With the projects "Kopernikus-Projekte für die Energiewende", the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting four main fields of the transformation process of the energy system, which are:
- development of the electricity grid (ENSURE),
- storage of surplus energy from renewable sources through converting it into other energy sources (P2X),
- reframing of industrial processes to adjust them to the fluctuating supply of power (SynEegie), and
- connecting different sectors within the energy system (ENavi).
The Wuppertal Institute is taking part in the last three of the above mentioned four Kopernikus projects, which are part of the programme "Forschung für eine umweltschonende, zuverlässige und bezahlbare Energieversorgung".
Aim of the Kopernikus project "P2X" is to work out solutions for the industrial lead markets energy, transportation/mobility and chemistry. It is aiming to demonstrate and implement ways to use renewable energy for an economical production of substantial energy carriers and chemical products while being also timely flexible and in agreement with social needs. The project is currently in the first stage of funding where the focus is on the whole value chain from electric energy to substantial energy carriers and products. After working out new technological developments, they are meant to gain industrial maturity within ten years.
A consortium consisting of 48 partners (18 research institutes, 27 industrial companies and 3 organisations of civil society) is working on these research questions, coordinated by the Institute of Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry (ITMC) at RWTH Aachen, the Institute of Energy and Climate Research at Research Institute Jülich and the Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology (DECHEMA, Frankfurt).
The research team of the Research Group Future Energy and Mobility Structures at Wuppertal Institute mainly works within research cluster A3 (research on high temperature co-electrolyses to produce synthesis gas), where it analyses system integration and social acceptance. This contains, for example, the identification of requirements for a flexible use of the high temperature co-electrolyses from the perspective of the electricity system and of available as well suited CO2 sources as well as an evaluation of possible applications for the synthesis gas. Moreover, the team will analyse the perception of new technologies of multipliers in economy and society. In addition, it is working on project-overlapping roadmaps, wich help to monitor the development of technologies. Part of that is constructing and tuning valuation indicators, data, scenarios, and technology profiles.