Vienna – Dr. Rainer Matiasek is the newest member of the board of the research initiative Green Energy Lab. The manager and former management consultant is head of strategy and corporate development at Burgenland Energie AG. For the green tech company, innovations for renewable energies and the expansion of integrated energy solutions of the future are top priorities in order to realize the energy transition to a 100 percent sustainable system with wind, sun and optimal utilization of the grids.

“Burgenland is on a direct path to becoming one of the first climate-neutral regions in the world. The solutions we find, test and develop in the Green Energy Lab are an important innovation driver. I look forward to a dynamic collaboration for highly applied research in the name of energy independence for our children’s future,” says the newly elected board member and vice chair of Green Energy Lab.

The Green Energy Lab is Austria’s largest innovation laboratory for a sustainable energy future. With the core regions of Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria, the innovation lab has a test market of five million end consumers. Within the framework of the innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund, more than 150 million euros will be invested in innovative projects until 2025. More than 350 companies and institutions from research, business and the public sector are working together with Wien Energie, EVN, Burgenland Energie and Energie Steiermark to develop demand-driven, scalable energy solutions – from prototype to market readiness. The model solutions developed will also serve as a blueprint for a future energy system based on 100 percent renewable energy.

“I welcome Dr. Matiasek’s election to the Green Energy Lab board and look forward to a constructive cooperation in our joint research initiative.” says Andrea Edelmann, chairwoman and spokesperson of the Green Energy Lab board.

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With the core regions of Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria, the Green Energy Lab has a test market with five million customers, making it Austria’s largest innovation laboratory for a sustainable energy future. The Green Energy Lab is also part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. By 2025, over 150 million euros will be invested in innovative projects as part of the Green Energy Lab. Together with over 350 partners from industry, research institutions and the public sector, research is being conducted into solutions for a sustainable energy system.

“We are currently on the way to a renewable energy future. Developing and testing new ideas is a central part of this and is at the heart of the Green Energy Lab. I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue the successful path of this research initiative as chairwoman and spokesperson,” says Andrea Edelmann.

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Energy suppliers as key players in the energy transition

The energy companies Wien Energie, EVN, Burgenland Energie and Energie Steiermark ensure the secure and reliable supply of affordable energy to industry, commerce and private households. At the same time, they are investing heavily in research and development in order to harness sustainable energy sources and integrate them into existing electricity and heating grids. Many such innovation projects are being carried out as part of the Green Energy Lab research initiative, which was jointly founded by these four energy supply companies. With the core regions of Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria, the Green Energy Lab has a test market with five million customers, making it Austria’s largest innovation laboratory for a sustainable energy future. The Green Energy Lab is also part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund.

Research and development for new energy solutions

By 2025, over 150 million euros will be invested in innovative projects as part of the Green Energy Lab. Innovative solutions for a sustainable energy system are being researched together with over 350 partners from industry, research institutions and the public sector. “We are currently on the way to a renewable energy future. Developing and testing new ideas is a central part of this and is at the heart of the Green Energy Lab. I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue the successful path of this research initiative as chairwoman and spokesperson of the board,” says Andrea Edelmann, Innovation and Sustainability Manager at EVN.

Investments in renewable energies

EVN is focusing on the consistent expansion of renewable energy generation, in particular the expansion of wind power and photovoltaic capacities. “The expansion of renewables is one of the most important building blocks for achieving the goals of the EVN Climate Initiative”, says EVN Executive Board Spokesman Stefan Szyszkowitz.

EVN has been part of the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) since 2021 and has committed to reducing its own CO₂ emissions by around 60% by 2034. EVN is investing a record EUR 700m in this financial year. This amount is set to rise to between EUR 700m and EUR 900m in the coming years. Three quarters of the investments will go to Lower Austria, where they will be used to expand the grids, renewable energy generation and the drinking water infrastructure.

Vienna has also set itself ambitious climate targets and wants to become CO2-neutral by 2040. Wien Energie is supporting this goal as part of a comprehensive strategy to decarbonize the energy supply. “We are pulling out all the stops to make the energy transition a success. We are expanding renewable energies, focusing on climate-neutral heat generation and producing green hydrogen. Together with the Green Energy Lab, we can test numerous innovative approaches that will help us on our way to climate neutrality by 2040,” says Michael Strebl, Chairman of the Wien Energie Management Board.

Climate protection, greening and sustainability are also central points of Energie Steiermark’s corporate strategy. That is why it is emphatically pursuing the goal of utilizing all regional potential for green energy: Water, wind, photovoltaics, biomass – but also “green” hydrogen. In the coming years, Energie Steiermark will invest more than 2.5 billion euros in new generation projects for renewable energy, around 1.5 billion of which will be invested in the necessary expansion of the grids alone. CEO Christian Purrer: “The order of the day is to utilize all existing green potential and resources and to develop future strategies for the energy and climate transition. With the highest investment budget in the company’s history, we are taking an important step towards a decarbonized energy future in the electricity grids.”

Burgenland Energie CEO Stephan Sharma uses the Day of Fossil Dependence to highlight the urgency of broad-based innovation in the fight against climate change: “Our task is huge and it will take all our courage and energy to drive the energy transition forward. We need to further intensify research and development, which is why we are an active supporter of the Green Energy Lab.” A 100 percent renewable energy system with wind, sun and optimal utilization of the grids based on material and resource sustainability is possible. Burgenland Energie will produce over 3,000 gigawatt hours from wind power and photovoltaics in 2025, tripling the amount of electricity from green production. “By investing in technological innovations such as organic storage, alternative mobility and green hydrogen, we as a European green tech company are making a significant contribution to the future of our children.”

Andrea Edelmann, Chairwoman and Spokesperson of the Board, of Green Energy Lab; Innovation and Sustainability Manager at EVN.

Foto: Stephanie Weinhappel / Green Energy Lab

Stefan Szyszkowitz, Executive Board Spokesman EVN
Foto: EVN / Wurnig

Michael Strebl, Vorsitzender der Wien Energie-Geschäftsführung
Foto: Wien Energie / Martina Draper

Christian Purrer, Vorstandssprecher der Energie Steiermark

Foto: Energie Steiermark

Stephan Sharma, Vorstandsvorsitzender der Burgenland Energie

Foto: Roman Zach-Kiesling/Burgenland Energie

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The Green Energy Lab dedicated a special Insight Talk to the topic of geothermal energy. In this online format, relevant experts gave an insight into the topic and current projects for its utilization. One key point was the importance of geothermal energy for the energy transition.

“Of course, it is not a universal remedy for everything, but I and many of my colleagues are convinced that geothermal energy is an essential piece of the puzzle in the heat and energy mix of the future,” says Gregor Götzl, Head of Geothermal Energy at EVN Wärme GmbH and founding member of the Geothermal Energy Austria Association. From a global perspective, there has been exponential growth in almost all areas of geothermal energy use since 1995. In 2020, 284 terawatt hours (TWh) of geothermal energy were already being used worldwide. Growth was strongest in the heat pump sector. “In geothermal energy – if we also look at geothermal energy or near-surface solutions – this is the key sector globally, in Europe and also in Austria, which has by far the largest share,” says Götzl.

A total of 2.19 million geothermal heat pumps have already been installed in Europe, which shows the enormous market potential of this application. The leader in terms of share is Sweden, where 11% of all households already have a geothermal heat pump. The proportion is also relatively high in Austria at around 3 %, although geothermal heat pumps have faced strong competition from air source heat pumps in this country. Nevertheless, it is estimated that around 100,000 geothermal heat pumps are installed in the Alpine republic, extracting a total of around 2.6 TWh of heat from the earth.

Green Energy Lab Insight Talk on the Potential of geothermal energy for the energy transition in Austria

Geothermal energy as part of the decarbonization strategy for Vienna

Wiener Stadtwerke and its subsidiaries cover numerous areas of activity, from mobility to waste disposal. The City of Vienna aims to be climate-neutral by 2040, i.e. to produce no more net CO2 emissions. Wien Energie, which is part of the Stadtwerke Group, is also making its contribution to Vienna’s decarbonization targets. In particular, the aim is to make the heating sector independent of fossil fuels.
Wien Energie operates one of the largest district heating networks in Europe and the network is being further expanded and densified. The share of district heating in the city’s final energy consumption will increase to around 6.7 terawatt hours (TWh) per year by 2040. However, the importance of combined heat and power plants will decrease drastically. In 2040, these will only contribute a third of today’s heat quantities to district heating. There are also plans to operate the remaining plants only with green gases, such as biomethane or green hydrogen.
At the same time, the use of waste heat sources by means of heat pumps is to be expanded. One example of this is the large-scale heat pump already in operation at the main wastewater treatment plant in Vienna Simmering, which extracts heat energy from the wastewater after treatment. The plant is already in operation and will be expanded further. When fully expanded, it will generate up to 880 gigawatt hours (GWh) of thermal energy per year and supply 112,000 households. Another example of the use of waste heat sources is the High-temperature large heat pump in Vienna Spittelau, which went into operation at the end of 2023 and harnesses thermal energy from the flue gas of the waste incineration plant for 16,000 households. The plant is a demonstrator of ThermaFLEX and was implemented in the Green Energy Lab as part of the “Vorzeigeregion Energie” innovation offensive of the Climate and Energy Fund.
In addition to the installation of large heat pumps, the second approach to tapping into new sources of district heating is the utilization of deep geothermal energy. “Geological data and studies have shown that there is definitely potential under Vienna. Old oil and gas wells drilled by OMV also showed that there is warm water in the Vienna Basin,” says Rusbeh Rezania. He is Head of Alternative Thermal Asset Development at Wien Energie GmbH and CFO of deeep Tiefengeothermie GmbH, a joint venture between Wien Energie and OMV.

Deep geothermal energy development in Vienna

Following an unsuccessful borehole in 2012, a large-scale research project called “GeoTief” was launched in 2016. The main aim was to generate data, understand the subsurface and assess the potential with the aim of identifying suitable locations and drawing up a development plan. 2D seismic measurements were carried out in 2017, followed by additional 3D seismic measurements in an area of around 180 km2 in 2018/19 in cooperation with OMV. The new knowledge was used to create a 3D model of the subsurface. As a result, the existing borehole from 2012 was reactivated and a thermal water-bearing layer was actually found. This confirmed the reservoir’s suitability in principle for the use of geothermal energy. “Nevertheless, geothermal projects of this kind are extremely investment-intensive,” explains Rezania. There is always a residual risk, even if all the analyses and calculations are carried out conscientiously in advance. This is why Wien Energie founded the joint venture “deeep” together with OMV in 2023. On the one hand, OMV has access to high-quality data and information about the subsurface thanks to its previous activities in the Vienna Basin. On the other hand, the risk can be shared in this way and joint investments made in the projects.
The aim of the joint activities is to implement up to seven geothermal plants in the eastern part of Vienna and thus connect a heat output of 200 megawatts to the heating network. The planning, construction and operation of the geothermal plants will be carried out by the joint venture deeep. Wien Energie will then be responsible for marketing and distributing the thermal energy. Implementation of the first plant is scheduled to begin as early as the end of 2024 or beginning of 2025.

Underground heat storage for seasonal compensation

The Project „ATES Vienna“, which is being carried out as part of the Green Energy Lab, deals with the possible storage of thermal energy in so-called “aquifers”. An aquifer is a water-bearing rock formation. (ATES stands for Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage).
“Logically, the heat requirement is higher in winter than in summer,” explains project manager Helene Mooslechner. The aim is therefore to store surplus heat from the summer months until it can be used in the winter months. The aim of the ATES project is to design the first technical pilot plant in Austria to integrate such aquifer heat storage systems into the district heating network.
In principle, the aquifer heat storage system functions like a large thermal tank. In summer, the underground reservoir is heated with surplus thermal energy from the district heating network. In winter, the process is reversed and the stored heat is released back into the district heating network and subsequently to the customers. Three possible geological formations in the eastern part of Vienna have already been identified for an underground heat storage facility. The reservoirs in question have temperatures of 60 to 70 degrees and are located at depths of 1,000 to 1,500 meters. They are therefore considerably cooler and closer to the surface than the reservoirs that have been considered for the direct use of deep geothermal energy.

Downloads

• Präsentation von Gregor Götzl, Green Energy Lab Insight Talk am 23. April 2024
• Präsentation von Rusbeh Rezania und Helene Mooslechner, Green Energy Lab Insight Talk am 23. April

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To this day, EVN’s Theiss power plant ensures a secure energy supply in eastern Austria. However, the historic site has been undergoing major changes for years. While the gas-fired power plant is now only used to support the grid, renewable energies are gradually taking over the energy hub. Since last year, 5,700 modules have been supplying solar power to households in the region. A new biomass plant to supply Krems with natural heat and green electricity was opened in the fall.

Now EVN is taking the next step: a hybrid storage system is being built: “With the ever-increasing share of renewable energies, the need for innovative and more powerful energy storage systems is also increasing,” explains EVN CEO Stefan Szyszkowitz and adds: “One forward-looking application is the combination of different storage technologies to form a hybrid storage system.”

Deputy Governor Stephan Pernkopf also sees the need for such large-scale storage systems: “We are already well on the way to expanding renewable energies in Lower Austria. In the final meters, we need innovative storage solutions like here in Theiss.”

What is a hybrid storage system and what are the major benefits of this innovation project?

Due to the massive expansion of renewable energies in recent years, there are now always times when more green electricity is produced than is consumed. There are alternatives before the green electricity is sent long distances via the grid infrastructure, necessitating additional grid expansion or even switching off green electricity plants. One option is to store electricity in batteries. Another is to use electricity to heat and use hot water. A few years ago, EVN built the so-called energy converter, which uses surplus electricity from renewable energies to produce heat for Lower Austrian households. The heat generated can be temporarily stored in the Theiss district heating storage facility if it is not needed immediately. This large thermal storage facility is Austria’s largest district heating storage facility, a specially insulated former oil tank with a capacity of 50,000 m³ of hot water.

“The hybrid storage system combines the advantages of these two types of storage,” explains EVN CEO Stefan Stallinger. “We stabilize the electricity grid and make a significant contribution to security of supply. At the same time, we can intelligently convert surplus electricity into thermal energy with almost 100% efficiency. This makes it storable and usable at different times. An absolutely key technology for the sustainable conversion of our energy system.”

50.000 m³ Heat Water Storage Theiss ©EVN

Another major benefit is that the optimized operation and the new biomass power plant in Krems can significantly reduce the use of auxiliary gas boilers for the secure heat supply of Krems and Gedersdorf, thereby saving many thousands of tons of CO2. In order to supply Krems with district heating, the waste heat from the Theiss thermal power plant was previously used. Now that the power plant is only needed to maintain grid stability, it is no longer in base load operation and other sources of heat generation are therefore also required. “The Theiss hybrid storage facility is the next step towards a sustainable energy future: optimal use of domestic resources and less gas imports from abroad,” said Pernkopf.

The hybrid storage system and its technical details

The innovative hybrid storage system consists of a thermal and a large-scale electrical battery storage system. Technically speaking, an existing 5 megawatt electric heating system, which is connected to a large thermal storage system, is expanded with a multifunctional 5 megawatt battery energy storage system. If there is a surplus of energy in the power grid, the electric heating system is activated, or if the demand is higher than the current generation, energy is drawn from the battery storage system. The hybrid storage system thus ensures a stable grid and makes it possible to balance out fluctuating generation from renewable energy sources. “The intelligence of the system was developed in-house,” says Szyszkowitz proudly.

The project is being carried out in cooperation with the Green Energy Lab

Green Energy Lab is a research initiative for sustainable energy solutions and part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. With the core regions of Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria, the Green Energy Lab has a test market of around five million end consumers, making it Austria’s largest “innovation laboratory” for a sustainable energy future.

More than 400 participating partners from research, business and the public sector are working together with the four provincial energy suppliers Wien Energie, EVN, Burgenland Energie and Energie Steiermark to develop customer- and demand-oriented, scalable solutions – from prototype to market maturity. Direct access to the energy suppliers’ core market means that new developments can be tested directly on a large scale. By 2025, over 150 million euros will be invested in innovative projects as part of the Green Energy Lab.

>> More Information on the Sekohs Theiß project

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Graz (March 15, 2024). Styria launched an investment offensive for vocational schools last year: By 2027, more than 23 million euros will be invested in the training facilities for apprentices in Feldbach, Graz-St. Peter and Voitsberg. In addition, on March 14, 2024, the Styrian state government also decided to renovate the vocational school and the apprentice house in Knittelfeld. Around 13 million euros will be invested in the thermal refurbishment of the buildings by summer 2025.

The roof, windows and façade will be renovated or replaced in line with sustainability criteria. The project is being implemented as part of the ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) Styria program. The focus of the renovation is on maximum energy savings and the greatest possible energy generation through the planned PV systems in the new façade. In addition, the electrical installations and parts of the classroom ventilation system are also to be integrated into the façade. This was developed in the RENVELOPE research project under the leadership of the architectural firm Nussmüller.

“With the renovation of the vocational school in Knittelfeld, we are not only investing in the infrastructure for our apprentices, but are also focusing on energy efficiency and making the buildings climate-ready. The school location will benefit from the project – and this multi-million investment will also boost the regional economy. It is a considerable sum that we are investing in vocational schools throughout Styria – but the skilled workers of tomorrow are definitely worth it,” says Provincial Councillor Werner Amon.

“To achieve the climate transition, everyone must pull together. The Province of Styria is setting a good example,” emphasizes Provincial Councillor Ursula Lackner. “We have set ourselves the goal of making the provincial administration climate-neutral by 2030. To this end, we have created a climate fund endowed with 40 million euros and put together an energy efficiency investment package with an additional 47.3 million euros via the ELENA program. This means that a total of more than 85 million euros will flow into investments for a climate-neutral, energy-efficient state administration.”

“We are delighted that this major project is now being implemented at the Knittelfeld site. With the start of the renovation work in July, the vacations will be used to ensure that the pupils’ everyday school life is disrupted as little as possible by the renovation measures,” said Principal Robert Marchler and Principal Alexander Krückl.

About the RENVELOPE research project

The transformation of existing buildings into low-emission, active participants in a climate-neutral, volatile energy system is a challenge, especially in cities, as many buildings are still largely based on decentralized heat supply from fossil fuels. It is therefore important to offer and implement serial solutions for green heating and cooling supply, storage and distribution. The aim of “RENVELOPE – Energy Adaptive Shell” is to develop a cost-efficient, recyclable complete solution for the modernization of existing buildings by conditioning buildings from an outer shell.
The RENVELOPE project is part of Green Energy Lab, a research initiative for sustainable energy solutions and part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund.

About the ELENA program

As part of the “ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) StyriA” project, the project partners Land Steiermark and Landesimmobiliengesellschaft are implementing an investment program worth EUR 47.3 million under the consortium leadership of Energie Agentur Steiermark. This includes comprehensive energy efficiency measures in public buildings, the construction of building-based PV systems and the installation of charging stations for electric vehicles, with the aim of making a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption.

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Solar power is booming: last year alone, photovoltaic systems with a total output of 2,000 megawatts were newly installed across Austria. At the beginning of 2024, 5,884 megawatts (MWp) of PV capacity had been installed nationwide. A quarter of all systems are located in Lower Austria. So far, 98,000 systems have been installed there, 35,300 of them just last year. And this is by no means the end of the story, as PV expansion will continue to be driven forward on a massive scale: There are plans to quadruple the total installed capacity nationwide to a total of 21,000 megawatts peak by 2030. Photovoltaic systems are then expected to supply 21 terawatt hours of energy per year – this corresponds to almost a third of Austria’s total electricity consumption of currently 71 terawatt hours per year.

Flexibilization stabilizes the power grid
The electricity grid is a sophisticated system in which electricity generation and consumption must always be in balance. The switch to a 100% renewable energy supply therefore poses enormous challenges for both electricity producers and the grids. If there is massive overproduction in the short term, for example due to solar power during midday, this can lead to serious problems. Experts from the electricity industry therefore always emphasize that the expansion of the electricity grids must keep pace with the expansion of renewable energy production. In addition, power generation and power consumption must be harmonized in order to ensure balance in the energy system. This can be achieved by either consuming the energy generated as locally as possible immediately and at the same time as it is generated or by storing it flexibly. Bringing these solutions into the everyday lives of electricity customers is an essential part of fundamental strategic planning for energy companies.

Photovoltaikausbau in Österreich, Grafik: BMK

3,000 households with intelligent control
“Green the Flex” is a cooperation project between the Green Energy Lab, CyberGrid, EVN and the European Union. The aim of the project is to shift the energy consumption of typical large appliances, such as heat pumps, battery storage or electric cars, to times when a particularly large amount of energy is being generated. By optimizing the use of solar power, i.e. in particular by adapting consumption to availability, an annual load shift of 4,400 megawatt hours of electricity (MWh) is to be achieved. By 2025, around 3,000 households in Lower Austria will be participating in the project. This will relieve the burden on the electricity grid and also save 3,500 tons of CO2 emissions per year.

Optimization assistant saves money and supports research
All households in Lower Austria with a solar installation can take part in the “Green the Flex” project. In doing so, they support research in gaining valuable experience in order to develop customer-friendly solutions for widespread use. PV system operators can also save money by maximizing the self-consumption of their self-generated solar energy and thus having to buy less electricity from the grid. The “Optimization Assistant” energy management tool is free of charge for private households as part of the project and networks the PV system with consumers such as heat pumps, electric boilers and electric car charging stations to create an intelligent overall system. This allows the operation of the appliances to be adapted to the energy available at any given time. Kernstück der durchdachten Lösung zur Eigenverbrauchs-Optimierung ist ein intuitives Kundenportal, welches die Energieflüsse im Haushalt in Echtzeit visualisiert. The user can see at a glance how much electricity is being generated, consumed and fed into the grid.
Michael Stieger-Bäck from the district of Gänserndorf has been using the Optimization Assistant for a year now. The aim was to better synchronize the self-generated electricity from his photovoltaic system with the energy requirements in his household. In summer in particular, he can use the surplus PV energy produced for the heat pump’s domestic hot water tank, which means he has to draw less energy from the grid. Stieger-Bäck is convinced of the benefits of the tool and plans to expand it: “Calculated over the year, I have saved a good 25 percent of my energy costs for the heat pump. I use the solar energy in my own home and will be adding a wallbox to the system next year.
People like Stieger-Bäck are thus also supporting the sustainable transformation of the energy system, emphasizes project manager Silke Paizoni: “With the optimization assistant, participants can not only reduce their individual electricity costs, but also actively contribute to the energy transition!”

A small box with a big impact: the Joulie Box provides intelligent networking between the solar system, any existing battery storage and consumers in the home (Image: EVN/Raimo Rumpler)

New participation option: battery storage optimization
As part of the project „Green the Flex“ an interface was also developed that enables the use of battery storage systems to support the Austrian energy system in order to balance out fluctuations between generation and consumption. Consumption peaks usually occur in the morning hours, followed by excessive feed-ins and corresponding energy surpluses in the power grid at midday due to high PV power generation. To compensate for this, the battery storage system in the household is charged via the grid with renewable electricity from wind or hydropower during the night. In the morning hours, the energy supply is then provided by the energy from the storage system and the household’s own PV generation. At midday, when PV power generation usually reaches its peak, there is sufficient capacity available in the battery storage system again: The electricity can therefore be stored in the battery for the afternoon and evening hours instead of feeding it into the grid. This means that the battery storage system is used optimally throughout the day. Peak loads when drawing and feeding electricity into the grid are reduced.
These processes are controlled fully automatically based on the forecast generation of the photovoltaic system and consumption. The actual function of the battery storage system and therefore the self-consumption rate remains unaffected. Depending on the forecast, the charging of the storage system is either slightly postponed or additional charging takes place on bad weather days without photovoltaic generation – automatically and without any loss of convenience.

Individual energy management as a success factor for PV expansion
By shifting energy demand to times of high solar power generation, the overall grid is relieved. In order to reduce the use of fossil fuel power plants and the associated CO2 emissions, solutions like this are needed to smooth out peak loads in consumption and energy feed-in. „The strong demand for renewable energies presents the entire energy system with complex challenges. Together with many interested Lower Austrians, this project will enable us to develop forward-looking solutions for the individual energy management of tomorrow”, Paizoni emphasizes the relevance for everyone involved. The “Green the Flex” research project runs until 2028, and interested households can still apply until the beginning of 2025 at www.joulie.at/gtF to register for free participation.

About Green the Flex
PV expansion in Austria is booming. A quarter of all systems are located in Lower Austria, the largest federal state in terms of area. Around 98,000 solar installations are already feeding electricity into the grid there and around 3,000 to 4,000 more are added every month. Last year alone, 35,300 new solar power plants were installed, around twice as many as in 2022. The Lower Austrian electricity grid is therefore ideally suited to testing the intelligent synchronization of PV power generation with local consumers on a large scale. By 2025, 3,000 private households will be intelligently networked as part of the “Green the Flex” project in order to save a total of around 3,500 tons of CO2 per year and shift 4,400 MWh of load. This will significantly reduce peak loads in the grid and ultimately allow more PV systems to be connected. The “Green the Flex” project is funded by the European Commission via the EU Innovation Fund. It is being implemented with the support of the Green Energy Lab research initiative.

About Green Energy Lab
Green Energy Lab is a research initiative for sustainable energy solutions. With the core regions of Vienna, Lower Austria, Burgenland and Styria, the Green Energy Lab has a test market with five million end consumers, making it Austria’s largest innovation laboratory for a sustainable energy future. More than 350 companies and institutions from research, business and the public sector are developing demand-oriented, scalable energy solutions in the Green Energy Lab together with the four provincial energy suppliers Wien Energie, EVN, Burgenland Energie and Energie Steiermark – from prototype to market maturity. The Green Energy Lab is part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. By 2025, over 150 million euros will be invested in innovative projects as part of the Green Energy Lab.

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District Heating ist becoming increasingly important 

Vienna has set itself the goal of being climate-neutral by 2040. Switching to environmentally friendly forms of heating is a key success factor here. District heating is becoming increasingly important: 56 percent of Vienna’s heating requirements are to be covered by district heating by 2040. In order to generate exclusively climate-neutral district heating in the future, Wien Energie is relying on the use of existing waste heat in addition to geothermal energy.

“The new large heat pump is an important milestone for our heat transition. With the investment of around 40 million euros in this highly innovative solution for the maximum use of existing waste heat, we are at the forefront of technology and are setting standards throughout Europe. When it goes into operation in 2025, we will not only supply an additional 16,000 households with district heating, but will also make Spittelau the most efficient waste incineration plant in Central Europe”, says Karl Gruber, Managing Director of Wien Energie. The heat pumps increase the efficiency of the entire waste incineration plant by around 13 percent to over 95 percent. This means that almost all the energy required for the process is used efficiently.

Waste heat from flue gas cleaning heats up and conserves water resources

Wien Energie generates electricity and heat at the Spittelau waste incineration plant. Flue gases are produced during the combustion process. These are filtered and cleaned in a multi-stage process, including in a so-called wet flue gas scrubber. Pollutants from the flue gas are bound in the water. The water is then purified in a complex process, cooled and released back into the Danube Canal as purified water. The waste heat remains in the flue gas and is released into the air via the chimney.

From the beginning of 2025, this will change: Wien Energie will use this waste heat for the additional generation of district heating using heat pumps. Heat exchangers are used to extract around 10 degrees Celsius from the condensate (water) produced when the flue gas is cooled and this energy is used with modern heat pump technology in the highly complex system to generate heat at around 90 degrees Celsius. This heat then flows in the form of hot water via the district heating network into tens of thousands of Viennese homes.

The cooled water from the flue gas condensation is treated again and fed back into the waste incineration plant process. As a result, Wien Energie needs up to 125,000 cubic meters less water per year from the Danube Canal for the waste incineration process – roughly equivalent to 700,000 bathtub fillings.

Infographic large heat pump Spittelau – Photo: Wien Energie / APA Grafik

Decarbonization of district heating with waste heat and geothermal energy

District heating is to become completely climate-neutral by 2040. Large heat pumps and geothermal energy are primarily used for this purpose. A good half of Vienna’s district heating currently comes from combined heat and power plants that run on natural gas. Cogeneration plants are also used to cover peak demand (less than 10 percent). Around a third comes from waste incineration, the rest from industrial waste heat, biomass and geothermal and ambient heat. By 2030, more than half of district heating is to come from renewable sources and by 2040 Wien Energie aims to generate all of its district heating from renewable energy.

The Spittelau large-scale heat pump is Wien Energie’s third large-scale heat pump project with an output of over 10 megawatts. The first plant went into operation in 2019 at the Simmering power plant site, where it uses residual heat from the cooling water circuit. The second system is nearing completion: Wien Energie is currently building the largest and most powerful large-scale heat pump in Europe at the ebs wien sewage treatment plant in Simmering. When fully completed, the plant will supply 112,000 households with climate-neutral heat. Wien Energie has already installed two further, smaller large heat pumps for waste heat utilization at UNO-City and Therme Wien.

Key data large heat pump Spittelau

• Construction start: Spring 2023
• Planned commissioning: Beginning of 2025
• System output: 16 megawatts thermal (2 heat pumps of 8 MW each)
• Households supplied: around 16,000 Viennese households
• CO2 savings: around 22,000 tons of CO2/year
• Investments: 40 million euros
• The project is funded by the Climate and Energy Fund and carried out as part of the RTI initiative “Vorzeigeregion Energie” as part of Green Energy Lab’s flagship project “ThermaFLEX“. In June 2023, ThermaFLEX was awarded the “Best of the Best” prize for outstanding performance. Energy Globe Austria Award.

About the Spittelau waste incineration plant

The Spittelau waste incineration plant is a Viennese landmark and a role model for climate protection in the city. With the redesign by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser after a major fire, the plant has been combining technology, art and ecology for over 25 years. The site has one of the world’s most modern flue gas purification systems and recycles waste to the highest environmental standards. 250,000 tons of Viennese household waste are incinerated here every year. The heat generated at Spittelau heats more than 60,000 households in Vienna every year. 50,000 households can be supplied with electricity.

Delivery of the new large heat pump at the Vienna Spittelau waste incineration plant. With an output of 16 megawatts, the heat pump will supply 16,000 households in Vienna with district heating in future, increasing the efficiency of the waste incineration plant to over 95 percent

Image: Wien Energie/Johannes Zinner

Excursion by the Green Energy Lab team to the Spittelau waste incineration plant

Image: Green Energy Lab

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Energy communities are seen throughout Austria as an important building block on the way to a renewable energy future. Producers and consumers of renewable electricity come together to use it regionally. Energiezukunft Niederösterreich, a joint subsidiary of EVN and Energie und Umweltagentur des Landes Niederösterreich (eNu), has developed the “Energiegemeinschaften Online Software” – E.GON for short – to make the organization and administration of these communities as easy as possible for the operators. This innovation has now also convinced the jury of the special VERENA prize as part of the State Prize for Innovation: E.GON was able to achieve a place among the top 3.

E.GON supports energy communities from the collection of expressions of interest from potential participants to registration with the grid operator and billing. Piles of printed documents, cumbersome handwritten signatures and the keeping of many different endless lists are now a thing of the past.

“We are delighted about this nomination,” says EZN Managing Director Roland Matous enthusiastically. “E.GON is now used by almost 200 energy communities for simplified processing. This means that over 3,000 active participants and a further 8,000 interested parties can now be supported.”

Without this innovative software solution, the goal of establishing an energy community in every Lower Austrian municipality by 2030 would be difficult to achieve. For EZN Managing Director Andreas Rautner, the nomination is further proof of the excellent work of his colleagues, who contributed to the development with passion and conviction. “However, E.GON has now gained recognition beyond Austria’s borders. Energy communities from neighboring countries are already interested in our solution,” explains Rautner proudly.

The Energy Communities Online Software is part of the NETSE project, which is supported by the Green Energy Lab research initiative and the FH Vienna Neustadt is carried out. This cooperation project is working on solutions for the optimized planning and efficient operation of renewable energy communities.

EZN

Energie Zukunft Niederösterreich GmbH is a joint subsidiary of EVN and the Energy and Environment Agency of the Province of Lower Austria (eNu). As a joint service company, EZN supports the goal of the state of Lower Austria to become the model region for decentralized renewable energy generation. With energy industry expertise from a single source, municipalities, companies and private individuals receive comprehensive advice from the initial idea through to the establishment and management of the energy community.

About the Green Energy Lab

Green Energy Lab is a research initiative for sustainable energy solutions and part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. More than 300 participating partners from research, industry and the public sector are working together with the four provincial energy suppliers Energie Burgenland, Energie Steiermark, EVN and Wien Energie to develop customer and demand-oriented, scalable solutions – from prototype to market maturity. With a test region of over five million end consumers, Green Energy Lab is Austria’s largest “innovation lab” for sustainable energy solutions.

The post Award for energy software E.GON first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

Within the BM Retrofit research project, technologists, researchers and operators are working on the modernization and optimization of biomass-based heating networks and heating plants. Together, various systemic concepts are developed and implemented using real heating networks (demo examples). The findings from the BM Retrofit project will then of course be made available to all relevant target groups.

In order to be able to bring the solution approaches from research even more specifically and quickly into practice, we ask for support. Targeted questions were compiled within the project team to better understand the operations and challenges of small and medium sized biomass heating plants. In particular, biomass heating plant operators are at the source of important information. However, we cordially invite all stakeholders and experts, e.g. from the fields of consulting, planning and engineering offices, associations and interest groups, manufacturers of I&C systems and digitalization, manufacturers of plant engineering and components, as well as researchers and universities, to share their experiences and assessments with us.

By participating in the questionnaire, you will contribute to the research and support the sustainable development of the biomass heating plant industry. The questionnaire is open until mid-November. The evaluation takes place anonymously and the results are used within the BM Retrofit project. Your personal data will be treated confidentially.

HERE you can find the questionnaire. The survey takes between 5-10 minutes.

Thank you for your participation!

If you have any questions about the BM Retrofit project, please contact Joachim Kelz.
Contact: j.kelz@aee.at Tel: +43 (0)3112 5886-236

The post Survey on the optimization potential of biomass heating plants and heating networks first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

Mürzzuschlag, September 20, 2023. The largest ground-mounted solar thermal plant in Austria was ceremonially opened today in Mürzzuschlag by Ursula Lackner, Styrian State Councillor for the Environment, and Karl Rudischer, Mayor of Mürzzuschlag, as well as Bernd Vogl, Managing Director of the Climate and Energy Fund, together with Stephan Jantscher, SOLID – Solar Energy Systems, and Thomas Hochörtler, Stadtwerke Mürzzuschlag, as well as representatives of the Green Energy Lab and AEE INTEC. In the future, 7000 m2 of high-performance collectors with 5 megawatts of power will supply around 420 apartments in Mürzzuschlag with environmentally friendly heat from the sun. In the summer months, the heat required in Mürzzuschlag will be generated entirely by solar energy in the future. The large-scale solar plant project in Mürzzuschlag thus makes an important contribution to the ecological heat transition and enables district heating customers to participate in the energy transition. The project is financially supported by the Climate and Energy Fund and the Province of Styria. The plant has already been awarded the Energy Globe Styria for its exemplary function and was also part of the large-scale research project ThermaFLEX, which was awarded the Energy Globe Austria in June 2023.

County Council Ursula Lackner: Important project for the transformation of our energy system.

The importance of the Mürzzuschlager lighthouse project for the transformation of the energy system in the direction of renewable energies and the achievement of the Styrian climate goals is the focus of the Styrian Environment Minister Ursula Lackner in her opening statement: “The energy crisis last winter has once again clearly underlined how fatal the dependence on oil and gas is. Not only for our climate, but also for a secure energy supply in our country. That’s why it’s so important that we manage to phase out fossil fuels. With projects such as the solar thermal plant in Mürzzuschlag, we in Styria are taking major steps towards greater energy independence, climate protection and, ultimately, an affordable and secure energy supply for the people of Styria.” Therefore, the expansion of the large-scale solar plant is financially supported by the province of Styria with 280,000 euros.

SOLID CEO Stephan Jantscher: Roll out proven solar thermal concept to the whole of Austria now!

Solar thermal energy – the use of solar energy to heat water and support heating – has been used successfully in Austria for decades. The solar thermal concept as a substitute for oil and gas is increasingly becoming an international model for a future climate-friendly heating and cooling supply in cities but also in rural areas.
“The first large-scale solar thermal plants have proven to be a cornerstone on the path to an ecological heat transition. The task now is to roll out the concept throughout Austria. In addition to clear legal framework conditions, sufficient subsidies are needed from the federal and state governments. This will give municipalities and energy utilities planning security for the implementation of innovative and sustainable CO2-free alternatives for heating and cooling, such as solar thermal energy,” emphasizes Stephan Jantscher, Managing Director of SOLID Solar Energy Systems.

Mürzzuschlag – e5 municipality focuses on large-scale district heating expansion.
The municipality of Mürzzuschlag received the fourth “e” from Energie Agentur Steiermark in 2021 – only two years after achieving the third “e” (a maximum of 5 e can be achieved). Because: economical and efficient use of energy, the promotion of renewable energy sources such as the large-scale solar plant Mürzzuschlag as well as soft mobility and lived climate protection through numerous projects to reduce CO2 emissions are at the top of the agenda of the city of Mürzzuschlag. “District heating in Mürzzuschlag represents an important factor in increasing sustainability in the city of Mürzzuschlag,” says Mürzzuschlag Mayor Karl Rudischer.
Stadtwerke Mürzzuschlag operates a district heating network with a route length of about 15.3 kilometers, which is operated all year round and supplies not only many private households but also major customers such as the Municipal Sports Center “VIVAX”, the Provincial Care Center, the Provincial Hospital Mürzzuschlag and the Federal School Center Mürzzuschlag. Further expansion projects will be implemented over the next few years. So far, 85% of the heat supplied has already come from regional biomass. The goal of Stadtwerke Mürzzuschlag is to realize an even higher share of renewable energy with simultaneously low emissions for its district heating customers.
“We are aiming to increase the share of renewable energy to close to 100% from 2025, with the solar thermal plant on the Mayerhoferwiese making a significant contribution in the summer months,” DI Thomas Hochörtler of Stadtwerke Mürzzuschlag is pleased to report.

Climate and Energy Fund: Scoring points with intelligent energy transition.
From the program “Solar thermal – large-scale solar plants”, the Climate and Energy Fund supports innovative large-scale solar thermal plants and their solar feed-in into grid-connected heat supplies – the expansion of the large-scale solar plant in Mürzzuschlag specifically with about 470,000 euros, in total more than 1.1 million euros flowed into this showcase project. The aim of the support program is – beyond the implementation of the goals of the domestic climate policy – to support the domestic economy where it can score points in international competition and at the same time to position Austria as a frontrunner for a sustainable energy future.
Bernd Vogl, Managing Director of the Climate and Energy Fund: “The solar thermal plant in Mürzzuschlag is a true lighthouse project not only because it is the largest plant in Austria. It also shows what perfect reuse of infrastructure can look like on technically challenging terrain – a former ski slope. In order to be able to achieve Austria’s committed goals, namely climate neutrality by 2040, it is a matter of understanding different energy sources and storage facilities as integrated systems and advancing them further.”

ThermaFLEX: Solar thermal system as a blueprint for other heating networks throughout Austria.

The large-scale research project ThermaFLEX, led by AEE INTEC, developed different elements and methods to use sustainable energy sources for district heating. The project was carried out as part of the “Green Energy Lab” research initiative, funded by the Climate and Energy Fund and awarded the Energy Globe Austria in June 2023. “The integration of solar thermal combined with corresponding storage concepts is an important step towards decarbonization of heating systems and thus provides a relevant contribution to the achievement of climate targets. The ThermaFLEX demonstrator here in Mürzzuschlag shows on the one hand the successful interaction of applied research & development with regional companies and investors in the implementation phase – on the other hand the high degree of maturity of this technology in combination with the solar potentials give an optimistic outlook regarding the roll-out of such solutions throughout Austria and beyond”, emphasizes Mathias Schaffer, CEO of Green Energy Lab.

7,000 m2 large-scale solar thermal plant in Mürzzuschlag. Photo: Podesser

The large-scale solar plant Mayerhoferwiese in Mürzzuschlag

With 7000 square meters of high-performance collectors, the large-scale solar plant in Mürzzuschlag is the largest ground-mounted solar thermal plant in Austria after its expansion. It supplies nearly 420 apartments with environmentally friendly heat, completely replaces boilers running on natural gas in the summer months, and thus saves around 1,000 tons of CO2 per year. Seven heat accumulators with a total volume of 420 m3 act as storage tanks and ensure a solar heat share of approx. 10% over the entire year. The plant and its expansion were planned and built by SOLID Solar Energy Systems and is operated by the specially founded company SolarWärme MZ GmbH, which also supplies the heat to the Mürzzuschlag municipal utility.

About SOLID – Solar Energy Systems

Solar pioneer SOLID – Solar Energy Systems plans and constructs large-scale national and international solar projects in Europe, Asia and North and Central America under the management of Stephan Jantscher. SOLID is the global contact for research on the topic of heat transition and the builder of renowned international lighthouse projects.
Further information: www.solid.at

About Green Energy Lab

Green Energy Lab is the largest innovation laboratory for sustainable energy solutions in Austria and part of the “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. More than 300 participating partners from research, business and the public sector join Wien Energie, EVN, Energie Burgenland and Energie Steiermark in bringing new ideas for the energy future to life.

About AEE INTEC

AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC) was founded in 1988 and is today one of the leading European institutes of applied research in the field of renewable energy and resource efficiency. The range of R&D projects carried out extends from basic research projects to the implementation of demonstration plants. Further Information: www.aee-intec.at

>> TV report from TV Mürz

(from left) Bernd Vogl, Thomas Hochörtler, Karl Rudischer, Ursula Lackner, Mathias Schaffer, Stephan Jantscher. Photo: Podesser

The post Largest ground-mounted solar thermal plant in Austria opened! first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

The Mission Innovation Austria Week (MIA23) was organized by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation & Technology, Climate and Energy Fund and the innovation lab act4.energy. The Green Energy Lab was prominently represented at the event on all three days with numerous program items. Participation was possible on site in Stegersbach (Burgenland) or online via livestream.

Highlights of Green Energy Lab at the Mission Innovation Austria Week
Chairman and board spokesman of the Green Energy Lab, Mathias Schaffer, participated in a stage interview on the topic “from demo project to systemic innovation” on the main conference day. Susanne Supper, Managing Director and Cluster Manager at the Green Energy Lab, gave a keynote speech on “Research, Innovation and Market – It takes speed, cooperation and looking at the big picture”. Furthermore, Susanne Supper also led a focus group at the interactive workshop for energy regions.
Throughout the event, there were also keynotes, pitches, interviews, short impulses, poster exhibits, and appearances by experts from the Green Energy Lab community in the on-site and virtual marketplace. A large number of projects were presented in the Green Energy Lab, spread over all three program days of the Mission Innovation Austria Week.

On the third and last day of the conference, organized by the Climate and Energy Fund under the aegis of Daniela Kain, there was also a moderated interview on the topic of “The innovation field ‘Green Heating and Cooling’: How are municipalities meeting the challenges?” Susanne Supper and the mayors Jürgen Dolesch (Stegersbach), Margit Wennesz-Ehrlich (Oslip), Bernd Strobl (Ollersdorf), as well as the local councillor Kevin Sifkovits (Stegersbach) and Michael Niederkofler (Head of Innovation Lab act4energy) were involved. The interview was moderated by Angelika Sterrer-Tobler from the Vienna Business Agency.

Projects of Green Energy Lab at MIA23

AC/DC presented by Alexander Pommer, Grazer Energieagentur

Green The Flex and Car2Flex presented from Christian Lechner and Martin Holper, EVN

CLUE presented from Mark Stefan, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

Smart City Neudörfl presented from Patricia Jasek, Forschung Burgenland

Spatial Energy Planning – A success story with a sequel, presented by Cécile Kerebel, SIR – Salzburger Institut für Raumordnung und Wohnen GmbH

BM Retrofit and ThermaFLEX presented from Joachim Kelz and Ingo Leusbrock, AEE INTEC

GEOMAT presented from Gerald Zotter and Carina Seidnitzer-Gallien, AEE INTEC

DeRiskDH presented from Ralf-Roman Schmidt, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH

Mathias Schaffer, speaker of the board and chairman of Green Energy Lab, during the stage interview “from demo project to systemic innovation” with Christian Spanik (right).

Mathias Schaffer, Chairman and Spokesman of the Board, with Susanne Supper, Managing Director and Cluster Manager, Green Energy Lab

(Photos: Green Energy Lab)

The post Green Energy Lab at Mission Innovation Austria first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

The largest project portfolio for Austria’s energy future

With a portfolio of meanwhile 48 projects, the Green Energy Lab creates a sustainable contribution to the consolidation of Austria’s leadership in the field of renewable energy. Since the energy transition requires a fusion of different technologies and sectors, the Innovation Lab’s project portfolio is deliberately diverse. Five thematic clusters were therefore introduced, in which the 48 research projects are engaged. The interplay of these clusters is crucial to the path to a green energy future. These are “Energy Communities and Grids,” “Storage Technologies and Flexibility,” “Integrated Mobility Solutions,” “Integrated Building Solutions,” and “Green Heating and Cooling.”

Green (district) heating and cooling

A central element of the heat transition in Austria is the pipeline-based heat supply. With around 5,600 kilometers of pipelines, district and local heating networks already supply more than one million households, which means that around a quarter of Austrian households are connected to this type of heat supply. In addition to climate-neutral biomass, fossil fuels such as natural gas and heating oil still serve as energy sources for the most part. The decarbonization of grid-connected heating systems is therefore a central element of the heat transition, as is increasing their efficiency.

Biomass-based district heating systems play a central role in sustainable heat supply in Austria and comprise around 2,400 plants in operation. Currently, many of these heating networks are in greater need of retrofitting and modernization in order to meet future technical, economic and regulatory challenges as well as sustainable and targeted expansion. In the BM Retrofit project, innovative technical concepts (e.g. flue gas condensation, heat pumps, storage technologies) are developed accordingly and optimized for efficient system integration. This will ensure that innovative measures are further improved and integrated into the heating networks, leading to more sustainable and economical operation combined with reduced resource consumption and emissions savings.

Risk minimization for investments in urban district heating networks

The structures of urban heating networks differ from those in rural areas, where biomass-based local heating networks usually dominate. The decarbonization of urban district heating involves major investment risks for operators. The challenges associated with the integration of alternative heat sources lie in particular in the optimization of the building stock in terms of return temperatures and flexibilities, in network hydraulics, bidirectional operation, the integration of seasonal storage, and the involvement of consumers and the development of business models. The minimization of the associated risks is the focus of DeRiskDH.The project develops and demonstrates innovative solutions on a technological and strategic level as well as innovative business models for district heating operators and building owners to overcome the technical challenges and minimize the investment risk in alternative heat sources. The concrete solutions will be demonstrated and tested in the cities of Vienna, Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Klagenfurt.

Digitization as the key to increasing efficiency

Digitization also represents a central pillar of the decarbonization of grid-bound heat. The DOPPLER project therefore aims to develop a digital optimization platform for district heating systems. The efficient and low-emission operation of such plants requires intelligent interaction between energy supply, storage and distribution. Currently, most district heating systems are controlled according to the current power demand, but this sometimes leads to unfavorable operating conditions with low efficiencies and high emission levels. The aim of the project is therefore to implement decentralized optimization measures based on demand response. A system-wide platform for district heating planning and operation that integrates all components such as generation, distribution and consumption is being developed. A strong focus is on the integration of end customers. With the help of the measures set in DOPPLER, the overall efficiency of district heating systems is increased and thus CO₂ – emissions are reduced.

Generating green solar power together

For a sustainable energy future, the electricity sector must not be ignored. In order to achieve the European climate targets, the Renewable Energy Expansion Act was introduced in Austria, which creates essential framework conditions for the decarbonization of the energy sector. A key point is the supply of electricity from 100 percent renewable sources by 2030. To achieve this, photovoltaics are expected to make an additional contribution of 11 TWh per year. The optimized integration of photovoltaic systems into the overall energy system is essential for this. Engage PV therefore aims at the participatory development and demonstration of integrated solutions in different, interdisciplinary networked innovation fields using open innovation approaches. The intention is, based on the fundamental requirements (technical, social, economic, regulatory/legal, forecasting), to develop appropriate individual solutions in an open innovation process, which are subsequently networked by an interdisciplinary team of experts into overall solutions and demonstrated as such.

Sustainable wellness vacation

The Austrian thermal landscape is one of the most important tourist regions in Europe. In addition to the high number of visitors, the thermal baths also have a high energy consumption. The problem is that the energy required currently still comes to a large extent from fossil sources such as gas. Fortunately, there is also a great potential for the use of deep hydrothermal geothermal energy (depth > 400m) in the thermal landscape, which must be exploited. The decarbonization of thermal baths can therefore make a valuable contribution to the energy transition. GEO.MAT is pursuing the goal of using hydrothermal wastewater to generate energy by means of heat pumps instead of flushing it down the drain. IIn the project, different heat pump technologies used to upgrade geothermal wastewater (30°C) and to heat the pools of thermal spas are coupled with innovative control measures for demand-side management (peak shaving, load shifting) and supply-side management (load-point optimized use), and energetically optimized piping and heat exchangers are developed taking into account the low target temperatures for pool heating for Austrian thermal spas.

The sustainable building renovation of the future

The building sector represents another pillar of the energy transition. Currently, about 35% of buildings in the EU are over 50 years old and almost 75% of the building stock is energy inefficient. At the same time, only about 1% of the building stock is renovated each year. The RENVELOPE project therefore aims to develop a cost-effective, complete circular solution for the modernization of existing buildings by conditioning buildings from an external envelope, thus allowing minimally invasive refurbishment. By combining serial, multifunctional CO₂-neutral building renovation with integrated, intelligently controlled building technology, the project aims to make the building sector an essential pillar for the energy system of the future.

The post New projects at Green Energy Lab first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

The international scientific conference e-nova was aimed at both the scientific community and professional field-oriented experts involved in energy, buildings and the environment. The contributions from the field of application-oriented research and development offered an overview of the state of the art in science as well as of the possibilities and status of the professional and market feasibility of innovative solutions.

As a venue itself, the town of Pinkafeld in Burgenland has contributed a great deal to research in the field of energy and energy management. As an exposition of the FH Burgenland, the Pinkafeld campus has two remarkable real-live research laboratories: the Lowergetikum and the Energetikum, both of which have already contributed to innovations in the Green Energy Lab project portfolio. Green Energy Lab itself again thematically compiled and led three sessions for this year’s e-nova, which mainly presented projects from its own portfolio and made important contributions to Green Energy Lab’s fields of innovation.

“Upgrading Buildings” – “Customer Integration” – “Green Heating and Cooling”.

The first session of Green Energy Lab on Wednesday, June 14, was titled “Upgrading Buildings” and focused on how buildings can become active building blocks of our energy system. These included questions about integrating a fuel cell, weighing low-tech versus high-tech solutions, ways to increase the energy flexibility of buildings, and fault detection in building systems.

In the second session of Green Energy Lab on June 15, innovations on the topic of “customer integration” were in demand. On the level of managing innovation in general, Christian Kurz, R&D Manager of Green Energy Lab, showed how the combination of impact analysis, foresight and the integration of a stakeholder network can increase the accuracy of results. In doing so, he drew on a year of experience already and described in a comprehensible way how the development of the Green Energy Foresight Service sustainably increases the clout of the showcase region.
The other presentations explored the question of what innovative services new technologies could bring to users. One example was the monitoring of elderly and frail people based on their typical energy consumption behavior or a study on the use and acceptance of bidirectional charging among car sharing operators. The last contribution of this session explored the question of how Viennese citizens participate in the digitalization of the energy system. The result: only a very small part of the offered possibilities is used.

After the lunch break, the third session of Green Energy Lab was about “Green Heating and Cooling”. Two papers dealt with thermal activation of building components to make buildings more energy-efficient and energy-flexible, both in new construction and in the course of minimally invasive refurbishment of existing buildings. Very interesting was also the presentation of a simple and inexpensive possibility to control the indoor climate based on prognosis, which has already been implemented in a demonstration object. Another paper was devoted to comparing options for energy storage in solar-energy buildings, such as thermal storage of heat in building components, electrical storage in battery systems, and a combination of both. It was shown how much additional electricity has to be drawn from the grid for a solar energy house over a longer period of time and how much energy can be fed into the grid and what maximum load peaks can be expected for the power grid when drawing and feeding in when using different storage technologies.

Finally, the last paper dealt with the design of a 2-stage heat pump system in multi-storey residential buildings. The main challenge was to ensure the undisturbed usability of the building during the reconstruction.

The conference was well attended overall. The Central Burgenland, which is gladly advertised as “sunshine country”, lived up to its name, especially on the second day of the congress, and showed itself from its best side in terms of weather.

Keynote by Bernd Vogl, Managing Director of the Climate and Energy Fund. ©FH Burgenland / Gruber

Presentation by Christian Kurz, R&D Manager Green Energy Lab, at e-nova 2023. ©FH Burgenland / Gruber

Networking and poster presentation during breaks in the presentations. ©FH Burgenland / Gruber

You can find the press release of the FH Burgenland here.

The post Green Energy Lab @ e-nova 2023 first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

About 30 interested participants gathered on 30.05.2023 under the motto “Smart renewable energy systems” at the Josephinum Research in Wieselburg for an exciting information and networking event on the occasion of the 6th Zukunftsheurigen of the Knoten Wieselburg in the project House of Digitalization.

Karin Dögl is Innovation Manager at the Green Energy Lab and supervises research projects in the market transition of their results. In Wieselburg, she spoke about the current opportunities and challenges of digitization in the field of renewable energy and why it makes sense to search for solutions cooperatively, especially in this field.

The key message was that digitization is a particularly relevant cross-cutting issue when it comes to making rapid progress on the energy transition. The key words here are “decentralization” through what is known to be a multitude of renewable energy sources while “securing” the critical energy infrastructure. In this context, technology fields such as artificial intelligence, big data, cryptography and blockchain are not mere buzzwords, but have concrete fields of application in green energy. For example, intelligent metering systems, smart contracts and digital twins are needed to innovatively and meaningfully master the rapid increase in data-driven processes in this area, Innovation Manager Dögl reported. Predictive maintenance and anomaly detection are further areas of application to be discovered at the interface between energy and digitalization.

By the way, you can also find more in-depth information and suggestions on current developments in this area in our follow-up to the Green Energy Lab Insight Talk “Cybersecurity4Energy“ and in our current RadarView 2023.

All the more reason for fruitful collaborations that can answer questions about this overall system complexity with complementary expertise. “Renewable energy needs technology providers from the digitalization sector,” the Green Energy Lab placed a call for action to the assembled digitalization community on site, because there are still many unanswered questions when it comes to the concrete implementation and development of innovative solutions.

“The Green Energy Lab is happy to provide support with established processes and a wealth of experience when it comes to initiating collaborations and/or finding the perfect use case partner from green energy supply to end use,” the innovation manager concluded. During the subsequent busy exchange of business cards, one or two invitations were extended and our network was expanded to include valuable technology providers from the digitization sector.

The post Benefit from cooperations first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

Vienna 14.06.23 – In the decarbonization of district heating, i.e. an operation independent of coal, oil and natural gas, lies a huge lever for greenhouse gas reduction in the fight against climate change. The large-scale research project ThermaFLEX tests the flexible district heating network of tomorrow by integrating local, sustainable heat sources and was awarded the Energy Globe Austria in the category “Fire” for this project. In the future, around 45,000 tons of CO₂ will be directly saved in district heating each year. The research results also serve as a basis for making the entire district heating sector more flexible.

45,000 tons of CO₂ saved per year
ThermaFLEX demonstrates with concrete solutions how the existing heat pipe infrastructure can be efficiently used and extended to integrate sustainable, local heat sources into the supply. On the basis of ten large-scale demonstration projects, 28 partners in Styria, Vienna and Salzburg proved that large-scale technical implementations are also possible in a relatively short time. When all demonstrators are realized, this will result in direct annual CO₂ savings of around 45,000 tons Furthermore, the solutions developed can be transferred to other heating networks. Thus, the research work performed contributes to the flexibilization of the entire district heating sector – a basic prerequisite for the increased use of sustainable heat sources, the phase-out of fossil fuels and the reduction of the “carbon footprint”.

“To accelerate the energy transition even further, we also need innovative solutions. There is great potential in the heating sector in particular. ThermaFLEX is one of the largest projects of the ‘Vorzeigeregion Energie’ from the Climate and Energy Fund. And it is the largest innovation project in the Austrian district heating sector to date,” explains Climate Protection Minister Leonore Gewessler.

Applied research in the field of renewable energie
The ThermaFLEX project is worth around 4.6 million euros, is funded by the Climate and Energy Fund and is being carried out as part of the “Green Energy Lab” research initiative as part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie”. Innovations are being researched in the Green Energy Lab. These are tested in practice and thus rapidly developed to market maturity. Mathias Schaffer, chairman and spokesman of the board of the Green Energy Lab, is correspondingly pleased with the award.: “We as Green Energy Lab are very proud that our flagship project ThermaFLEX has been awarded with the Energy Globe Austria 2023. It is one of the most successful flagship projects in our portfolio. In addition to ThermaFLEX, we currently manage 50 other renewable energy projects with an investment volume of more than 150 million euros.”

Project manager Joachim Kelz from AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC) is also visibly pleased: “Climate-friendly and sustainable solutions in district heating are the basis for an intelligent heat supply of the future.” ThermaFLEX has provided many important results and insights for this. “In addition to the large-scale implementations that have already taken place in seven Austrian district heating networks, the necessary elements and solutions as well as the knowledge base for a broad roll-out are available far beyond our project. These can now be further developed and applied in numerous national or even international heating networks.” ThermaFLEX is thus making a valuable contribution to the decarbonization of the heating sector, which is responsible for around half of total energy consumption in the EU.

At the Vienna-Spittelau waste incineration plant, the waste heat generated from the incinerator’s flue gas condensation will in future be used as an energy source for a high-temperature heat pump. The thermal output of the heat pump concept will be around 16 MW (megawatts). © Wien Energie / Schedl

District heating as a key factor in the fight against climate change
Every fourth household in Austria is connected to a district heating network. Today, however, renewable energy sources contribute only just under half of the total district heating demand. For this to change, many small, local heat sources will also have to be integrated into the grid in the future. To this end, 5,600 kilometers of heating pipeline infrastructure in Austria must be increasingly fed by renewable heat. Currently, district heating is mainly generated centrally and in a small number of plants. Most of the energy for this comes from fossil fuels such as oil, gas or coal. Among renewable forms of energy, the generation of heat from biomass plays the most important role, but its availability is limited. Thus, in order to rapidly increase the overall share of renewable energy, other energy carriers and heat sources must also be integrated into the district heating system. This conversion requires increased decentralization of the entire district heating sector. With the increasing number of power generation plants and their fluctuating availability, the complexity of the heating networks also increases. Flexibilization is therefore in demand – and it was precisely this aspect that was the focus of the ThermaFLEX research project.

Already successfully implemented in seven heating networks
The interaction of different components in real heating networks of different sizes was researched and tested. To this end, various measures have been combined and implemented on a large scale in seven Austrian heating networks to date. A wide variety of heat sources and flexibility elements were used. A central role was played by heat storage systems, the coupling of energy sectors and infrastructures, new intelligent control concepts, large-scale heat pump applications, solar thermal energy, and the integration of a wide variety of locally available waste heat sources – from heat recovery from rendering to the use of residual heat and cooling from wastewater.

More information on the individual demonstration projects and ThermaFLEX can be found here: www.greenenergylab.at/projects/thermaflex

Waste heat utilization from a rendering plant in Gabersdorf (Styria) for district heating. © Klimafonds / Krobath

About Green Energy Lab
Green Energy Lab is the largest innovation laboratory for sustainable energy solutions in Austria and part of the “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. More than 300 participating partners from research, business and the public sector join Wien Energie, EVN, Energie Burgenland and Energie Steiermark in bringing new ideas for the energy future to life.
Further Information: www.greenenergylab.at

About AEE INTEC
AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies (AEE INTEC) was founded in 1988 and is today one of the leading European institutes of applied research in the field of renewable energy and resource efficiency. The range of R&D projects carried out extends from basic research projects to the implementation of demonstration plants.
Further Information: www.aee-intec.at

Queries & Contact
Green Energy Lab
Eng. Mag. Ludwig Fliesser
Communications Manager
SPACES Icon | Gertrude-Fröhlich-Sandner Straße 2
1100 Wien
T: +43 676 471 934 7
E: ludwig.fliesser@greenenergylab.at
W: www.greenenergylab.at

AEE – Institut für Nachhaltige Technologien
DI (FH) Joachim Kelz
Feldgasse 19
8200 Gleisdorf
T: +43 3112 5886-236
E: j.kelz@aee.at
W: https://www.aee-intec.at/

The post Research project ThermaFLEX wins the Energy Globe Austria first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

Neusiedl am See, June 12, 2023 –The hydrogen pilot plant in Neusiedl am See is an innovative step towards the implementation of the regional hydrogen strategy and sets new standards in this setting throughout Austria. Together with Bernd Vogl, Managing Director of the Climate and Energy Fund, Research Provincial Councillor Leonhard Schneemann, Klaus Maras, Managing Director of BE Energy GmbH and Green Energy Lab Association Board Member Mathias Schaffer, Marcus Keding, Managing Director of Research Burgenland, presented the new plant and the innovative project for it.

Vogl: “Want to achieve our climate targets by 2040”.

The Climate and Energy Fund promotes climate-effective projects and initiatives to advance the energy and mobility transition in a sustainable manner. “In doing so, we rely on working with model and showcase projects that demonstrate in very concrete terms how the new energy and mobility world based on renewable energy technologies works,” explains Bernd Vogl, Managing Director of the Climate and Energy Fund. With this project and these plants, Neusiedl is literally bringing a breath of fresh air into the regional energy system, Vogl continues: “But not only that. The project shows how electricity from renewable energy sources can be used for different purposes in Austria and how the energy future will work. If we want to achieve our climate targets by 2040, we need systemic changes like those already seen here in Neusiedl.”

Schneemann: “Burgenland pioneer in renewable energy”.

“The commissioning of the pilot plant marks a further step in the implementation of Burgenland’s climate and energy strategy. Because we have a comprehensive ‘roadmap’ for how this goal is to be achieved,” explains Leonhard Schneemann, the provincial council member responsible for research. Burgenland was already a pioneer in renewable energy in the 1990s. In the absence of fossil fuels, the first wind turbines were installed in Austria. Today, the company is also focusing on the massive expansion of photovoltaics. “The green transformation has therefore already been initiated in Burgenland. As a state government, we have set ourselves a clear goal: on the one hand, climate neutrality by 2030, and on the other, energy self-sufficiency. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, we need a joint effort by all stakeholders, an acceleration of procedures and the courage to do pioneering work. We must make full use of the potential offered by solar and wind power. This includes the possibility of producing ‘green hydrogen’. This pilot plant makes it possible to push ahead here. It is also a first step towards transferring summer energy surpluses into winter and a significant starting signal for the implementation of the hydrogen strategy in Burgenland,” says Schneemann.

Maras: “Important puzzle piece for the expansion of the Neusiedl energy node”.

For the managing director of BE Energy GmbH Klaus Maras, the hydrogen pilot plant represents an important piece of the puzzle for the expansion of the energy hub Neusiedl am See: “By intelligently linking wind power, district heating and hydrogen, the sector coupling plant creates a versatile and sustainable energy infrastructure that makes an important contribution to the decarbonization of Burgenland. Bringing renewable electricity available in Burgenland to a high degree into other energy sectors is a strategic goal of our company,” says Maras. He said that the existing facility could be used to gain valuable insights for implementing this strategy.

Keding: “Facility for demonstration and exploration”.

Burgenland has large amounts of renewable electricity. This creates great potential to support the decarbonization of other energy sectors such as heat and mobility. By interlocking the sectors, challenges around flexibility and storage capability of the electricity produced can be addressed. “Electricity must be consumed the second it is produced. When using electricity from the sun and wind, this raises the question of how the generated electricity can be used in the best possible way at the time it is generated. The targeted connection between the energy sectors can help here to open up options for the intermediate storage of renewable electricity,” explains Forschung Burgenland Managing Director Marcus Keding. In an energy system with a focus on solar and wind energy, as exists in Burgenland, hydrogen also offers the potential to compensate for seasonal fluctuations: “In order to be able to demonstrate and explore the interaction of an energy node in real operation, the existing plant was expanded to include the dimension of hydrogen.”

The hydrogen plant is a pilot scale plant, the hydrogen production is 1.8 Nm³/h (standard cubic meters per hour). “This produces waste heat at a temperature of 45°C, which can be used as a heat source for the heat pump system. The hydrogen is temporarily stored in gas cylinders – so-called cylinder bundles. From there, it can be converted back into electricity by means of the fuel cell during windless periods,” explains Keding. In addition, the plant – although only on a pilot scale – will be fully integrated into the control system of the energy node: “This guarantees that we can research the interaction and optimization in the energy node and test it for larger hydrogen plants.”

Successful project cooperation

Two projects, in which Forschung Burgenland plays a leading role, dock here: The smart city project “Hybrid DH Demo” was carried out in cooperation with the initiative “Green Energy Lab” and has made the city of Neusiedl a best practice example for resource-saving and sustainable energy management with the implementation “power2heat”, which has already won several awards.

The project was managed by 4ward Energy Research. Managing Director Alois Kraußler on the project progress: “The Hybrid DH Demo smart city project started 4 years ago and has now been successfully completed. For us as project management, there were of course also many hurdles and challenges: Here I would like to thank the Climate and Energy Fund as the funding body for making these ongoing adjustments possible.

The ERDF project “Sector Coupling for Renewables” is an infrastructure project and supports the acquisition of the hydrogen pilot plant. “What also makes this project unique are the partners and, above all, the funding bodies. National and EU funding have created synergies here in a good interplay and made it possible to acquire infrastructure where it makes sense. This enabled us to actually implement the project and have a demonstration plant on which we can conduct research,” says Marcus Keding.

Schaffer: “Must move quickly from research to implementation”.

Achieving climate neutrality in Austria by 2040 is also the declared goal of the Green Energy Lab, a research initiative for sustainable energy solutions and part of the Austrian innovation offensive “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. “In the fight against climate change, we need to move very quickly from research to implementation when it comes to sustainable energy solutions. The Green Energy Lab accelerates this process – from brainstorming and solution development to application and implementation. The use of surplus electricity from wind power for district heating in Neusiedl is a successful example, has proven itself in operation and makes a valuable contribution to reducing emissions,” says Mathias Schaffer, chairman and spokesman for the board of Green Energy Lab.

The post Hydrogen pilot plant goes into operation and expands the Energy Hub Neusiedl first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

In the Green Energy Lab, such new ideas and technologies are tested in practice. The research partners benefit from the joint commitment of the energy companies Wien Energie, EVN, Burgenland Energie and Energie Steiermark, which together ensure the energy supply for more than five million end consumers. This means that the Green Energy Lab showcase region encompasses more than half of the Austrian energy market, making it the largest innovation laboratory in Austria. New technological solutions can be tested under real conditions and, if necessary, quickly implemented on a large scale. “The Green Energy Lab stands for innovation through cooperation – I find our vibrant networks and active partners to be an important ingredient for the success of the energy transition,” says Mathias Schaffer, spokesman for the board of the Green Energy Lab.

Mathias Schaffer,
Spokesman of the Board Green Energy Lab
Photo:Stephanie Weinhappel / Green Energy Lab

Joint commitment to the energy futurestrong
At the 2023 General Assembly of the Green Energy Lab, the four utilities Wien Energie, EVN, Burgenland Energie and Energie Steiermark reaffirmed their commitment to a sustainable energy future. EVN CEO Stefan Szyszkowitz is pleased to continue being part of Austria’s largest innovation laboratory: “On the way to a renewable energy future, we need to join forces.” This is also emphasized by Michael Strebl, Chairman of the Wien Energie Management Board: “Actively meeting the challenges of the energy transition in a large association with innovative ideas from practice is an important joint step towards a sustainable energy future”.

Stefan Szyszkowitz
Spokesman of the Board EVN
Photo: EVN / Wurnig

Michael Strebl,
Chairman of the Wien Energie Management Board
Photo: Wien Energie/Martina Draper

The Green Energy Lab is not just about abstract basic research, but above all about the practical application and integration of new solutions into existing energy networks. “It is important that our developed innovations do not get stuck in the ‘lab’ and reach the market to the customers. That is why we place a great deal of emphasis on the market integration of our projects,” explains Stephan Sharma, CEO of Burgenland Energie.

Stephan Sharma,
Chairman of the Board of Burgenland Energie
Photo: Roman Zach-Kiesling/Burgenland Energie

By bundling synergies in research, the energy turnaround can be advanced even faster to make the energy supply of the future even more ecological. “Only by joining forces can we succeed in mobilizing the necessary innovation potential to bring newly developed technologies to market as quickly as possible so that they can make a substantial contribution to decarbonizing the energy sector. This is the primary goal of our joint initiative,” concludes Christian Purrer, CEO of Energie Steiermark.

Christian Purrer,
Spokesman of the Board of Energie Steiermark
Photo: Energie Steiermark

More than 300 network partners Green Energy Lab is the largest innovation laboratory for sustainable energy solutions in Austria and part of the “Vorzeigeregion Energie” of the Climate and Energy Fund. More than 300 partners from research, industry and the public sector are networked in the “Innovator Circle”. With the Green Energy Foresight, the innovation potentials of different technologies are continuously analyzed and made available to the stakeholders in the joint network. New technological solutions for a sustainable energy future are being developed and tested in around 50 ongoing projects.

The post Energy companies cooperate on research for a sustainable future first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

The gradual roll-out of smart meters, the constant decentralization of energy systems and the ever-increasing connectivity in smart spaces, smart cities and smart homes are causing data volumes and complexity in the energy sector to explode. At the same time, these challenges also offer great potential for the sector in Austria, which must be exploited. Existing digital roadmaps outline steps towards this goal and application-oriented research and innovation projects offer the ideal opportunity to innovate and accelerate these goals, namely the digital processes of the energy sector, by demonstrating and implementing concrete applications with high innovation potential in R&D projects. The Green Energy Lab innovation field “Data-driven processes” offers guidance on how to get closer to this goal through research and innovation.

Expert survey: Potential of data-driven processes for the energy sector

In the Green Energy Lab, we asked 22 selected national and international experts from our network, which is made up of Austrian forward-thinking energy supply companies, innovative tech developers and top research institutes that are jointly advancing the energy transition through research and innovation, about our exciting field of innovation “data-driven processes”.

Results of the survey of 22 national and international experts in the field of research & innovation in the energy sector

As the illustration of the results of the survey shows, our experts see particularly great potential for data-driven processes for the energy sector in the “enabler potential”. The added value of using data-based methods for the areas of “Market Opportunity”, “Technological Maturity” and “Risk Entering” is also considered to be high, albeit somewhat lower. Less potential is expected for “Climate Impact” and “System Maturity”. Data-driven processes are therefore of particular interest to the energy sector due to this enabler potential, which can drive new technological developments, product innovations and digital business models faster.

The potential of data-driven processes for the energy sector

What are the fields of technology that are particularly relevant for data-driven processes in the energy sector and what added value can be created through application-oriented research and innovation? Green Energy Foresight analyzes thousands of signals, such as patents, publications, articles and highly innovative EU projects. Through our foresight activities – more on this in the latest news article – we were able to identify relevant technologies and their use in innovative data-driven processes in the energy sector and outline their added value. Projects from the Green Energy Lab project portfolio also clearly demonstrate how this potential is already being exploited today:

Real-time analysis: In conjunction with the new generation of real-time sensors in power plants, power grids or solar systems, operating data can be recorded and analyzed in real time. This enables preventive maintenance, where system downtimes can be predicted, automated real-time decisions can be made and changes in consumption and power generation can be responded to more quickly. Applications in the field of energy bidding are also relevant. Green Energy Lab example: The SmartU project is working on the development of a standardized hardware solution that converts smart meter data into a uniform format and makes it available via an interface.

Decentralized data storage and processing: Technologies such as edge and fog computing, IoT sensor technology and big data analyses enable greater resilience of energy systems and grids. Decentralized data processing reduces the impact of failures or delays in the network, as the data can still be processed locally. By processing data directly at the source, energy companies can reduce the amount of data that has to be transmitted over the network. This can save costs for transmission and storage capacities. Green Energy Lab example: In Blockchain Grid, an application was developed that allows users to autonomously allocate free grid resources among themselves. This was made possible by blockchain technology, which allows data records to be managed decentrally and end users to actively participate in the energy system as “prosumers”.

Increasing efficiency: IoT sensors can be used primarily in the building sector, by prosumers and in smart grid applications to collect real-time data on energy consumption and demand. This data can then be processed by big data analysis tools to gain insights into energy consumption and improve efficiency. Patterns in energy consumption can also be identified by using big data analysis tools in combination with AI and machine learning algorithms. On this basis, recommendations can be made for a more efficient use of energy. Green Energy Lab example: Spatial Energy Planning II deals with the efficient use of energy in spatial energy planning. An information system enables the efficient use of resources, taking into account the growing interdependencies between the electricity, heating and transport sectors.

Automation: Manual processes are replaced by automated workflows such as data cleansing, pre-processing and modeling. Energy companies can save time and resources while improving the accuracy and reliability of results. Complex decisions for the operational management of energy systems can be made automatically. By monitoring operating parameters, these algorithms can react automatically to faults and plan preventive maintenance work. Green Energy Lab example: AC/DC also brings automation to the mobility sector. Here, company fleets with electric vehicles are charged by automated charging robots and integrated into the energy grid using load, fleet and charging management systems.

Improved forecasting: AI and machine learning algorithms can analyze large amounts of data on historical energy use and generation to make predictions for future energy generation and demand, helping to optimize the electricity grid and better predict future energy prices. Green Energy Lab example: With the Open Data Platform, a central interface was created with the aim of deepening knowledge about interrelationships in the energy systems. The analysis of users’ consumption patterns and load flows forms the basis for the development of forecasting models in the project.

Innovation leadership through cooperative research

Integrated energy systems are therefore characterized by a high degree of complexity and innovations developed here require a holistic, transdisciplinary approach. The most innovative EU projects in this area combine the expertise of data scientists and technology developers from the ICT sector with the know-how of the energy sector. The above-mentioned potentials are already being investigated and tested together. Market opportunities are thus recognized and exploited at an early stage. Challenges such as the interoperability of different systems and protocols as well as the associated challenges in the area of cyber security are thus taken into account in the development of data-driven processes. More on this in the detailed summary from our Insight Talk “Cybersecurity4Energy“.

In summary, cooperative research and innovation projects offer an ideal opportunity for your organization to use the right know-how to design a suitable consortium around innovative project ideas and selected funding channels and thus decisively advance process digitization in an integrated energy system in your own company. With our many years of experience in implementing more than 50 research and innovation projects in the field of renewable energy, we are happy to support you in advancing your potential project. We combine visionary ideas from Green Energy Foresight with our expertise in project implementation and funding and an active network of more than 300 companies that are driving forward the energy transition through research and innovation activities.

Get in touch with us at karin.doegl@greenenergylab.at and launch national and EU-wide research and innovation projects with the aim of driving forward the digitalization of your processes and making the energy system fit for the future and sustainable.

The post Innovative data-driven processes for the energy sector first appeared on Green Energy Lab.

The Green Energy Lab innovation laboratory is developing a new visualization to identify promising starting points for change in the energy sector. Using modern trend research methods, “RadarView” identified eleven areas of innovation that could have a very rapid positive impact on our climate and energy future.

The fields of innovation and their technologies are evaluated according to six criteria: the maturity of the individual technology, the system maturity of the technology, the market opportunities and the potential of the technology to enable change. In addition, the risks as well as the direct impact that the technologies have on climate change mitigation are assessed.

Mathias SchafferCEO of Green Energy Lab: “The key technologies for the energy transition already exist. Now they need to be implemented quickly and consistently. With our “RadarView”, we want to show companies which current and future trends in the energy sector can contribute to a sustainable energy system in Austria.”

A market-ready technology mix for the energy transition

“It is clear that no single technology will bring the breakthrough. It will take the interaction of several key technologies to cover as many areas as possible,” says Schaffer.

The system maturity of these technologies is an important criterion for determining how far the integration of the technology into the existing energy system has already progressed. By focusing on technologies with a high degree of system maturity, the aim is to achieve a rapid and noticeable effect.

“The marketability of the technologies used is essential for long-term results. A sustainable energy transition cannot be financed by subsidies in the long term. It requires business models that trigger meaningful and sustainable changes in the energy sector,” concludes the Chairman of the Green Energy Lab.

Smart buildings and artificial intelligence for the sustainable energy transition

The identified fields of innovation show just how important the interaction between the various technologies is. One of these concerns the building sector: in future, houses will actively participate in the energy system. There is already a whole range of smart solutions for new buildings. In order to make all buildings climate-ready, approaches must be developed that can also be applied to existing buildings.

Christian KurzR&D Manager at Green Energy Lab: “The building sector has huge potential: with the help of digital energy measuring devices, intelligent control systems and innovative construction methods, the buildings of the future will be able to exchange information with the energy grid in advance and serve as decentralized energy buffers.”

Regional energy supply plays a key role, not least due to current geopolitical developments. The use of waste heat sources and the development of scalable seasonal energy storage systems form the innovation field of green heating and cooling. “Research and demonstration projects on this topic are a focus of Green Energy Lab. The knowledge gained from these projects flows back into new projects,” says Short.

The To and fro for the reduction of CO2-emissions is the expansion of renewable energy sources. In this field of innovation new legal framework conditions also play a major role. However, the flexibility of the energy systems – or more precisely the electricity grids – is also considered to be just as relevant. Research into the improved use of renewable energy sources such as wind energy and photovoltaics are already part of Green Energy Lab’s portfolio.

Another clearly recognizable trend is the circular economy: the focus is on “waste as a resource”. Through recycling, a large proportion of the CO2 be avoided. It also reduces dependence on raw material imports. However, the innovation field of the circular economy is more than just recycling: the active binding of CO2 in the atmosphere or the generation of electricity by microbes are parts of the field that can still be explored.

Andrea Edelmann, board member of the Green Energy Lab: “The circular economy in the field of renewable energy still has huge potential and is a more than important idea in resource-poor Europe. The opportunities for innovation in areas such as CO2-circular economy are enormous. The use of existing infrastructure also helps to conserve resources.”

Enabler technologies are required for all of the aforementioned fields of innovation. Thanks to advances in digitalization and the use of data-based processes, these highly complex systems can be made more efficient. The networking of all system elements (e.g. “Internet of Things”), the innovative handling of large amounts of data (“big data”) and the use of learning systems (“machine learning” and artificial intelligence) play a key role here.

Green Energy Foresight

“RadarView” emerged from the Green Energy Lab innovation laboratory. For four years now, the Green Energy Lab has provided a platform for pooling and exchanging know-how in the energy sector. Together, energy trends are analyzed, subjected to a reality and relevance check and their impact on climate change assessed and updated on an ongoing basis. “RadarView” sees itself as a visualization of the “Forsighting Journey” and is designed to be interactive. Each innovation field serves as a starting point for more in-depth research. The RadarView also reveals topics such as the existing buildings sector or the circular economy, which have a particularly strong leverage effect for the energy transition and should be taken into account accordingly in the orientation of research programs.

Click here to the RadarView 2023.

The post Green Energy Lab visualizes the future of energy first appeared on Green Energy Lab.