11.10.2023
Source: Energy & Management Powernews
The energy system must withstand the climate crisis, geopolitical conflicts, cyber attacks and sabotage. Solutions for this were the topic at a meeting in Berlin.
At the annual meeting of the Forschungsverbund Erneuerbare Energien (FVEE), scientists presented technical, political and social options to strengthen the resilience of energy systems. The meeting on October 10 and 11 at the Umweltforum Berlin focused on the multiple crises that threaten energy supply. These include climate crisis, geopolitical conflicts, cyber attacks and sabotage.
Conference chair Prof. Uwe Rau of Forschungszentrum Jülich sees a great need for action: "The vulnerability and attackability of the energy system have become drastically visible in recent years." The political, social, economic and ecological crises were mutually reinforcing and also affecting the energy system, Rau said. "Policymakers and scientists must include resilience as an additional target dimension for designing the sustainable energy system," he urged. Individual measures, such as sector coupling, decentralization and digitization, should be measured against this criterion, Rau said.
"The energy supply must be made more renewable and independent and upgraded to ensure the supply of electricity, heat and mobility even under crisis conditions," Professor Ingo Sass named as a way out. He works at the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam.
Technologies for greater security of supply
At the FVEE conference, researchers will present technologies and strategies that increase the resilience of the energy system to changes and disruptions at the national and local level. Technologies such as deep geothermal, hybrid heat pump systems, or absorption heat pumps using biomass, for example, reduce dependence on limited resources and increase system flexibility.
Innovative technologies to increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions also contribute to improving system resilience. Similarly, intelligent sector coupling between the energy sectors of heating, cooling, electricity and transport could help to increase the resilience of the overall system. Renewable energy systems are inherently more resilient than conventional centralized structures, he said, because they are specifically smaller and distributed across the country and less dependent on fossil fuel imports.
Likewise, energy storage systems increase system stability. They established the necessary redundancy, integrated fluctuating renewable energy and ensure decentralization as a special factor of resilience. In the process, they provide the necessary flexibility for a resilient energy supply. For resilient power grids, he said, it remains to be investigated what opportunities lie in automation and self-organization in distribution grids and how distributed islanding and coordinated grid reconstruction can reduce the impact of a blackout.
Homegrown production for key technologies
A resilient energy system includes a secure supply of basic technologies, Rau reminded: "For its own supply, Germany and Europe need more independence in the provision of key technologies such as photovoltaics, wind energy, geothermal energy, system technology and storage." For this, he said, Germany must strengthen the production of climate-neutral technologies in Europe on the basis of its technological leadership.
Ingo Sass called for stable political frameworks and reliable funding instruments in Germany and the EU to achieve this. "The planned Net Zero Industry Act of the EU Commission goes in the right direction," said Sass. In parallel, Germany needs to make up for shortcomings, he added. For example, it lacks underground spatial planning, which would help to use the entire base-load capable, geothermal potential.
If the path toward a circular economy succeeds, regenerative cycles can promote independence and resilience. Short, regionally designed material cycles reduce global dependencies and can also lead to greater social justice, the FVEE said.
Author: Susanne Harmsen
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