Zukünftige Energie- und Industriesysteme
Contemporary combined heat and power (CHP) systems are often based on fossil fuels, such as natural gas or heating oil. Thereby, small-scale cogeneration systems are intended to replace or complement traditional heating equipment in residential buildings. In addition to space heating or domestic hot water supply, electricity is generated for the own consumption of the building or to be sold to the electric power grid.
The adaptation of CHP-systems to renewable energy sources, such as solid biomass applications is challenging, because of feedstock composition and heat integration. Nevertheless, in particular smallscale CHP technologies based on biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer significant potentials, also regarding important co-benefits, such as security of energy supply as well as emission reductions in terms of greenhouse gases or air pollutants. Besides emission or air quality regulations, the development of CHP technologies for clean on-site small-scale power generation is also strongly incentivised by energy efficiency policies for residential appliances, such as e.g. Ecodesign and Energy Labelling in the European Union (EU). Furthermore, solid residual biomass as renewable local energy source is best suited for decentralised operations such as micro-grids, also to reduce long-haul fuel transports. By this means such distributed energy resource technology can become an essential part of a forward-looking strategy for net zero energy or even smart plus energy buildings.
In this context, this paper presents preliminary impact assessment results and most recent environmental considerations from the EU Horizon 2020 project "FlexiFuel-SOFC" (Grant Agreement no. 641229), which aims at the development of a novel CHP system, consisting of a fuel flexible smallscale fixed-bed updraft gasifier technology, a compact gas cleaning concept and an SOFC for electricity generation. Besides sole system efficiencies, in particular resource and emission aspects of solid fuel combustion and net electricity effects need to be considered. The latter means that vastly less emission intensive gasifier-fuel cell CHP technologies cause significant less fuel related emissions than traditional heating systems, an effect which is further strengthened by avoided emissions from more emission intensive traditional grid electricity generation. As promising result, operation "net" emissions of such on-site generation installations may be virtually zero or even negative. Additionally, this paper scopes central regulatory instruments for small-scale CHP systems in the EU to discuss ways to improve the framework for system deployment.
In addition to the expansion of renewable energies, the efficient use of energy is crucial in order to ensure energy transition successful. The Federal Government of Germany has therefore set itself clear objectives with the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NAPE), which aims to reduce the primary energy consumption in Germany - compared to 2008 levels - by 20 per cent until 2020, and by 50 per cent until 2050. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions should fall by 40 per cent compared to 1990.
To reach this goal, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) inter alia launched the "National Top Runner Initiative (NTRI)" in January 2016. It is an important component and concerns private homes, as well as industry, retail and services.
The NTRI is intended to bring energy efficient and high-quality appliances (so called Top Runners) onto the market more quickly, thus accelerate market replacement. For this purpose, motivation, knowledge and competence in product-related energy efficiency is to be strengthened and expanded along the whole value chain - from the appliance manufacturer to the retailer and the consumer. Manufacturers are pushed to develop more efficient products and consumers get valuable information about Top-Runner products and how they can benefit. In this context, retailers are especially relevant as they act as "gatekeeper" between manufacturers and consumers. They play a key role in advancing an energy efficient production and consumption. They do not only select the products but they also have a direct contact to consumers and influence the purchase decision. In this paper, special emphasis will be put on the role of retailers and the efforts of the National Top Runner Initiative will be illustrated. Barriers and incentives to motivate this target group will be elaborated.
In recent years, many energy scenario studies have proven that a power supply system based on renewable energies (RE) >90 percent is feasible. However, existing scenarios differ significantly in the composition of generation technologies. Some scenarios focus on wind energy in the northern part of Europe, others base on a large utilisation of solar technologies in the south. Apart from the generation capacities, the needed technical flexibilisation strategies such as grid extension, demand flexibilisation and energy storage are generally known and considered in many scenarios. Yet, the impact of different renewable generation strategies on the local utilisation of flexibility options needs to be further assessed. Based upon the BMBF research project RESTORE2050, analyses have been carried out that focus on these interdependencies. The results of the project show that the local utilisation of flexibilisation options depends to a great extent on the technology focus of the long-term renewable expansion strategy. This applies for the spatial flexibilisation as provided by transnational interconnection capacities, especially the ones connecting regions with a surplus of power generation (e.g. GB, Norway and Spain). Another impact of the renewable scenario is seen on the required temporal flexibilisation of electricity generation and demand. In addition, the available options will compete for high utilisation in a future energy system. The differences in the utilisation of these applications, which base on the varying shares of photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy generation, lead to the conclusion that the decision about longterm RE expansion ought to be made very soon in order to avoid inefficient flexibility pathways. Otherwise, if the future RE structure will be kept open, adequate adoption of new flexibility options will be difficult, especially in case of technologies with long lead and realisation time (e.g. new power grids and large scale energy storage devices).
There is an increasing pressure that enhanced and novel energy technologies are swiftly adopted by the market to ensure meeting the energy and climate targets. An important issue with such novel developments is their risk to be stuck in the "valley of death", i.e. that their transition to the market is delayed or unsuccessful. Publicly supported demonstration projects could help to bridge the valley of death by reducing barriers to the adoption caused by missing information and perceived risks. A challenge for technology demonstrations in the industrial context is their often high investments that are required to prove their real-world benefits. Given the magnitude of such investments, it becomes crucial that public funding focuses on the most promising demonstration proposals. Structured evaluation processes can help to facilitate the identification of promising proposals and to improve the quality and transparency of decisions. This paper deals with a corresponding multi-staged multi-criteria decision support system (DSS) suggested to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. It deals with the evaluation of demonstration proposals across three stages: The first stage represents a filtering stage to identify those proposals relevant for further considerations. The second stage comprises a multi-criteria scoring method drawing on an evaluation against nineteen criteria. The final third stage serves to critically review the need for public funding of well-scored proposals. This contribution outlines the development of the DSS and its design and thus provides insights on proposal evaluating in energy research.
The Port of Rotterdam is an important industrial cluster mainly comprising of oil refining, chemical manufacturing and power and steam generation. In 2015, the area accounted for 18 % of the Netherlands' total CO2 emissions. The Port of Rotterdam Authority is aware that the port's economy is heavily exposed to future global and EU decarbonization policies, as the bulk of its activities focuses on trading, handling, converting and using fossil fuels. Based on a study for the Port Authority, our paper explores possible pathways of how the industrial cluster can keep its strong market position in Europe and still reduce its CO2 emissions by 98 % by 2050. The "Biomass and CCS" scenario assumes that large amounts of biomass can be supplied sustainably and will be used in the port for power generation as well as for feedstock for refineries and the chemical industry. Fischer-Tropsch fuel generation plays an important role in this scenario, allowing the port to become a key cluster for the production of synthetic fuels and feedstocks in Western Europe. The "Closed Carbon Cycle" scenario assumes that renewables-based electricity will be used at the port to supply heat and hydrogen for the synthetic generation of feedstock for the chemical industry. The carbon required for the chemicals will stem from recycled waste. Technologies particularly needed in this scenario are water electrolysis and gasification or pyrolysis to capture carbon from waste, as well as technologies for the production of base chemicals from syngas. The paper compares both scenarios with regard to their respective technological choices and infrastructural changes. The scenarios’ particular opportunities and challenges are also discussed. Using possible future pathways of a major European petrochemical cluster as an example, the paper illustrates options for deep decarbonisation of energy intensive industries in the EU and beyond.
Converting electricity into heat offers the opportunity to make of use large scales of renewable (surplus) energy in the long run in order to reduce shut-downs of renewable power plants and to substitute fossil fuels. Electrification seems to be also very promising for industrial heat applications, as it enables high process temperatures to be achieved in a tailor-made and efficient way and enables the utilisation of other energy sources like waste heat, geothermal or ambient heat (via heat pumps). This article analyses theoretical and technical electrification potentials of Steam Generation and Other Process Heat Generation in the following energy-intensive branches: iron & steel, non-ferrous metal, iron foundries, refineries, base chemicals, glass, cement clinker and paper industry in Germany. Literature research, expert interviews as well as own modelling were conducted to determine potentials and their implementation barriers. Based on these methods, market potential to electrify industrial steam generation was estimated. On the basis of two climate protection scenarios, the effects of both a monovalent and a hybrid industrial power-to-heat strategy were quantified with regard to greenhouse gas reduction and energy efficiency (primary energy saving). The pathway towards electrification will be reflected by criteria such as path dependency, dependency of infrastructure and system compatibility. Recommendations for research and development as well as policies are derived from the overall analysis. The article shows that electrification can be an important option to achieving high CO2-savings in the industrial heating sector in a long-term perspective. However, the scenario calculations show that electrification does not in itself guarantee reduction of greenhouse gases or savings of primary energy. To reach these goals, it is essential to further develop industrial heat pumps and to map electrification and further development of renewable energy (including infrastructure such as power networks and storage facilities) in a concerted strategy.
The German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is home to important clusters of energy-intensive basic materials industries. 15% of the EU's primary steel as well as 15% of high-value base chemicals are produced here. Together with refinery fuels, cement, lime and paper production (also overrepresented in NRW) these are the most carbon-intensive production processes of the industrial metabolism. To achieve the ambitious regional and national climate goals without relocating these clusters, carbon-neutral production will have to become standard by mid-century. We develop and evaluate three conceptual long-term scenarios towards carbon-neutral industry systems for NRW for 2050 and beyond:
* a first scenario depending on carbon capture and storage or use for heavy industries (iCCS),
* a second scenario sketching the direct electrification of industrial processes (and transport) and
* a third scenario relying on the import of low carbon energies (e.g. biomass, and synthetic fuels (like methanol) for the use in industries and transport. All scenarios share the assumption that electricity generation will be CO2-neutral by 2050.
For all three scenarios energy efficiency, primary energy demand for energy services and feedstock as well as the carbon balance are quantified. We apply a spatial-explicit analysis of production sites to allow for discussion of infrastructure re-use and net investment needs. Possible symbiotic relations between sectors are also included. The robustness of the three conceptualised future carbon-neutral industry systems is then analysed using a multi-criteria approach, including e.g. energy security issues and lock-ins on the way to 2050.
Solarthermische Kraftwerke
(2018)
Der Schutz des Klimas und die dafür erforderliche Umstellung der Energieversorgung auf erneuerbare Energien ist eine globale Herausforderung, welche nach maßgeschneiderten Lösungen für die unterschiedlichen Klimazonen und Märkte der Erde verlangt. Die verstärkte Solarenergienutzung spielt dabei eine maßgebliche Rolle. Die Rolle Deutschlands als Exportnation beschränkt sich hierbei nicht auf die Klimawende im eigenen Land, sondern beinhaltet auch den weltweiten Export erneuerbarer Energietechnologien.
Die Kosten der photovoltaischen Stromerzeugung (PV) und der Windkraft sind in den vergangenen Jahren erfreulicherweise deutlich gesunken, entsprechend wurden in vielen Ländern große Kapazitäten zugebaut. Die resultierende stark gestiegene Einspeisung fluktuierender Erzeuger stellt Netzbetreiber vor neue Herausforderungen, insbesondere durch die extremen Lastschwankungen für plan- und steuerbare, heute größtenteils fossil befeuerte konventionelle Kraftwerke.
Hier bieten solarthermische Kraftwerke Lösungen.
Welche Rolle spielt die Digitalisierung mit der Vielzahl ihrer Methoden und Anwendungen für die Energiewende - also für die Transformation unseres Energiesystems im Sinne der vereinbarten Klimaschutzziele? Ist sie notwendige Voraussetzung für den Systemumbau und ermöglicht beispielsweise erst den Übergang auf ein nahezu vollständig erneuerbares Energiesystem (Enabler) oder ist sie lediglich ein nützliches, den Umbau beschleunigendes Hilfsmittel (Facilitator)? Welche Veränderungen sind durch die Ziele der Energiewende getrieben und welche durch die Verbreitung von Techniken der Digitalisierung? All dies waren Fragen, die im Rahmen der Jahrestagung 2018 des Forschungsverbunds Erneuerbare Energien unter dem Titel "Die Energiewende - smart und digital" behandelt wurden. Dieser einführende Beitrag versucht einige Anhaltspunkte zur Beantwortung dieser Fragen zu liefern und in das Thema einzuführen.