???aural:Bildanfang??????Großansicht des Bildes???© Daarom/pixelio.de???aural:Bildende???

The new funding concept “Basic Energy Research 2020+” of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) pursues a broad interdisciplinary approach. It focuses on basic, long-term research projects for the development of new technological options. The aims include highly-efficient energy generation, transformation and storage.

One focus is the development of next-generation technologies in the area of renewable energies, such as thin-film photovoltaics, the transformation of biomass for energy and solar, biomimetic hydrogen production, or the development of technologies for the storage of CO2 from coal power plants. According to a recent study by McKinsey, this technology is irreplaceable. It is the only way in which CO2 emissions from power plants and other point sources can be intercepted on a big scale. Energy research conducted by the Helmholtz Association plays an important role in this context.

The BMBF’s funding measure “Bioenergy 2021 – Research for the Use of Biomass” was taken up on the recommendation of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). In its expert opinion issued in December 2008, the Council came to the conclusion that biomass will be able to cover ten percent of the world’s energy needs in the medium term.