Climate Protection

German Research Ministry Funds International Green H2 Labs

Germany’s Ministry of Education and Research has started a major new green hydrogen R&D initiative called “International Future Labs.” Successful projects will be eligible for up to EUR 5 million in grants for up to 36 months.

The initiative is part of Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy and is very much transnational. As a rule, two-thirds of the research members should come from at least two countries abroad and one-third from Germany. Future Labs research must be carried out in Germany.

Proposals  may  be  submitted  by  universities,  non-university  research  institutions  and commercial companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).  The deadline for initial applications is April 27, and the first projects could commence in December. No limit has been set on the number of projects to be funded.

“Hydrogen will be international, as production and consumption will take place in different regions worldwide, so early setup of international networks like this certainly makes sense,” Marc-Simon Löffler of the Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Baden-Württemberg told the online platform sciencebusiness.net.

Initiative announcement with link to application form

Massive Interest in German Government H2 Aid

Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy has noted with satisfaction that as of February 19 some 200 project sketches had been filed for government assistance for developing hydrogen energy.

The ministry has allocated EUR 2.1 billion to subsidize projects as part of its National Hydrogen Strategy and its stated drive to become the “world number one” in the sector. The Ministry of Transportation and the sixteen regional states that make up the Federal Republic of Germany will also be providing additional funds of their own.

The Economics Ministry didn’t release the names of the applicants, but they include some business powerhouses. Uniper and Siemens Energy previously announced that they had applied for support for a project involving the production of climate-neutral hydrogen and heat in Hamburg. Thyssen-Krupp Steel also said it had requested aid in its bid to transition to climate-neutral, hydrogen-based steel production.

The projects Germany decides to fund are to fall under the European Commission’s “Important Projects of Common European Interest“ (IPCEI) and will be networked be networked with other EU initiatives. The Economics Ministry says it hopes to reach initial decisions on the applications before the government takes its summer break.

Test Success: Making Glass with Green Hydrogen

The Kopernikus Projekte P2X, an initiative of the German Ministry of Research and Education, says that for the first time ever glass has been made using green hydrogen as a heat source. That was after an eight-week test run at a factory operated by German glassmaker SCHOTT.

Glass production requires temperatures of 1600 degrees Celsius. Usually such heat generated is by burning natural gas, which results in high CO2 emissions. Germany has Europe’s leading glass industry, with an annual output of seven million tons and EUR 10 billion in turnover. The downside is five million tons of greenhouse gas per year.

The glass produced by burning green hydrogen is comparable in quality to conventionally made glass. P2X is now planning further tests to determine whether the steam resulting from burning hydrogen has any negative effect on glassmakers’ ability to conform to set specifications.

Underground Hydrogen Storage

One of the great advantages of hydrogen is its capacity to store excess energy for later use, but the gas itself also has to be stored. To this end, German energy company EWE is constructing an underground storage facility in the municipality of Rüdersdorf east of Berlin.

The planned facility will be capable of holding six tons of hydrogen a thousand meters below the earth’s surface. It will be built in part on an existing system.

“We already operate caverns for storing natural gas on this site and have the necessary infrastructure at our disposal to deal with, transform and sensible use energy imported from the coast,” EWE CEO Stefan Dohler told business newspaper Handelsblatt.

The facility will cost EUR 10 million, with EWE paying four million and the German government funding the rest of the project. The facility is due to be operational in two years.

More Green Energy News

Germany's green energy sector is thriving with significant investment being made in fossil fuel alternatives including hydrogen and the country's onshore wind energy sector turning the corner in 2020.

EnBW to build huge solar complex in eastern Germany

Handelsbatt reports that EnBW plans to build a gigantic photovoltaic park with almost 500 megawatts of capacity – enough to supply 130 thousand households with power – near Berlin. The energy concern recently commissioned Germany’s largest solar park north of the town of Werneuchen, 30 kilometers from Berlin. According to Handelsblatt, EnBW is now planning two solar parks in neighboring communities to create the 500 MW solar cluster.

DLR researching fossil fuel alternatives in Jülich

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is expanding its globally peerless research landscape for experiments with high-temperature heat derived from solar energy. The DLR is researching how concentrated solar radiation can be used to generate electricity and heat, store energy and produce hydrogen at its new solar tower with more than two thousand movable mirrors in Jülich. The first tower was erected in 2011, with the second tower now added due to high demand for experimental capacity.

German onshore wind sector achieves turnaround in 2020

Germany’s wind power industry achieved a turnaround in installations in 2020, with almost 50 percent more turbines (1,431 MW or 420 turbines) connected to the grid than in the year before. Although not yet at a level sufficient to achieve climate targets and meet growing industry demand for climate-neutral energy, onshore wind energy nevertheless achieved the largest share of all energy electricity generation with around 20 percent energy market share.

DLR to implement large-scale synthetic fuel pilot project

The Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) has commissioned the German Aerospace Center (DLR) to implement a pilot project for the production of climate-neutral synthetic fuels on an industrial scale. The planned plant - part of a move to accelerate the introduction of electricity-based fuels for sustainable mobility in aviation and shipping – should reduce air transport CO2 emissions by millions of tons through the switch to electricity-based kerosene by 2030. The pilot plant is set to produce 10,000 tonnes of climate-neutral kerosene and petrol annually.

Daimler and Linde develop “gas stations” for liquid hydrogen      

Linde (NYSE: LIN; FWB: LIN) has signed an agreement with Daimler Truck AG, one of the world's largest manufacturers of commercial vehicles, to jointly develop the next generation of hydrogen refueling technology for fuel cell-powered heavy-duty vehicles. The partnership will see subcooled liquid hydrogen (sLH2) used for higher onboard capacity, greater range, faster refueling and superior energy efficiency. The two companies envision the first refueling of a prototype vehicle at a pilot “gas station” in 2023, with the new fueling process set to be deployed in the series version of the Mercedes-Benz GenH2 truck first launched in 2020.

Germany increases climate support to vulnerable countries

Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel announced plans to provide EUR 220 million in support to the world’s least developed countries’ efforts to adapt to climate change at the Climate Adaptation Summit in January. The funding, made available from the budget of the German Development Ministry, will partially be provided in the form of loans. Germany is one of the world’s largest climate finance donors, making EUR 4 billion available from budget funds in 2019.

Climate most important political issue for young Germans

Climate protection remains the most political issue amongst young Germans aged 15 to 19 years of age according to a study conducted by Fischer Appelt and Appinio. Around 48 percent of the teenagers and young adults polled believe that the climate remains the most important political issue. Unsurprisingly, this is followed by health policy on 46 percent surveyed for the regular Teengeist (“Teen Spirit”) study, with two out of three 15- to 19-year-olds taking the current coronavirus situation “seriously” or “very seriously.”

Deutsche Post Invests Billions in CO2 Reductions

Germany’s postal company, Deutsche Post, says it will spend some EUR 7 billion by 2030 to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. That comes on top of a 2017 pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050.

The money will be used for climate-friendly transport and buildings, among other things. The company is targeting 60 percent quota of electric vehicles for last-mile delivery and intends on having 80,000 EVs on the street. To do that, they’ll be in the market after it was announced Deutsche Post would no longer produce its own electro-transporter, the Streetscooter, in-house.

In addition, the salaries of top Deutsche Post management will be most closely tied to sustainable development goals.

“We are making a green company out of our yellow enterprise,” said Deutsche Post CEO Frank Appel in a statement. “With that, we’ll be also making a contribution to our planet and our society.”

The company can afford invest such large sums because profits are booming, in part thanks to increases in e-commerce due to the coronavirus pandemic. In early March, Deutsche Post raised its profit forecast for 2021 to more than EUR 5.6 billion.

German Greenhouse Emissions Post Major Decline in 2020

Germany reduced the amount of greenhouse gasses it emitted by 739 million tons – or 8.7 percent – last year compared to 2019. That’s according to the German Environment Agency UBA.

The figures represent the largest annual decline since German re-unification in 1990. The UBA says that around a third of the reduction can be attributed to coronavirus restrictions. But even more so the decline reflects long-term trends and new environmental standards coming into force.

“Of course, the pandemic had an effect in this extraordinary year, especially in the transportation sector,” said German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze in a statement. “But it’s important to me that structural changes are showing results as we reorient our economy toward climate neutrality.”

Germany and the EU are aiming to become greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. Germany Trade & Invest cleantech industry expert Robert Compton says that the 2020 figures show that the country is moving in that direction.

“Despite the effects of corona, the vast majority of the emissions reductions last year came from the energy sector,” Compton explains. “This shows that higher CO2 prices from the reformed EU emissions trading system combined with cheap global gas prices are pushing coal out of the mix. At the same time, Germany has gotten out the checkbook and launched some really big programs – 7 billion euros for building up a hydrogen value chain, 6 billion euros in funding for energy efficiency in buildings, massive subsidies for EVs and the associated infrastructure – and the list goes on. This is a really interesting time for foreign cleantech companies looking to get in ahead of the wave in Germany.”

E-Bikes Take Quantum Leap During Corona

2020 was watershed year for bicycles, in particular e-bikes and pedelecs, says the German bicycle industry association ZIV.

All told, turnover in Germany rose by 60.9 percent compared with 2019, reaching more than EUR 6.4 billion. More than 5 million bikes left shops in 2020, up 16.9 percent. E-bikes shipped 1.95 million units – an annual increase of a whopping 43.3 percent – and now account for nearly 40 percent of the German bicycle market.

There was even more turnover – almost EUR 10 billion – in parts and accessories. The average price of cycles of all sorts shot up to EUR 1279, reflecting the growing popularity of more expensive e-bikes.

Industry observers say that people’s hesitation to use public transport amidst the pandemic outweighed disruptions to supply chains and shutdowns.

“The past year was unprecedented in the history of the German and international bicycle industry and the cycling economy as a whole,” said ZIV head Ernst Brust in a statement. “The challenges could not have been greater, but the corona pandemic showed that cycling is more relevant than ever. Both bicycles and e-bikes are essential means of transport for the present-day and the future, representing active, environmental mobility that is safe from infection. I’m confident that these attributes will permanently lead to more travel by bicycle.”

Big Battery for Western Germany

German business newspaper Handelsblatt has reported that energy company Steag is planning to construct a gigantic battery for energy storage in a decommissioned coalmine in the west of the country.

The facility is planned to go onto the grid in mid-2022 and will initially have a capacity of 250 megawatts. Currently, the largest battery in the world is Tesla’s 300 MW one in California, but the Steag facility is potentially expandable to 500 MW.

“Batteries play a crucial role in the transition to clean energy in a wide variety of applications, Steag battery expert Christian Karalis told Handelsblatt. “As we have seen, the grid is always encountering critical situations, and battery storage facilities, spread over the entire country, help improve energy provision.”

Batteries, big and small, are a booming business in Germany, especially as the country goes over to clean energy sources like wind and solar that don’t deliver constant amounts of power. According to industry association BVES, turnover in the battery storage sector in Germany should increase from EUR 6.3 billion to EUR 7.6 billion between 2019 and 2021 (estimated). Revenue in the home battery market is set from EUR 600 million to ER 1.3 billion in that period.

Experts Predict Boom for Providers in German EV Battery Production

With a host new production facilities underway in the country, Germany is poised to become Europe's electric vehicle (EV) battery capital.  As quoted by business newspaper Handelsblatt, the prestigious Fraunhofer Institute predicts a German production capacity of 500 to 600 gigawatt hours by 2030. That would be almost a third of production worldwide, according to figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

According to estimates, EUR 60 billion could be spent on the production facilities throughout Europe, roughly half in Germany, and EUR 20 billion or more could be generated in annual revenues by 2030. And that figure could be doubled by 2040, thinks global engineering consultants Altran.

“Germany is the heart of the European car industry so here is where the highest volume of batteries will be bought and sold,” explains Germany Trade and Invest senior automotive manager Stefan Di Bitonto. “The establishment of battery factories here will be a multiplier for companies supplying the big providers.”

What sorts of businesses are likely to benefit from the multiplication effect?

“There are many firms and suppliers active in Germany that are already major providers in the added value chain of material processing and production of battery cells,” Peter Fintl, Altran director of technology and innovation, told Handelsblatt.

Handelsblatt lists six separate areas in which business opportunities will arise for providers: chemicals such as phosphorus, separators, battery management, cooling systems and sensors, casings, and packaging.

“Germany’s traditionally strong automotive supplier sector is course eager to take advantage of the EV battery boom in the country, but the massive ongoing changes in the industry mean plenty of opportunities for international companies with innovative electric mobility solutions as well,” says Di Bitonto.

Study: Germany Prepared to Undergo EV Battery Boom

A new market analysis by the Brussels environmental protection association Transport & Environment (T&E) predicts a bright future for electric vehicle battery production in Europe’s largest market.

T&E anticipates a nearly tenfold increase in European capacity between 2020 and 2055, from 49 to 460 gigawatt hours. Around half of this production is expected to take place in German factories, says T&E. The group says that European supplies could meet European demand as early as 2021.

Of the 22 gigafactories planned in the continent, ten will be located in Germany, with companies involved including Tesla, Northvolt-VW, CATL and S-Volt.

The boom will be fueled by technological advances dramatically reducing the amounts of metals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel needed to make batteries, as well as billions in state subsidies that have seen the numbers of EVs purchased rise throughout the EU, for example by 260 percent in Germany in 2020.

Automakers are reacting accordingly. Ford says that by the year 2030 it will stop offering cars with conventional combustion engines for sale in Europe, while Porsche anticipates that by the end of the decade more than 80 percent of its models with be electric.

All of this is an incentive for companies to set up shop in Germany, explains Germany Trade & Invest senior automotive manager Stefan Di Bitonto.

“Germany is the heart of the European car industry so here is where the highest volume of batteries will be bought and sold,” Di Bitonto says. “The establishment of battery factories here will be a multiplier for companies supplying the big providers. That means opportunities for other firms to profit from the trend, as we have already observed in conjunction with Tesla and CATL.”

Germany Puts Additional €300 Million into EV Charging

The German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure BMVI has launched a new program “Charging Infrastructure on Location” that will introduce add EUR 300 million to the funds to create more electric vehicle charging stations.

The initiative is aimed specifically at small- and medium-sized enterprises such as retailers, hotels and restaurants, supermarkets, communal swimming  polls and sports facilities. Applications can be filed from April 12 to the end of 2021 and will be fast-tracked. Successful applicants can receive up to 80 percent of the cost of installing EV charging stations.

“We’re building up infrastructure where it’s needed in everyday life,” said Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer in a statement. “With that we’re supporting a solution for all those who aren’t able to charge their cars at home or at their place of work. These 300 million euros of support will bring charging opportunities where cars are parked anyway.”

The new money comes on top of EUR 400 million in subsidies for the installation of charging stations in private homes. The ministry says it plans to allocate a further EUR 350 million this summer to create charging infrastructure for commercial vehicle fleets and working people.

Germany aims to create one million public charging stations by 2030 as part of its drive to curtail its CO2 emissions.

Automotive Germany Debates Future of Synthetic Fuels

For some they’re an important part of Germany’s energy future, for others, a relic of the past that services a technology which should be phased out as soon as possible: synthetic fuels for automotive combustion engines.

In a new study, the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) sees the production of and technology for synthetic fuels as a market with a potential to create EUR 80 billion in added value for Europe as well as 1.2 million new jobs. Moreover, whereas for e-autos, charging infrastructure and new vehicles still have to be constructed, “liquid fuels such as synthetic diesel use existing filling stations and vehicles,” the IW report states, as quoted in advance by Handelsblatt newspaper.

The study, commissioned by three petroleum companies, comes after a call by German Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer earlier in March to ramp up the technology.

"Our target must be the phase-out of the fossil combustion engine by 2035," Scheuer told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag. "In order to lead the highly developed technology of the combustion engine in Germany into the future, synthetic fuels have to get out of the test tube and into mass production."

Environmental groups do not agree and cite the far greater “well-to-wheel” efficiency of EVs (73 percent) compared to cars that run on synthetic liquid fuels for combustion engines (13 percent).

"With the same amount of electricity, an electric car with a battery travels at least five times as far as a combustion car with electricity-based fuel," Greenpeace transport expert Benjamin Stephan told dpa news agency. "Such an absurd waste makes electricity-based fuels far too expensive to run cars in the long term. No one will pay for this at the filling station."

But that, too, is a statement open for debate.

“We’ll still have combustion engines for a long time, so it makes sense to think about alternative fuels,” says Germany Trade & Invest automotive expert Stefan Di Bitonto. “Even in the electric era, EVs won’t be the only cars on the road. There will still be sports cars that run on synthetic fuel sold at five euros a liter. It will be a niche product, but a significant one in my opinion.”

“New EU battery regulation will have an impact”

Germany Trade & Invest’s Anne Bräutigam and Flérida Regueira Cortizo spoke to Simon Glöser-Chahoud, Sonja Rosenberg and Sandra Huster from the DeMoBat (“Industrial Disassembly of Battery Modules and E-Motors to Secure Economically Strategic Raw Materials for E-Mobility”) project at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology about the battery recycling market in Germany.

How do you assess the current status of electric mobility in Germany?

Sales figures of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) have more than tripled in 2020 and currently hold a share of more than 10 percent of overall new vehicle sales in Germany. This share will continuously increase in the coming years and is expected to reach around 30 percent in 2030 – leading to an “in use” stock of 7 to 10 million vehicles in 10 years. Although current EV sales are subsidy driven, electric vehicles are becoming increasingly beneficial from an economic perspective compared to conventional vehicles. To this end, electric mobility in Germany is on the verge of entering the mass market. This is accompanied by high investments in charging infrastructure. While sales figures are strongly increasing, the end-of-life treatment of obsolete traction batteries is still in its very early stages with many technical and organizational challenges to be tackled in the coming years.

Disassembly is the main cost driver in battery recycling. Where do you see the current challenges in battery disassembly?

Disassembly is associated with numerous challenges – one of the central ones being the lack of standardization of traction batteries in terms of system design, cell shape and cell technology. This makes automated dismantling and disassembling very difficult. However, automation seems inevitable given the mass flows of spent batteries that must be managed in the coming decades. Manual disassembly – the predominant method to date – is time-consuming and dangerous due to the high voltages involved, the possibility of short circuits, overheating, and fire. This challenge is even greater when disassembly is performed as a preparation step for second-life applications such as repurposing to stationary energy storage. That is because in this case a deep discharging of the battery – which will destroy cell functionality – is not possible. For recycling, the battery components no longer need to be functional after disassembly, which is why the battery can be deeply discharged and destructive disassembly methods can be applied. For second-life applications on the other hand, non-destructive work on an active battery is required. Missing or insufficient information about the battery to be dismantled which could be provided – for example via standardized labels, access to the battery management system or a central database – further complicates disassembling.

What issues are you working on in the DeMoBat project?

A key processing step in the treatment of obsolete battery packs is the disassembly as preparation for further treatment. As indicated before, disassembly in state-of-the-art battery treatment is mainly performed manually – causing high costs and posing risk of injury. The goal of the DeMoBat project is to develop flexible, automated, robot-assisted disassembling processes for EV batteries and drive trains. This poses various technical challenges. Beside the technology development, the project includes different pillars of accompanying research analyzing legal aspects and business models in the context of closed-loop supply chains for EV batteries, reverse logistics, capacity planning, and the assessment of economic and ecological aspects of different processing routes of obsolete batteries. The project is funded by the Ministry of the Environment Baden-Württemberg and coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA). Besides KIT, further research partners include the CUTEC Research Center, the University for Applied Sciences Esslingen (HS Esslingen) and the Brandenburg University of Technology (BTU) as well as numerous industry partners.

What business models are conceivable for the recycling of traction batteries?

Potential business models for the treatment of obsolete EV batteries need to be economically feasible and should have ecological advantages. While the economic perspective asks for cost-effective recovery, which is the leading aspect of traditional business models, the environmental perspective is increasingly gaining importance. Keeping products and materials in use as long as possible by reusing them and applying efficient recycling techniques are crucial elements of the overall European circular economy goal. This goal is also addressed in the recently published proposal for an EU battery directive. Potential business models include second-life concepts such as remanufacturing or repurposing before subsequent recycling of obsolete traction batteries. The reuse of traction batteries might include some updating in the form of remanufacturing which asks for industrial recovery standards. Such processes contain at least a partial disassembling and exchange of some components such as the weakest battery modules within a battery pack to regain full functionality. Using remanufactured batteries as spare parts in the after-sales business can be of interest for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). These business options can be performed best by OEMs or battery suppliers, but if the battery management system (BMS) is accessible to all stakeholders, independent remanufactures could also enter the market.

If obsolete traction batteries or their components are used in further fields of application such as battery energy storage, the corresponding business models focus on repurposing. Some existing pilot projects in this context are based on cooperation between energy companies and OEMs from automotive industries. Beside these pilot projects, some first independent start-ups are currently evolving their business.

Nevertheless, at the latest after their second use, all EV batteries will have to be recycled. In order to meet the expected amount of battery returns from electro-mobility, today’s recycling capacities – which are currently dominated by the treatment of small batteries from consumer electronics – will have to strongly increase. Next to existing recycling companies, new companies and in some cases OEMs focusing on the treatment of their own battery system will enter the market. Recycling technologies that focus on lithium-ion batteries are an active research field. While current recycling is dominated by pyro-metallurgical processing focusing on the recovery of high-value cathode metals such nickel or cobalt, more advanced recycling concepts are currently entering the market. These will include combined mechanical and hydrometallurgical processes that also enable the recovery of battery-grade lithium and direct recycling processes which enable the direct recovery of active electrode materials that can be directly reused in cell production.

What can the future of battery return logistics look like?

The reverse logistics management will develop with the increasing return numbers of obsolete batteries. Various factors will influence the reverse management network. First, legal aspects in the form of regulations form a rough framework for transport and storage conditions. We will have collection points for obsolete batteries – for example at garages or disassembly stations for end-of-life vehicles. Although the company that brings the battery into the market is responsible for its end-of-life treatment, cooperation and networks are expected to be formed to perform the reverse tasks more efficiently. As batteries are hazardous goods, transport and handling can only be pursuit by qualified companies. They will collect batteries and transport them to recovery centers, either disassembly centers that enable further treatment of battery components or recycling companies that focus on material recovery. Because collection points of obsolete batteries are widely spread, intelligent planning of transport is needed to build a cost-effective and safe return management. This will include suitable location planning. While recycling processes usually profit from economies of scale, which will lead to large centralized recycling facilities, disassembly and separation of different battery components could also be performed at various decentralized disassembly stations – which might also be of advantage for consolidation of different fractions for further transportation to respective recovery facilities. Besides transportation, the logistical management includes the (temporary) storage and associated inventory planning which is also costly and subject to various regulations.

What new legal regulations do you expect that could provide new impetus in this market?

First and foremost, the new EU battery regulation, for which a first proposal was released in December 2020, will have an impact. Unlike the current EU battery directive, the new proposal acknowledges traction batteries as a separate category. There are specified target recovery rates for elements like cobalt, lithium and nickel, and new batteries must contain certain amounts of recycled materials. If these regulations are retained in the final version of the proposed regulation, this will impact the recycling industry, because some existent, comparatively robust and low-cost recycling practices such as pyro-metallurgical treatment might not fulfill the requirements, while other more costly recycling processes become competitive due to their higher recycling efficiency. Furthermore, with the suggestion of a legal framework for repurposing and remanufacturing of batteries in the proposal, a previously gray area is tackled. This could fuel the market for second-life batteries and enable new business models, since there would be more security for both the original battery manufacturer and companies that focus on repurposing and remanufacturing of third-party batteries. Besides the new EU battery regulation, it would be desirable that end-of-life vehicle regulations are adjusted to electric vehicles, and that transportation regulations like the ADR (Accord européen relatif au transport international des marchandises Dangereuses par Route) ease the handling of damaged batteries.

What opportunities do you see for international companies to participate in the German value chain?

Vehicle manufacturing is based on a global supply system and production network. The same is expected when establishing closed-loop supply chains in the automotive sector. We expect a close cooperation between automotive industries (OEMs and their suppliers) and recycling industries. This will include international players. As Germany is the largest automotive market within the EU regarding both vehicle manufacturing and sales numbers, we also expect a strong position of Germany in the end-of-life market of EV traction batteries. This includes the entire value chain from collection, disassembly, second-life applications and subsequent recycling. However, it should be considered that currently only around 20% of old vehicles that are deregistered in Germany also enter German car scrapping facilities, while 80% of old vehicles are exported to other countries. Nevertheless, we expect this ratio to change when regarding end-of-life treatment of electric vehicles. This will facilitate the establishment of closed-loop supply chains for EV batteries.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology - Chair of Energy Economics

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is among Germany’s largest research universities with the specific objective to make significant contributions to global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. The Institute for Industrial Production (IIP) within the KIT has extensive experience in techno-economic and environmental assessments of innovative technologies. The institute includes the Chair of Business Administration, Production and Operations Management, the Chair of Energy Economics and the French-German Institute for Environmental Research (DFIU). Characteristic of the activities at IIP is the interdisciplinary orientation in research and teaching, especially the conjunction of engineering-economic approaches and quantitative methods of operations research and informatics. Particularly the boundaries between energy system analysis and sustainable industrial production are in the focus of IIP’s research activities.

Simon Glöser-Chahoud

Simon Glöser-Chahoud holds a diploma degree in industrial engineering from TU Berlin and holds doctorate degrees from TU Munich and TU Clausthal. Before joining IIP, where he currently holds a position as the head of the “Sustainable Value Chains” research group, he worked as a project manager and research associate for Fraunhofer ISI for more than six years. Simon Glöser-Chahoud is coordinating the accompanying research in the DeMoBat project.

Sonja Rosenberg

Sonja Rosenberg graduated from WFI – Ingolstadt School of Management Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) in 2016 with a master’s degree in Management Science focusing on supply chain management, production and logistics. She joined the DeMoBat project after working on several national and international research projects.

Sandra Huster

Sandra Huster graduated from KIT in 2019 with a master’s degree in industrial engineering. Since then she has been working as a research associate at KIT, Institute for Industrial Production. She is part of the DeMoBat project team examining the industrial dismantling of traction batteries.

Building Efficiency in Germany Gets 6 Billion Euro Funding Boost in 2021

Sending a strong signal for the climate and the economy, Federal Minister Altmaier has outlined vast new federal funding measures for the building sector that are expected to double the related CO2 savings by 2030.

Germany’s energy and climate policy for the building sector is ambitious: The country aims to have a climate-neutral building stock by 2050. That is no mean feat in a country with nearly 22 million buildings – nearly three quarters of which were built before the first efficiency standards were introduced in 1978.

Speaking at a recent online event, Germany’s Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier outlined new measures to meet the challenge: “The building sector is an important factor in the success of the energy transition. In the current legislative period, we have decided on numerous measures for more energy efficiency and climate protection and provided almost six billion euros to finance new federal subsidies for building and heating system modernization in 2021. That is good for the climate and good for the economy because investments in building efficiency reach the local trades.”

Dramatic rise in funding applications

Applications to the BMWi’s building efficiency programs almost doubled in 2020 to 600,000 following improvements to the conditions. Much of this growth was driven by applications for heating systems based on renewables (76,000 in 2019 to >280,000 in 2020). The oil exchange bonus started having an effect: 110,000 applications were received to swap out oil-burning heating equipment for renewables-based systems. Heat pumps were the most often subsidized system (144,000 applications), followed by biomass systems (96,000) and solar thermal (58,000). There were 37,000 applications for gas hybrid heaters.

Under its “CO2 building renovation program”, Germany’s KfW development bank almost doubled the number of commitments for deep renovations to Effizienzhaus standards in 2020 to 20,000. The number of individual measures it approved also rose to 105,000 from 81,000 the previous year. The number of new construction projects for highly efficient buildings that were subsidized increased significantly to 93,000 (2019: 44,000).

The new funding program: simpler, bigger, better

The “Federal Funding for Efficient Buildings Program” (BEG), which launched at the start of the year, bundles the previous programs to promote energy efficiency and renewable energies in the building sector and brings a number of improvements. Applications and processing will be even easier and the incentives will be augmented and geared more closely to meet the country’s energy and climate policy goals. In 2021, the BEG will be funded with almost six billion euros to subsidize building and heating system modernization.

Great expectations

• It is predicted that an increase in applications to the BEG program will double the subsidy-related CO2 savings to 14 Mt by 2030.
• Tax relief granted for building renovations are expected to save a further 3 Mt.
• CO2 pricing in the transport and heating sectors, which has been in effect since January 2021, is expected to provide additional impetus for investments in energy efficiency and renewables in the building sector as well.

 More information:

 GTAI: Energy efficiency in Buildings

Drinking Water Safety - Water 4.0 in Germany

Germany Trade & Invest’s Anne Bräutigam and Flérida Regueira Cortizo spoke to Dr. Thomas Bernard of the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB about opportunities being created by digitalization and international cooperation in Germany’s drinking water sector.

Concepts and software solutions for monitoring and optimizing drinking water

GTAI: Mr. Bernard, you are the Group Leader of Process Control and Data Analysis in the Department of Systems for Measurement, Control and Diagnosis (MRD) at the Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Karlsruhe. What concepts and software solutions are being developed in your research group to monitor drinking water infrastructures and optimize operational management?

Dr. Thomas Bernard: On the one hand, we develop solutions to clearly visualize or communicate measurement data, key figures, reports, and special events (e.g. alarms). Here, we partly rely on commercial software (Tableau for example), but we also do a lot of programming ourselves. It is essential that these software solutions can be used with a normal internet browser and that they are easy to use. On the other hand, our focus is on automated data analysis. Machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) methods are also used here. These solutions are usually based on powerful, freely available software libraries. Using these data analysis tools, forecast models, for example, are generated and constantly updated. The forecast data is then visualized on the one hand, and on the other the data can be used by other modules – for example to issue warnings at an early stage or to optimize network operation.

It is becoming increasingly important to aggregate information automatically and make it available to the user in report form. These reports must be very much tailored to the respective user. For example, management is more interested in aggregated key figures, whereas is also important for operating personnel to be able to understand plant faults in detail for example.

Potential and challenges of the water industry

GTAI: Is the potential offered by digitization currently being fully exploited in the water industry? Where do the challenges lie?

Dr. Thomas Bernard: Many potentials of digitalization currently remain untapped. The degree of automation in the water industry is actually very high. However, it can be seen that very many plants or network areas operate in "isolated mode." Although these plants or network areas are functioning, it has nevertheless been difficult to analyze or optimize these systems across the board because the data is usually stored separately. Therefore a major task lies in combining the data from different plants or network areas. Another major task is the development of tools and methods that enable the user to efficiently evaluate and use this very extensive data, for example, through the automatically generated reports previously mentioned. There is a great need for customized tools (we are working on such solutions in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research “W-Net4.0” project for example). Over and above this, there is a need for more training of employees in the field of data analysis - or even the recruitment of appropriate specialist personnel, i.e. “data scientists.” However, they are very much in great demand and only the large water utilities will be able to afford them.

Expectations and achievements of collaborations

GTAI: International networking is, without doubt, one of the hallmarks of the German R&D landscape. The subject of the German-French  “SMaRT-Online” and “ResiWater” projects – which involved Fraunhofer IOSB and the Institut National de Recherche en Sciences et Technologies pour I`Environnement et I`Agriculture (Irstea - Bordeaux Centre) amongst others – was the development of an early warning and safety management system. What do you expect from such a collaboration? What would you like to achieve in the end?

Dr. Thomas Bernard: These German-French research projects were funded in Germany by the BMBF. The overall objective was to develop and investigate new methods and tools for the protection of critical infrastructures - especially drinking water networks. Synergy effects were to be leveraged through cooperation with French research institutions and major water utilities from Strasbourg and Paris. For example, at that time numerous sensors (flow, pressure and water quality) were already installed in the drinking water networks of Strasbourg and Paris. We were able to use these data in the project and develop appropriate models and analysis methods based on them. The goal of these research projects is, after all, to jointly develop new knowledge, new methods and tools. However, the final product development and operational implementation after the end of the research projects usually takes place separately in each country.

Chances and opportunities for water supply companies

GTAI: Do both foreign manufacturers of digital sensors for online water-monitoring systems and consulting companies offering customized concepts for small and medium-sized water supply companies have a chance in the German market? Where do you still see opportunities for new players?

Dr. Thomas Bernard: At the moment there is a strong trend for sensor manufacturers to also offer corresponding data portals and evaluation systems as a complete package. I think it is crucially important for foreign manufacturers to establish very good sales and support in Germany. Experiences from our projects show that the requirements and prerequisites at the different water utilities can vary greatly. This concerns the selection of the sensors (adapted to the respective installation conditions), the installation and commissioning of the sensor technology as well as the visualization of the sensor data by means of dashboards up to the use of the data (leakage monitoring or consumption prognosis for example). I see opportunities here, especially for players who can cover the entire spectrum in a service package.