The price of the German gas industry stands out this year with the device manufacturer Ceramic Fuel Cells, the car company Audi and the Berlin design office Project Plan GmbH three companies show the prospects for gas in the renewable energy world.
Endowed with 20 000 euros first prize in the category of research and development, the Association for the Efficient and environmentally friendly energy consumption (ASUE) bestowed on the German-Australian company Ceramic Fuel Cells (CFC) BlueGen for its fuel cell CHP.
Those produced in Heinsberg near Aachen appliances natural gas or biogas is converted with high efficiency and low emission power and heat. The micro CHP (1.5 kW electrical and 0.6 kW thermal output) achieve efficiencies up to 60% electric and 85% overall.
The devices have to manufacturer shown in more than one million hours of operation their practicality and were "put to the acid test" was how presenter Walter Thielen, manager of energy-related trade association DVGW said at the awards ceremony on 27 November in Berlin.
Overall, the company has in the ending year produced 200 units and installed about 100 of them in Germany. The municipal utility network Trianel uses BlueGen generators for a virtual power plant. The fuel cell technology "can compete with the efficiencies of modern combined cycle power plants," said CFC CEO Frank Obernitz Germany.
The prize, worth EUR 15 000 award in the category Planning received the Berlin design office Project Plan GmbH for extending a borehole cooling an engineering operation in Müncheberg in Berlin through a combination of cogeneration (CHP; 100 kW electric, 138 kW thermal) and an absorption chiller . The heat generated in the CHP is used to power the refrigeration unit of electricity is used in the enterprise. The current cooling can now be used for air conditioning of 1 200 m 2 production hall. The energy costs are lower by about 80 000 euros compared to a conventional cooling system. "This is Enegiewende make active," said Managing Director Anke Tuschek from energy industry association BDEW.
Rewarded equally with EUR 15 000 in category environmentally friendly mobility, the project "e-gas" and the new Audi A3 with natural gas drive the car manufacturer Audi, the CO was wants to demonstrate 2-neutral mobility and a closed CO2 cycle. This e-gas for the natural gas car is "green gas", which is produced in the power-to-gas process. To wind and solar power will be converted to a system currently under development in Lower Saxony Werlte by electrolysis into hydrogen and processed in a further step with CO 2 from the power generator Biogsanlage EWE on the same site to synthetic natural gas.
Efficient technology for home and car industry
This will be fed into the natural gas grid and passed to CNG filling stations. In the first year, about 1 500 Audi cars are fueled with natural gas, e-gas. "The e-gas project is for the future of natural gas mobility," Timm Kehler, CEO of natural gas praises mobil GmbH, which coordinates the retail business of the German gas supplier.
"If we want to achieve the desired climate targets, we need to use consistently in all areas of the energy use of the existing potential", also expressed ASUE President Ludwig Möhring his appreciation for the award winners. He believes that in the context of the energy change too much discussed current and low on energy efficiency or the heat market. Möhring also criticized, full-time sales manager of the gas importer Wingas that climate change had been in the energy revolution discussion pushed too far into the background.
Discussions would be more on the reduction of CO 2 emissions and inexpensive ways for it, so he hopes gas could find a stronger role in the energy revolution.
Great hope of political support for such ambitions, he should not be done. The extent to which natural gas in the future for use come, was "not a matter of a political decision, but is determined by the market," said Detlef Dauke, Head of Energy Policy at the Federal Ministry of Economics. Dauke keeps gas but for a discontinued model in the heating market, but looks quite new possibilities in the electricity generation and transport.
The € 50 000 prize, the two-year rhythm verliehende price the German gas industry is supported by ADAC, BDEW, DVGW, the German Energy Agency (dena) and mobile natural gas. The ASUE, composed of 47 gas providers who see the promotion of environmentally friendly technologies required based on natural gas was awarded the prize for the 17th Time
