The real laboratories for the energy transition are a new funding pillar in the energy research program of the federal government. Companies can try out real operation of new technologies in various regions and analyze the interactions with the energy system and society in collaboration with scientific and research partners.

The Ministry for Economic Affairs has now announced the 20 winners of the ideas competition launched in February, for which a total of 90 project proposals were submitted, covering fields such as “large-scale energy stores in the electricity sector” and “energy-optimized neighborhoods”. At the heart of the projects are sector coupling and hydrogen , “as it is low in CO2 and generates very few greenhouse gases, if any at all. We want to be number 1 in the world when it comes to hydrogen technologies,” emphasized Federal Minister of Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier in his description of the innovative technologies while presenting the winners.