Annual report on German funding of research into renewable energy

For the first time, the German Federal Ministry of the Environment (BMU) has published an annual report on the funding of research in the area of renewable energy technologies. According to the report, in 2004 the BMU allocated EUR 60 million to R&D focusing mainly on photovoltaics, wind and geothermal energy.

Facts and Figures

Close to 30% of the funds were for research in photovoltaics, 21% focused on wind energy, 19.7% on geothermal energy, and 17,3% on solar thermal power plants. The rest was devoted to low-temperature solar-thermal technologies and other innovative technologies. However, these figures only reflect the priorities of the year 2004. The average figures for the period 2001-2004 show that a total of 46.6% of research funding was allocated to photovoltaics, 20% to wind energy and 13.4% to geothermal energy.

The main goals of federal research funding in the area of renewable energy are:

• to reduce costs
• to ensure a sustainable and environmentally-friendly development
• to facilitate a rapid transfer of research results into practical applications
• to rapidly integrate renewable energy into distribution systems
• to ensure jobs and encourage innovation

The BMU has two research projects selected for financing, managed by: the Association of German Engineers (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure VDI/VDE), that focuses on solar-thermal power plants, and the Research Centre Jülich (Projektträger Jülich PTJ), who coordinates projects for the other forms of energy-related research.

The Research Network Solar Energy (Forschungsverbund Sonnenenergie FVS)

The FVS is a research network of eight non-university research institutions, who cover, between themselves, almost all aspects of renewable energy technologies. Their experts cooperate in identifying priority areas for research and provide the Federal Government with a basis for future policy decisions. With a combined staff of over 1000, the institutes represent ca. 80% of the German research capacity in the renewables area. Their strategy for 2005 is to focus on photovoltaics (34% of research capacities), fuel cells and hydrogen (29%), systems technologies and network management (11%), solar thermal power plants and solar building (14%), biomass, geothermal energy, wind and marine energy (12%).

The eight members of the FVS are:

• The German Aerospace Centre in Cologne (DLR, http://www.dlr.de)
• The Research Centre Jülich (FZJ, http://www.fz-juelich.de)
• The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg (ISE, http://www.ise.fraunhofer.de)
• The National Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam (GFZ, http://www.gfz-potsdam.de)
• The Hahn-Meitner Institute in Berlin (HMI, http://www.hmi.de )
• The Institute for Solar Energy Research Hameln (ISFH, http://www.isfh.de)
• The Institute for Solar Energy System Technologies in Kassel (ISET, http://www.iset.uni-kassel.de)
• The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research in Stuttgart (ZSW, http://www.zsw-bwm.de)

Further information on energy research and individual projects is available on the Internet pages of the BMU at http://www.bmu.de and http://erneuerbare-energien.de. The project managers of the BMU are the Research Centre Jülich (http://www.fz-juelich.de/ptj/) and the VDI (http://www.pt-solar.de). The website of the FVS Network Solar Energy is at http://www.FV-sonnenenergie.de (in German only, but provides very good links to all energy research financing agencies in Germany).