Potential of renewable energy alongside the transportation infrastructure in Germany

The 'Network of Experts' (BMDV-Expertennetzwerk) of the German Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) is a network of German government agencies. Their main topic is the future-oriented transition of the transportation infrastructure in Germany. The main task of the topic area 5 (“renewable energies”) is to assess the potential of renewable energies along the transportation infrastructure in Germany. Germany’s national meteorological service DWD coordinates the topic area and is responsible for provision of meteorological data that is used in the assessments of the potential energy generation. Further partners in this activity are esp. the Federal Highway Research Institute (Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, BASt) and the the Federal Railway Authority (Eisenbahn Bundesamt (EBA) / Deutsche Zentrum für Straßenverkehrsforschung (DZSF)).

One focus in the first phase of the activity (2017 – 2019) was a pilot study in a small-scale area in Germany. It was evaluated to what extend the potential energy production with photovoltaics alongside the infrastructure fits to the temporal profile of energy needs for pumping requirements of the waterways. Estimating the potential energy production with photovoltaics does not only require radiation data, but also additional meteorological parameters, as the efficiency of the PV modules also depend on the ambient temperature. Therefore, high-resolution data from satellites (CMSAF SARAH-2) in combination with data from the regional reanalysis COSMO-REA6 have been used. Both datasets are produced by DWD and are publicly available. Quality assessments of the datasets have been performed.

In the current phase of the activity (2020 – 2023) the assessment is extended to to cover all of Germany. Currently, the main focus is the assessment of the potential of photovoltaics integrated in noise barriers along the railways and highways. A similar assessment for small wind turbines along the infrastructure is in preparation.

Reference:

Auerbach, M., Ebner von Eschenbach, A-D., Eichler, D., Gersdorf, F., Kaspar, F., Majewski, D., Niermann, D., Schima, B., Streek, P.: Einsatzpotenziale erneuerbarer Energien für Verkehr und Infrastruktur verstärkt erschließen: Ergebnisbericht des Themenfeldes 5 im BMVI-Expertennetzwerk für die Forschungsphase 2016 - 2019, Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur (BMVI), Berlin, https://www.bmdv-expertennetzwerk.bund.de/DE/Publikationen/TFSPTBerichte/TF5_3Auflage.html