Why all the fuss about water in climate protection? Whow we deal with it is plays ain our climate future . Our project engineer Andreas Lebmeier therefore focused his master's thesis on an energy cistern – and received the Mall Environmental Award from the Roland Mall Family Foundation.
This was first awarded in 2023 for theses on rainwater management and blue-green-gray infrastructure in the DACH region. "Energy cisterns make so many things possible at the same time. The intelligent combination of water storage and use, heating and cooling requirements, and heavy rain prevention," explains Andreas.
For us at Consolinno, his work and the overarching ZIM project "Energy Cistern," in which Steinhäuser GmbH & Co. KG, RWTH Aachen University, and FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg are also involved, are extremely interesting! This is due to the sector coupling of electricity and heat—and the innovative combination of heat and water. The energy cistern is an important component in neighborhood planning and its energy systems, which we can incorporate into our planning based on the results.
Andreas' master's thesis deals with the design of an energy cistern using a simulation tool he developed himself. His comprehensive soil/water model is also part of the ZIM research project "Energy Cistern" for the integration of real environmental parameters. This means that when planning such a cistern, important characteristics of the environment are taken into account, such as the thermal conductivity of the soil, water availability, the filling capacity of the cistern, seepage, and evaporation effects via soil and plants (evapotranspiration).
The overall "energy cistern" project with soil/water model combines climate protection and climate adaptation by reducing CO2 emissions in the heating sector and adapting to heavy rainfall and drought. It is an innovative combination of well-known technologies from the fields of retention, service water utilization, and heat supply! As a compact system, the energy cistern is ideal for densely populated areas, where there is often not enough space for large ground collector areas and small infiltration areas.
The advantage of using an energy cistern is to improve the thermal conductivity of the soil through a higher proportion of precipitation water seeping into the ground, to utilize the thermal potential from the environment, to buffer heavy rainfall, to increase evaporation and thus increase cooling in summer , groundwater recharge, reducing sewer runoff, storing and using rainwater, and saving drinking water.
At the press conference "Rainwater: Climate Resilience – Heavy Rain – Drought" held as part of the award ceremony, Andreas presented his work at the headquarters of Mall GmbH in Donaueschingen. Mall GmbH offers various systems in the field of urban water management, e.g., cisterns. One of the main focuses of the family foundation, which was established in 2014, is the promotion of young scientists. Michael Mall, Chairman of the Foundation, would like to further expand this area: "Forward-looking concepts for dealing with rainwater are not only important for our company, but also for all of us and our future approach to climate change. That is why we would like to honor researchers in this field."
