Press

Berlin/Leuna, November 20, 2023 – The world’s first pilot plant for the cost-efficient production of green methanol was inaugurated today in the Leuna Chemical Park as part of the Leuna100 project. Behind it is a research consortium made up of the climate-tech start-up C1 Green Chemicals AG and its partners, Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, DBI – Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg, and the Technical University of Berlin (TU Berlin). The goal is to utilize a fundamentally new production process to enable the cost-efficient market ramp-up of green methanol and thus offer the container shipping industry a climate-neutral alternative fuel.

Bremerhaven, November 10, 2023 – Senator Kristina Vogt and Lord Mayor of Bremerhaven Melf Grantz are launching trial operation at the Hydrogen Lab Bremerhaven (HLB) together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES. The infrastructure is thus now ready for the research work in Bremerhaven focusing on the in-teraction between wind turbines and electrolytic hydrogen produc-tion to begin. The HLB received a total of €16 million in funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the State of Bremen.

Dr.-Ing. Sylvia Schattauer, Acting Institute Director, is widely regarded in the professional world as an expert on hydrogen. Over the past year and a half, she has played an instrumental role in guiding the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES along the path of integration and through the development of a successful hydrogen strategy under the motto “Thinking of wind energy and hydrogen together”. She is now turning her attention to new challenges and has accepted the unanimous proposal of the Senate to become President of Clausthal University of Technology (TU Clausthal).

Leuna, September 20, 2023. The production of green hydrogen at sea researched in the H2Mare Flagship Project can now be experienced in the form of a browser game. In »Offshore - the H2Mare Game«, players can build their own offshore wind park, produce green hydrogen and test the future technologies researched in the project on screen. With this modern approach, H2Mare aims to inspire a new, younger target group for green offshore technologies in a playful way, and in doing so to familiarize them with their importance as a foundation for a successful energy transition. The project was coordinated and implemented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES in collaboration with the Berlin-based creative agency Sapera Studios. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) provided around 70,000 euros in funding for the project.

Bremerhaven - The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES has once again been contracted by the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency of Germany (BSH) to carry out a preliminary meteorological investigation in the North Sea as part of the area development plan. This is the fourth time that IWES has undertaken the preliminary investigations and is helping to further accelerate offshore expansion in Germany.

09/14/2023, Berlin – Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES began researching the topic of automated rotor blade manufacturing ten years ago with the start of the »BladeMaker« project. The follow-up project »BladeFactory« is set to be completed this October. This marks an important occasion for the project team to look back at the results and identify future trends in rotor blade manufacturing together with project partners and guests from the wind energy industry and research sector. The BladeMaker project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) to the tune of around €8 million and the BladeFactory project with around €9 million. The final conference with around 40 guests was held on Tuesday at ENIQ on the EUREF-Campus in Berlin.

Berlin/Leuna, 15 August 2023 – The Berlin-based climate tech start-up C1, together with its partners the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT, DBI-Gastechnologisches Institut gGmbH Freiberg and the Technical University of Berlin, announces the launch of the »Leuna100« project. The goal of the project is the scalable production of market-ready green methanol for marine and aviation applications. Methanol is seen as key to defossilizing these industries and to free them from their dependence on oil. To achieve this, the consortium of experts is relying on the new C1 catalysis process to produce green methanol. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) with a total of € 10.4 Mio. over the next three years. Shipping alone is currently responsible for emission of around 1.1 billion metric tons of CO₂ (around three percent of global CO2 emissions) as well as other air pollutants that are harmful to health, such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides or particulate matter. Replacing fossil oil with regenerative marine fuels can save more than a gigaton of CO2 every year. For container ships, green methanol is currently gaining traction as a climate-neutral fuel alternative.

06/30/2023, Bremerhaven – The Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, the President of the Senate and Mayor of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Andreas Bovenschulte, and the Senator for Science and Ports of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, Claudia Schilling, met in Bremerhaven today to inaugurate the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES’ new 115m+ rotor blade test rig. The new rotor blade test rig, the first of its kind in the world, offers comprehensive testing possibilities for rotor blades measuring longer than 115 meters. The construction of the test rig was financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) to the tune of around €18 million, with additional funding of around €5 million coming from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the State of Bremen, and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, the Bundesamt für Seeschifffahrt und Hydrographie (BSH), has awarded Fugro a geophysical survey contract for two offshore wind farm sites in the German exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the North Sea. Working in collaboration with Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES), Fugro’s Geo-data will be integrated with its ultra high resolution multichannel seismic data (UHR MCS) and used by BSH to develop geological models of the offshore sites and support subsequent geotechnical investigations.

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.