Markus Friedl, Prof. Dr.

For once, the IET is not working on a renewable energy or energy efficiency project, but one that could save lives in the future.

How can long-haul road transport in Europe reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and meet the European targets? With battery-electric trucks, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles or with trucks with internal combustion engines powered by renewable methane or e-fuels? In a European partnership, the IET shows synergies between these new technologies.

The "GreenHub" project is one of a total of eight large-scale flagship projects of the Swiss Innovation Agency (Innosuisse). Together with 16 research partners, the consortium led by OST is pursuing a clear goal: the development of systemic and innovative approaches for the production, conversion and storage of renewable energy into environmentally friendly liquid fuels using raw materials supplied, for example, by waste incineration plants.

How can long-haul road transport in Europe reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and meet the European targets? With battery-electric trucks, hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles or with trucks with internal combustion engines powered by renewable methane or e-fuels? In a European partnership, the IET shows synergies between these new technologies.

Switzerland has decided that all vehicles and equipment used in the operational maintenance of national roads must be powered by renewable energy by 2050. This project is investigating what options are available.

The Swiss Competence Center for Energy Research Heat and Electricity Storage (SCCER HaE) has been dedicated to researching storage in the energy system since 2014. The SCCER HaE is supervised by Innosuisse - Swiss Innovation Agency.

The EU project Pentagon involved ten institutions from academic research and industry from five European countries, and run from 2016 to 2020.

The STORE&GO project is being carried out from 2016 to 2020 and is part of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research framework program. The project involves 27 institutions from research and industry from six European countries. In STORE&GO, research focuses on the technical, economic and legal framework conditions for the use of power-to-methane.

Today, Switzerland covers around three quarters of its energy needs through imports. The upcoming energy transition is leading to uncertainty about future energy supplies and a desire to make greater use of domestic energy sources. However, renewable resources such as biomass are only available to a limited extent. Against this background, the project "Carbon Flows in the Energy Transition" was launched at the Institute for Energy Technology IET. Together with EPFL in Sion, the IET investigated the various energy and carbon sources in Switzerland. Among other things, the research project shows that CO2 levies of between 400 and 700 francs per tonne of CO2 are necessary to bring about a shift away from fossil to renewable energy sources.

Theoretical studies had shown that power-to-gas plants can make a decisive contribution to the conversion of the energy supply from fossil to renewable energy sources. The IET is putting this theory into practice and thus making a decisive contribution to the maturation and deployment of the technology.