Falko Mohrs, the Minister for Science and Culture for Lower Saxony, said: “Our region has enormous potential for research into modern energy storage systems as well as offering a range of opportunities for using renewable energies. In order to meet our energy requirements in an efficient and sustainable way, we need to concentrate on developing and implementing innovative storage solutions. Fraunhofer ZESS is extremely important for Lower Saxony in this regard — as a technological hub, it offers a significant contribution toward achieving these goals. With today’s groundbreaking ceremony, we have reached a new milestone for everyone involved in this goal-oriented collaboration.”
Dr. Thorsten Kornblum, mayor of Braunschweig, added: “The Fraunhofer Center is very important for our region and Braunschweig as a city of science. As an innovation platform for energy storage systems and hydrogen technologies, it provides crucial impetus for our economy and technological development. Fraunhofer ZESS is a stellar example of successful collaboration between science, politics and economy, all coming together to overcome the challenges associated with the energy transition and create opportunities for our region.”
Dr. Sandra Krey, executive vice-president for Finances and Controlling and current head of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (interim), stated: “The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is positioned at the forefront of the key future field of battery research thanks to the Research Fab Battery Cells FFB in Münster and, not least, the Fraunhofer Center for Energy Storage and Systems ZESS, among others. We are helping to improve technological sovereignty in Germany in this key market segment by contributing our excellent research and rapid transfer. The technical competencies of the Fraunhofer institutes IST, IFAM and IKTS and the Technical University of Braunschweig are pooled together within Fraunhofer ZESS, where technologies for solutions and systems that can be made into prototypes can be developed further. The goal here is to bring new mobile and stationary storage technologies to market.”
Prof. Arno Kwade, vice-president for Technology Transfer and Innovation at the Technical University of Braunschweig, added: “The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fraunhofer ZESS marks a key milestone for the continued expansion of the battery research cluster in the Braunschweig region. Lithium-ion batteries — especially in modern vehicles — have been the focus of research thus far, so Fraunhofer ZESS is now focusing on the development and, primarily, the production and scaling of the next generation of battery and hydrogen technologies. As a result, innovations are transferred from the university laboratories as ready-to-use technology, establishing promising business units for the region’s businesses and founders, in particular in the sustainability and circular economy sector.”
Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST
