“The Association of Pals of TU Dortmund University communicates in between the university and its economic, political, and cultural environment. For lots of decades, we have actually likewise worked as a major pillar of funding for essential TU tasks,” highlighted GdF chairperson Guido Baranowski at the IBZ. As a signed up not-for-profit association, the Association of Friends supported a wide variety of activities at TU Dortmund University with around EUR80,000 in 2015: it preserves the Helmut-Keunecke-Haus as accommodation for global guests, funds scholarships in the “Deutschlandstipendium” program and awards for students, sponsors the Summertime Festival and the Academic Anniversary Celebration, and supports public conferences, exhibitions, and shows at the university. Student efforts, such as the GET racing team, likewise get support from the GdF.
The extensive support of the Association of Pals is made possible by the yearly EUR40 subscription fee from nearly 500 members in addition to by generous individual contributions. Guido Baranowski encouraged all members to recruit brand-new fans for the GdF. TU President Professor Manfred Bayer warmly thanked the GdF members for their devotion and reported on advancements at TU Dortmund University, for example in the locations of research study support, internationalization, and transfer, in addition to in the Quality Strategy 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 elected 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 many years of commitment. The brand-new board chose Guido Baranowski as its chairperson, Johann Jaeger as deputy chairperson, and Wulf-Christian Ehrich, Deputy Chief Executive of the Dortmund Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as handling board member.
Professor Lars-Peter Lauven from the Chair of Resources and Energy Systems in the Department of Spatial Planning offered insights into his research study at the assembly and discussed present obstacles in preparing energy networks. While the share of renewable resource in the power sector wass currently rather high, the heat sector was a “sleeping giant,” Prof. Lauven said. However, for the success of the energy shift it would be absolutely required to change oil and natural gas heating unit with district heating, regional heating or heat pumps. To this end, the heat and electrical power networks had to be substantially broadened, he said. Municipalities were for that reason analyzing, which districts appropriate for connection to local and district heating networks. Professor Lauven explained that rapid action was essential, since the more structures are energetically refurbished and switched to heatpump in the meantime, which generally is to be welcomed, the more uneconomical the growth of heat networks would end up being for municipalities. In addition, existing gas grids were to be used to carry hydrogen rather of gas in the future, he reported, with analyses revealing that hydrogen would likely only be used in a limited number of application locations. At the exact same time, electrical energy grid operators were planning the expansion of their networks in order to fulfill the increasing demands from the ever-growing share of renewable resources, heatpump and e-mobility. In his lecture, Professor Lauven pointed out that the respective stars were currently far from the suitable of integrated and cross-sectoral network preparation, as there was frequently still a lack of means and methods to effectively connect the different energy sectors.