Research funding
In view of the energy transition, the energy supply in Germany is facing major changes. For conventional power plants this means new technological challenges. The main task in the future will be to achieve greater flexibility and improve partial and minimum load behaviour in order to support fluctuating renewable energies. This also includes fast start-up and shut-down speeds, greater fuel flexibility and suitable storage. In the Flexible Energy Conversion Research Network, experts in conventional power plant technology will in future be conducting research under one roof with experts in solar thermal power plants and CO2 technologies. Their expertise ranges from Power-to-X technologies and the material integration of gas into industrial products to sectoral coupling, for example with the transport sector.
As part of the applied energy research, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy is funding projects and schemes in all three areas: conventional power plants, solar thermal power plants as well as CO2 capture and recycling technologies. The “Research for an environmentally-friendly, reliable and affordable energy supply” funding announcement, which was issued by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy on 8th December 2014, details the research goals and topics under Item 3.4 “Solar thermal power plants” and Item 3.6 “Power plant technology and CO2 capturing and storage”.
