In order to achieve the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement and the energy transition in all sectors in Germany, the share of renewable energy sources in Germany’s energy supply is, in future, to be further increased. This goal makes it necessary to fundamentally restructure Germany’s energy supply system.

Against this background, more than 60 partners from industry, science and industry in southern Germany are currently developing new business models based on an energy system comprising cells. The interconnected cells ‒ e.g. housing estates, urban districts and cities ‒ will finally be showcased in the sunny federal states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse, where the majority of German photovoltaics are installed. This large-scale pilot project called C/sells will be implementing the findings of the previous projects: the newly designed energy system is to be significantly optimised, in particular in terms of the planned cell structure. Combining the cells to form a network also increases the reliability of the energy supply. In one of the subprojects, new cooperation models will be developed and tested in actual practice.

In order to develop an efficient, sustainable and autonomous energy supply based on renewable energies, C/sells will be focusing on the digitisation of processes within the energy system. For example, a planning tool is to be developed that will allow the dimensioning and the evaluation of decentralised energy systems, while also taking electromobility into account. An infrastructure information system being developed in this project will also enable the exchange of energy at the local and regional levels. In those cells participating in the C/sells project in the model region of southern Germany, citizens can directly experience the “energy system of the future”.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is funding the project C/sells as part of the funding programme “Smart Energy Showcases ‒ Digital Agenda for the Energy Transition (SINTEG)”.