Wind was an untested green energy source when Peter Hauge Madsen started as a dedicated employee at Risoe National Laboratory in the late 70s. Today, wind energy has become a global high-tech industry and Peter Hauge Madsen heads the Department of Wind and Energy Systems with almost 400 employees.
He has played a crucial role in building the current department. He was initially based at the former Risø National Laboratory, and most recently he was involved in the merger of the former DTU Wind Energy department and the Center for Electric Power and Energy. He has helped to create a solid foundation for the green transition, both at DTU and in Danish society as a whole.
Now he looks back on a career that spans 40 years. We've visited him at DTU Risø Campus to hear more about his working life. It's the story of being fascinated by grassroots initiatives like the wind turbine built by amateurs in the mid-1970s in Tvind. He's helped build up the wind turbine sector and develop a department that not only conducts research, development, and optimization of wind turbines, but also uses energy in a smarter way.
"I've always been convinced that wind energy is a good idea. This is probably because I'm driven by the idea that wind energy can help solve some of the world's problems. But the fact that we've come so far that wind has become the main supplier of energy in large parts of the world is more than what I imagined 40 years ago," says Peter Hauge Madsen.
