Agri-photovoltaics (Agri-PV) refers to a process for the simultaneous utilisation of land for agricultural plant production (photosynthesis) and PV electricity production (photovoltaics). Agri-PV covers a broad spectrum in terms of the intensity and type of agricultural utilisation and the additional costs for PV system construction. This spectrum ranges from the cultivation of special crops and intensive arable crops with special PV mounting systems to extensive grazing with marginal adaptations on the PV side. Agri-PV thus increases land efficiency and enables the expansion of PV output while at the same time preserving fertile farmland for agriculture or in conjunction with the creation of species-rich biotopes.

Quick Facts: https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/de/leitthemen/integrierte-photovoltaik/agri-photovoltaik-agri-pv.html

More information: Agri-Photovoltaik: Chance für Landwirtschaft und Energiewende (agri-pv.org)

Sustainable energy systems often require a fracture mechanics assessment of safety components, in particular the extensive qualification of materials for transport and storage (pipelines and pressurised containers) for the hydrogen supply in Germany. After the testing process, a time-consuming manual classification of the fracture mechanisms and measurement of the fracture surfaces under an optical microscope in accordance with regulations (e.g. ASTM E1921) must be carried out. On the one hand, this causes high costs due to the required capacities of analysing instruments and personnel, on the other hand, the measurements have a strongly subjective and inflexible character. However, a high level of quality, comparability and, above all, cost-effectiveness in analysing the fracture surfaces must be guaranteed in order to be able to carry out the safety verification reliably and efficiently as part of a sustainable energy transformation. For this reason, the project has been pursuing automated fracture surface detection and digital reconstruction of fracture surfaces for several years. The AI model developed is able to classify and measure images of fracture surfaces of a wide range of materials and sample types with very good accuracy. In a further step, the model is currently being converted into a user-friendly web application in order to reduce the entry barrier for a beta test and subsequently make it available to society as part of the ASTM standard. 

For a long time, heat pumps were primarily seen as an option for new single-family homes. In the meantime, however, it has become clear that the potential applications of this technology are much more far-reaching. They are suitable for new buildings, old buildings, modernisation projects, both for single and multi-family homes, non-residential buildings and even entire city districts in order to supply them efficiently and reliably with heating and cooling. Due to the large quantities in the building sector, sustainability aspects such as extending the service life, reparability, recyclability and the avoidance of energy-intensive and critical raw materials are of great importance. In order to anchor these topics in the activities on standardisation and standards for heat pumps, existing standards for heat pumps are to be assessed for their relation to sustainability and the applicability of standards from the field of circular economy to heat pumps is to be examined.