Around 115,000 people visited the Solar Decathlon Europe competition in Wuppertal in summer 2022. International student teams have presented concepts for climate-friendly buildings in urban environments. Many findings can now be further used in research and practice.

Photovoltaic thermal systems can generate electricity and heat with solar energy. Funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, researchers have optimised this system in three ways.

In the future, households are to be increasingly supplied with district heating, according to the federal government's wish. For this to be possible in the long term, heat pipes must be maintained. A team in the "FW-Liner" project has investigated how these can be renovated in a resource-saving way.

Ensuring a sustainable supply of electricity and heat in cities requires an overarching view of all energy-producing and -consuming sectors. In selected districts in Jena, experts will demonstrate how energy producers, storage systems, and consumers can be intelligently linked.

Getting started in energy management is difficult for many small and medium-sized enterprises. High investment costs and a lack of expertise inhibit implementation. A research team wants to change that and is developing a modular and thus cost-effective approach tailored to SMEs.

Where military exercises used to take place, an energy-efficient, grid-serving new development district is being built in Giessen. The centerpiece of the district will be a newly developed hybrid storage system that can store heat up to 1200° Celsius and feed it back into the grid.

Grey emissions can be measured and limited more effectively: researchers in the KEA-Bauwerk project are developing basic principles and tools to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions in the life cycle of buildings. They are identifying practical data and benchmarks, for example.

German and Finnish researchers have investigated ways in which heating networks can benefit from intelligent building technology. Thanks to simulations and a project, they have shown that intelligent heat consumers on the user side can have a positive impact on the entire network.

Built in 1955 in the Au-Haidhausen district of Munich, a residential complex comprising four 3- or 5-storey buildings with basements and an unconverted attic was in need of refurbishment. The 149 existing apartments with either two, three, or four rooms ranged between 40 m² and 65 m² in size.

Geothermal collectors and solar collectors can be combined as bivalent heat sources for heat pumps. This promises some advantages. In this research project the system behavior was examined in more detail.

The new building for Willibald Gluck Secondary School in Neumarkt in Upper Palatinate, Germany, has provided a new learning and living space for 1,400 pupils since August 2015. The four-storey building with two interior atria and 65 classrooms is supplemented by a triple court sports hall.

With this research project, corrosion processes are being investigated in heating and cooling systems. In addition to laboratory tests, a field test is also being conducted where real buildings will be evaluated in energy terms.