LUT seeks science-based solutions for a sustainable planet

LUT UNIVERSITY IS THE LAND OF THE CURIOUS, GENUINELY SEEKING SOLUTIONS TO THE GREATEST CHALLENGES HUMANKIND FACES.

One of the most important issues of our time is climate change. LUT’s research aims at a new energy system based on renewable, emission-free, low-cost energy.

To bring climate change to a halt, energy production must be emission-free by 2050 – an objective recorded in international agreements. This transformation will change the energy sector from a raw material business to a technology and service business. Finland has everything it takes to be an engine for this energy breakthrough.

– The electrification of the entire energy system and the storage of energy are key issues, but the opportunities created by new business models and their social and economic impact are at the very least equally important. Finland has everything it takes to be an engine for this energy breakthrough, says Olli Pyrhönen, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Dean of the School of Energy Systems at LUT.

LUT’s Lappeenranta campus works as a research platform for the zero-emission energy system. The university’s solar power plants provide electricity to a smart electricity grid, which has integrated energy reserves. The energy is stored in batteries and converted to synthetic fuel for later generation of electricity. In addition to groups of different disciplines, research is carried out at LUT on multidisciplinary research platforms, with the latest information utilised in the teaching of economics, technology and social sciences.

The results of the research are now translating to concrete new business activities and business partnerships. LUT University’s research annually yields many inventions and business ideas that different actors can take advantage of and implement. LUT’s cooperation with the business world has already produced a number of successful start-ups and spin-offs that directly and indirectly employ hundreds of people in the region.

LUT is also the engine and the driver of the Greenreality network. The university helps the members of the network to develop their current activities into a more sustainable direction and cooperates with them in research and innovation at a high level.