Change of leadership: Juliane Arriens takes over leadership of the research area Mobility with Renewable Energy from Oliver Arnhold

16.11.2022 | As of October 1, 2022, Juliane Arriens is the new co-head of the research unit Mobility with Renewable Energy at the Reiner Lemoine Institute (RLI). She succeeds Oliver Arnhold, who previously headed this area together with Norman Pieniak. Oliver handed over his previous responsibilities to Juliane and has been fully dedicated to the management of RLI spin-off Localiser since November 1, 2022.

Juliane has already been working as a researcher in the unit Mobility with Renewable Energy since May 2021. Among other things, she was the central contact person for the topic of hydrogen and managed various projects. From now on, she will lead the research unit together with Norman Pieniak. Oliver, who has been working for the RLI since its foundation in 2010, built up the mobility area, led it successfully for many years, since 2018 together with Norman, and has thus firmly anchored the topic of mobility in RLI’s research profile. Oliver will continue to be available to the RLI in an advisory capacity.

“Wow, how fast twelve years passed by. During RLI’s first years, I was often asked whether there was a need for research and consulting at all at the junction of the mobility and energy sectors. I think we answered that question long ago. Now we deliver interdisciplinary studies, practical implementation concepts and even spin off startups. I would like to say a huge thank you to my team for the creative and energetic collaboration during all the time. The RLI is something very special because of you. For the future, I wish that together we will ensure even more energy turnaround per unit of time,” says Oliver on the occasion of handing over his duties.

RLI Managing Director Kathrin Goldammer says regarding the change in leadership “I am very pleased that Juliane is moving up to RLI divisional management. Oliver will be missed and we owe him a lot. But with the founding of Localiser RLI GmbH in 2018, it was actually already clear that he would like to move on there, and we are now taking this step. Fortunately, RLI and Localiser work together well, and we have found a great new division manager in Juliane, who is just the right person for this leadership task.”

Twelve years of research on mobility at RLI

During the past twelve years, the unit Mobility with Renewable Energy has grown to almost 40 scientific staff members, student assistants, interns, volunteers and visiting researchers from different nations. Today, these people are working on projects in the fields of mobility concepts, infrastructure planning, e-mobility and hydrogen. They use simulation tools and self-developed tools for this purpose.

The focus of Oliver’s work was the integration of alternative vehicle concepts into renewable energy systems, he led corresponding projects, was responsible for the unit’s strategic direction and in 2020 won the DIN Innovator Award with his team for the guideline DIN SPEC 91433 (“Guideline for search space and site identification as well as recommendations for notification and approval procedures in charging infrastructure planning”), which he initiated.

Focus on Localiser

In fall 2018, Oliver co-founded Localiser with RLI Managing Director Kathrin Goldammer – a start-up for planning charging and hydrogen infrastructure. The software company is RLI’s first spin-off and is growing steadily. In March 2022, for example, Localiser released the Hydrogen Marketplace – a digital brokerage platform for the hydrogen economy. Since its launch, more than 300 companies have already registered over 150 planned projects. Today, the company employs a total of eleven people in various functions. In the future, Oliver will focus his activities on Localiser and the joint management with Kathrin.

Juliane takes over divisional management

At the beginning of November, Oliver handed over his function as unit manager at RLI to Juliane. Already during her master studies in technical environmental protection at the TU Berlin, she dealt with the topic of sector coupling through hydrogen technologies. Before joining the RLI, she worked in business development in the field of alternative fuels and as a consultant for international projects on decarbonization of global transport routes.

“I am looking forward to this new role on the team. It is a great fortune to be able to work with so many dedicated experts in the field of renewable energy. As a division manager, I hope to be able to support them well in what they do in the future, together with Norman. The future of mobility is very exciting, and as a team we want to use our work to drive and accelerate the mobility revolution,” says Juliane, regarding her new role.