There are many good reasons for using geothermal power. For example, it is available around the clock, 365 days a year, has great potential in many German regions and can be used for supplying both heat and electricity. With this in mind, the German government intends to increase the contribution of geothermal energy in domestic energy production in Germany in the future. The new 6th Energy Research Programme from the German government details the key research areas for the coming years.  more...

There are already more than 100 regions and many rural communities that are promoting sustainable development based on renewable energies. After developing individual concepts and strategies, the lengthy and often very complex implementation begins. A research project organised by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment has been supporting these regions in conceptual and technical terms since 2007. This project is being conducted by the deENet competence network and the University of Kassel, and is being advised by the German Federal Environment Agency. In a second project phase, it is planned to create a national network by 2013.  more...

In 2009, renewable energies met 11.6% of the gross final energy consumption of the European Union, whereby they generated 18.2% of the electrical energy supplies. Their economic importance is also growing: more than 900,000 workers in the various sectors generate a turnover of 120 billion euros. These are the results of the tenth report published by the EurObserv'ER consortium on "The State of Renewable Energies in Europe". The annually published report describes not just the development of the various technologies, broken down according to the respective EU countries, but also explains their socio-economic importance. The documentation, which is published in English and French, can now be downloaded free of charge.  more...

Too many cooks delay the broth. The fact that it does not have to be spoilt was shown by a workshop on the pilot project "Solar local heating at Am Ackermannbogen in Munich". The City Department for Health and the Environment had sent out invitations to the event held in the regional capital. Around 50 delegates accepted the invitation and listened to the lectures given by the three main players: the Bavarian Centre for Applied Energy Research (ZAE Bayern), the Munich Municipal Utility Company (SWM) and the City of Munich. During the event on Monday, the city was therefore able to take stock of the roughly ten-year preparation, planning, construction and research process.  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...

Cleaning, drying, dyeing, pasteurising, bleaching and melting - at first glance, the potential for utilising solar process heat in industry seems enormous. The aforementioned selection of cross-sector processes is at least partly suitable for provision with solar thermal energy. Despite this, the number of applications that actually use solar process heat lags far behind its theoretical potential. This is partly due to the fact that this is a new application area for solar thermal energy.  more...

An existing local heating structure, buildings which needed refurbishment and the availability of sufficient space for storage tanks and for a solar energy system all spoke in favour of installing a local solar heating system in the school and sports centre in Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen near Karlsruhe, Germany. This was to be combined with a refurbishment of the existing buildings, so as to reduce the heat energy requirement.  more...

Can heat - or cold - be stored directly in walls and ceilings? Can heat be stored at precisely the temperature level at which it is to be used later on? And can the heat storage effect be used in a controlled manner as regards time and intensity? The answer is a clear "yes" - using materials that store heat "latently", using a process that occurs at a defined temperature level and delivers high "concentrations".  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...

In the process industry, thermal energy storage enables flexible use of waste heat, and optimised capacity utilisation of components, by compensating for temporal fluctuations in demand. In the future, new types of latent heat storage could increase the energy efficiency of processes which require process steam.  more...