© HZB/K. Haas (alle Fotos)
They are back: Sheep and goats graze the Wannsee campus again
The meadows are lush green, the ice saints (almost) over: Now is the perfect time for the sheep and goats to return from their winter quarters! Until late autumn, they will now graze the near-natural HZB campus in Wannsee and serve the natural preservation of the landscape - completely without a lawn mower.
The meadows are lush green, the ice saints (almost) over: Now is the perfect time for the sheep and goats to return from their winter quarters! Until late autumn, they will now graze the near-natural HZB campus in Wannsee and serve the natural preservation of the landscape - completely without a lawn mower.
On 14 May 2020, shepherd Olaf Kolecki brought his "protégé" back to the Wannsee campus. Among them are five sheep (4 white Skudden and one black Skudden-Pomeranian Landschaf crossbreed, five lambs (3 white Skudden lambs and 2 black lambs, mother is the crossbreed) and five goats (2 Boer goats, the brown and the brown-white and three goat lambs).
Since goats and sheep have different food preferences, this mixture is just right for maintaining the green areas. The grazing is particularly insect-friendly and contributes to increasing the biodiversity of the wild meadows. And also many employees have grown fond of the animals over the past year and have missed the bleating on the campus a little bit in the last weeks.
In an interview (GER) last year the shepherd answered many questions about his work.
Before the arrival of the sheep and goats, the fenced-in eastern area in Wannsee was still being cleaned up. At the beginning of the year the old meadow orchard was "revived". For this purpose, sheds were torn down and some trees were felled to give the old fruit trees more light again. The wood of the felled trees was piled up in several deadwood heaps. This has created an important habitat and refuge for insects and small animals.
Sustainability at HZB on the Intranet
The HZB is intensively engaged in sustainable action and research. An overview of the topics and measures can be found on the newly designed intranet pages on sustainability (GER).
- A simpler way to inorganic perovskite solar cellsInorganic perovskite solar cells made of CsPbI3 are stable over the long term and achieve good efficiencies. A team led by Prof. Antonio Abate has now analysed surfaces and interfaces of CsPbI3 films, produced under different conditions, at BESSY II. The results show that annealing in ambient air does not have an adverse effect on the optoelectronic properties of the semiconductor film, but actually results in fewer defects. This could further simplify the mass production of inorganic perovskite solar cells.
- BESSY II: How pulsed charging enhances the service time of batteriesAn improved charging protocol might help lithium-ion batteries to last much longer. Charging with a high-frequency pulsed current reduces ageing effects, an international team demonstrated. The study was led by Philipp Adelhelm (HZB and Humboldt University) in collaboration with teams from the Technical University of Berlin and Aalborg University in Denmark. Experiments at the X-ray source BESSY II were particularly revealing.
- Fuel Cells: Oxidation processes of phosphoric acid revealed by tender X-raysThe interactions between phosphoric acid and the platinum catalyst in high-temperature PEM fuel cells are more complex than previously assumed. Experiments at BESSY II with tender X-rays have decoded the multiple oxidation processes at the platinum-electrolyte interface. The results indicate that variations in humidity can influence some of these processes in order to increase the lifetime and efficiency of fuel cells.