The excursion to Copenhagen, which had been planned for two years, could finally take place this year. The occasion was used – after the long corona-related break – to bring many of the PhD students together again in one place and to enable real exchange. The embellished program was created over the period of almost two years: Appointments and exchange opportunities in municipal, ministerial and university institutions formed the core program. City tours and self-organized visits rounded out the excursion.

At the beginning, the doctoral students of the research college NEQ visited the Center for Electric Power and Energy (CEE) at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). There we were welcomed by Professor Jacob Østergaard. In addition to a short round of introductions, the main research topics and projects currently being carried out at the CEE were presented. The focus of the presented projects is the development of a cost-efficient and sustainable energy system based on renewable energies. In addition, the CEE is investigating heat pumps, solar systems and charging stations for e-mobility for the ongoing transformation of the energy system in Denmark. Particularly impressive is the close collaboration between DTU, various ministries and the public. The transdisciplinary orientation of the projects means that implementation is both accelerated and followed up. The monitoring of the pilot projects takes up a large part of the research results and can provide important information about the efficiency and effectiveness of newly developed solution approaches in the follow-up.

The rest of the day we visited the new urban development project and residential quarter Nordhavn, which is being built in the north of the city on an area of land filled into the Øresund. A total of about 18 million tons of earth will be needed for the expansion over the next three years, much of which can be drawn from the reconstruction of a city metro line. A tour of Konditaget Lüders, a parking garage with a rooftop sports facility and ground-floor shopping, concluded the day.

On the second day of the excursion, the College was invited to the State of Green premises by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and the Danish Energy Agency. The focus of the knowledge exchange was on current issues of transformation, regulations – especially in the building sector – and planned steps for achieving greenhouse gas neutrality in the coming decades. Also, the historical development of the city of Copenhagen as well as the motivation for the ambitious climate goals of the country of Denmark and also the city of Copenhagen were presented.

Afterwards we could win Ms. Monica Magnussen from the City of Copenhagen for an interesting lecture with a special focus on mobility. The expansion of the bicycle infrastructure and the path to climate neutrality by the year 2025 were addressed and discussed. Finally, the day was concluded with a self-organized guided tour of the city, which provided a detailed insight into the urban development of the city from its origins to the 19th century.

The last day of the excursion was another city tour, which started at the Danish Architecture Center in Copenhagen. After a presentation of the central buildings in the harbor area, such as the Danish Royal Library or the Black Diamond, the next stop was the Ørestad district on the southern island of Amager. Since 1992, the district has been developed as a planned city and is continuously being developed further. Not only the large concert hall (DR Koncerthuset) and various buildings that were constructed with renewable or recycled materials were visited, but also the 8Tallet, which forms the end of the marsh landscape to the south and combines interesting approaches to sustainable forms of living as a community housing project.