Press releases

Green hydrogen is considered a key technology for Europe’s climate-neutrality. However, the urgent ramp-up of technologies and markets faces major uncertainties regarding the future demand for hydrogen and the corresponding infrastructure - a dilemma that is hampering strategic decisions and concrete planning. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence »Integrated Energy Systems«« (CINES) have analyzed scenarios for the pan-European energy system in the years 2030 and 2050. They show that even with low hydrogen demand, a considerable build-up of hydrogen infrastructure is necessary.

Smart metering systems are key to a successful energy transition. In order to achieve the goals of the energy transition, the existing challenges must be tackled quickly and decisively. Close cooperation between politics, industry and science is essential.

With the boom in balcony solar systems, the expansion of heat pumps and the newly introduced communal building supply, so-called on-site systems are increasingly coming into focus. Such approaches to intelligently generate, store and consume renewable energy in close proximity are not only beneficial for the operators of the systems, but also for the energy transition as a whole. In a new thesis paper, researchers from the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence “Integrated Energy Systems” (CINES) examine the technical, economic and social impact of on-site systems.

The year 2024 is characterised by a substantial reduction in federal funding for project research. Energy research is particularly affected by this. A 30% reduction in available funding for new projects is looming, compared to the previous year. Against this backdrop, the Fraunhofer-Group »Energy Technol-ogies and Climate Protection« is warning of a massive decline in German in-dustry's ability to innovate in technologies for the energy transition. Nine institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft are organised in the group, which play a key role in driving forward application-oriented energy research.

A new book co-edited and co-authored by Dr. Jan Frederik Braun, Head of Hydrogen Cooperation for the MENA region at Fraunhofer CINES, provides a first-of-its-kind analysis of the emerging global hydrogen economy from the vantage point of one of the world’s biggest energy pro-viders: Saudi Arabia. "The Clean Hydrogen Economy and Saudi Arabia: Domestic Developments and International Opportunities" is a timely, unique and an indispensable resource for practitioners and students of energy, geopolitics, and climate policy working on hydrogen in academia, applied research, national government bodies, and international organizations.

As part of the workshop on on-site systems organised by the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence CINES, experts came together in Berlin to discuss on-site systems as a building block for a fairer energy transition.

Digitalisation is a highly relevant key process for the transformation of the energy system - details of this were researched by the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence CINES in 2022 and summarised in 14 theses. The 2023 progress report, which examines the further development of the digitalisation of the energy system, was published today.

According to an analysis by the Ariadne energy transition project, it is both more environmentally friendly and more cost-effective in the long term to invest in heat pumps and district heating to replace or substitute a heating system rather than gas heating. This decision is often only made based on the initial installation costs, while the costs over the entire life cycle of the system are often neglected as they are much more difficult to determine. The researchers have calculated the total costs for various heating technologies in residential buildings over a period of 20 years, taking into account future energy source prices and CO2 price developments. The result of the analysis is that investing in heat pumps and district heating not only protects the environment, but is also more cost-effective than heating with gas in the long term.

The European Green Deal aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% compared to the reference year 1990. The decision on the EU's 2030 climate target for the path to climate neutrality in 2050 is more than just a political declaration of intent. The experts from the Ariadne energy transition research project have analysed the EU Commission's key scenarios. They pointed out that the implementation of the new targets could be jeopardised if an uncoordinated mix of instruments is used. The EU Commission has put three policy paths up for debate. The researchers analysed these scenarios in terms of their short- and long-term feasibility and their target achievement.