Press Release

Energy storage systems are of crucial importance to all sectors of industry involved in the energy and mobility transition. The idea behind Germany’s ‘Forschungsfertigung Batteriezelle’ is to create a development center for battery cell production that will serve the whole of Germany. Known by its German abbreviation FFB, the new battery cell research facility will close the current gap in the value chain of primary and rechargeable batteries and eliminate the need to depend on other markets. The project team, which consists of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and its research partners, is now embarking on the first steps to put the FFB concept into practice at the chosen location of Münster in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Agrophotovoltaics (APV) allows for the dual harvesting of crops and photovoltaic electricity on the same piece of land, providing sustainable solutions under consideration of soil protection and water conservation. The first international conference on APV systems AgriVoltaics2020 will take place in Perpignan, France from August 26-28, 2020 under the motto “Launching Agrivoltaics World Wide.”

November 1, 2019, saw the start of the X-Wakes “Interaction Between the Wakes of Large Offshore Wind Farms and Wind Farm Clusters With the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer” research project, which is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) to the tune of € 3.4 million over a period of three years. In the scope of X-Wakes, the researchers will be investigating how the wind conditions in the German Bight could change if offshore wind farms are expanded on a large scale.

In the »DigitalFire« project, the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT is exploring the possibilities of digitizing biomass furnaces. Cost-effective standard components should make existing plants more flexible and economical. The project has a duration of three years and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture with approximately 776,000 EUR.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE has launched a capacity building program for energy system transfor-mation in India together with the Indian institute IIT Mumbai and partners from industry. The focus of this program is on grid integration of renewable energy. It is initiated by the German Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusam-menarbeit GIZ and aims at employees of Indian grid operators who are active in grid operation and management. The training program combines online and presence modules in topics such as generation, forecasting, system inte-gration, control and visualization of renewable energies as well as market mechanisms, regulation and politics.

Researchers at Fraunhofer ISE have developed a climate-friendly heat pump which uses propane, a natural gas. The greenhouse gas potential is about 500 times less than conventional refrigerants and thus extremely low.

In modern architecture, large-area glazing is a continuing trend because of its appearance and design variety. Large southwards-oriented windows help to reduce the energy demand for heating in winter. However, large-area glazing may significantly increase the energy demand for cooling and air-conditioning in hot summers. Smart Glass Solutions – such as electrochromic (EC) and thermochromic (TC) windows and glass façades – control the radiation energy transfer with the "touch of a button" and thus can drastically reduce the energy demands for heating and air conditioning of large buildings.

The speedy reduction of worldwide CO2 emissions is one of the most pressing and challenging tasks of our time. Alongside the strategy of avoiding CO2 emissions altogether, there are a number of technologies which transform unavoidable CO2 into valuable products. But these so-called power-to-X processes are currently still inefficient and expensive. Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden have developed reactors based on ceramics, which use CO2 and water vapor to produce raw materials for the chemical industry in a much more efficient and climate-neutral way.

The Center for Energy Storage (CES) at the Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT in Sulzbach-Rosenberg was opened on October 2. The new research facility develops industry-oriented technologies for energy and heat recovery. The new building received a total of EUR 5 million in funding from the Free State of Bavaria, the Federal Government and the EU.

As of today, the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructures of Materials and Systems IMWS in Halle (Saale) will be headed by Prof. Dr. Matthias Petzold, previously deputy Head of the Institute. Prof. Dr. Ralf B. Wehrspohn, under whose leadership the research institute has developed into an independent institute focusing on microstructure diagnostics and microstructure design, will at the same time assume his new position as Executive Board Member for Technology Marketing and Business Models of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.