Insights into Research Field Energy
The Helmholtz Association aims to use ground-breaking research to tackle the great questions of our time. Here, we present projects currently being carried out by scientists at the Helmholtz Centres. The examples range from fundamental questions concerning the origin of matter to health research and the development of high performance functional materials.
Solar atlas for the Mediterranean region
Which countries can use solar energy reliably? A solar atlas that the DLR is creating together with international partners will provide answers to this question for theMediterranean region. Uncovering the cause of power loss in organic solar cells
Although organic solar cells can be manufactured with little energy, they produce only a fraction of the electrical power of crystalline silicon solar cells. Much of the current dissipates into the material.weiterlesen "Uncovering the cause of power loss in organic solar cells"
CO2 membranes for biogas
Biogas is one of the most important forms of renewable energy in Germany, but biogas plants have a CO2 problem: they produce a gas mixture that contains up to 40 percent CO2. Before biogas is fed into the gas grid, this CO2 must be removed.Plasma stability made to measure
As the buildings go up on the construction site in Cadarache in the south of France where the international ITER fusion test reactor will be housed, physicists around the world are fine-tuning the processes that will take place inside. As the precursor of a demonstration power plant, ITER will produce energy from the fusion of atomic nuclei – much like the sun. A vision of the future: partitioning & transmutation
About 1 percent of the spent fuel from nuclear power plants consists of plutonium, americium and other transuranic elements that must be isolated from the biosphere for hundreds of thousands of years. Separating these highly problematic elements from the spent fuel (partitioning) and converting them into shorter-lived or stable isotopes (transmutation) has so far been achieved only in the lab. weiterlesen "A vision of the future: partitioning & transmutation"
The Gross Schönebeck geothermal research platform: from reservoir to kilowatt hour
Led by Dr. Ernst Huenges, GFZ researchers at the International Centre of Geothermal Research are creating a unique research platform to study the feasibility, sustainability, environmental compatibility and economic efficiency of geothermal energy. Utilisation of this energy form in Germany requires much deeper wells than in the Earth’s volcanic regions.weiterlesen "The Gross Schönebeck geothermal research platform: from reservoir to kilowatt hour"
Archive
2010
Strong Parts from the Cold Furnace
Salt, Concrete and Compressed Air: Storage Systems Deliver Energy on Demand
Models for Energy from the Depth
2009
New cement saves energy and CO2
High temperature materials increase efficiency
Looking for the right material for ITER´s wall
2008
New solar cell technologies make solar power more economical
Microwaves stabilise the fusion plasma
Using solar heat in a wide variety of ways
2007
Entering new terrain in power station construction
Getting to the bottom of turbulence
Safety research with laser light
Heating for the fusion reactor
Optimising solar cells an cutting their production costs
Protective films for high-temperature components

