F R O M T H E I N D U S T RY
5G learns to walk Energy race
Research project 5G Industry Campus Europe The East becomes a high-tech zone
Europe’s largest industrial research project on
5G is starting on the campus of RWTH Aachen
University. Under the direction of the Fraunhofer
Institute for Production Technology (IPT), they
plan to develop and test the possibilities for
using high-speed cellular networks.
The goal is to be able to control the use of
mobile robotics, for example. They also plan to
monitor larger production processes or entire
production chains. For a long time, the topic of batteries was ba-
sically foreign to Western industries. Asian
market leaders’ technological lead
seemed to have progressed
too far. But ever since Tesla
announced its plans for a Gi-
gafactory near the Berlin airport,
something’s changed. BASF is now
following suit by planning a battery factory
at its traditional Schwarzheide site.
The goal is to produce battery cathodes
for about 300,000 electric cars per year,
BASF announced. The base materials such
as nickel-cobalt-aluminum oxide or nickel-co-
balt-manganese oxide come from the Finn-
ish factory in Harjavalta. However, according
to BASF, there are no plans to do the final
manufacturing on batteries or battery cells.
The decision to become one of the
mobile energy distributors is expected to be
announced in spring of 2020, according to
the company management.
www.ipt.fraunhofer.de/en.html
basf.com
Heating with the server
Green IT – a clever use of superfluous waste heat
The greatest savings factor
in data centers can be
found in air conditioning
and ventilation technology.
This accounts for up to 60
percent of the energy costs.
Theoretically, with computer
processors, you could easily
fry eggs given how hot the
digital powerhouses get.
“A hotplate emits a heat of
about eight watts per square
centimeter,” explains startup
founder Nicolas Röhrs.
“The latest generation of
server processors easily
reaches 31 watts per square
centimeter.”
Server rooms can quickly
become unbearably warm if
the heat isn’t dissipated, for
example if the rooms aren’t
sufficiently air-conditioned.
This is a proverbially hot topic
in times of climate protection
and CO2 efficiency. The
startup company Cloud&Heat
has developed a smart
solution for this purpose. The
Dresden-based company uses
an innovative hot water direct
cooling system, which allows
waste heat to be reused to
heat buildings or to connect
to district and local heating
networks. This can keep the
temperature level constant at
60 degrees while not using
heat pumps.
Green IT calls the startup
its vision, and sees it as much
more than just a heating
system. To make the impact of
computing jobs on the climate
transparent, Cloud&Heat has
developed new software that
determines the CO2 impact of
computing jobs in real time.
cloudandheat.com
Instead of energy-intensive cooling, these server racks are used for heating
The Phoenix Contact innovation magazine
UPDATE 4/20
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