Sustainability

In accordance with Fraunhofer’s guiding principles, we consider it our mission to make our business operations more sustainable. Addressing the classic pillars of sustainability - namely economic security, social justice and ecological viability - enables our institute to shape the future with foresight and accountability. In cooperation and dialog with employees and with other Fraunhofer institutes in the Fraunhofer Sustainability Network we examine topics and generate new ideas to improve our internal processes and our research with the goal of sustainable development.

The use of wind energy and photovoltaics allows us to operate our main campus with a decreasing carbon footprint. This campus comprises over 100 laboratories, pilot plants and test centers on 20 hectares of land in Pfinztal, near Karlsruhe. Our research strategy enables us to combine research and development work in the energy sector with large-scale demonstrators on our campus.

In our Redox-Flow Battery Application Center, we are developing new battery components on a medium and large scale within our own microgrid environment on the campus. Our integrated research battery - a vanadium redox-flow battery - has a capacity of 6 MWh. Since 2018, it has been directly connected, on the direct current side, to a 2 MW wind turbine that towers over the campus. Since summer 2023 it has also been connected to an approx. 3,300 m² photovoltaic system with an output of 690 kWp. The combination of wind and solar energy ensures improved stability and greater predictability of the energy supply on site.

Our campus serves as a field test for the independent energy supply of communities or industrial areas using renewable sources. The combination of wind power, photovoltaics and the large-scale battery researched at the institute provides important insights into the design and operation of micro-grids.

The campus grid has additional components: a 400 kW combined heat and power plant, a 900 kW supercap for short-term reserves to stabilize the grid, and energy consumers in the form of chemistry laboratories, pilot plants and office buildings.

Our research in this area aims to achieve significant cost reductions and improve the technical safety and resilience of components, for an affordable and safe energy transition.

From 2017 to mid-2024, our wind turbine achieved around 37,400 operating hours, which corresponds to an annual capacity utilization of around 60%. During this period it produced 12.8 GWh of electricity, around 85% of which was used by the institute itself. The remaining 15%, or 1.9 GWh, was fed into the public grid. This is enough to meet the electricity demand of 70 four-person households for seven years. With the commissioning of the new PV system in late 2023, we significantly increased our energy production once again, and now cover around two thirds of our electricity requirements from wind and sun.

For 2025/26 we are planning the further expansion of our photovoltaic and energy storage systems in order to approach our goal of a CO₂-neutral site. The campus still has some catching up to do where the heating transition is concerned. Every year we generate around 2 GWh of heat using a natural-gas-powered CHP unit, while the remaining 1.5 GWh is generated by gas boilers and oil heating. Over the next few years, the focus will be on optimizing our heating requirements, particularly in the area of power-to-heat, and expanding our local heating network.

Our numerous sustainability-related projects are not just about improving our image, but are increasingly becoming a decisive economic factor. Research fields include energy efficiency improvements in the mobility and construction sectors, recycling of material flows, sustainable product design, defossilization of chemical processes, sustainable material and energy cycles, use of renewable raw materials, substitution of critical materials, and comprehensive life-cycle analyses for example in the aviation industry.