Translation: Energetic neighborhood conversion for affordable living

MIL OSI translation. Region: Germany/Germany –

Source: Fraunhofer-GesellschaftThe costs of electricity, gas and other fossil fuels have risen massively in recent months. But the energy supply in Germany and Europe has not only been facing major challenges since the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and the associated sanctions. Buildings are of central importance in the overall social context: The savings potential in terms of energy consumption is up to 40 percent, depending on the renovation status and depth taken into account when rehabilitating existing quarters. The project is what is known as an “innovative regional growth core”, a regional alliance of companies, universities and research institutions in East Germany that have a common technology platform in their region and have significant unique selling points in their area of ??competence. Growth cores were funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) until 2022. In addition to ecological aspects, the success criterion for smood® is above all economic efficiency: With a well thought-out mixture of innovative energy supply and control technologies with suitable integrated existing technologies, the proportion of warm rent should ultimately be reduced. This is to be achieved by the districts being largely self-sufficient in terms of energy and making electricity and heat available to their residents at low cost. “An important goal of the entire growth core is to counteract so-called segregation effects – i.e. that economically weaker families can no longer afford certain residential areas,” says Prof. Peter Bretschneider, Director of the Applied Systems Engineering AST branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, Systems Engineering and image evaluation IOSB and scientific alliance spokesman for smood®.smood®: Five joint projects, numerous innovations The partners involved in the technology platform come from science, industry and associations and bring their skills along the entire value chain, from the inventory to the detailed planning, the building and District conversion through to operational management in several joint projects: smoodPlan deals with (digital) district analysis and planning, for example using drones and thermal imaging cameras. Innovative heat development and storage are the focus of GeoHoP (star-shaped laying of horizontal geothermal probes using innovative drilling technology) and GeoHeatStorage (cost-effective geothermal heat storage in summer, recovery via heat pumps in winter). The EStorage joint project, in which the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS is playing a leading role, will provide a sustainable, safe and inexpensive sodium-nickel chloride “district battery” for the local storage of electricity that was generated, for example, by photovoltaic systems. In the smoodACT project, those involved develop, design and test, among other things, an energy management system for buildings and districts. »With smood® we have managed to develop a holistic system to make an important contribution to the substitution of fossil energies«, says Dr. Kersten Roselt, entrepreneurial spokesman for smood®. “We are starting with great developments such as drone-supported district planning, newly developed environmentally friendly electricity storage for the district, geothermal energy generation and heat storage under existing buildings as well as the intelligent and cost-minimised energy management system for the district.” Smart control of energy flows: smoodACTWith its many years of expertise in energy management systems, Fraunhofer IOSB coordinated -AST the sub-project smoodACT. On the one hand, the project is about evaluating the energy flows in districts that have already been renovated from an energy point of view and controlling them using algorithms in such a way that the energy is available where it can be used most sensibly: for example, electricity that comes from photovoltaics on a sunny day system is generated on the roof and is not used immediately, flow into an energy storage device, charge an e-mobile or operate a heat pump? Based on the data fed in, the energy management system is able to decide automatically how the available energy is best used depending on the needs and situation. In addition, however, existing systems must also be better adjusted and connected to the new components. The optimization enables efficient, ecological management with local resources. Prof. Bretschneider emphasizes: “Around 30 percent more local renewable energies can be used in buildings through intelligent control alone.” publicly. As of today, the overall concept of smood® can already be fully tested in real time in the laboratory. The next step is to be implemented via demonstration projects – i.e. real model districts. To this end, those involved are already in dialogue with private and municipal housing companies. There is a great deal of interest from the private sector and from the urban development side: “We think that we will see the first projects implemented in practice within the next four to five years,” says Prof. Bretschneider. Private companies are even considering founding their own energy companies. With such structures, energy flat rates for tenants could also be possible in the future. A model for the practical testing of models developed in the laboratory is the thematically similar Open District Hub with the participation of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft: the non-profit association is committed to a successful energy transition and the development of climate-neutral cities by using synergy effects in districts, for example in the generation of renewable energies or the coupling of the electricity, heat and mobility sectors. In order to be able to check the implementation of innovative solution concepts on the model, the Open District Hub is already working with reference districts that reflect the diversity of many different district types. The innovative solution approaches of the smood® consortium also arouse interest outside of Thuringia and Germany: inquiries from the USA and the Asian region. Prof. Bretschneider adds: »It was a special honor to be able to present smood® at the World Exhibition 2020 in Dubai.«

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EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and/or sentence structure not be perfect.

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