Research Projects

Heat pumps are an effective solution for reducing energy consumption and the environmental impact of buildings, and for introducing renewable energy into the heat supply. However, the actual efficiency of heat pumps in practice does not always meet expectations. In addition to high occurring heat losses, the energy efficiency is reduced by an inappropriate system design, by misparameterization of the heat pump control and by undetected operating deficits. Therefore, the subject of the "AI4HP" project is the development of a new generation of "intelligent heat pumps", which adaptively adjust to changing boundary conditions with the help of artificial neural networks and thus increase energy efficiency while maintaining user comfort. | Duration: 09/2021 - 08/2024

The construction sector is one of the most relevant areas when it comes to saving energy and reducing emissions. In this industry, large international companies coexist with SMEs, which account for 92 percent of the market. Although they represent 9 percent of the GDP of the European Union, digitalization in this sector exists only to a limited extent. In this context, the EU-funded project BIM4REN aims at the development and demonstration of user-friendly Building Information Modeling (BIM) tools and services in the field of building refurbishment and renewal. The project brings together 23 stakeholders from research institutes, universities, and small and large industrial companies in the construction sector. | Duration: 10/ 2018 - 09/2022

In the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) trade, consultation, stocktaking, planning and preparation of offers are very time-consuming processes, especially when upgrading existing systems. Each system must be individually configured and adapted to the technical conditions of the building and the habits of the users. This is especially true for complex and sustainable systems, such as heat pumps, fuel cells and solar-assisted hybrid systems. | Duration: 09/2021 - 08/2024

The heating and cooling supply systems of buildings are usually documented in schematics. These documents contain important information about the topology and the components of the systems that are useful for designers, building managers, and technical monitoring service providers along the complete building life cycle. However, these schematics are often only available in paper form, as CAD or pdf files and the information that they contain is almost not accessible digitally. This situation makes the data collection tedious and hampers the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of refurbishment or a technical monitoring projects. | Duration: 01/2023 - 12/2025

The digitalization of the building sector is a central element for reaching the energy transformation goals. In this project, we aim at establishing an integral systematic for linking the domains building services engineering and building information modelling (BIM) in order to safely achieve highly energy-efficient buildings. Within the project we demonstrate the developed approaches in the planning and operation phase of a real plus-energy building. | Duration: 12/2018 - 11/2021

It is the goal of the project to demonstrate new heating and cooling technologies within 3 case studies, one at a commercial compound and two at industry case studies. Additionally, new solutions to increase the energy efficiency within the buildings will be evaluated. With this project, the efficient coupling of electricity, heat and cooling will be demonstrated and thereby the untapped flexibility potential in the commercial sector as well as industry sector will be developed. To reach this goal, operation models will be developed, which will help to converge the commercial as well as industry sector to the power economy. Additionally, the identified flexibilities within building sector will be embedded in a regional energy system model, to develop strategies, how to increase the linkage between the energy system and commercial and industry compounds. | Duration: 10/2017 - 01/2021

As part of the “FoFeBat” project, a research production facility for battery cells is being set up. This covers all production steps from mixing the electrode materials to forming the cells. In sub-project 1, Fraunhofer ISE is supporting the development of research production in areas such as forming and end-of-line quality assurance as well as in the fields of energy-efficient building operation management, dry room design and the techno-economic evaluation of operating scenarios. In sub-project 2, Fraunhofer ISE is involved in technology screening for future innovation modules and the development of the pipeline process for their implementation. In sub-project 3, Fraunhofer ISE is planning and setting up a mini-environment test stand that will enable investigations into optimized air flow and energy-optimized operation. | Duration: 10/2019 - 12/2027

Technical monitoring (TMon) can reduce the energy consumption of buildings by up to 20%. However, a shortage of skilled workers and manual steps are slowing down widespread implementation. In the R&D project ‘GraphEET’, Fraunhofer ISE and Offenburg University of Applied Sciences are working with industry partners to develop a data-based TMon workflow. The aim is to develop hybrid AI methods for the recognition of data points and plant topologies and to map the recognised objects and structures in digital twins as knowledge graphs. This should enable test templates, fault diagnoses and mobile measurement tasks to be applied automatically. | Duration: 07/2025 - 06/2028

Project in the Business Area Building Energy Technology; Topic: Energy Concepts and Building Performance Optimization; Duration: September 2015 - August 2019

Around 57% of the end energy demand in Germany is used as heat, of which a good half is for space heating, and slightly less than 40% and 10% are for process heat and domestic hot water respectively. Around 15% of the German electricity demand is used for cooling processes, mainly in the industrial sector. Thus, heating and cooling applications are decisive contributors to the emissions of greenhouse gases related to energy consumption. The central questions of our analysis are therefore: Which combination of reduced consumption, increased efficiency in conversion chains and application of renewable energy is recommended to reach the goals set for heating and cooling applications concerning climate protection? And which package of political measures will yield the envisaged results? | Duration: 05/2010 - 10/2013