More than 20 participants from industry, research and public institutions discussed sustainability and renewable energies on November 26, 2018. At the start of the event, the participants were given a guided tour through the technical plant of the Fraunhofer Project Group Materials Recycling and Resource Strategies IWKS at the Alzenau site to gain an impression of the research work of the project group. The technology systems such as the modular sorting system, the electrohydraulic shredding system or the SEM laboratory gave interested parties the opportunity to find out about current research approaches in the field of recycling and resource recovery.

Subsequently, the speakers highlighted various aspects of renewable energies and sustainability. Karlheinz Paulus from the Energiegenossenschaft Untermain started by highlighting the possibilities of using renewable energies in private households, followed by Felix Büchle from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on the subject of home storage. Norbert Lenck from VDE Renewables focused on the certification and recycling of photovoltaic modules, while Dr. Kerstin Sann-Ferro gave a lecture on the life cycle of stationary battery storage systems. Finally, Dr. Jörg Zimmermann, Head of the Energy Materials Department of the Fraunhofer Project Group IWKS, explained which recyclable materials are contained in batteries or PV modules, which recycling methods are currently used and which approaches research sees for even more intelligent and efficient fragmentation for returning them into a material cycle.

"We are pleased about the lively interest in this complex of topics. This is reflected not only in the large number of participants, but also in the many questions and discussions during the workshop," says Dr. Claudia Güth, together with the Sustainable Management Circle and REZregio Untermain networks, organizer of the event and member of the project group's Networks department. "The energy transition brings with it many challenges and the aspect of sustainability for renewable energies in the sense of a closed cycle economy is becoming increasingly important. With our workshop, we were able to contribute to promoting the transfer of knowledge among the various actors and to set important impulses in this field."