Subproject 3, “Sustainable Energy Systems,” aims to examine climate-neutral energy supply and efficient energy use through electric cars and electric bikes to achieve zero-emission mobility. Various conditions must be met for mobility to be truly sustainable. These include (a) energy supply from the highest possible proportion of renewable sources; (b) charging processes that meet both customer preferences (e.g., fast charging) and grid requirements (e.g., grid-friendly charging); and (c) efficient energy use within the vehicle through battery management, thermal management, and the powertrain.

Four work packages are dedicated to promoting and researching individual aspects of these goals.

1. Innovation Network

This initiative aims to provide a platform for stakeholders from research, industry, civil society, and the public sector to network during guided tours of the RIZ Energie - Research and Innovation Center of Energy Technology, as well as at technical and marketing events. In addition, the Instagram channel “der_energiekanal” is used to engage civil society in a way tailored to specific target groups.

2. Driving Simulator

An electric car driving simulator is being developed to serve as an interface between users and technology. By linking it to the electric mobility laboratory operated at RIZ Energie, the characteristic dynamics of an electric vehicle’s drive system are brought to life for citizens and planners. Furthermore, the driving cycles generated in this way can be used for additional measurement campaigns at various on-site labs.

3. Charging Stations

As a case study on grid-friendly and energy-efficient operation of charging parks, a simulation tool has been developed to demonstrate various charging management solutions. This tool is designed to test innovative charging strategies such as dynamic load management, predictive model-based control approaches, and swarm-based control algorithms. A clear and intuitive GUI highlights usability, flexibility, and public perception. We consider both unidirectional and bidirectional charging.

4. Multi-Use Batteries

With balcony power plants, it is advantageous to consume as much electricity as possible on-site, since no feed-in tariff is paid for these systems. To make this possible, connection options for linking e-bike batteries and battery-powered tools to a balcony power plant are being developed and tested in demonstrators. The batteries can thus be charged using the balcony power plant’s own electricity or serve as buffer storage. This solution is sustainable because there is no need to purchase separate batteries.

Subproject 4, “Region of Short Distances,” focuses on promoting climate-friendly mobility in rural areas by identifying interactions between planning and traffic volume at an early stage. This will enable the transfer of new approaches, process knowledge, and tools to regional partners; future planning projects will be easier to assess in terms of their traffic impacts. Effective measures to reduce motor vehicle traffic will be specifically selected and implemented as early as the planning phase.

In this context, a planning model is being developed. The planning model is based on scientific approaches and is used to assess the impact of municipal land-use plans on mode choice and travel distances. Based on the findings of the planning model—and supplemented by the agent-based model and the accessibility analysis—area-specific solutions are developed in collaboration with local stakeholders to ensure a lasting transformation of settlement structures toward a region characterized by short travel distances.

Benefits for partners:

• Integration of current scientific approaches into your planning

• Achievement of sustainable settlement development

• Streamlined workflows through collaboration

The goal of the move.mORe subproject 5, Mobility Management, is to make transportation in the project region more environmentally and socially sustainable. This primarily involves the strategic planning, implementation, and management of measures in the areas of information, communication, motivation, coordination, service offerings, and infrastructure. These measures are intended to provide and highlight attractive, affordable, and easily accessible alternatives to private car use for local residents.

Essential to this is the testing of innovative measures in the form of real-world laboratories. A real-world laboratory refers to the implementation of new solutions within a limited timeframe and geographical area. In this context, these innovative measures are put to the test in practice and evaluated under real-world conditions. In this way, the knowledge and experience accumulated at universities, in local governments, and in businesses can be transferred into practical application. Real-world labs are conducted with user participation and are scientifically monitored and evaluated.

Joint development of future-oriented mobility concepts and measures:

Mobility concepts developed without an in-depth understanding of users’ needs and specific local conditions are often unsuccessful. Every municipality in the Upper Rhine region faces unique challenges and requirements that can only be fully understood through intensive dialogue with residents, local businesses, and planning authorities.
Various survey methods are used, such as traffic counts and measurements or participatory formats, which make it possible to incorporate the assessments and expert knowledge of those affected directly into the planning process.

In this way, tailored solutions can be developed that meet the actual needs of your municipality and achieve sustainable results. To implement these measures, a comprehensive toolkit is being developed that includes, for example, target-group-specific mobility management (for children, adolescents, students, commuters, etc.) or the targeted selection of measures for specific modes of transportation such as public transit, cycling, and walking.

The move.mORe Subproject 6: Multimodal Logistics develops regional and local end-to-end concepts to transfer collaborative logistics innovations to locally operating companies and the region.

The Upper Rhine region is home to a large number of logistics companies that contribute significantly to the region’s economic dynamism and success. The subproject aims to work with interested companies from the region to identify new, innovative approaches in the field of intra- and extralogistics and to further develop them collaboratively.

The benefits for your company:

Through joint research and development, existing knowledge and experience from the Universities of Offenburg and Karlsruhe will be shared with regional companies, and topic-specific exchange between companies will be promoted.

The logistics industry is currently facing a variety of challenges, such as

• supply chain disruptions

• sustainability

• Environmental impacts

• Skilled labor shortages

• technological disruption

• Rising customer expectations

• Regulatory requirements

These factors require companies to be adaptable, to invest in technology and sustainability initiatives, and to develop strategies to meet the market’s growing demands.

By collaborating on future-oriented topics, companies gain the advantage of being able to tackle these issues with greater impact and with additional support from research and industry expertise. This also makes it possible to implement initiatives that would be too ambitious for individual companies to undertake on their own.

The move.mORe subproject 7, “Bicycle Networks,” highlights the development potential of bicycle traffic, particularly in rural areas, and contributes to energy-efficient mobility.

The bicycle-friendly settlement structure and topography in the central Upper Rhine region facilitate year-round bicycle use, although this is only fully possible for municipalities in the Black Forest through the use of e-bikes. The goal of the subproject is to increase acceptance of cycling by improving cycling infrastructure. On the one hand, this involves optimizing the built infrastructure through a multidimensional quality assessment of cycling networks as the basis for structured maintenance management. On the other hand, using the development of an e-bike assistance system as an example, digital solutions are being developed to improve the cycling and e-bike riding experience by implementing rider-adaptive support.

Your benefits:

Built Infrastructure: Existing data from cooperation partners and description standards from databases are analyzed. The condition of bicycle networks will be assessed using standardized measurement methods and systematically evaluated across four dimensions (construction quality, design quality, user quality, and operational quality). A guide is to be developed to promote cycling as effectively as possible while ensuring the quality of bicycle networks and monitoring the tasks required for safe operation.

Digital Infrastructure: With the increasing prevalence of e-bikes—particularly in the high- and mid-altitude areas of the Upper Rhine region—cycling is expanding into areas that were previously reserved for motor vehicles. To address the range limitations associated with e-bikes, an assistance system for automated control of the motorized assistance is being developed and implemented as a “Smart E-Bike” demonstrator. This is intended, in particular, to increase acceptance of the use of bicycles and e-bikes for longer trips. Furthermore, data is being collected that will be incorporated into forward-looking planning and standardization of built cycling infrastructure.

The move.mORe subproject 8, “Data and Networking,” functions as a cross-cutting project and provides both communication channels and mechanisms as well as the corresponding services for data collection and storage that are needed to process the digital information from the other subprojects and implementation projects efficiently and in a targeted manner. This creates a digital ecosystem for sustainable mobility.

Benefits of collaboration:

As experts in communication technology, we can provide support here on multiple levels. Thanks to our many years of experience and knowledge of current technologies and platforms, we are able to analyze use cases precisely according to your requirements and find appropriate solutions for them. This applies from the lower levels of data collection and sensor connectivity, through cloud platforms for data storage, all the way to the corresponding interfaces and applications for accessing and utilizing the data—and includes both the use of existing products and the implementation of custom-developed solutions.