German Renewables Award hails great energy transition ideas

Jan Rispens, Managing Director of EEHH, commented: “We are very pleased to see that stakeholders in the renewable energy sector have come up with such a great range of excellent ideas even in the era of corona. Digitalisation is playing an increasingly important role in our industry. A comprehensive energy transition can only succeed on the basis of a complete thermal transition. Hydrogen is another key technology in this regard. We are very positive about the future of renewable energies as this sector can provide impetus to the economy once the pandemic is over."

The Hamburg-based offshore wind farm operator, Global Tech I, won the award for the Product Innovation of the Year. The company has developed an application for digital, automated corrosion management in collaboration with its international engineering partner Semco Maritime. Drones film the affected areas and damaged sections are then detected and filtered. The programme generates the documentation and transfers it into a 3D representation. The system thus represents a life cycle record in the form of a 3D model. The team includes experts in digitalisation and artificial intelligence and is backed by the University of Aarlborg and the Energy Cluster Denmark.

The Project of the Year award went to eFarming GmbH und Co KG, an affiliated company of GP Joule, which had entered a concept for a modularly expandable hydrogen production and distribution network in North Frisia. Hydrogen is produced in five locations using wind power. It is then transported in mobile storage containers to two eFarm filling stations in Niebüll and Husum. The local use of electricity generated in the region raises the acceptance of renewable energies among the local population. 

The award for Student Work of the Year went to Nina Kicherer for her master's thesis at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg). Her work saw her develop a strategy for the “Long-term Transformation of Hamburg’s Heating Network” by 2050. To this end, she examined the available energy and waste heat sources as well as regional infrastructure requirements. Her findings now form the basis for recommendations on further ways of developing Hamburg’s heating network.

Reinhard Christiansen, a trained landscape master, is the brain behind the Ellehoved Wind Farm for which he scooped this year's Lifetime Achievement award. He and 28 fellow residents of Ellehoved, on the Danish border, put the wind farm into operation in June 2000 after many years of planning. Christiansen, who is very fond of the region, never misses an opportunity to promote renewable energies and encourages debate on the feeding, use and storage of energy in the coastal region. He is also managing director of several wind farms and companies in the renewable energy sector and began advocating repowering, i.e. replacing old wind turbines with new ones at an early stage. 

Stefan Hajek, a journalist with the weekly Wirtschaftswoche magazine, broke the amazing story of Markus Hörmann - a master electrician from Zusmarshausen near Augsburg -, and secured the Journalist Award 2020 for his endeavour. Hörmann's house is fed entirely with electricity and heat from hydrogen and photovoltaics – all year round and without any fossil fuels whatsoever. Hajek’s winning entry, “Totally independent? There you go!? ("Total unabhängig? Geht doch!“) about the Swabian inventor proved hugely popular among readers and sparked greater public interest in topics relating to the energy transition.

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