JARA-ENERGY - Research for a Secure Environmentally Friendly Energy Supply
JARA-ENERGY (Sustainable Energy Experiments) is dedicated to investigating sustainable, i.e. efficient, resource-conserving, environmentally compatible, and safe, energy production, use and optimization.
The more than 2,500 employees working at over 50 institutes within JARA-ENERGY are united by the objective of securing the future energy supply and mobility in an economically viable way and of thus protecting the environment and safeguarding the climate. The researchers do not restrict themselves to merely seeking possibilities for generating useful energy in a more climate-friendly way.
They are also working on low-loss techniques for transporting and storing energy and on energy technologies for cars and other mobile applications as well as the domestic energy supply.
Furthermore, the researchers are concerned with investigating cross-programme activities such as new materials, on which progress in energy technology often depends.
JARA-ENERGY employs numerous measures to link the wide range of expertise embodied in its members. New research fields are supported by seed funds. Junior professorships provide support for new topics in the fields of applied interface electrochemistry as well as energy resource and innovation economics. Large units of the electrical energy supply system, such as battery storage systems, electrolysers, wind energy converters, turbines, and direct current grids at various research institutes, are linked in a JARA facility as a demonstrator for a future decentralized energy supply, thus providing unique research and demonstration opportunities.
Activities at JARA-ENERGY are structured in three main pillars:
Systems – examination and optimization of energy systems
With its goals of investigating the availability, opportunities, and risks of technological developments in the energy system, JARA-ENERGY pursues the goal of making the future energy supply sustainable. JARA-ENERGY has the unique opportunity of bringing together experts from all fields of the energy supply – electricity, heat, gases, transport – as well as materials scientists engaged in basic research and thus to obtain a comprehensive overview of the energy supply system. In this way, it is possible to prepare holistic analyses and future options while also taking economic aspects and user acceptance into consideration.
Processes – focusing on process engineering and production methods
The central issue here is how it will be possible in future to produce energy carriers and chemical base materials exclusively from renewable energy sources. Possible fluctuations in current arising during electricity generation from wind and solar power could be compensated by new types of batteries functioning as storage systems in a decentralized power grid. Furthermore, the slogan “power-to-X” describes the investigation of conversion technologies enabling electricity to be converted into hydrogen, methane gas, and other chemicals and energy carriers.
Together with DECHEMA, scientists from RWTH Aachen University and Forschungszentrum Jülich are coordinating the large-scale project “Power-2-X” funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as one of four Kopernikus Energiewende projects selected for funding. For the storage and utilization of electrical energy from renewable sources, there are plans to develop new technologies and prepare them for market launch.
Materials – development and investigation of new materials for use in electricity generation and storage
It is not only storage media that require efficient materials, electricity generators do as well. Wind energy converters, solar installations, and power plants benefit from the new materials, which not only satisfy the requirements of the economy but are also perfectly adapted to the respective application. Power electronics, network components, thermal insulation materials, and new drilling technologies, for example for exploiting geothermal resources, are based on innovative and resource-conserving materials. Electrochemical energy storage systems represent a particular challenge. The scientists are working on developing new battery concepts and are investigating all aspects necessary for integrating batteries in such applications.
