Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI

The Heat Roadmap Europe project helps to build the knowledge, skills and capacity required to enable new policies and encourage new investments in the heating and cooling sector. Fraunhofer ISI contributes to the project with applying its bottom-up model FORECAST for a detailed profiling of today’s heating and cooling demand in Europe as well as for simulating its future evolution. A workshop organized in Berlin on January 24, 2019, will focus on the topics district energy and building energy renovation.

The Innovation Indicator 2018, compiled for the Federation of German Industries (BDI) by Fraunhofer ISI together with the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), ranks Germany in fourth place as in 2017. However, the international innovation ranking indicates that the gap has lengthened to the leading countries of Singapore, Switzerland and Belgium. The openness indicator, which was determined for the first time, certifies that the German innovation system has the highest degree of openness among the world’s largest economies.

In its energy storage monitoring study 2018, Fraunhofer ISI examines which are the leading countries in battery technologies for electric mobility and which is the lead supplier and the lead market. The study shows that Germany must invest quickly and massively in production-related research and development and in developing human capital if it wants to play a role in the battery industry in the long term.

The German health care system is considered one of the best worldwide, but is also characterized by conflicts of interests and distribution that can hinder social innovations. To remove these obstacles, an evaluation tool has been developed at Fraunhofer ISI on behalf of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, which exposes conflicting objectives and makes the often heterogeneous effects of innovations in the health system transparent and able to be discussed.

The number of electric vehicles is rising steadily. Because these are powered electrically, they have an impact on the entire electricity system and therefore on electricity prices as well. Fraunhofer ISI has calculated that, although investments in power grids will probably be needed, overall the electricity prices for households could fall if large numbers of electric vehicles drive on German roads.

In a new study, Fraunhofer ISI together with the IREES reviewed the evaluation framework for electricity access´ conditions in developing and emerging countries, which is applied for monitoring the attainment of the sustainable development goals of the United Nations. The developed approach includes the productive use of electricity, which plays a central role for economic development, as well as for the achievement of climate change goals.