Postdoc in Thermo-mechanical energy storage & Hybrid renewable energy facilities

The Renewable Energy & Thermodynamics research group is seeking a postdoc to boost our research in Thermo-mechanical energy storage & Hybrid renewable energy facilities and their future role in renewable energy-based energy systems. Both as part of grid-connected national systems, but also in off-grid settings. The position will primarily be associated with the EUDP funded project GridScale (read more here), and you are expected to join our current activities in the project as well as to drive new activities forward. You will receive regular supervision and mentoring (weekly) by experienced supervisors.

The focus of the work will be to develop dynamic techno-economic simulation models of the thermo-mechanical storage in a number of different settings. E.g. in combination with a small Danish district heating plant or as part of a hybrid renewable energy farm. Here, it is important to integrate simplified technical models with appropriate investment and energy market economics. For such models, we typically use the open-source framework pypsa.org, or we code our own optimization algorithms using, e.g., Gurobi for Python. As such, we expect that you have experience coding numerical problems in Python (or similar) and that you have a working knowledge of the technologies involved as well as basic economics.

Dissemination activities targeted industrial and public partners as well as academic journals and conferences are of high importance, and excellent communication skills in English are required. In the group we target high-impact journals. See, e.g. here.

The position may include teaching activities in our mechanical engineering bachelor and/or master program when it has a strong synergy with the research. This may involve course activities as well as supervision of student projects.

In the evaluation of applicants, we value strong academic performance as well as your possible contribution to diversity in the research group.

Expected start date and duration of employment

The position will be for 2 years (24 month) with a starting date as soon as possible.

Job description

•To develop dynamic techno-economic simulation models of the thermo-mechanical storage in a number of different settings. E.g. in combination with a small Danish district heating plant or as part of a hybrid renewable energy farm.

•Publication of academic journal papers of high quality.

•Dissemination activities targeted industrial and public partners as well as academic journals and conferences.

Your profile

PhD in Mechanical, Electrical, Energy Engineering, Physics or similar.

The ideal candidate has academic experience with energy modelling, thermal and fluid flows and machinery, cost of energy calculations, energy related legislations. Good academic writing and presentation skills. Background knowledge of the Danish and the European energy system and legislations will be considered positive. Relevant industrial experience will also be considered a positive qualification.

You are expected to be able to work in a team where you contribute both professionally and socially to a positive and high-performing working environment.

Experience with other programming languages, open-software development, project managing with Github, and high-performance computing clusters is not mandatory but will be positively evaluated.

Who we are

The Renewable energy & Thermodynamics research group focus on system integration of renewable energy into all energy consuming sectors. The aim is to understand and guide the green transition. See here.

What we offer

•An existing research project that has the potential to contribute significantly to the green transition both from an academic and applied point of view.

•An exciting interdisciplinary environment with many national, international and industrial collaborators.

•A research climate encouraging lively, open and critical discussion within and across different fields of research

•A workplace where we strive for professionalism, equality and a healthy work-life balance.

•A workplace where we are expecting to expand the number of permanent researchers during the years to come.

Place of work and area of employment

The Renewable energy & Thermodynamics research group at Department of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Aarhus University. The address is: Inge Lehmanns Gade 10, 8000 Aarhus C.

Contact information

Associate professor Gorm Bruun Andresen

(gba@mpe.au.dk, +45 29426179).

Deadline

Applications must be received no later than 14 January 2022.

Application procedure

Shortlisting is used. This means that after the deadline for applications – and with the assistance from the assessment committee chairman, and the appointment committee if necessary, – the head of department selects the candidates to be evaluated. All applicants will be notified whether or not their applications have been sent to an expert assessment committee for evaluation. The selected applicants will be informed about the composition of the committee, and each applicant is given the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that concerns him/her self. Once the recruitment process is completed a final letter of rejection is sent to the deselected applicants.

Letter of reference

If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.

Formalities and salary range

Technical Sciences refers to the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The application must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, degree certificate, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching portfolio and verified information on previous teaching experience (if any). Guidelines for applicants can be found here.

Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities.

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Finance and the Confederation of Professional Associations.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Research activities will be evaluated in relation to actual research time. Thus, we encourage applicants to specify periods of leave without research activities, in order to be able to subtract these periods from the span of the scientific career during the evaluation of scientific productivity.

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including relocation service and career counselling to expat partners. Read more here. Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here.

Aarhus University also offers a Junior Researcher Development Programme targeted at career development for postdocs at AU. You can read more about it here.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University’s website.

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