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...

The closing event of the “ETA Factory” research project took place at TU Darmstadt on 11 April 2018. In the course of the project, a multidisciplinary research group was able to demonstrate the feasibility of energy savings of up to 40 percent in industrial production. The jointly planned research factory saw researchers optimise and network energy flows in production and within the building.  more...

Scientists from industry, research and municipal companies have developed a management system as part of the “City as Storage System” project, bundling CHP plants, heat pumps, night storage heating infrastructures, PV batteries and other systems. Final field testing has shown how storage units, generators and loads in coordinated operation support the power grid as a virtual energy storage system.  more...