“The Association of Friends of TU Dortmund University communicates in between the university and its financial, political, and cultural environment. For lots of decades, we have actually likewise served as a significant pillar of funding for essential TU tasks,” emphasized GdF chairperson Guido Baranowski at the IBZ. As a registered not-for-profit association, the Association of Buddies supported a wide variety of activities at TU Dortmund University with around EUR80,000 last year: it preserves the Helmut-Keunecke-Haus as lodging for worldwide visitors, funds scholarships in the “Deutschlandstipendium” program and awards for trainees, sponsors the Summer season Festival and the Academic Anniversary Event, and funds public conferences, exhibits, and performances at the university. Trainee initiatives, such as the GET racing team, also get assistance from the GdF.
The comprehensive support of the Association of Friends is enabled by the yearly EUR40 subscription charge from almost 500 members in addition to by generous individual donations. Guido Baranowski motivated all members to hire brand-new advocates for the GdF. TU President Professor Manfred Bayer warmly thanked the GdF members for their dedication and reported on advancements at TU Dortmund University, for instance in the locations of study support, internationalization, and transfer, as well as in the Excellence Method of the federal and state federal governments.
Board elections and a scientific lecture
In the board election, the Association of Friends’ members confirmed the previous board and chosen as brand-new board members: Celine Carstensen-Opitz (VOLKSWOHL BUND Versicherungen), Jörg Jacoby (DSW21 Dortmunder Stadtwerke AG), Ulrich Leitermann (Signal Iduna Group), and Simone Schulz (Boehringer Ingelheim microParts GmbH). Stepping down from the board were Axel-Rainer Hoffmann, Dr. Anton Mindl, and Reinhold Schulte. Guido Baranowski thanked them for their several years of commitment. The brand-new board elected Guido Baranowski as its chairperson, Johann Jaeger as deputy chairperson, and Wulf-Christian Ehrich, Deputy President of the Dortmund Chamber of Commerce and Market, as managing board member.
Teacher Lars-Peter Lauven from the Chair of Resources and Energy Systems in the Department of Spatial Preparation provided insights into his research study at the assembly and spoke about present obstacles in preparing energy networks. While the share of renewable energy in the power sector wass already rather high, the heat sector was a “sleeping giant,” Prof. Lauven said. Nevertheless, for the success of the energy transition it would be absolutely needed to change oil and natural gas heating systems with district heating, regional heating or heat pumps. To this end, the heat and electrical power networks needed to be significantly broadened, he stated. Municipalities were for that reason taking a look at, which districts are suitable for connection to regional and district heating networks. Professor Lauven described that fast action was important, due to the fact that the more buildings are energetically refurbished and changed to heatpump in the meantime, which normally is to be invited, the more uneconomical the expansion of heat networks would become for municipalities. In addition, existing gas grids were to be utilized to carry hydrogen rather of natural gas in the future, he reported, with analyses revealing that hydrogen would likely just be used in a limited variety of application locations. At the very same time, electricity grid operators were planning the growth of their networks in order to satisfy the increasing demands from the ever-growing share of renewable energies, heatpump and e-mobility. In his lecture, Teacher Lauven pointed out that the particular stars were presently far from the perfect of incorporated and cross-sectoral network preparation, as there was frequently still a lack of ways and methods to efficiently link the different energy sectors.