Offshore wind power: getting the electricity from the sea to the mountains

Energy storage: the BMWi looks to efficiency in research and development

The German Government stipulates the objectives and priorities of its energy research policy and the relevant support mechanisms in a multiannual energy research programme. The BMWi is responsible for the programmatic orientation of German energy research policy and the programme.

Reliable prospects: The BMWi not only addresses the relevant issues of the future, but also ensures that a sense of proportion is maintained, as well as focusing on questions like efficient planning and reasonable costs. This includes calculations of economic viability, whereby a separate and reliable cost-benefit analysis has to be drawn up for each project.

New research alliances: The BMWi is engaged in additional research activities aimed at ensuring that the future use of offshore wind power is economically viable in a broad sense.For example, the BMWi is promoting the new "electricity storage" research priority via numerous industrial projects, e.g. devoted to the development and construction of adiabatic compressed air energy storage facilities.

This approach is not only significantly more efficient, but has the additional advantage that it can store heat in a compressed air container for renewed feeding into the power grid.The storage of surplus power in underground caverns can offset substantial fluctuations between supply and demand in the grid.Targeted research activities thus make an important contribution towards future energy security and the modernisation of power grids and energy systems.