Projects

Ongoing Projects

GrECCo – Grid-Sensitive Energy Community Coordination

The project focuses on the development and testing of a grid-sensitive coordination system for energy communities. Market mechanisms and automated trading strategies are used to control the flexible consumption and generation units of the community members in such a way that they make the best possible use of existing distribution networks and support the network operator in avoiding and eliminating congestion situations.

Through coordination within the community, the power adjustment of the members takes place according to demand. In this way, the expected need for network expansion can be reduced without unduly restricting the behavior of individual network users. The interfaces to the network operator required for this are examined, as is the required number and location of community members in a network strand. The detailed determination of the added value that can actually be provided to the system by communities makes it possible to counteract a desolidarization in the participation in network costs.

The contributions of this sub-project to the further development of the state of the art and its implementation in practice are aimed at the following areas:

  • Development of the coordination mechanism based on mechanism design theory.
  • Development of algorithmically supported, self-learning trading strategies for participation in the mechanism
  • Robustness of the system by resolving conflicting goals and avoiding “surge” of the system
  • Testing of the developed components in simulation, laboratory, and field with dedicated feedback loops between these activities
  • Detailed quantification of system benefits to support the design of modified grid usage charges while avoiding desolidarization

Laufzeit
01.10.2022 bis 30.09.2025

Projektleitung
Anke Weidlich

Kooperationspartner
Hochschule Offenburg, OLI Systems

Finanzierung
Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz

ZEE Members involved in GrECCo
Anke Weidlich (INATECH-UFR), Moritz Diehl (IMTEK-UFR), Michael Schmidt (HSO)

Agri-photovoltaics (Agri-PV) Project

Agri-PV is a cooperative university class project between Center for Renewable Energy – ZEE and Fraunhofer ISE. The students learn basic knowledge of agri-photovoltaics (agri-PV). In doing so, the students will get an overview, theoretically and practically, of the development, application areas and main technical approaches to implement dual land use for agriculture and solar power generation. Emphasis is placed on the possibilities of integrating smart farming and robotics elements into the substructure of highly elevated Agri-PV systems.

Completed Projects

Klinergie 2020 – Energy efficiency and Renewable Energies in German hospitals

Supported by the Performance Centre for Sustainability at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and the University of Freiburg.

Cooperation partners: Centre for Renewable Energy (ZEE) and Institute for Anorganic and Analytical Chemistry at the University of Freiburg, Fraunhofer ISE and Fraunhofer IWM.

ZEE: Social science research accompanying project activities’ (in particular identification of potential areas of social conflict; social assessment of different utilization pathways for liquid energy carriers and the conversion/utilization of CO2 or the processes developed as part of the project.)

SonaTe – Social Neighborhood and Technology

Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the “Innovation for municipalities and regions with a demographic change” research program (InnvovaKomm).

Cooperation partners: Centre for Renewable Energy (ZEE) and Institute for Microsystems-Technology (IMTEK) at the University of Freiburg and the Freiburg Innovation and Research Association at the Freiburg Protestant University of Applied Sciences.

ZEE: Lead of the sub-project on value- added analysis and organization models.

Doctoral research program “Decentralized sustainable energy systems”

at the University of Freiburg and Offenburg University for Applied Science in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institutes ISE and IPM in the Centre for Renewable Energy of the University of Freiburg (ZEE). Interdisciplinary doctoral research program comprising 12 scholarships. Supported by the Ministry for Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg.

ZEE: Supervision of doctoral research.

RE-regions: Socio-ecology of Self Sufficiency

The project is about finding factors of success for concepts that are aimed at the complete energy supply (electricity and heat) on the basis of renewable energies.

Focus of the project is bio-energy. An extensive examination including ecological and social chances and risks is planned.

Sponsored by the

Distributed Micro-Biogas Production (Micro-Biogas)

The project deals with the development of regional approaches to the decentralized sustainable production of biogenic waste materials for micro-biogas at the level of municipalities and counties. The region of Schwäbisch Hall will serve as an example and a feasibility study. For a successful implementation of the concept, ecological and socio-economic conditions and their effects will be analyzed. Moreover, the key players will be involved in the analysis process.

Sponsored by the

Studie Kommunale Wertschöpfungsketten – abgeschlossen

Kommunen sind wichtige Treiber beim Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien und können gleichzeitig in relevantem Umfang Profiteure sein. Denn im Regelfall werden bisher importierte Energierohstoffe oder Endenergie durch heimische Energiequellen und oft auch Technologien und Dienstleistungen ersetzt. Wie groß jedoch die Anteile genau sind, die in den Kommunen aus ökologischer Sicht erwirtschaftet werden können, d.h. welche Stufen der Wertschöpfung dort in aller Regel in welchem Umfang stattfinden, ist bislang wenig bekannt. Ziel der Studie ist somit darzustellen, wie viel Wertschöpfung die deutschen Städte und Gemeinden durch den Einsatz von erneuerbaren Energien und deren Ausbau bis 2020 erwirtschaften.

Eine Studie im Auftrag der

Regio TransKMU – Regional Transformation through socially and environmentally responsible 5companies 

The foundation viamedica is carrying out an information campaign together with the ZEE, which is aimed at:

– lowering the running costs

– saving energy

– optimizing energy efficiency

– avoiding CO2

– using renewable energies