Renewable Energy Hamburg awards

An independent jury selected four winners from 43 nominations in the categories of; Product Innovation of the Year, Project of the Year, Student Thesis of the Year and Lifetime Achievement.

“Currently, politicians from around the world are negotiating the future of our planet’s climate at the UN Climate Change Conference COP 21 in Paris, with the aim of leaving behind a liveable planet for future generations,” said Frank Horch, Hamburg’s senator for economics, transport and innovation.

He added: “In Hamburg, we are proud of being able to make our very own contribution to improving the climate by awarding the German Renewables Awards 2015 to creative and motivated people in the renewable energy sector.”

SmartRegion Pellworm won the Project of the Year. Hansewerk AG and Schleswig-Holstein Netz GmbH have created a supply system on the North Sea island of Pellworm that is characterised by a high share of renewable energies.

The 37 km²-island is connected to the mainland by two undersea cables. Three times the volume of electricity is generated from renewable energy sources as is consumed, aided by the utilisation of several innovative storage systems and smart control systems.

Dieter Haack, project manager, said: “What is now being realised on Pellworm on a small scale helps to reduce the old dependencies of the new energy world, and to make better use of renewable energies by coupling energy generation with consumption.”

German Renewable Energies won the Lifetime Achievement award for its involvement in the expansion of renewable energies and active climate change protection.

Siemens AG’s Silyzer, won the category of Product Innovation of the Year. With the aid of electrolysis, excess renewable electricity can be converted into hydrogen, which can then be stored as the need arises.

“The electrolytic conversion of energy into hydrogen is a great way of storing “green electricity” on an industrial scale to create CO2-free mobility and to partially substitute the CO2 emitter natural gas,” said the hydrogen solutions team at Siemens AG.

Florian Roscheck, a graduate of the University of Applied Sciences Flensburg, won the Student Thesis of the Year with his programmed robot with new welding techniques to construct particularly high towers for low-win turbines.

The graduate developed a prototype for spiral welding processes for the US-based company Keystone Tower Systems, with which turbine towers can be manufactured on-site using steel plates. The first tower using the new method was built in Massachusetts in 2015.

Jan Ripsen, managing director of Renewable Energy Hamburg, concluded: “This year’s winners of the German Renewables Awards and their works prove the unwaning inventiveness of the renewable energy sector.”

“We congratulate all award winners and hope that they will continue to successfully advance our industry with many forward-looking ideas.” Renewable Energy Hamburg Cluster was also celebrating its fifth anniversary.

By Alice Mason