Press

The House of Transfer (HoT) project started yesterday in Leuna. The coming four years are set to see the development of a central hub for all stakeholders in the biobased economy, chemical, plastics, and hydrogen sectors in the Central German mining region. Led by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, the project team, which comprises the project partners BioEconomy e. V., the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW, the Chemie+ cooperation network, Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, and POLYKUM e. V., has set itself the goal of providing support for the accelerated implementation of the structural change. The project is being funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWK) to the tune of €4.6 million.

Bremerhaven – Senator Dr. Claudia Schilling and Lord Mayor Melf Grantz performed the symbolic ground-breaking for the Hydrogen Lab Bremerhaven (HLB). The HLB is being funded with a total of €16 million from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Bremen and should be completed in 2023.

Sassnitz, November 2022. The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has successfully completed a boulder detection campaign off the coast of the island of Rügen in the German Baltic Sea on behalf of 50Hertz. In order to allow efficient planning of the grid operator’s new offshore platform seismic measuring techniques have been employed to detect boulders below the seafloor in. This innovative process allows identification of large rocks up to 100 m below the seafloor. That enables planning of windfarms and platforms as reliable as possible and thus more cost-effective while simultaneously minimizing the risks associated with the installation. The technical procedure in this form is unique and is continuously being developed further.

Leuna, November 2, 2022 – Prof. Armin Willingmann, Minister of the Federal State of Saxony-Anhalt, and Prof. Reimund Neugebauer, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, officially handed over the Hydrogen Lab Leuna (HLL) building to the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES in the Central German mining region in the scope of the “Fokusreise Strukturwandel” (Structural Change Focus Journey). In addition, Prof. Willingmann also presented the funding notification for the Hydrogen Competence Hub structural change project – a central hub for education and training.

In collaboration with the Institute for Energy, Recycling and Environmental Protection (IEkrW) at Bremen University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES is developing comprehensive concepts aimed at making it possible to recycle and reuse rotor blades considerably better in the future. The aim of the “Concept for recycling and reuse of rotor blades made of plastic composite materials” project – KoReNaRo for short – is to set up an economically feasible disposal strategy allowing as high a recycling quota as possible and thereby enabling a sustainable circular economy. The project is being funded to the tune of €150,000 in the scope of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research’s (BMBF) “Research for Sustainable Development – FONA3” program and was launched in October 2021. The funding is currently for the conceptual design of a demonstration system. A decision will then be taken on whether implementation should be funded in a second phase.