Research

The Energy Law Section has a long and well-established history of performing research on how law can ensure a secure, clean and affordable energy supply and distribution network, as shaped by the Faculty-wide Law on Energy and Sustainability (LES) Research Programme and the Groningen Centre of Energy Law and Sustainability (GCELS).

Its legal research focuses on three elements. First, it addresses the societal need to ensure energy security while engaging in fair, low-carbon and efficient energy production, transport, storage and consumption. Second, it focuses on how law can foster an equitable and efficient balance between the ‘three Ps’ (planet, people and profit) of the sustainability paradigm, in which burdens are fairly distributed within (the global) society, and across generations. Third, by combining the energy and sustainability theme, it aims at conducting cutting-edge legal research on the energy transitions towards a carbon-neutral economy.

The Energy Law Section is involved in several national and European (Horizon 2020) research projects and cooperates with several market parties, including TSOs (Gasunie and TenneT), DSOs and energy production and supply companies (such as Vattenfall and GdF Suez) as well as technical research institutions like TNO and the Technical Universities of Delft and Eindhoven.