While employed at CG, Stephen Hardy conducted two secondments at KU Leuven in 2018 and 2019. In addition to the renowned academic environment of KU Leuven, he benefited from its collaboration with Energyville in the Thor science park in Genk, Belgium. Energyville (photo by Motaz Ayiad below) is a leader in innovative energy research. His aim during the visit was to develop a framework to effectively quantify the lifetime cost of an offshore wind-farm. He eventually published this work at the 2019 IEEE Powertech conference in Milan. Furthermore, Stephen gained valuable teaching experience as the course respresentative for a Finite Element Modelling Course for Electromagnetic fields.
He was grateful to his KU Leuven supervisors, Dr Hakan Ergun and Prof Dirk Van Hertem for ensuring a smooth transition and a comfortable stay at KU Leuven and Energyville, as well as to Dr Jef Beerten for providing him with a fantastic tour of the state of the art digital grid emulation lab. He also appreciated Dr Ruth V Sabariego’s guidance on Finite Element Modelling and in running lab exercises.
