Local answers to global challenges
Bernd Rech (HZB) and Ulrich Panne (BAM) about new ways towards a resource-saving energy supply and new materials
The physicist Bernd Rech in the BESSY control room © WISTA Management GmbH
BAM President Ulrich Panne © BAM
We are entering a new decade – faced by climate change, a growing global population, and a maltreated environment, many look into the future with some trepidation. However, with researchers working on solutions, including in Adlershof, the future need not be so dark. How do our scientists and researchers view the current global challenges?
When asked about current global challenges, Bernd Rech can think of many right off the bat: global conflicts, an increasing gap between the rich and the poor, and migration, which is now often caused by climate change. ‘Many of these are inextricably linked,’ says the scientific managing director of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB). The physicist also oversees the departments ‘Energy’ and ‘Information’.
Rech has an international reputation as an expert for renewable energy and technology transfer. Issues such as climate change, careful use of resources, and a sustainable energy supply are a key focus of his job by default – and, without a doubt, existential issues for humanity that are closely interrelated. And that many researchers are contributing to: ‘Scientists and researchers are helping us understand complex relationships, highlighting solutions, and developing relevant technologies – they can be part of a solution in cooperation with other players,’ says Rech. As a place ‘where knowledge converges,’ Adlershof providing these efforts with fertile ground. Everywhere on the site, basic research in energy and materials research is converted into real-life applications.
A notable example for this is BESSY II, a synchrotron light source: ‘The microscope helps us to understand materials in greater detail, for example, to develop novel batteries, quantum materials, or innovative layer systems in solar cells,’ explains Rech. ‘Adlershof is home to international top-level research when it comes to efficient solar cells.’ At the Helmholtz Innovation Lab HySPRINT (Hybrid Silicon Perovskite Research, Integration & Novel Technologies), for example, researchers are developing hybrid materials as well as components based on silicone and perovskite crystals with applications in energy transformation in photovoltaics as well as solar hydrogen production. The staff in Adlershof recently broke a world record: their novel hybrid solar cell achieved an efficiency of 29.1 percent (previous record: 28 percent) under laboratory conditions.
This is not the end of the road: ‘From a purely physical point of view, 80 percent are conceivable, but 50 percent are realistic,’ says Rech. However, this would require additional research on complex material systems. According to physicist Rech, one thing is abundantly clear: ‘As a cost-efficient and environmentally friendly technology, photovoltaics will become one of the main pillars of energy generation.’ It will also help to generate carbon-free fuels like hydrogen. Indeed, Rech expects some major breakthroughs in these fields in the next ten years and predicts that we will soon experience a completely different way of producing energy: ‘I am convinced that the global transition to renewable energy will be successful.’
Ulrich Panne, president of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), also sees energy as the crucial issue of our time: ‘Seeing as the earth will soon be home to ten billion people, many of the challenges connected to this fact point to energy as the key issue,’ he says. ‘Even the issue of sustainable agriculture feeding a growing human population is ultimately a question of resource-saving energy supply.’
It is evident to the chemist that we are experiencing a turn of an era: ‘We must change the way we think, produce, and live.’ And do research. Because the way people view science has also changed. Many are increasingly critical of science because it creates technologies that provide the world not only with solutions but also new risks. ‘In this respect, the climate movement is a wake-up call for scientists and researchers. Many expect them to increase their efforts to become catalysts for change,’ says the president of BAM.
Ulrich Panne is a person who is aware that everything has consequences. Inherently interdisciplinary, one of BAM’s core competencies is risk assessment. BAM addresses many issues that affect many people, including radioactive waste disposal, wind turbine stability, and new methods in analytical chemistry, which serve to develop materials for the transition to clean energy.
These are increasingly pressing issues: ‘In ten years, our children and grandchildren will ask us what we did to change this world, to make it better,’ says Panne. He is sure: ‘The coming ten years will be decisive.’ It will not be an easy path, but he is confident that many problems can be solved. As a father of three school-aged children, Rech, too, is optimistic about the future: ‘After all, we have the great chance of being part of a solution.’
By Chris Löwer for Adlershof Journal