Max-Planck-Institutes in Potsdam drive forward sustainable energy transition. The Max-Planck-Campus in Potsdam is committed to sustainability and energy self-sufficiency. With a combination of energy-saving measures and the expansion of renewable energies, the institutes are striving for greater energy independence and an active contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. An innovative agrivoltaic system is currently at the heart of these efforts, which is being built on around 6,000 m² of research space at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Molecular Plant Physiology…
With its spatial light modulators, Fraunhofer IPMS offers photonic systems including matching control electronics and software that enable precise control, high modulation frequencies and high image quality. They facilitate new and improved applications in industry as well as in automotive, astronomy and medical sectors. Controlling and modifying photons, tiny particles of light, is useful for a wide range of technological applications in medicine, industry and entertainment. The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS is developing spatial light modulators consisting of…
…traveling across the interface of two semiconductor materials. UC Santa Barbara researchers have achieved the first-ever “movie” of electric charges traveling across the interface of two different semiconductor materials. Using scanning ultrafast electron (SUEM) techniques developed in the Bolin Liao lab, the research team has directly visualized the fleeting phenomenon for the first time. “There are a lot of textbooks written about this process from semiconductor theory,” said Liao, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. “There are a lot of…
… in Forming and Machining by up to 20 Percent (on average). EmulDan stands for ‘Energy Efficiency in Production through Multivalent Data Usage.’ In this joint project, the Fraunhofer IWU and its industry partners demonstrated that significantly lower consumption process routes are achievable while maintaining component quality, leading even to shorter processing times in some cases. Moreover, when process design is consistently energy-efficient, maintenance efforts for production equipment also decrease. EmulDan focuses on how to collect data, providing valuable insights…
Because it doesn’t need expensive energy storage for times without sunshine, the technology could provide communities with drinking water at low costs. MIT engineers have built a new desalination system that runs with the rhythms of the sun. The solar-powered system removes salt from water at a pace that closely follows changes in solar energy. As sunlight increases through the day, the system ramps up its desalting process and automatically adjusts to any sudden variation in sunlight, for example by dialing…
A multi-country, government-led initiative dedicated to advancing the global transition to a sustainable, bio-based economy, unveiled a new Global Biomass Resource Assessment, providing groundbreaking data on current and future sustainable biomass supplies around the world. The results from this new global sustainable supply assessment will allow scientists, policymakers, and industry leaders to explore potential sources of biomass as a foundation for a circular and sustainable global bioeconomy, supporting clean fuels, chemicals, materials and other products. The assessment was conducted by…
First battery cell winding system of its kind. The further development and evolution of existing storage systems is a key prerequisite for the energy transition. The Center for Digitalized Battery Cell Manufacturing (ZDB) at the Fraunhofer IPA and acp systems AG have joined forces to commission a winding system for cylindrical battery cells featuring flexible formats and design. It serves as an innovative research and production platform to test new cell formats and components along with tab designs and also…
The number of tidal power and other offshore renewable energy installations is set to grow significantly around the UK coastline over the coming decades. However, launching state-of-the-art devices into often turbulent ocean flows has the potential to pose a range of challenges for the tidal energy industry, including uncertainty around how they may interact with the environment. To address that, a team of scientists used a combination of aerial drone technology and boat-based surveys to map out the complex tidal…
Manganese is earth-abundant and cheap. A new process could help make it a contender to replace nickel and cobalt in batteries. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are growing in adoption, used in devices like smartphones and laptops, electric vehicles, and energy storage systems. But supplies of nickel and cobalt commonly used in the cathodes of these batteries are limited. New research led by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) opens up a potential low-cost, safe alternative in manganese,…
… Replaces Gas and Oil Heating Systems in Apartment Buildings. The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE is developing easy-to-use and reproducible solutions for replacing gas and oil heating systems in existing multi-family homes with partners in the project “LC R290”. The research focus is on heat pumps that use the refrigerant propane (R290). With a consortium of twenty companies from the heating and housing industries, the research institute has developed initial implementation concepts for heating systems that will…
New insights into solvation kinetics at electrocatalyst surfaces. The ion’s pathway is strongly influenced by a process that is ubiquitous across bio- and electrochemistry: ions need to reorganize their solvation shell before they can intercalate into battery cathodes, enter ion channels across biochemical membranes or adsorb and convert to chemicals, such as green hydrogen, on electrocatalyst surfaces. Previously, the team discovered that the kinetics of interfacial ion solvation are governed by so-called compensation effects between the activation entropy and enthalpy….
Thanks to innovations in design, control and production technology, brushless drives for pumps and fan systems work more efficiently and quietly. Users of electrical appliances and the automotive industry do benefit. Small electric motors can be found in many household appliances, tools and computers as well as in modern cars, where they drive auxiliary units such as pumps and fans. Individually, each of these motors does not consume much energy, but taken together they offer a great savings potential. The…
BMBF Future Cluster QSens starts the second round of funding. In the future cluster QSens of the Universities of Stuttgart and Ulm, scientists, companies, and start-ups are researching innovative quantum sensors and their transfer into practical applications. These have promising potential for health care, the Internet of Things, and renewable energies, among others. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding QSens with approximately EUR 15 million for another three years as part of the Clusters4Future competition. Quantum…
By controlling silk protein nanostructure for the first time, scientists at PNNL pave the way for advanced microelectronic and computing applications. After thousands of years as a highly valuable commodity, silk continues to surprise. Now it may help usher in a whole new direction for microelectronics and computing. While silk protein has been deployed in designer electronics, its use is currently limited in part because silk fibers are a messy tangle of spaghetti-like strands. Now, a research team led by…
Columbia Engineers develop new powerful battery “fuel” — an electrolyte that not only lasts longer but is also cheaper to produce. Renewable energy sources like wind and solar are critical to sustaining our planet, but they come with a big challenge: they don’t always generate power when it’s needed. To make the most of them, we need efficient and affordable ways to store the energy they produce, so we have power even when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun…
Collecting accurate weather data of the Arctic for the first time and improving forecasts and climate observations worldwide—that is the task of the Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS), which ESA sent on its way to its low-Earth orbit in mid-August. It uses a state-of-the-art microwave radiometer that contains four low-noise amplifiers from Fraunhofer IAF with world-leading InGaAs mHEMT technology. At EuMW 2024 in Paris, the Freiburg-based institute will present exhibits of the amplifiers installed in the AWS as well as other…
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