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...

You reach your final destination for the day, switch off the engine of your motorhome, and sit back to enjoy the view. Cicadas chirping and the music of nature are the only sounds you can hear. And then, far away from the nearest mains outlet, you get your laptop out to check your emails and plan your route for the next day. Quietly, and with low emissions, the electrical power you need is produced by your own on-board fuel cell generator. You know that with the fuel cell, your vehicle battery will always be fully charged. Now that the funded research and testing work has been done, fuel cell hybrid systems are ready for the market.  more...

In future, electricity grids will have to transport large quantities of electricity from renewable energy sources fed centrally and decentrally. Plus, we need greater reserves, storage facilities and flexibility in the electricity market due to the fluctuating supply. In the "Modellstadt Mannheim" project, a virtual energy marketplace is being developed for energy generators, consumers and grid operators. Customers can see the source and price of their electricity and influence them directly via the timing and extent of their consumption and the delivery from their own generation systems. This approach also includes gas, water and district heating.  more...

The German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology has published a strategy paper entitled "Eckpunkte und Leitlinien zur Weiterentwicklung der Energieforschungspolitik der Bundesregierung (Cornerstones and guidelines for the continued development of the German federal government's energy research policy)". The detailed analyses and suggestions were developed as a result of the cooperation between a number of institutes in the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres as part of a broadly based consultation process.  more...

Various research projects have shown, however, that decentralised energy systems can also contribute to optimum grid operation. Here centralised control concepts are competing with systems that optimise the electricity feed-in and consumption decentrally.  more...