The website of the ENERGIEWENDEBAUEN research initiative is now online. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is bundling its long-standing subsidy measures entitled Energy Optimized Building, Energy-Efficient City and Energy-Efficient Heating and Cooling Networks, and also research on thermal energy storage and low-temperature solar thermal energy systems in the redesigned research initiative. They are being brought together under one umbrella initiative.
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In many office buildings, it is just as important to supply cooling in summer as heating in winter. Researchers have therefore developed salt hydrates that are suitable as storage material in chilled ceilings and centralised cold storage systems. The special advantage: Through a phase change, they store cooling energy with a high energy density and at the temperature level needed for air conditioning. This enables the required cooling to be provided very efficiently.
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Preparations are currently under way for a new energy research programme, which the German Federal Government intends to publish in the coming legislative period. In preparation, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has started a discussion process between representatives from industry, science and politics in order to identify relevant fields of research. In this interview Dr Johannes Tambornino, Head of Energy Strategies and System Analysis at Project Management Jülich speaks about the growing importance of system analysis for energy research. more...
A newly developed water wheel is now able to generate power at locations where it had previously been technically almost impossible. The machine works fully submerged without weirs at a low flow speed and can move forwards and backwards. As a result, it can be used in rivers and also in tidal currents. A prototype has successfully passed the laboratory tests. At the moment, developers at the University of Siegen are optimising and testing the water wheel in field conditions.
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Last week, on 2nd May 2017, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Brigitte Zypries, opened the celebration for the anniversary of “40 years of energy research programmes in the German Federal Government” in the historic conference rooms of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Berlin. She emphasised that research and development are important components in the large modernisation and investment project for energy transformation in Germany.
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Aluminium foils and sheets pass through a cold roll stand during the last processing step of their production. Rolling oils are sprayed on to cool and lubricate the rolls. Some of these kerosene-like hydrocarbons evaporate and vaporise in the ambient air. Large extraction hoods above the roll stand collect the contaminated air and feed it to a recycling plant.
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Organic waste, thinning wood, straw and landscape management waste products are still little used for generating energy. This is because such biogenic residues have poor combustion properties owing to their inhomogeneous composition or high moisture contents. However, researchers from the Technical University of Munich and SunCoal Industries are now producing biocoal from such material using a new process.
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The "Flexible Energy Conversion" research network was founded in Berlin at the end of February 2017. Here, researchers and developers from the conventional power plant technology and solar thermal power plant fields will jointly develop future strategies. The goals: To increase the flexibility of large-scale power plants, develop new large-scale storage systems, extensively research the use of hydrogen in power plant processes and in particular optimise the economic efficiency of solar power plants.
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Synlight is the name of the world's largest artificial sun, which is situated in Jülich near Aachen. Its bundled light is 10,000 times stronger than the sun. With this energy, researchers want to test solar thermal components in order to produce hydrogen directly – without having to use electrolysis. Last week, the research facility was officially inaugurated.
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Expensive, short ranges and long charging times: Today's batteries for electric vehicles have a negative image. However, the electric car is actually ready for series production. Well at least almost. In the BINE interview, Professor Martin Winter from the MEET Battery Research Center at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster and the Helmholtz Institute Münster talks about the hurdles that still need to be overcome and how it will be possible to get considerably more electric vehicles onto the streets in the coming years.
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