A mere 150 days now remain until the grand final in Madrid of the Solar Decathlon Europe, which will take place this year for the second time. The competition will see universities from around the world competing for the most energy-efficient house, with 20 teams from 15 countries exhibiting their innovative concepts in the "Villa Solar" from 14 to 30 September. This year, two teams from Germany (Aachen and Constance) will take part in the competition and are now busy preparing for the final in Madrid.  more...

In November 2011, the "Bambados" Swimming Pool - a leisure pool built to the passive house standard - opened in Bamberg, Upper Franconia. The monitoring is starting at the beginning of April. The measurements will show whether the concept proves itself in practice and whether the planned energy savings can also be achieved in reality. In the BINE interview, Esther Gollwitzer from the Passive House Institute (PHI) discusses the concept behind the new leisure pool and draws an initial balance.  more...

Following personnel changes in PV CYCLE, the industry association for recycling photovoltaic modules (BINE reported), Wilfried Taetow took over its leadership in September 2011. In the BINE interview, the new president explains how the recycling of PV modules can be realised at a time when the industry is under economic pressure and the EU is planning to include discarded PV modules within the scope of its EU Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive.  more...

Small, decentralised power plants are on the increase: as fuel cells, they are enormously energy efficient, provide heat and electrical energy whilst giving off harmless emissions. Scientists from the Research Centre Jülich and the metal group ThyssenKrupp VDM are now making a contribution towards competitive production costs.  more...

Its sounds ideal: a domestic energy plant that generates heat and electricity works almost without emissions and also exclusively utilises the sun and bioalcohol as renewable energy. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy systems ISE are working on such a plant. The heart of the system comprises a fuel cell combined with a newly developed reformer that generates the hydrogen required for the fuel cell from bioethanol.  more...

The Faculty of Supply Engineering at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences has installed a renewable energy park at its Wolfenbüttel campus. A redox flow battery weighing 5,000 kg has now been added to this energy park. With this system, which is only the second of its kind in Germany, a further storage technology is now available in this "Smart Grid Test Facility".  more...

With the aim of achieving an optimum indoor environment and lowering operating costs in the long term, the performance of a so-called "operational optimisation with weather forecast control" system has been tested in three administrative buildings in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2007. The operation of the heating systems is optimised based on a thermodynamic computer model and local weather forecast data. The result: A tangible increase in comfort with simultaneous heat energy savings.  more...

The first measurement results confirm the efficient building concept for the Science College Overbach, which opened in June 2009: the data from 186 measurement points are continually captured via the building's services technology and enable continual monitoring, analysis and optimisation of the technical systems. In terms of the primary energy, the building is doing very well: it only consumed 83.4 kWh/m² p.a. in the first year. Not only do the figures add up, the students are also thrilled by their new school. Whereas 15% of the students used to opt for technology and 85% for the three foreign languages on offer, 60% of the students are now choosing a scientific subject in order to enable them to attend lessons in the attractive new building.  more...

Four federal ministries have jointly determined how they want to promote research in the next few years that contributes to "an environmentally sound, reliable and affordable energy supply". The 6th Energy Research Programme, which was adopted in 2011 in Berlin, replaces its predecessor from 2005. The plan intends to increase the German government´s annual funding budget to one billion euros by 2014.  more...

The political conditions for a change in energy policy (from fossil fuels and nuclear energy to renewable energy sources) have never been better. However, a successful change in energy supply can only take place with the support of private households who change to green electricity and homeowners who invest in renewable energy technology. How can potential users (and especially women) be persuaded to change? The interdisciplinary research project "Renewable energy sources and green electricity - communication according to specific target groups" intended to find the answer to this question.  more...