© Project Management Jülich

Close cooperation for innovations

How research institutions and companies can work more closely together, and why it will become even more important to transfer innovations into practice. There was much to discuss at the 2nd Energy Research Conference.

The 2nd Energy Research Conference of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy was held in Berlin on 11 and 12 November, entitled “Energy innovations for competitiveness and resilience”. Challenges like a secure, affordable and climate-neutral energy supply can “only be tackled with innovations”, said State Secretary Frank Wetzel: “We will therefore be giving a boost to energy research as a driving force for innovation.”

Rodoula Tryfonidou, head of division responsible for “Energy research – basic issues and strategy”, stressed the following point to the 300 or so participants: “The issue of research transfer will be an important, if not the most important, aspect of the ministry’s future energy research policy.” In keeping with this, a new funding campaign was announced, including the transfer campaign for energy innovations for swifter transfer into practice – e.g. via innovation competitions, test infrastructure, and the upscaling of new technologies. Also, new funding calls were announced for key issues like cyber resilience, climate-neutral process heat, cost-efficient retrofitting, cost-cutting for district heating pipelines, high-temperature super conductors, the geothermal energy exploration initiative, and a relaunch of the Regulatory Sandboxes for the Energy Transition. 

The conference also launched the new edition of the “learning” energy research programme, which can address new developments and integrate energy policy guidelines. 

^{Making people passionate about transformation}

Keynotes and panel discussions addressed national and international perspectives of innovation. Kerstin Andreae (BDEW) stressed the importance of gaining public support for the transformation. Britta Buchholz (Hitachi Energy) added: “Only if we take an international approach to applied research from Germany will it meet with an international response.”

The second day of the conference focused on ways to implement the ideas – the sort of debate promoted by forums like the energy research networks initiated by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the representatives of these networks. 

^{A resilient energy system}

Germany’s role in the global context was also discussed. Dr Martin Keller, President of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres since November, flagged up opportunities which can emerge when, for example, countries like the US withdraw from certain fields of research. At the same time, the conference also looked at ways to make the energy system more resilient – e.g. via less dependency on imports and more European cooperation.

Other reports and pictures can be found on the website of the energy research networks, which also offer further information about applied energy research.