The goal of the DIGI-PV project is to reduce barriers for the widespread use of PV technology to harness a significantly larger area of building facades for energy utilization, with a focus on existing buildings. Current obstacles include complex planning processes for BIPV facades and the non-automated and consequently costly production of BIPV modules. To address this, automated processes and tools are being developed to empower planners, producers, and users to implement efficient and cost-effective processes throughout multiple phases of the product life cycle. These range from methods for highly automated capture, digitization, classification, and structuring of existing building surfaces to the development of digital twins of buildings, automated design of BIPV modules for optimal use of building surfaces, and procedures for automated production planning and optimization for sustainable production of PV facade elements. In this subproject, the conditions for the automated design of PV facades and the processes for the resulting bills of materials and product details for the manufactured PV modules are being developed. For the production of PV modules, the interactions between process parameters and the characteristics of cell strings and PV modules are determined to achieve the best possible quality, with a particular focus on short commissioning times for modified processes. Adapted and flexible characterization methods and AI-based procedures for their evaluation are being developed. The project's developments will be transferred to a flexible research line, evaluated in operation, and demonstrated through a real BIPV facade.

• Leibniz Universität Hannover (Institut für Montagetechnik)
• Institut für Solarenergieforschung in Hameln
• albert.ing GmbH
• Viscoda GmbH
• Flachglas Sülzfeld GmbH

01.07.2023 to 30.06.2026

The DIGI-PV project is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection under the funding code 03EE1187D.

Green hydrogen and other green energy sources are elementary for achieving the goal of a climate-neutral economy in Germany by 2045. In this context, the development of a hydrogen economy holds great opportunities for Lower Saxony as a business location. However, there is a considerable need for advice in the field of H2, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and municipalities in rural areas. H2-FEE addresses the question of how SMEs and rural areas can be supported in profitably establishing a green hydrogen economy. How do the partners benefit economically from this and what key elements are necessary for this?

In the project, the project partners Nefino, EnergieSynergie, the Institute of Solid State Physics and the Institute of Environmental Planning are jointly developing an Open-WebGIS platform that combines the interdisciplinary knowledge of the consortium partners in a holistic approach and allows customised GIS-based services to profitably serve the needs of companies and municipalities. This will enable small, decentralised players in Lower Saxony to be quickly supported in the development of green hydrogen-based and green gas business models in the future.

At the Institute of Solid State Physics, regional market potentials for hydrogen and synthetic green gases for various future scenarios of the energy system are being determined with the Energy System Analysis funds. These potentials form an important basis in the Open-WebGIS for the evaluation of successful green gas business models in rural areas. These data are supplemented by know-how of the project partners, especially on potentials for the production of green hydrogen and green gases as well as on (re)use options for already existing infrastructures.

• Leibniz Universität Hannover (Institut für Umweltplanung)
• EnergieSynergie GmbH
• Nefino GmbH

01.07.2022 to 30.06.2025

The project is funded by the Investitions- und Förderbank Niedersachsen (NBank) within the framework of the Lower Saxony Hydrogen Guideline.

Will hydrogen be the solution to climate neutrality in the aviation industry? As promising as the approach is, the challenges facing the aviation industry in implementing it are also great. The project "HyNEAT - Hydrogen Supply Networks' Evolution for Air Transport" is researching supply networks for hydrogen-powered aviation. The focus is on green hydrogen and its cost-effective production and transport.

Propulsion systems based on green hydrogen for larger commercial aircraft are a promising alternative for climate-friendly aviation. Only if the hydrogen is produced from renewable energies can its use contribute to climate protection. In addition to the need to develop new propulsion systems and aircraft concepts, one of the greatest challenges is the establishment of a corresponding hydrogen infrastructure that enables competitive costs for the operation of the new types of aircraft. This is where the HyNEAT project comes in and investigates whether and in which countries renewable energies will be sufficiently available in the future and where international supply relationships should be established. The aim is to identify global and local potentials for the cost-effective production of green hydrogen for aviation. Particular attention is also paid to ensuring that this also takes place in harmony with the overall energy transition and design of aviation networks.

The Solar working group of the FKP is taking on two tasks in HyNEAT: with the help of ESTRAM, the effects of hydrogen use at airport locations on regional energy systems are to be analysed. In addition, ESTRAM will be used to identify hydrogen supply options in a networked transforming energy system in Europe.

• Science: Leibniz Universität Hannover (Institut für Elektrische Energiesysteme und Institut für Umweltökonomik und Welthandel), TU Braunschweig, TU Clausthal, TU Hamburg, ISFH
• Industry:  Airbus, Deutsche Aircraft, MTU Aero Engines, Lufthansa Group, Deutsches Luft- und Raumfahrtzentrum, Flughafen Hamburg GmbH, Flughafen München GmbH sowie FMO Flughafen Münster/Osnabrück GmbH, Linde GmbH, Siemens Energy, EWE, der Afrika-Verein der deutschen Wirtschaft und McKinsey & Company

01.05.2022 to 31.04.2025

The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The "H2-Wegweiser Niedersachsen" examines how a hydrogen-based energy system of the future can be concretely designed in Lower Saxony, which technical variants are advantageous and what influence legal, ecological and economic aspects have. The result is a closed and holistic methodology for the conception and evaluation of combinable storage, transport, conversion and utilisation processes, which can be used to concretise Lower Saxony's hydrogen implementation strategy.

For this purpose, the individual phases of the hydrogen chain will be considered by model approaches at different levels of detail and analysed and evaluated with regard to the above-mentioned aspects. For this purpose, the project deals with the different aspects of a hydrogen economy on three levels of content: The technical level answers questions on the underground storage of hydrogen in cavern and pore storage facilities as well as on the conversion of hydrogen into hydrocarbons and ammonia. The socio-ecological level deals with environmental impacts and ecological assessments. Another important aspect is the question of the legal framework for hydrogen plants in the energy sector. The system level then summarises the results, puts them into a temporal and spatial context by means of scenario analyses and shows which business models are both economically viable and ecologically sensible.

All investigations take into account the special boundary conditions that predestine Lower Saxony for a pioneering role in the development of a hydrogen economy, and can draw on intensive support from a large number of industrial practice partners.

• Institut für Solarenergieforschung (ISFH)
• Leibniz Universität Hannover (Institut für Elektrische Energiesysteme und Institut für Umweltplanung)
• Clausthaler Umwelttechnik Forschungszentrum (CUTEC)
• Technische Universität Clausthal (Institut für Aufbereitung, Recycling und Kreislaufwirtschaftssysteme, Institut für deutsches und internationales Berg- und Energierecht, Institut für Endlagerforschung und Institut für Chemische und Elektrochemische Verfahrenstechnik)

01.05.2021 to 30.04.2024

The project is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) as part of the Hydrogen Technology Science Alliance: Innovation Laboratories for Hydrogen Technologies.

The weather station at the Appelstr./Schneiderberg site records solar irradiance (global, diffuse and direct) as well as air temperature, wind speed and direction. These data are needed as input parameters for the simulation of photovoltaic (PV) energy yields and are to be used as part of a future course in which students learn how to carry out PV yield simulations by calculating the energy yields of the university's neighbouring PV plant and comparing them with the yields actually achieved. To improve the data basis, another weather station of identical construction was also put into operation at the ISFH in Emmerthal at the beginning of 2022.

01.04.2021 to 31.03.2023

The project is funded by study quality funds (climate protection and sustainability) and by institute funds.

01.03.2020 to 31.07.2020

The project is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture and the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection.