Adap­tive

Bal­anc­ing

The inter­view with Dr. Hen­drik Schaede-Boden­schatz, founder of Adap­tive Bal­anc­ing Pow­er GmbH in Darm­stadt, is a suc­cess sto­ry that needs to be told and heard. From the inspi­ra­tion after an obser­va­tion, to the strin­gent devel­op­ment of the com­plex prod­uct, to the launch of the pow­er­ful ener­gy stor­age units, the aim here is to out­line that engage­ment and tech­no­log­i­cal striv­ing can lead to an eco­log­i­cal nimbus.

Dr. Hen­drik Schaede-Boden­schatz und Nico­lai Meder 

Foto: Den­nis Möbus

About eight years before the found­ing of Adap­tive Bal­anc­ing, you were already look­ing more close­ly at fly­wheel ener­gy stor­age tech­nol­o­gy. In 2012, the first com­mer­cial­ly viable fly­wheel ener­gy stor­age sys­tem was launched. How would you describe the first steps in this development?

In fact, and this may sound curi­ous, it all began with a white sheet of paper. But the designs that emerged on it were not just the the­o­ret­i­cal foun­da­tion of a fourth-gen­er­a­tion fly­wheel mass stor­age sys­tem. They also showed that the the­o­ry could become a tan­gi­ble real­i­ty. Quite in con­trast to the NASA, which had pre­vi­ous­ly tack­led the same sub­ject but remained unsuc­cess­ful in prac­tice, as we learned lat­er. You can imag­ine that such a real­iza­tion gives you an addi­tion­al boost of moti­va­tion, so we con­tin­ued to work on it very inspired.

Besides ide­al­ism, an essen­tial part is the busi­ness vision. From today’s per­spec­tive, what ist an con­crete exam­ple for the basis for imple­ment­ing the idea? We’re talk­ing about prac­ti­cal uses.

We rec­og­nized the great­ness of the high-per­for­mance ener­gy stor­age sys­tem — lit­er­al­ly. Let’s take the exam­ple of a car fleet, com­mer­cial vehi­cles such as trucks, or bus­es for pub­lic trans­port. In these areas, there is an immense demand for high charg­ing pow­er sev­er­al times a day or often simul­ta­ne­ous­ly. To meet this demand, ener­gy stor­age sys­tems are required that can trans­fer a lot of ener­gy in the short­est pos­si­ble time. Even one stop of a metro bus at a sta­tion can be used effec­tive­ly to pro­vide long-range “refu­el­ing”. If they’re strate­gi­cal­ly placed, sev­er­al charg­ing sta­tions can thus ensure that the range of a bus is mul­ti­plied. In this way, we can use small­er bat­ter­ies in the bus­es, save a lot of mon­ey and increase sustainability.

The fact that an ener­gy turn­around is becom­ing nec­es­sary is not a phe­nom­e­non of mod­ern times. How­ev­er, the pace toward ener­gies for mobil­i­ty has increased rapid­ly, and the demand for short charg­ing times and choice of charg­ing sta­tions in urban and rur­al areas is also cre­at­ing a par­a­digm shift. Do you agree here, or would you put it more precisely?

I would sum it up in a few words: Hav­ing ener­gy and pow­er in the right place at the right time. Because that is essen­tial if e‑mobility is to become more attrac­tive. How­ev­er, it must also be empha­sized that eco­log­i­cal as well as eco­nom­ic aspects are of cen­tral impor­tance here. Con­vinc­ing per­for­mance thus comes into focus, just like the sus­tain­abil­i­ty or the life cycle of an ener­gy stor­age sys­tem. Our Fly­wheel ener­gy stor­age sys­tems have an effi­cien­cy of around 92 per­cent, which puts them at the fore­front of this segment.

Mann bei der Montage einer Solaranlage auf dem Dach

PV system installation

Pri­vate­ly used PV sys­tems are becom­ing increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar. The order for a PV sys­tem instal­la­tion involves a num­ber of tasks for you as an installer: The sys­tem must be planned togeth­er with the client before it is installed and con­nect­ed to the house­hold grid. Find out in this arti­cle how easy and time-sav­ing the instal­la­tion of the Solar­na­tive sys­tem is.

Read more
Balkon mit Balkonkraftwerk während Sonnenuntergang

Balkonkraftwerk anmelden

Ent­deck­en Sie die Welt der Balkonkraftwerke – Mini-Solaran­la­­gen, die ohne tech­nis­ches Know-how auf Balko­nen instal­liert wer­den kön­nen. Erzeu­gen Sie Ihren eige­nen Strom und nutzen Sie die vielfälti­gen Vorteile der Eigen­stromerzeu­gung. Aber welche Regeln müssen Sie beacht­en? Brauchen Sie die Zus­tim­mung Ihres Ver­mi­eters? Wie viel Leis­tung ist erlaubt? In diesem Artikel liefern wir Ihnen alle Antworten.

Read more
ein Paar sitzt mir ihrem Balkonkraftwerk auf dem Balkon und lacht in die Kamera

Balkonkraftwerk Förderung

Wer den Wun­sch hat, kli­mafre­undlich­er zu leben, kann dies mit­tler­weile ohne viel Aufwand tun – zum Beispiel mit einem Balkonkraftwerk. Mit diesem kön­nen Sie Solarstrom selb­st erzeu­gen und damit sog­ar Stromkosten sparen. Welche Förderung für Balkon-Solaran­la­­gen in Ihrem Bun­des­land ange­boten wird und inwieweit eine staatliche Förderung von Balkonkraftwerken möglich ist, erfahren Sie hier.

Read more
Ein Balkonkraftwerk an einem Balkon befestigt

Balcony PV system: Questions and answers about the balcony solar system

Are you con­sid­er­ing pur­chas­ing a PV sys­tem for bal­cony to be part of the ener­gy rev­o­lu­tion and save elec­tric­i­ty costs? Then you’ve come to the right place: We answer the most fre­quent­ly asked ques­tions and give you a com­pre­hen­sive insight into the top­ic of bal­cony PV system.

Read more
When Dominik Ashkar was in 2017 in the time of the foundation, it was not yet clear which path he would one day take with his company. Because the initial idea of building a network of garages for electric vehicles turned into a new concept within a year.

Interview eWorks

When Dominik Ashkar was in 2017 in the time of the foun­da­tion, it was not yet clear which path he would one day take with his com­pa­ny. Because the ini­tial idea of build­ing a net­work of garages for elec­tric vehi­cles turned into a new con­cept with­in a year.

Read more
In this interview, Armin Pohl, Managing Director of WUNDERKIND INVEST GmbH from Neckartailfingen in Baden-Württemberg, points out the philosophy of his consulting and investment company.

Interview WUNDERKIND

In this inter­view, Armin Pohl, Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of WUNDERKIND INVEST GmbH from Neckar­tail­fin­gen in Baden-Würt­tem­berg, points out the phi­los­o­phy of his con­sult­ing and invest­ment company. 

Read more
In this interview with Dr. Torsten Brammer, CEO and Managing Director of WAVELABS Solar Metrology Systems GmbH, an exemplary career of an internationally important company in the clean-tech industry will be told.

Interview WAVELABS

In this inter­view with Dr. Torsten Bram­mer, CEO and Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of WAVELABS Solar Metrol­o­gy Sys­tems GmbH, an exem­plary career of an inter­na­tion­al­ly impor­tant com­pa­ny in the clean-tech indus­try will be told. 

Read more