The building and transportation sectors are still lagging behind when it comes to the energy transition. Start-up Ampeers Energy, housing company Vonovia, and several Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research institutes (UMSICHT, FIT and IOSB) now plan to demonstrate how a decentralized neighborhood energy supply can be profitably combined with e-mobility, in a pilot project funded to the tune of 6.2 million euros by the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The three-year ODH@Bochum-Weitmar project will involve the partners testing innovative business models in which the electricity, heating and mobility sectors are interconnected. In the future, this neighborhood in Bochum-Weitmar will be home to an intelligent, self-learning energy management system which will ensure that the right energy is made available in the right place and at the right time – at electric charging stations, as domestic electricity for local residents, or in the form of heat. A key focus of the R&D project is the electrical integration of charging for e-vehicles, in particular vehicle fleets such as those used by car sharing schemes or tradespeople.
Ampeers Energy, a spin-off of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, will use its cloud-based software solutions to intelligently control how the e-vehicles are charged. This should make the operation of neighborhood e-fleets profitable, and more commercially attractive than using vehicles powered by fossil fuels. An earlier project along the same lines showed it is possible to reduce the operating costs of a fleet vehicle driving 15,000 km annually by 750 euros each year.
For more information, please visit: Ampeers Energy
