Press Release

Bremerhaven - The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has once again been contracted by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH) to carry out a preliminary meteorological investigation in the North Sea as part of the area development plan. This is the fourth time that IWES has undertaken the preliminary investigations and is helping to further accelerate offshore expansion in Germany.

Fraunhofer ISI's new roadmap looks at alternative battery technologies for the period up to 2045. Their technology-specific advantages, future areas of application, markets and supply chains are analyzed, as well as Europe's positioning, the costs and the industrial scalability. The roadmap also identifies areas where the EU and Germany need to take action with regard to technology sovereignty. It was developed as part of the BMBF accompanying project BEMA II.

09/14/2023, Berlin – Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES began researching the topic of automated rotor blade manufacturing ten years ago with the start of the »BladeMaker« project. The follow-up project »BladeFactory« is set to be completed this October. This marks an important occasion for the project team to look back at the results and identify future trends in rotor blade manufacturing together with project partners and guests from the wind energy industry and research sector. The BladeMaker project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) to the tune of around €8 million and the BladeFactory project with around €9 million. The final conference with around 40 guests was held on Tuesday at ENIQ on the EUREF-Campus in Berlin.

In recent years, some car manufacturers have already presented the first vehicle models with photovoltaics integrated into the roof. The roof is the easiest surface to use for on-board solar power generation. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE have now gone one step further. As part of two publicly funded research projects, they have integrated solar cells into the standard sheet metal hood of a regular passenger car. Coupled with the research institute’s MorphoColor® technology, the solar-active surface can be color-matched to that of the vehicle. Visitors to IAA MOBILITY can have a closer look at the photovoltaic hood from September 5-11, 2023, at the Fraunhofer booth (Hall B1.D11) in Munich.

New algorithms for object recognition and environment perception have been developed at Fraunhofer IPA, enabling sophisticated automation solutions for the service and production sectors. They are a result of the “Knowledge4Retail” research project, in which twelve project partners have developed solutions for future-oriented retail.

Offering companies a clear competitive advantage and making them fit to meet the challenges of the production of the future: this is the performance promise that Fraunhofer IPA will be exhibiting at the automatica trade fair from June 27 to June 30, 2023. Here, visitors will experience applications in robotics, automation, artificial intelligence and cleanroom technologies and gain new insights through regular expert sessions and “Interactive Live“ interviews.

Digital printing is increasingly important in industrial production due to its higher cost-effectiveness, flexibility and speed. However, printing on industrial products poses special challenges for the inks used in the process. In the project "Innovative Printing Inks for Industrial Digital Printing” (InDiPrint) the Fraunhofer IMWS in cooperation with Printing Inks Technology GmbH (PIT GmbH) worked on the development and comprehensive evaluation of high-performance printing inks for industrial digital printing.

In February, the Estonian-based startup New Standard Oil successfully commissioned their first industrial-scale prototype for drying and torrefaction of biogenic feedstock operating with superheated steam at atmospheric pressure. The energy-efficient process was developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart, Germany, and produces valuable raw materials for the chemical and energy industries: basic chemicals, biocoal and water.

It is warm underground. Accessing this energy source on a large scale to heat houses and apartments is the task of the new UrbanGroundHeat research project. Geothermal energy is CO2-free and can be easily tapped in many places in Germany, but has not yet been widely developed for legal and economic reasons. As a result of the energy crisis, conditions have changed. A cooperation of research and industry under the leadership of the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IEE now intends to facilitate the use of geothermal energy for municipal utilities, cities and communities.