Thuringia invests in hydrogen technology: endowed Professorship of Energy Systems established
Professor Jentsch has been grappling with the interactions between energy, climate, buildings and urban design for around twenty years. After architectural studies in Wismar, Jentsch moved to the University of Southampton, where he completed a PhD under the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2010. Two years later he was appointed junior professor of Urban Energy Systems at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, and returned to Germany after more than seven years of research and teaching activities abroad. Professor Jentsch’s current research focuses on the relationships between energy supply and energy use. His most recent work has centred on the potential of hydrogen applications as a building block for a comprehensive energy and mobility revolution. In his new role as endowed Professor of Energy Systems, he is seeking to step up his research activities and pave the way for sustainable hydrogen production and use in the electricity, traffic and heat supply industries. This includes drawing on strong partnerships with science, industry and politics. The aim is to promote the decentralised hydrogen economy of the future and implement innovative model projects in the Free State of Thuringia.
Comprehensive energy and mobility revolution with hydrogen
Through the two collaborative projects LocalHy and H2-Well, Jentsch has been laying the foundation for the endowed Professorship of Energy Systems since 2014: for example, Jentsch worked with Thuringia company AVX/Kumatec Hydrogen GmbH & Co. KG as well as more than 40 other partners to design new locally produced, green hydrogen value chains intended to enable emission-free car, bus and rail traffic. The crucial advantage compared with battery-powered electric cars: ‘Hydrogen can be temporarily stored locally and then used in mobility at a later point’, Professor Jentsch explains, adding that ‘even the oxygen resulting from the manufacturing process can be used locally, for example to optimise waste water treatment’.
A test drive of the world’s first hydrogen train on the Rottenbach-Katzhütte railway line in February 2019 clearly showed what the future might hold for the energy industry. Professor Jentsch was also involved in a feasibility study on behalf of the Thuringian Ministry of Environment, Energy and Nature Conservation and will be supporting the project in the coming years. ‘The work completed thus far has transformed the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar into a key centre of excellence for hydrogen technology in Thuringia’, Minister of Economic Affairs and Science Wolfgang Tiefensee explained. He is convinced that hydrogen will play a key role in the energy mix and mobility of the future. ‘It is therefore a good thing for Thuringia to further hone its profile in this area by establishing an endowed professorship.’ Funding the professorship will enable individual model projects to be pooled together, and thus ensure a leap forward into a new post-fossil-fuel era. This focus will be further supported at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar: ‘After these five years of funding, the endowed professorship will become a regular professorship', University President Winfried Speitkamp has confirmed.
Endowed Professorship of Energy Systems
The endowed Professorship of Energy Systems will be funded in equal parts by the Thuringian Ministry of Science, AVX/KUMATEC Hydrogen GmbH & Co. KG represented by its CEO Bas Groenen, and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar until 2024. In addition, the Foundation for Technology, Innovation and Research Thuringia (STIFT), represented by board member Professor Werner Bornkessel and CEO Dr. Sven Günther, has already generously agreed to support the establishment of the professorship to a similarly significant extent.
Contact:
If you have any questions, please contact Professor Jentsch, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Professor of Energy Systems, by telephone on +49 (0)3643 / 584632 or by email to mark.jentsch[at]uni-weimar.de.