In DELTA there is no explicit research-only infrastructure. Rather, in the sense of a real laboratory, there is the possibility to conduct research directly in real environments together with the project partners. Examples are energy generating companies, housing societies, public transport, public utilities, etc.
DELTA – a project of the “Reallabore der Energiewende” initiative of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
The Darmstadt Energy Laboratory for Technologies in Application (DELTA) acts as a showcase for the urban energy transition to demonstrate interacting energy-optimized quarters. The DELTA real-life laboratory is intended to demonstrate that the technically proven potential for increasing energy efficiency and flexibility in urban districts can be implemented economically and that these are also accepted by society. For this purpose, methods are to be tested and further developed in order to bring successful technical pilot projects into broad application. Elementary for this is the development of innovative (cooperative) business models.
A multi-layered, cross-sectoral approach will be followed within the project. The focus here is on consistently increasing the energy efficiency of all sectors, which is already seen today as the greatest usable potential of the energy transition. Furthermore, potentials for the temporal shifting of electrical loads are to be identified and used to optimize the urban electricity system and to optimally utilize renewable energy sources. Both are achieved through intelligent linking of individual quarters of the urban energy system under consideration and through sector coupling. For this purpose, the involvement of all relevant stakeholders is planned, who will develop feasible solutions in tried and tested dialogue formats.