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In a recent article in IEEE Spectrum, the ongoing digitization of today's power grid is explored. Jan Wachter from the Energy Lab explains how research is being conducted to ensure the stability and security of such power grids for the future.

For the Research Facilities 2.0 kick-off meeting,10 project partners, including a delegation from CERN, have come together at KIT. The presentations by all partners and the joint discussion of the work packages will end with a tour of the Energy Lab - an important part of these research facilities.

Am 30.11. und 1.12.2023 findet der Echtzeitworkshop am KIT statt. Das Energy Lab - insbesondere die PHIL-Infrastruktur - gibt Forschenden von verschiedenen Universitäten Einblicke.
Auch am Vortag zum PES-Workshop präsentiert sich das Energy Lab.

Prof. Dr. Tabea Arndt received this year's Award for Continuing and Significant Contributions in the Field of Applied Superconductivity. The Energy Lab is delighted about this award from the IEEE Council and congratulates her warmly.

The eGrid-workshop at KIT ended today. International experts showed great interest in the SEnSSiCC, the power-to-X plants and the solar storage park. The Energy Lab wishes a safe way home to all the participants.

Sam Partner

From October 18 to 20, a large cybersecurity conference will take place in Mannheim's Palace. The Energy Lab 2.0 is represented by KASTELL. In her presentation, group leader Dr.-Ing. Ghada Elbez will talk about the cybersecurity of energy systems.

The eGrid workshop begins at the Campus Süd. Starting today, the focus is on sustainable grid systems. Scientists from all over the world connect at team talks and lectures.

Today, school classes and private individuals can visit the Energy Smart Home Lab. During the KIT-Science Week, you can see how to optimize energy or heat consumption and thus save energy and money.

Build your own offshore wind park, generate and trade Power-to-X products. The research results of the project have been incorporated into the H2Mare browser game "Offshore". Play and experience the energy transition.

From October 16th to 18th, 2023, the eGrid Workshop will take place in Karlsruhe, featuring numerous international scientists. The focus will be on the grid integration of energy systems.

Master's students can complete an internship at the SEnSSiCC of the Energy Lab. Within the Smart Energy System Lab, they will work on different questions and problem solutions concerning the energy transition. The application period runs until 13.10.2023.

KIT

From October 10 to October 15, the KIT Science Week will take place. The Energy Lab participates in the program. The SEnSSiCC, the Power-to-Gas plants, and the Energy Smart Home Lab are open to school classes as well as to the public.

This semester, 18 students participated in the Smart Energy System Lab internship. This infrastructure is available to the students for research-oriented learning. There they can experiment and follow their research question. This is the third time that this internship concept has been a great success.

In the latest video, the Energy Lab is presented from all angles. Sector coupling is simply and briefly explained. Moreover, the video shows what sector coupling is used for and how it is implemented and researched in the Energy Lab

In the latest video by the Helmholtz Climate Initiative, our researchers explain the benefits of sector coupling and how it is implemented and researched in the Energy Lab. The video illustrates the complex interconnections and enables viewers to underst of how this innovative technology contributes to the transformation of our energy system, enabling a sustainable, efficient, and climate-friendly energy supply.

KIT

Over eight weeks, two residents of the Energy Smart Home Lab (ESHL) had a weekly heat and electricity quota. This means that at the beginning of each week, they received a CO2 budget and could manage it throughout the week. If they exceeded the quota, they had the option to purchase additional 5 kg CO2 packages at an extra cost. Every week, there were interviews about their consumption behavior.

After long preparations, the first volume of the hybrid publication series has now been published. Hybrid means that this series offers quick and easy publication in KIT's own repository and at the same time researchers can bring the work into the book trade via the KIT Scientific Publishing.
We would also like to congratulate Mr Hubschneider on his doctorate.

LookKIT

On the occasion of the Hannover Messe, LookKIT has dedicated a few pages to the Energy Lab reasearch. From page 10-21, different energy transition technologies are explained.

Maximilian Schäfer, KIT

The Energy Lab 2.0 welcomes visitors from all over the world at HMI23 in H13 C70. Give it a go and have a look at our exhibits. Out team is looking forward to you.

The Hanover Messe will open its doors on April 17, 2023 and the Energy Lab 2.0 will be represented at the KIT booth. The exhibits are set up and will be available to visitors next week. We are looking forward to many interested visitors.

ZDF answers open questions about the energy transition in its new documentary. One answer to how energy can be stored efficiently and in a space-saving way is the methanation plant at the Energy Lab 2.0. Starting at minute 16:28, the team shows the research plant and explains how the conversion works.

The debate about phasing out the internal combustion engine shows how important interdisciplinary research is. We'll only find a viable solution for the transportation transition if all options are adequately tested and evaluated, and solutions optimized. The ARD Mittagsmagazin shows different sides of synthetic fuels and electromobility.

Motorjournalist

KIT has been awarded the international Paul Pietsch Prize for the Power-to-X technology. The prize was handed over to Prof. Dittmeyer for the his contribution to the transport transotion.

In the debate about combustion engines, e-fuels are an important solution. ZDF's heute Journal took up this topic. From about minute 13:00, the advantages of synthetic fuels are highlighted and the research in the Energy Lab 2.0 plant network is shown.

Climeworks

Mentioning the CO2-extraction process of the Power-to-Liquid technology, Reuters and Handelsblatt published a videos. They describe how carbon dioxide from the air is removed though the Direct Air Capture (DAC) and can be used for multiple purposes.

The PHIL simulation platform at Energy Lab 2.0 helps researchers, manufacturing companies, and system operators analyze, develop, and test hardware future solutions for energy systems.

ARTE produced a comprehensive documentary about green energy and its storage options. This documentary aims at the chemical storage as the methanation plants @ Energy Lab 2.0. Professor Hagenmeyer, moreover, explains how smart future energy grids should be designed.

ZDF

In a TV report on November 15, Sophie An and Prof. Veit Hagenmeyer (IAI) explain how the future smart grid based on renewable energies can optimally distribute and provide the required power at any moment, both locally and transregionally, by means of storage technologies.

M. Breig 2022

The head of "Power Hardware in the Loop" was awarded "Scientist of the Month of 'November" by the Helmholtz Association. Thus, the association acknowledged his excellence in developping, modelling and investigation energy systems in the Energy Lab 2.0. Herewith, we congratulate him.

KIT

Once again, the Energy Smart Home Lab is dwelled by two volunteers. These volunteers live in the lab like they would do at home: they use hot water, turn on the lights, use domestic devices and their computer, ... .The differnce to "at home" is the constant measurement and analysis of their consumption.
For December, the scientist hold out for more volunteers.

KIT, Daryoush Djavadi

On July 6, Prof. Dr. Thomas Hirth, the KIT Vice President for Transfer and International Affairs, awarded Prof. Dr. Roland Dittmeyer and Dr. Francisco Vidal-Vázquez the 2nd place of this year's Neuland Innovation Award in the category "Idea Award" for their contribution "Green methanol and biomethane from biogas, water and renewable energy by the hybrid process developed at IMVT".

Zeit Online

In ZEIT Online, the KIT described how the successful start-up INERATEC was supported and is still being acconpanied by the KIT Gründerschmiede. Our project partner INERATEC plans to commission its 14th power-to-liquid plant next year.

With a kick-off event at the Energy Lab 2.0, the participating students were welcomed with a kick-off event on June 27th. In the weeks to come, the master students from the study programs of computer science, electrical engineering and information technology, mechatronics and mechanical engineering will devote themselves to four project topics from the field of energy systems.

The documentary "Wind as the engine of climate change" reports about the Energy Lab 2.0 starting at minute 46:46. In the context of this Arte documentary, the power-to-liquid process, in which CO2 from the air is converted into fuel, is presented as a possible solution to the climate problem.

This week and last week, a team from ARTE was at Energy Lab 2.0, accompanying and filming a series of experiments on the three-phase methanation plant for a documentary on renewable energy. This documentary will be released by the end of the year.

This year, Girls' Day also takes place at the Energy Smart Home Lab. Schoolgirls from the surrounding area will have insights into STEM subjects in general, and into energy transition research. During the virtual tour of the living lab, the girls learn how to support the energy transition even from home.
There was great interest in the event and it was quickly booked up.

Professor Dittmeyer is talking about negative emissions and the reduction of carbon dioxide in the latest Helmholtz video. He explains the Direct Air Capture (DAC for short) from the Power-to-X process chain. He also explains in detail how   C02 is extracted from the air and the importance of this process for the energy transition.

Nils Müller is a visiting researcher from Denmark at the Energy Lab 2.0. He is working on the detection of cyberattacks on the control of energy systems such as commercial PV inverters and battery storage systems. Here, anomalies in the sensor data of the physical or chemical process, as well as network data, should provide clues to unintentional foreign interference. The cybersecurity group of the Energy Lab 2.0 supports this by providing experimental platforms and reproduces typical cyberattacks.

For a week, bioliq® synthesis gas from the neighbouring pilot plant was converted into methane at Energy Lab 2.0. Thus, via intermediate steps, biomass has been converted into a type of gas that can be fed into the public grid. In the test campaign, the activation method was optimized for energy efficiency as well. Another step towards independence from fossil fuels.

A. Bramsiepe, KIT 2021

In December 2021, the methanation catalyst was successfully activated "in situ" in the bubble column reactor. The reduction and activation method was developed at KIT. This in-situ activation method can significantly reduce the workload and, moreover, make three-phase-methanation more important ecologically and economically.
Starting today, this new method will be verified and further improved in a new test campaign.

In the context of the Copernicus project ENSURE, the real-time simulators of FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg and KIT (Energy Lab 2.0) were virtually coupled to a distributed real-time simulation. The simulators are coupled using the VILLAS framework. This enables fast data exchange between the individual geographically distant networks via defined network nodes. In the benchmark scenario, the FAU simulator simulates a transmission network (sub-area of the Nordic test system), and the KIT simulator simulates a distribution network (KIT Campus North 20kV network). The synchronization of the distributed real-time simulation is realized via GPS clocks in both laboratories.

The processing power of the real-time simulators has been increased to the maximum number of 30 cores (10 cores per simulator) for the three Novacor chassis available to EGSAL. AURORA communication protocol licenses (with 4 ports per simulator) were enabled on two of the simulators to expand the coupling capabilities with other simulators (e.g. OPAL-RT in SESCL).

A. Bramsiepe, KIT 2021

In situ catalyst activation is a significant process improvement and was therefore investigated in the second week of December 2021 on the Three-Phase Methanation (3PM) in the Energy Lab 2.0. For this purpose, a novel method was developed and tested, in which the methanation catalyst is activated directly in the reactor and during operation. The tests were successfully completed and, thus, provide valuable data for transferring the results from the 100 kW 3PM to industrial scale and for their economic evaluation.

The so-called Reversible Solid Oxide Cell (rSOC) has been successfully commissioned. The system can be operated both in electrolysis mode (electricity-to-hydrogen) and in fuel cell or reformer mode (hydrogen or natural gas-to-electricity). Thus, this system can generate electric power from chemical energy sources or produce green hydrogen with very high efficiency via renewable electricity. Such flexibility options are elementary in future energy systems and is now also be investigated in Energy Lab 2.0.

"The fuel that's made from air" is how AverEnergy's Avenue magazine describes the eFuels from the Energy Lab 2.0. 
Since climate-neutral flights, ship voyages or other heavy transports are inconceivable without synthetic fuels, eFuels are presented as hope for the future. Professor Dittmeyer explains the four steps in the cycle from carbon dioxide from the air to the refined synthetic fuel.

The building infrastructure on the premises of KIT's Campus North with its gas and heat supply as well as the electrical network matches the size of a medium-sized small town. Here, industrial-like operations are located as well as three model houses in which various future scenarios can be tested under realistic conditions.
Dr. Düpmeier describes how autonomous, artificial intelligence can succeed in future in regulating the increasingly complex energy supply with green energy.

K. Sobel, ADAC

There is not always an alternative to combustion engines. Heavy transport, shipping and aviation cannot yet switch to electric. Therefore, E-Fuels are a clean alternative.
The General German Automobile Club had Prof. Roland Dittmeyer show them on site how Power-to-X works. In the interview, Prof. Dittmeyer explains the synthesis process step by step.

M. Breig, KIT

The key to a climate-neutral energy system are intelligent networking, control and optimization of electricity, heat and gas supply. That is why the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) continues to fund the living lab for Sector Coupling (SEKO). Funding for the-Energy Lab 2.0 is increased by 10 million euros to a total of 16.5 million euros to develop and test new strategies and technologies for sector coupling on a transdisciplinary basis on a pilot plant scale.

Christian Wetzel

What happens behind the walls of the SEnSSiCC building? What are the researchers doing for the energy transition?
In this video, the research topics of SEnSSiCC are explained and how they are interrelated.

In4climateNRW presents three innovative research projects on CO2 reduction in this video. From minute 2:33, the Energy Lab 2.0 is presented as a best practice example for energy transition research and climate protection. Prof. Dr Dittmeyer leads through the Energy Lab 2.0 and introduces the Power-to-X plants, in which e-fuels are produced. He explains the cycle. CO2 is extracted from the air and converted in several steps into synthetic fuel and, thus, the KIT research contributes to the transport transition.

Corona changed traffic, showing how the transportation of people and goods negatively impacts our planet.
This documentary from Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk shows both the Corona impact on traffic and possible solutions to the traffic dilemma. One approach for the traffic transition can be e-fuels, as they are produced and optimized in the Energy Lab. Starting at minute 29:40, the Energy Lab contribution is shown.

As a research infrastructure, the Energy Lab 2.0 is not only available to other research institutions and companies but is also the stage for the KIT Annual Celebration this year. This Annual Celebration will take place online for the first time. For this purpose, a studio has been set up in the SEnSSiCC building, from where the celebration will be streamed. Take a look for yourself.

S. Meisenbacher, KIT 2021

Beim sogenannten Smart Charging werden Elektrofahrzeuge in das Energiesystem integriert. Sie werden also bei Bedarf geladen oder funktionieren wie ein Batteriespeicher. Wenn sie nicht benutzt werden, können ihre überschüssige Ladung zurück in das Netz speisen.
Je einfacher das Smart Charging für den Elektro-Autofahrer ist, desto flächendeckender kann diese Technologie eingesetzt werden.
Deshalb präsentiert das Energy Lab 2.0 den "Smart Charging Wizard". Mit dieser Web-App kann man den Ladevorgang über eine Benutzeroberfläche starten, einstellen und überwachen.

KIT

Private Haushalte müssen in ihrem Energieverbrauch flexibel agieren, damit das Potential erneuerbarer Energieträger besser ausgenutzt und die Belastung der Stromnetze reduziert werden kann. Vom 23.11.-7.12.2020 wird in einer Wohnkampagne untersucht, in welcher Art und Weise verschiedene Handlungsaufforderungen und Anreize genutzt werden können, um Bewohner von Privathaushalten zur Flexibilitätserbringung zu bewegen und ihre generelle Akzeptanz und Partizipation bei diesem Thema zu steigern.

C. Wetzel, KIT 2020

Nachdem ein Team von Galileo (Prosieben) einen Tag lang am Energy Lab 2.0 Interviews geführt, gefilmt und Drohnenaufnahmen gemacht hat, wird die Sendung nun ausgestrahlt. Am 22.11.2020 um 19:05 läuft das Themenspecial "Der letzte Tropfen - Wie tickt die Welt, wenn kein Öl mehr fließt?"

Sohmer Media

Am 18.11.2020 ist die erste Episode des neuen Podcasts "Fahrverbot" mit einem Beitrag von Prof. Dittmeyer online gegangen. Herr Dittmeyer hat die Herstellung von synthetischen Kraftstoffen erläutert.