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...

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...

After 18 months of refurbishment work, former and new tenants began moving into the world's first high-rise building built to a passive house standard, in the Weingarten quarter of Freiburg, at the end of April 2011. The primary energy required for heating, heating drinking water, ventilation, lighting and domestic electricity has been reduced by 40 percent. Research on the model project continues.  more...

In June 2010, the Solar Decathlon Europe took place for the first time in Madrid. The aim of the international competition is to develop and independently build experimental and cutting edge homes. In terms of their annual energy balance, the buildings must cover their energy needs by using solar power. During the eight-day competition, judging panels assessed the buildings in ten individual disciplines. In Madrid, the University of Virginia from the USA successfully beat off 16 competitors to achieve first place. Two university teams from Germany also made it onto the winning rostrum.  more...

Buildings of the future are secret power plants: they will generate more energy than they require. The surplus can be used for the residents? electromobility or is fed into the grid. This idea is now to be implemented as an energy-plus building with electromobility. The fully recyclable house designed by scientists from Dresden, Germany offers 142 m² of floor space and produces more energy than is required for a 4-person household and to run two electric cars and an electric scooter (with an annual mileage of 29,000 km). The team of researchers from Dresden University of Technology won second prize at the planning competition of the Zukunft Bau (Future of Construction) research initiative with this pilot project in February 2011.  more...

Vacuum insulation has grown from a research subject to a versatile construction material in the past ten years. This is also proven by the increasing number of national technical approvals for this type of insulating panel. At a conference by the German Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), researchers and manufacturers provide information on the development of the technology, its application in building practice and the future perspectives of this high-efficiency insulating material.  more...

Last Saturday, the BAU 2011 trade fair came to a close in Munich. A clear focus this year was on concepts and solutions for sustainable and climate-neutral buildings. This applied both for the actual trade fair itself and the extensive support programme. For example, the EnOB research initiative presented new concepts, methods and model projects in a research symposium that was held on 18 and 19 January 2011.  more...

The Internet offers rapid and convenient access to information ? including for energy research. However, when it comes to obtaining reliable, complete and quotable information for research purposes, there is no real alternative to using specialist databases. This is the conclusion of scientists from the ETDE (Energy Technology Data Exchange). In a study they compared the search results provided by their ETDEWEB database with those from Google and Google Scholar, whereby they used search terms from different areas concerned with energy transformation and utilisation. The main thematic focus was on renewable energies, but energy efficient technologies such as recycling waste heat or utilising daylight in office buildings were also looked at.  more...

Elevators in Europe have an annual overall energy requirement of around 18 TWh, and thus consume about as much electricity as the German rail network does. This could be reduced by half if efforts to lower standby consumption and introduce new technologies are successful. However, a lack of knowledge and, frequently, the "investor-user dilemma" have often been barriers to the implementation of improvements up to now.  more...

Last Sunday, the winners of the Solar Decathlon Europe were announced in Madrid. The 17 international university teams had to cope with many individual disciplines and comprehensive measurement-based evaluations across ten days of competition. The winners of the international building decathlon have now been announced. The Virginia State University (USA) won first place, while the German university teams from Rosenheim and Stuttgart were respectively awarded second and third place.  more...