Association of Friends Elects New Board Members and Continues its Commitment

“The Association of Friends of TU Dortmund University establishes contacts between the university and its economic, political, and cultural environment. For many decades, we have also served as a major pillar of funding for important TU projects,” emphasized GdF chairperson Guido Baranowski at the IBZ. As a registered nonprofit association, the Association of Friends supported a wide range of activities at TU Dortmund University with around €80,000 last year: it maintains the Helmut-Keunecke-Haus as accommodation for international guests, funds scholarships in the “Deutschlandstipendium” program and awards for students, sponsors the Summer Festival and the Academic Anniversary Celebration, and subsidizes public conferences, exhibitions, and concerts at the university. Student initiatives, such as the GET racing team, also receive support from the GdF.

The extensive support of the Association of Friends is made possible by the annual €40 membership fee from nearly 500 members as well as by generous individual donations. Guido Baranowski encouraged all members to recruit new supporters for the GdF. TU President Professor Manfred Bayer warmly thanked the GdF members for their dedication and reported on developments at TU Dortmund University, for example in the areas of study support, internationalization, and transfer, as well as in the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.

Board elections and a scientific lecture

In the board election, the Association of Friends’ members confirmed the previous board and elected as 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 new board elected 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 managing board member.

Professor Lars-Peter Lauven from the Chair of Resources and Energy Systems in the Department of Spatial Planning provided insights into his research at the assembly and spoke about current challenges in planning energy networks. While the share of renewable energy in the power sector wass already quite high, the heat sector was a “sleeping giant,” Prof. Lauven said. However, for the success of the energy transition it would be absolutely necessary to replace oil and natural gas heating systems with district heating, local heating or heat pumps. To this end, the heat and electricity networks had to be significantly expanded, he said. Municipalities were therefore examining, which districts are suitable for connection to local and district heating networks. Professor Lauven explained that rapid action was important, because the more buildings are energetically renovated and switched to heat pumps in the meantime, which generally is to be welcomed, the more uneconomical the expansion of heat networks would become for municipalities. In addition, existing gas grids were to be used to transport hydrogen instead of natural gas in the future, he reported, with analyses showing that hydrogen would likely only be used in a limited number of application areas. At the same time, electricity grid operators were planning the expansion of their networks in order to meet the increasing demands from the ever-growing share of renewable energies, heat pumps and e-mobility. In his lecture, Professor Lauven pointed out that the respective actors were currently far from the ideal of integrated and cross-sectoral network planning, as there was often still a lack of means and methods to effectively connect the various energy sectors.