Green Energy Systems

In addition to energy efficiency, the energy infrastructure must also be adapted to the conditions of a fully sustainable world. This includes overall systems that combine energy supply, distribution, storage, and use in an intelligent and efficient way. ICT can and must be a central key to providing securely available, sustainable, and at the same time affordable energy in the future.

Research focus areas:

• Energy storage and energy storage management systems
• Energy harvesting
• Self-sufficient microsystems
• Efficient energy management through optimal conversion of extremely small currents and voltages
• Drive converters
• Smart Grids

ASTROSE - Monitoring system for high and extra high voltage lines

ASTROSE® is a proven IoT system of wireless sensor nodes for monitoring high and extra-high voltage power lines. These sensor nodes record various measured values in the span fields. By continuously collecting this data, grid operators can optimize transport capacity, identify critical conditions more quickly, and manage long-term operational data. This creates significant economic advantages in operation and asset management.

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BlueTEG Pipe – Energy Harvesting

The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits IIS has developed the sensor BlueTEG Pipe with thermoelectric power supply for industrial applications. BlueTEG Pipe uses the temperature difference between warm or cold objects and the environment for energy. Integrated in a compact housing, the sensor measures values such as the ambient temperature or acceleration rates and sends them to a tablet via Bluetooth.
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CARBAT – Calcium Rechargeable Battery Technology

Batteries have immense importance in our daily lives, and the number of possible and more specific applications is constantly growing. Lithium-ion batteries (LIB) are the most advanced battery systems today. They are used for many applications, from cell phones to electric cars. However, a viable scenario remains out of reach in some areas due to the high cost of materials and the still-too-low energy density of LIB as battery storage. Multivalent cell chemistries based on calcium or magnesium metal electrodes are considered promising, as they are superior to LIBs in terms of the specific capacities of the anode materials and their availability.
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CoDro - With AI on overhead line troubleshooting

50Hertz and two Fraunhofer Institutes of the Research Fab Microelectronics Germany (FMD) want to jointly test technologies from the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to repair possible defects in overhead lines faster and more effectively. In the future, the aim is to use algorithms to automatically evaluate the images obtained during the inspection of cables and power poles.

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Drones4Energy - Infrastructure Monitoring

The project aims to be able to monitor overhead power lines in a cost-effective and automated manner. With various sensors such as cameras and LIDAR, the conductor cable is seamlessly captured by drones. Since the battery capacity is reflected in weight, the conductor cable will serve as an energy source to recharge the drones in between using an inductive harvester.
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ebalance plus

The ebalance-plus project extends the results of the "e-balance" and "SmartGrid Platform" projects. Based on these, a solution is to be developed that uses the energy flexibility of the users to improve grid reliability and grid efficiency using renewable energy sources. The ebalance-plus answer is an ICT platform that ensures integration and interoperability at every level of the energy grid and provides a practical market framework that benefits electricity operators and stakeholders with new business models.
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Project SmartVista: Energy-autonomous sensor system for cardiac monitoring

The EU project SmartVista (Smart Autonomous Multi Modal Sensors for Vital Signs Monitoring) aims to develop and demonstrate a next-generation, low-cost, smart multi-modal sensor platform to reduce the incidence of sudden death from cardiovascular disease. The critical innovation in SmartVista is the integration of 1D/2D nanomaterial-based sensors to monitor the heart, thermoelectric energy harvesters to harvest energy from the body's temperature to power the system, and printable battery systems to store that energy.
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ENTRAS - Energy-autonomous tracking system

Continuous and energy-efficient localization of goods, people, and animals is made possible by the modular, energy-autonomous tracking system ENTRAS. It combines satellite-based navigation with localization in wireless sensor networks and an energy supply through energy harvesting.
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FAB-SH: Research Center for Applied Battery Technology Schleswig-Holstein

The Research Center for Applied Battery Technology Schleswig-Holstein (FAB-SH) of Fraunhofer ISIT specializes in energy storage development. FAB-SH has an extensive portfolio for application-oriented research and development of innovative battery systems. FAB-SH develops batteries from the material to the cell in close cooperation with industrial partners.
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Industrial power electronics

Electrical energy is classically transmitted via the central power grid using alternating current (AC) over high-voltage overhead lines. The increasing demand for transport capacity of electrical energy over long distances worldwide poses new challenges for industrial power electronics. In addition, renewable energy sources are increasingly being integrated into the power grid, often delivering electrical energy in direct current (DC). Conventional high-voltage overhead lines can, therefore, only meet the new requirements to a limited extent. High-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission is being used to supplement the AC grid. HVDC has significantly lower losses in long-distance transmission and is, therefore, more economical than AC transmission in this application area.
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leiTEX

Especially for applications in the field of medical technology, there are still challenges in the area of sensor labels. These include high integrability in medical textiles, wireless evaluation via WLAN or Bluetooth, and comparatively low-cost production. The aim of the leiTEX project is to develop printed energy storage devices that meet the high requirements of medical technology and sensor properties.
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LOReley

With its research and demonstration tasks, LOReley aims to solve some of the existing problems and issues in the field of material-based energy storage. This includes both technological and economic aspects. Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) represent a promising option for the safe, well-scalable, and cost-effective hydrogen storage.
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microMole - An Energy Harvesting Solution for Water Management

The microMole project aims to develop and test a prototype system to legally record, interrogate, and monitor ATS and ATS precursor laboratories in urban areas. The sensor system will be installed within the wastewater system and track waste associated with ATS production.
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Monitoring of overhead power lines

In the name of climate protection, the importance of energy efficiency is increasing, as is the share of electricity from renewable sources. Thousands of wind farms, solar panels, and biogas plants generate large amounts of green electricity. The expansion of wind power plants, in particular, has led to leaps in output in recent years. The share of renewable energies in EU-wide electricity generation rose 32 percent in 2018. However, the larger volumes of green electricity must be fed into the grid, transported, and distributed. This requires modern and efficient grids. In addition to optimal utilization of overhead lines in the power grid, the fastest possible detection and localization of hazardous situations, such as short circuits or ice buildup, is also an important performance indicator for grid operators.
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Power400

The intelligent use of stationary and specially developed mobile storage systems is intended to drive the integration of renewable sources into the energy supply grid and the increased use of electric vehicles sustainably and efficiently. The goal is to design charging stations in such a way that a large number of electric vehicles can be rapidly charged simultaneously at any time.
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