when DTU Civil Engineering presented the Technical University of Denmark’s vision of the energy-producing dwelling of the future powered by solar cells on the roof. The event was virtually bathed in the life-giving and energising rays of the sun itself.
All spring, students from a number of DTU departments have been working with partners from the construction sector to devise and design their vision of a prototype of the metropolitan dwelling of the future where people can live together, sharing space and energy costs. ‘EMBRACE’ is one of DTU’s so-called Blue Dot student projects, which are projects primarily driven by students from a number of departments.
The official opening took place on 22 May, commencing with a welcome by Vicedirector of DTU Civil Engineering Henrik Stang, and Senior Vice President Marianne Thellersen, who gave a brief introduction to the DTU Blue Dot concept.
Associate Professor Christian Rønne, EMBRACE project manager, explained the key principles behind EMBRACE, which are best summarized in the three words Smart, Save and Share. The idea is to optimize the shape and orientation of the building for optimum energy generation, to construct the building from lightweight materials, to reduce material and energy consumption through technological solutions and to share the energy generated by the building by means of roof-mounted solar cells.
Both the French Ambassador to Denmark, François Zimerays, and the Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building, Rasmus Helveg Petersen, were full of praise for EMBRACE and the students’ efforts to strengthen innovation and Denmark’s position in the race to bring out green solutions.
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Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Building Rasmus Helveg Petersen visited DTU yesterday, opening DTU’s Solar Decathlon project EMBRACE, the students’ vision of the intelligent energy-producing dwelling of the future.
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EMBRACE must now be finished completely prior to being dismantled and shipped to Versailles in France where it will be competing against similar projects from 19 other countries. The purpose of the Solar Decathlon competition is the transmission of knowledge, research work and experimentation in the field of renewable energy, and notably solar energy, and the DTU Team will be competing against teams from 19 other universities in the art of designing, developing and building the most energy-friendly dwelling with the sun as the primary source of energy.
See more photos from the opening here