Press | Infothek

The guidebook contains aggregated information about the main economic drivers for low-temperature district heating. It shows how to obtain lower temperatures in heating systems inside existing and new buildings, as well as in existing and new heat distribution networks. An applied study of a campus system in Darmstadt shows the possibility of reducing temperatures in an existing heat distribution network with rather high temperatures. The competitiveness of low-temperature district heating is explored by analysing business models and heat distribution costs.

Batteries with lithium metal electrodes promise higher energy and power densities. However, electrochemical processes can occur in these batteries that impair their safety and performance. As part of the BMWi-funded “metaLit” project, the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology (IEE) is developing models to simulate these processes. The software can be used to verify algorithms in battery management systems. This saves expensive and time-consuming tests with real batteries. The modeling is accompanied by experimental analysis by the Forschungsinstitut Edelmetalle + Metallchemie (fem) research institute.

Battery storage systems age faster if they have to repeatedly provide high power for short periods. This can be prevented by coupling them with supercapacitors to take over the peak loads. As part of the “SuKoBa” research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), Fraunhofer IEE develops tools for designing hybrid supercapacitor/battery storage systems together with its industrial partner AVL and the network coordinator Skeleton Technologies. Furthermore, the partners develop methods for managing and controlling the hybrid systems. Hybrid storage technologies of this type can be used in electric vehicles and in stationary storage units for grid stabilization.

When conventional power plants are shut down, the inertia of the synchronous generators stabilizing the power grid is lost. Wind turbines could step in here. However, can they withstand the resulting mechanical loads? The “GridLoads” research project, successfully completed by Fraunhofer IEE and MesH Engineering GmbH, now clearly shows that the plants can basically cope well with this—provided that the control modules of the plants are equipped for the new task beforehand. To analyze the occurring electromechanical oscillation modes, the researchers have carried out complex simulations.