For a sustainable energy future: University of Bayreuth and city of Wunsiedel establish Future Energy Lab

The Minister President was a guest in Wunsiedel on the occasion of the commissioning of the largest electrolyzer in Bavaria. The plant installed by Siemens has a capacity of 8.75 MW and produces around 1,350 tons of hydrogen per year. The University of Bayreuth has already been involved in the realization of this plant with the ZET-Reallabor Energiezukunft Wunsiedel, which is funded by the Oberfrankenstiftung. Professor Dr.-Ing. Dieter Brüggemann, Director of the Center of Energy Technology (ZET) at the University of Bayreuth, points out that the future Future Energy Lab will build on this cooperation, but that the range of topics will be expanded with a competence team from the university: "With the funding that has now been concretely announced, we will be able to quickly address important aspects for our future energy supply through research and development and directly test them in the real lab." These include digitization and artificial intelligence, sector coupling and hydrogen, innovative storage concepts and storage technologies. Another focus is on questions of legal regulation. The participation of local citizens is expressly desired in all these developments.

"We are actively tackling issues such as the further training of skilled workers and the establishment of new companies. We want to help ensure that young people continue to have attractive career prospects in the region in the future," says Brüggemann. He sees the Future Energy Lab not only as a significant expansion of the existing energy park in Wunsiedel, but at the same time as an essential building block for the digitized, decarbonized, natural gas-independent, decentralized and CO2-neutral energy future in Bavaria: "What the University of Bayreuth and the city of Wunsiedel are building together over the next few years will serve as a model and pattern for many communities."