This year marks forty years since Deputy Head of Department at DTU Wind Energy, Peter Hjuler Jensen, started at Risø. Although he has achieved a lot, he is not ready to throw in the towel.
"That I have a 40th anniversary is not like a funeral," says Peter Hjuler Jensen, Deputy Director at DTU Wind Energy, as he begins to talk about his pending anniversary. Even though forty years may seem like a lot for many, Peter Hjuler Jensen does not see it that way:
“It has been fantastic to have been a part of the development and construction of a wind turbine sector. The test station at Risø, which has since become DTU Wind Energy, has played a significant role as a scientific source and partner,”says the sixty-five year-old deputy director.
The Biggest was UpWind
From his office at DTU Risø Campus he reflects on what has been the biggest achievement in his career. Because, as he says, there is an infinite number of things, that have made his work with wind energy special.
“In the 1980s, I was in charge of the Danish Approval Scheme. The Approval Scheme professionalised the wind energy sector. In the 1990s, we went a step further and began to develop and test. It was also during the 1990s that I was responsible for several EU projects. I specifically remember two major projects that involved standardisation and measurement methods in Europe,” he recalls and elaborates:
“In the 00s, it was especially the opening of the test centre at Høvsøre that I am proud of. Moreover, it was during the 00s that wind energy was written out of the EU Research Program. We had one chance to change that by carrying a wind energy project. That became the UpWind project which I coordinated. It included more than forty actors within the field of wind energy. Fortunately, UpWind was a success and wind energy was once again included in the EU Research Program,” says Peter Hjuler Jensen proudly.
Finally, the establishment of the two wind turbine test stations at Høvsøre and Østerild are some of the many great things we have achieved while I have had the privilege of being the person in charge at DTU for the two projects.
You have tried a little of everything at DTU Wind Energy. From program manager and head of the Test Station for Wind Turbines, to Deputy Head of the Wind Energy Department at Risø. You have been deputy head for more than ten years. What is that like?
“If people think it is boring to be me, they may think again. I am very happy with my job – big tasks, small tasks. They are all interesting.”
And what does the future hold? To this, Peter Hjuler Jensen replies: “I am still going strong. I have worked like a horse, both at professionally and privately, where I have renovated two houses at Christianshavn. And even though I have experienced a lot, I am not done at DTU Wind Energy. Ask me again when I am seventy,” he says with a big smile.