Businesses in all sectors that are geared towards efficiency and characterised by global dependencies are vulnerable: previously rare extreme weather events, unforeseen pandemics and wars, cyberattacks and supply chain disruptions, power outages and much more pose real threats. According to the Allianz Risk Barometer 2024, business interruptions are the second biggest business risk for companies in Germany and cost the economy billions every year. In view of these diverse risks, there is talk of a current ‘polycrisis’ that is particularly affecting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs often do not have their own risk department or corresponding in-house expertise and are therefore reliant on external consultancy services and software in order to make themselves more resilient.

Business continuity management (BCM) is the central element for planning business continuity, not only during crises and emergencies. BC is therefore the central lever for the resilience of SMEs, including critical supply services. The first German Business Continuity Management Standard (BSI 200-4) was published by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) in mid-2023. However, this BSI standard is not yet subject to a certification system and is not yet mandatory. In addition, the KRITIS umbrella law will in future require operators of particularly critical infrastructures to draw up resilience plans as part of their overall operational resilience strategy. The exact form of this umbrella law has yet to be finalised. Given the current highly problematic political situation, it is extremely important for society and the economy to make companies and KRITIS more resilient. To this end, it is necessary to scientifically support the development of new normative obligations, such as the KRITIS umbrella law, to further develop and optimise existing standards and, if necessary, to participate in the certification system. The strategic goal of the Security and Resilience business unit is to play a key role in this process.

Fraunhofer EMI has extensive expertise in the field of risk and resilience analyses and business resilience and is convinced that it can offer BCM for companies and KRITIS much more efficiently and effectively than is currently the case on the market. To this end, as part of the LZN funding in 2024 and to date, we have taken various steps to enter the market through networking activities in order to be able to identify the needs of companies in a more targeted manner and to establish and maintain contacts, on the one hand, and to identify existing methodological and technical gaps in the existing supply side, on the other.

Improving security of supply is crucial for the expansion of renewable energies, as this requires a considerable amount of materials; the circular economy is therefore an important lever in the transformation of the energy system. Concrete guidance on circular economy strategies strengthens economic resilience by reducing dependence on fossil fuels and raw materials and increasing local value creation. They also promote innovation in the sector and create new jobs by integrating sustainable practices in the production and use of energy.

A harmonised national and international standards structure is required in order to comply with the regulations adopted at European level, such as the Green Deal or the Circular Economy Action Plan, and to translate these into national strategies and laws. Participation in the relevant standardisation committees offers the opportunity to actively contribute content and at the same time derive corresponding research needs. The development of circular economy strategies is essential, particularly for the rapid transformation of the energy system towards renewables, so that a shortage of materials and resources can be counteracted. This applies to almost all of the topics researched at Fraunhofer ISE, from photovoltaic systems and heat pumps to batteries and power electronics. By contributing our expert knowledge to national and international committees, Fraunhofer ISE can position itself as a competent implementation and research partner for industry in the long term.

The standards to be developed are a horizontal series of standards, i.e. applicable to all product groups. Circular design, durability and material recycling were identified as the main gaps in national standardisation.

Hydrogen changes the mechanical properties of most metallic alloys, often referred to as ‘hydrogen embrittlement’, as significantly reduced ductility in tensile tests and a brittle fracture surface are usually observed. New components and parts must take this influencing parameter into account during design. The basis for the safety assessment is the material properties, which must be measured under real operating conditions. Two methods are available for the basic mechanical data, which is typically measured by means of tensile testing: i) standardised tensile specimens tested in a high-pressure hydrogen autoclave and ii) non-standardised hollow tensile specimens in which the hydrogen pressure is applied in an axial borehole.

The technical differences are clearly shown in Figure 1. High-pressure hydrogen autoclaves require technically sophisticated and expensive testing systems with complex safety technology due to the large volume of hydrogen involved, see Figure 1 on the left. For this reason, there are only about 30 autoclaves available worldwide. With such low availability, it is not possible to establish a hydrogen infrastructure. A promising alternative is the hollow sample method, see Figure 1 on the right. This can be easily retrofitted to existing test setups. Due to the comparatively lower test costs, shorter test durations and high availability, it is feasible to measure the required sample quantity. In order to be able to use this data for a safety assessment, standardisation of this method is necessary.

The standardisation of a cost-effective method for testing materials in high-pressure hydrogen enables the industry to evaluate components and parts developed for other applications (e.g. natural gas infrastructure) with regard to their suitability for the future H2 infrastructure. The standardisation of this method thus makes an important contribution to the creation of a resilient and sustainable infrastructure.

The rapidly expanding use of PV systems is associated with high resource requirements and corresponding amounts of waste after 20-30 years of operation. For a society with limited raw materials such as Germany, it is important to work in a resource-efficient manner beyond the recycling or reuse of resources in order to operate sustainably in the long term and also to strategically secure access to the high proportions of valuable materials in PV modules. The corresponding goals are explicitly addressed in the National Circular Economy Strategy and named as a work assignment in the Circular Economy Standardisation Roadmap. Currently, research activities in this area are still rare. In the normative area, activities are beginning to define and measure key performance indicators (KPIs). There is an urgent need to make products and processes assessable and to promote corresponding developments. In particular, the data-related monitoring of products still requires normative specifications in order to be implemented efficiently in industry. It is to be expected that regulatory requirements will also necessitate normative regulations. Society as a whole will benefit from resource efficiency and availability through the traceable labelling of products and efficient recycling.

With the support of the funding, proposals for the adaptation of existing standards will be developed and identified standardisation requirements in the field of circular economy for photovoltaics will be addressed and incorporated into the standardisation work within the framework of DKE 373. One focus of the work is on the application of horizontal standards to photovoltaics, initially PV modules, and any necessary adaptations or specifications.