September 6th, 2024
Summer tour: Science Minister Petra Olschowski visits HIU
What comes after the lithium-ion battery? How can the energy transition be successfully implemented? How many and what type of battery storage systems does the country need? Researchers at the University of Ulm and the Helmholtz Institute Ulm are investigating these questions. This is where the energy storage systems of the future are being made from sustainable materials. Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Science Petra Olschowski was able to see this for herself on Friday, September 6th: As part of her summer tour under the motto “How do we want to live together in the future?” she visited the University of Ulm and the HIU and spoke to employees and young researchers.
Wissenschaftsministerin Petra Olschowski vom @mwk__de hat heute die #uulm sowie @HelmholtzUlm besucht. Sie informierte sich über den aktuellen Stand der Batterieforschung auf unserem Green Energy Campus🌱🔋 https://t.co/jKq2QgwJO8 *cl 📷 Elvira Eberhardt / Uni Ulm pic.twitter.com/YdbOS308ut
— Universität Ulm (@uni_ulm) September 6, 2024
Reliable electrical storage systems such as batteries and efficient energy conversion systems such as fuel cells are key to the energy transition. Science Minister Petra Olschowski gained a wide range of insights into research into the energy storage systems of the future on Friday during her visit to the University of Ulm and the Helmholtz Institute Ulm (HIU). The first stop was the university’s Senate Hall, where Vice President Professor Michael Kühl welcomed the minister and Professors Axel Groß and Maximilian Fichtner presented research into electrochemical energy storage systems in the science city.
The focus was particularly on work on sustainable battery materials at the HIU and in the Post Lithium Storage POLiS Cluster of Excellence, the first and only nationwide cluster of excellence for battery research, for which the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Ulm have just submitted a continuation application. “The development of innovative energy storage systems is of great importance for the success of the energy transition. Ulm’s science city has developed into an internationally visible beacon of energy research: In this research environment, the urgently needed energy storage and converters of the future are being created with the development goal of sustainability and recyclability,” said Science Minister Petra Olschowski. “I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the University of Ulm, KIT and their strong partners for the continuation application for the unique battery excellence cluster. The country will also continue to support energy and battery research to the best of its ability.”
More than 30 years of experience in basic research
The head of the Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, Professor Axel Groß, stressed that it is not a given that Ulm is now playing in the Champions League when it comes to electrochemical energy storage: In the 1990s, electrochemistry was considered old-fashioned – but the University of Ulm expanded it anyway. Today, it benefits from more than 30 years of basic research and occupies an exceptional position in Europe. With around 500 employees, Ulm is also the largest location in Germany in this field, added Professor Maximilian Fichtner. The managing director of the HIU not only named the previous successes of the POLiS Cluster of Excellence, but also explained the goals for the requested second funding period. In the future, research will no longer focus on individual components, but on the full cell. And Ulm is to become the world’s leading post-lithium battery research center. A decisive factor for this is the interdisciplinary cooperation: with the KIT and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) as well as with the Ulm location of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) within the framework of the HIU and the CELEST network. Minister Olschowski then visited several laboratories at the Helmholtz Institute Ulm and talked to young scientists and employees.
The minister’s visit also focused on the excellence activities of the University of Ulm, which is not only applying for the aforementioned continuation of POLiS, but also for another excellence cluster: With “Chem4Quant”, a joint initiative of KIT, the University of Ulm and the University of Stuttgart, an interdisciplinary team from chemistry and physics as well as from computer and materials sciences wants to develop atomically precise material structures for future quantum technologies. “We are very pleased about the support of our excellence activities by the minister,” said Vice President Professor Michael Kühl. “Through outstanding research on the pressing issues of our time, as we conduct it at the University of Ulm, we are securing the future viability of our region.”
Further information, text and media contact:
Christine Liebhardt, Head of Press and Public Relations at Ulm University, email: christine.liebhardt(at)uni-ulm.de, phone: (0731) 22121
https://hiu-batteries.de/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/PE-Sommertour-2024_-Ulm.pdf
