The cities of Stuttgart and Überlingen are collaborating together in the “Urban District 2050 – Solving Challenges Together” research project. The project goal is to remodel and develop two districts to create affordable, climate-neutral housing. The two municipalities are tackling the tasks in different ways. Their systematic approaches will enable, however, the experience gained by the respective demonstration districts to be also utilised by the other city.  more...

The generation of hydrogen by means of water electrolysis makes it possible to store renewably generated electricity. In a new study, experts assume that by 2050 Germany will require an installed plant capacity in the three-digit gigawatt range in order to achieve the German government's climate protection goals.  more...

The world’s largest high-temperature latent heat storage system reached its future deployment site, the Wellesweiler cogeneration plant of STEAG New Energies GmbH in the Saarland, upon a flatbed truck mid-September. The system is intended to ensure permanent steam supply to an adjacent plant for the production of plastic sheeting. To date, operation of an additional heating boiler has been required under continual minimal load. This currently takes over short-term steam supply in the event of a malfunction of the power plant turbine until a steam boiler is initiated.  more...

The German cabinet has passed the new, 7th “Innovations for Energy Transition” Energy Research Programme. The programme replaces its predecessor from 2011. Content-wise, the programme builds on the successes of recent years, sets new courses and defines focal points for research funding and innovation policy in the energy sector. For the years 2018-2022, the German Government is budgeting 6.4 billion euros for energy research.  more...

A new, almost climate-neutral urban district is being built on the site of a former freight yard in Esslingen. Over a period of five years, scientists in the planned Neue Weststadt district are experimenting with an innovative energy supply concept with which electricity surpluses from intermittent renewable energies will be converted into hydrogen, stored and, if necessary, returned to the grid. The district will also serve as a real-world laboratory for the system-supportive coupling of the heating, cooling, electricity and mobility sectors.  more...

Last week, TU Dresden officially launched the long-term National 5G Energy Hub research project. This is aimed at making the future 5G mobile standard usable for applications in energy technology. Project partners are TU Dresden in cooperation with RWTH Aachen, Deutsche Telekom and Ericsson. In addition, the associated partners Techem, VDZ, E.ON and the city of Dresden are also involved.  more...

Companies and scientists are investigating the storage of fluctuating wind energy in the form of hydrogen on a research plant located in the Mainz-Hechtsheim commercial zone. All key components from generation and storage to utilisation at an industrial scale are being looked at and interlinked with innovative technology components. The PtG plant (Power-to-Gas) at megawatt scale facilitates not only the chemical long-term storage of energy. It furthermore interconnects the electricity, heat and mobility sectors.  more...

How can energy efficiency measures and the utilisation of renewable energy sources enable districts to get by with virtually no fossil fuel? How can smart networking of power, heat and mobility be achieved? Scientists and other stakeholders are investigating these questions in six flagship projects. Initial results and local challenges were outlined by the research teams in a panel discussion at the Berliner Energietage conference.  more...

The Smart Green Tower is being built in the city of Freiburg. The 51-metre-high building will provide living, residential and working space. Depending on the solar radiation, a building envelope made of photovoltaic modules generates more energy via the photovoltaic system than can be consumed directly. In order to utilise the surplus electricity, the designers are using a flexible internal energy storage system with lithium-ion batteries.  more...

The Solar Decathlon student competition challenges the participating teams to develop completely solar-powered houses. More than 250 buildings have already been built in the 13 competitions that have taken place to date. A considerable amount of investigative spirit has gone into designing all of them, they are comparable and well documented. A freely accessible online database now provides a comprehensive overview and the framework for systematically evaluating the innovations and results.  more...