Press Releases 2017

The CertBench project is now entering phase two: Further research work and an array of experimental tests are planned in order to establish the requirements for certifying the electrical properties of wind turbines on system test benches: The nacelle of a 3 MW turbine from project partner ENERCON will undergo tests as per the guidelines relevant for certification in the Dynamic Nacelle Testing Laboratory (DyNaLab). Realistic loads and interactions between the nacelle and rotor will be simulated using real-time models and control algorithms on the test bench for hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) operation. The test methods can be validated by comparing the results of the tests with the field data. Accelerated testing under laboratory conditions has the potential to make it significantly easier for manufacturers to plan the market launch of new and modified turbine models.

The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems has completed a study, “Energy Consumption of Consumer Electronics in U.S. Homes in 2017,” the fourth in a series commissioned by the Consumer Technology Association, to provide up-to-date information to support energy policymaking in a rapidly changing industry.

Smalls drops, big impact: Even just minor rain erosion damage on rotor blade surfaces can impair performance and shorten the service life of wind turbines. Fraunhofer IWES has been operating a rain erosion test bench since 2015 in order to achieve a better understanding of how damage progresses and derive effective preventative measures. Within the scope of the newly started “BeLeB” research project the aim is to contribute to the development of reliable forecasting models for erosion damage and apply them to turbine operation. In particular, this also encompasses the assessment of practice-relevant repair concepts. To achieve these goals, the test bench is set up to enable continuous testing and precise damage documentation by means of high-resolution 3D images. Offshore operating data are used by way of comparison for validation purposes.

Fraunhofer CSE celebrated the inauguration of its Energy Storage Integration Lab on December 5th, 2017. The CEO of Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, Stephen Pike, joined us to officially “cut the ribbon” to open the ESI lab, which will test novel battery storage, power inverters, electric vehicle (EV) chargers and building energy management systems for residential and light commercial applications.

The prototype of the new offshore turbine from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy is set to undergo extensive hardware in the loop (HiL) testing in the Dynamic Nacelle Testing Laboratory (DyNaLab) from April 2018 until the end of the same year. The focus will be on the performance of the generator and the turbine’s grid compatibility. Fraunhofer IWES replicates the loads on the rotor and grid side realistically by using a comprehensive grid simulator and a highly dynamic drive system. This makes it possible to draw reliable conclusions about how the turbine will perform in the field in just a short period of time. The design validation of new turbine models offers manufacturers decisive support in accelerating the electrical certification of their systems and avoid surprises after the market launch.

Scientists from Fraunhofer ISI and KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) have compared the performance of battery electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Germany and the US. They discovered that plug-in hybrids with a real-world electrical range of about 60 kilometers drive just as much in electrical mode as battery electric vehicles, and their potential for reducing CO2 is therefore just as large. The results have now been published in the journal “Scientific Reports”.

Members of twelve SME, industrial, and scientific partners, co-ordinated by Fraunhofer UMSICHT, and representatives of the European Commission participated in the second consortium meeting in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on the 26th of October 2017. Discussions took place regarding the progress of activities relating to the research project TO-SYN-FUEL which will operate and demonstrate the production of Synthetic Fuels and Green Hydrogen from waste biomass.

Until now, acreage was designated for either photovoltaics or photosynthesis, that is, to generate electricity or grow crops. An agrophotovoltaics (APV) pilot project near Lake Constance, however, has now demonstrated that both uses are compatible. Dual use of land is resource efficient, reduces competition for land and additionally opens up a new source of income for farmers. For one year, the largest APV system in Germany is being tested on the Demeter farm cooperative Heggelbach. In the demonstration project “Agrophotovoltaic – Resource Efficient Land Use” (APV-Resola)” led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, solar modules for electricity production are installed directly above crops covering an area of one third hectare. Now the first solar harvest of power and produce has been collected on both levels.

Batteries are indispensable for electric vehicles and other mobile devices that require electrical power. Complex battery management systems (BMS) are needed to estimate, for example, the range and durability of the battery. Therefore, they determine the state of charge for each cell on the basis of Current (Coulomb Counting) and Voltage. As BMS calculations are based on default values, they are prone to error. Especially with frequent partial charge and certain battery cell types, no precise measurement of the state of charge is possible. In addition, these systems consume some of the energy themselves.

A pan-European consortium consisting of Hungarian data center engineering specialist H1 Systems, UK based cooling provider EcoCooling, German research institute Fraunhofer IOSB, Swedish research institute SICS and infrastructure developers Boden Business Agency, have joined forces aiming to design and validate a future proof concept.

On October 5th 2017, Fraunhofer CSE hosted the inaugural meeting of the Phase Change Materials Industry Association of North America, whose mission it is to promote the development and use of phase change material in North America. Members of the association approved bylaws, outlined goals, and created committees to develop strategies to pursue the association’s strategic goals.

On October 24th 2017, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the University of Alberta signed a research collaboration agreement to launch a new Technology Platform partnership. The Platform will support joint projects that develop new energy technologies and test them with Alberta feedstock material. Bio fuels, storage batteries, and alternative uses for CO2 will be some of the first topics, with one project already underway.

Competitiveness in the Lithium Industry – the Central Colocation Center (Metz, France) of EIT RawMaterials organised a workshop, 11-12 October 2017 in Würzburg, Germany, together with Core Partner Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC, that attracted roughly 100 participants from across the value chain; one half of them were non-EIT RawMaterials members. The panel of experts gave an opportunity to review the European potentials in Lithium in terms of mining, extraction and refinement, battery materials, and cell manufacturing.

The VDE Global Energy Storage Competence Cluster will serve the international cleantech sector along the entire value chain and features VDE Prime Labs in Singapore, Germany and the USA. VDE Renewables, together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE and the Nanyang Technological University Singapore’s (NTU Singapore) Energy Research Institute (ERI@N), launched the Global Energy Storage Competence Cluster (GECC) today, at the annual Asia Clean Energy Summit in Singapore. This global initiative for energy storage will serve the international cleantech sector along the entire value chain and features VDE Prime Labs in Singapore, Germany and the USA. The VDE Prime Lab in Singapore will also be the first in the world to offer bankability and insurability certification for energy storage solutions at the systems level, which will plug a critical gap in the global energy landscape.

Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam: some 630 million people live in the ten member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Between 2007 and 2015, there was enormous growth in the economy here, by 5.3 percent per year on average – and the demand for energy is also rising as a result. How to deal with this is shown by the fifth ASEAN Energy Outlook, which the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI and the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) presented during the Ministers and CEO dialogue at the 35th ASEAN Ministers on Energy Meeting (AMEM) in the Philippine capital of Manila at the end of September.

For more than 30 years, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has been one of the world’s leading research institutes for solar energy. In the field of photovoltaics, which focuses on converting sunlight into electrical energy, the institute has repeatedly set world records for efficiency for various solar cell technologies, thereby helping to put Germany at the forefront of international research and development in this area. In order to strengthen Germany’s leading position, the institute is now constructing a new building with a clean room equipped to handle the latest technological challenges. The cornerstone of the “Center for High-Efficiency Solar Cells” was laid on October 4, 2017 in Freiburg. By financing this building, the federal government and the government of Baden-Württemberg are signaling their commitment to photovoltaic research in Germany.

Water is still the most important source of renewable energy in Bavaria, Germany, accounting for some 33 percent of all renewable energy produced in the region, as showed by the Bavarian Energy Map. But conventional hydroelectric plants, especially micro hydro generators, are a subject of controversy due to their low output volumes and their interference with the ecosystem. Fraunhofer researchers are working on an environmentally friendly alternative: in the future, innovative elastomer materials are set to convert the mechanical energy produced by flowing water in small rivers directly into electrical energy.

At 1.3 percent measurement precision, the accredited calibration laboratory of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE achieved a record value. Measurement repeatability is 0.4 percent. Germany’s national accreditation body DAkkS has confirmed this value according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025:2005. The excellent measurement precision of CalLab PV Modules was also proven in a recent comparison of PV module calibrations between the four best-known calibration laboratories worldwide. For PV power plant investors, the precise calibration of PV modules translates into more exact yield predictions and thus lower financial risks. PV manufactures require high measurement precision to ensure the highest-level quality assurance in production and the power measurements of their products.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft in-house LiScell joint project was successfully concluded in May 2017. Lithium-sulphur technology was studied because it might offer an attractive energy-storage solution for future mobility thanks to its low cost of materials and high energy density.

Renewable energy sources like wind turbines and photovoltaics need large-scale energy storage systems to balance out fluctuations in energy generation. One of the most promising solutions is redox-flow batteries. These systems store energy electrochemically, within liquid electrolytes that can be kept in tanks until the energy is required.

Research and industry worldwide are working to further reduce the costs of solar electricity and German research is playing a leading role. With its newest solar cell, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has now exceeded its own world record for multicrystalline solar cells. The record cell converts 22.3 percent of the incident sunlight into electricity.

The discussion about transforming the transport sector is increasingly focused on heavy goods traffic: This contributes a major share of greenhouse gas and local emissions and is continuing to grow. An interesting alternative to today’s diesel trucks are electric or hybrid ones powered by overhead lines. In the eWayBW project, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment is funding construction of a test route in the Murgtal near Karlsruhe from September 2017. There are still many unresolved questions concerning the operation of such trucks, mainly with regard to acceptance issues and impacts on the energy sector. A consortium coordinated by Fraunhofer ISI is studying these and other research questions as part of the scientific accompanying research.

The Cooperative Research Project FLEX-G under the coordination of the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology FEP started on June 1, 2017 under the federal construction technology initiative named ENERGIEWENDEBAUEN funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi, funding reference 03ET1470A). The main goal of the research project is to investigate technologies for the manufacturing of translucent and transparent membrane roof and façade elements with integrated optoelectronic components. The focus lies on a switchable total energy transmittance (often referred to as the solar factor or solar heat gain, and “g-value” in Europe) and on flexible solar cell integration to significantly contribute to both energy saving and power generation in buildings.

Linking up systems to a virtual network in order to make solar cell production in Baden Württemberg more efficient – this was the aim of the “InES” research project. With a cloud infrastructure developed by Fraunhofer IPA and both mobile and browser-based applications, the consortium is now able to share the use of machines at different sites. Remote monitoring of processes and automated test data transfers were also implemented.

Against the background of the debate about the future of the combustion engine in Germany and the proposed ban on conventional cars in France and Britain the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI publishes an analysis of possible economic impacts of the change towards electric mobility. While the most recently published study of the Munich based ifo Institute for Economic Research points out the potential negative economic consequences of cars with a combustion engine the experts of Fraunhofer ISI definitely see opportunities and potential for positive impacts for jobs and value added for the business location Germany in the transition from conventional cars to electric vehicles. However, for this to happen the change must be implemented actively.

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has published its first energy efficiency scorecard for utilities and has found “striking regional differences” across the U.S. Eversource Massachusetts and National Grid Massachusetts top the list with the same score, followed by Pacific Gas & Electric (2nd place), Baltimore Gas & Electric (3rd), and Eversource Connecticut (4th).

A three-month study phase has ended for solar photovoltaic (PV) integrated reefer truck rooftops in the United States. Fraunhofer CSE (in Boston, MA) and Fraunhofer ISE (in Freiburg Germany) worked in cooperation with Agri-Mark/Cabot Creamery Cooperative, based in Vermont, on the U.S. study of an installation of solar PV modules onto two Cabot Creamery refrigerated cheese trucks. By placing sensors on the roof of these trucks, the study recorded the amount of potential energy that could have been produced while driving delivery routes across the Northeast from October through December.

On July 6-7, 2017 the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is hosting the 7th PV Module Reliability workshop. This year the workshop will be held at the Solar Info Center, which is in close proximity to the laboratories of Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg. The location provides an ideal setting for technical tours and discussions. This year the workshop focuses on the reliability of PV modules and systems, and speakers from throughout the world will be presenting talks related to this theme. The topics range from the newest improvements in measurement and test procedures to service life tests for PV modules.

The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, working with elevator manufacturer thyssenkrupp, prepared a report detailing how they achieved a net-zero solar energy elevator system in a Boston office building.

Fraunhofer IISB merges proven power electronic system technologies and smart digital functionalities into “Cognitive Power Electronics 4.0”. The latest innovative developments by the power electronics research institute are presented at PCIM Europe 2017 next week in Nuremberg.