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Link to the Swedish version (pdf)

Excerpt from the Statement from CEO

As we close the books for the third quarter of 2011, I amvery pleased to report that important progress has been made during the period, with an emphasis on the technical and organisational areas. At the recent ESS Steering Committee meeting in September, Switzerland became the thirteenth Partner Country to sign the Memorandum of Understanding, and as such signal their commitment to the future development of the ESS project. We welcome the formalisation of their collaboration most warmly.

So far this autumn we have received much attention internationally with regard to the ESS Energy Concept, which involves the use of electricity from renewable energy sources, an energy-saving strategy that reduces electricity demand by 20%, and the utilisation of excess heat in the local district heating network. In early October I, together with Jonas Abrahamsson, CEO of E.ON Nordic and Mats Didriksson, Director of Business Development at Lund Energy Group, presented our energy solution to members of the European Parliament in Brussels, who were very receptive. A key factor behind the energy concept is the collaboration we have with experts from Lunds Energi and E.ON. By making this issue a ‘common cause’ it has been possible to get a better picture of the issues and thus discover new opportunities, for example, making use of ‘smart’ grids or using excess heat for heating houses and offices.

Our ambition is to make ESS the world's first climate-neutral research facility. General interest in our solutions is widespread. In October, more than 150 people from major research facilities and other organisations related to research and/or energy got together in Lund for two days to discuss how they can make use of similar energy solutions. With energy as the theme, we organised, together with CERN and the European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF), a conference on Energy for Sustainable Research, which focused on future energy solutions for major research facilities. We were proud to be trail-blazers on energy strategy to the international research community who came to Lund to hear our ideas about sustainable energy solutions. There is a clear indication that our aim of conducting climate-neutral research has been heard around the world.

The question of energy is one of the major challenges that many research facilities today are facing. That is why the right sustainable energy solutions have become an issue high on many agendas. We constantly strive to explore and introduce improved methods and technologies that conserve energy and minimise carbon emissions. We have set our objectives high and intend to demonstrate that it is possible to combine world-class research with sustainable energy solutions and, importantly, to lower our costs in doing so.