Workshop
Energy and COVID-19
Part I Panel Discussion: Dec. 3rd 11:00-14:00 (GMT+0)
Part II Paper Session: Dec. 4th 11:00-14:20 (GMT+0)
Governments’ responses to COVID-19 indicate a clear willingness to respond with funding at scale to counter immediate public health impacts. Control of conventional or priority pollutants (especially PM2.5, which is linked to higher risk of susceptibility to COVID-19) is attracting increased scale of investment which has not been forthcoming for carbon mitigation pathways envisioned under the Paris Agreement. As there is not sufficient time to address Covid19 and climate change independently, increased financial stimulus to support economic recovery from the pandemic should be crafted to include “no regrets” investments in conventional pollution control which also deliver quantifiable climate change benefits.
Recovering from Covid19 has implications for energy supply chains; industrial production; urban transport and energy services; and social infrastructure including retrofit and new designs for public buildings, schools, hospitals, etc.
The workshop will discuss how the Covid19 has impacted energy supply chains with a focus on Asia and the Pacific, with presentations from multiple stakeholders including public and private sector, multilateral development banks, and academia.
P2P Energy Management and Trading
Dec. 5th 11:00-13:00 (GMT+0)
Over the last few years, there has been extensive growth in small-scale distributed energy resources (DERs), which encompass behind-the-meter generation, energy storage, inverters, electric vehicles, and controllable loads at the household level. These small-scale resources can be utilized not only to manage the energy demand more efficiently but also to enable a significant mix of clean energy into the grid. However, to do so, it is important for the owners of these assets to actively participate in the energy market. As a consequence, peer-to-peer trading has emerged as a next-generation energy management technique for the smart grid that can enable the owners of small scale DERs – also known as prosumers – to actively participate in the energy market. With the prosumers in control of setting the terms of transactions and the delivery of goods and services, it is expected that the gain that the prosumers can reap from participating in peer-to-peer trading would be substantial. At the same time, the grid — consisting of generators, retailers, and distribution network system providers — can also obtain a significant benefit in terms of reducing peak demand, lowering investment and operational costs, minimizing reserve requirements, and improving power system reliability.
The workshop will discuss some recent results and advancement in peer-to-peer trading in electricity networks in recent years. There are five presentations by researchers from different regions including USA, UK, Australia, and Singapore.
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Panel session
Energy System and Climate Governance in the Post COVID-19 Pandemic Era
Dec. 2nd 11:00-14:00 (GMT+0)
The COVID-19 Pandemic has been heavily damaging the world economy and significantly influencing the issues of climate change and energy both from supply side and consumption side. Studies show that during the lockdown and quarantine period, due to the worldwide economic slowdown, global energy consumption and CO2 emission decreased temporally. However, long with the economy reopening, energy use as well as carbon emissions are increasing rapidly. As the COVID-19 Pandemic is becoming a New Normal, thought the world economy may have a slow recovery or stagnation, however, we concern that the large-scale stimulating policies may induce a black and high carbon economic recovery. In particular, we concern that fossil fuel consumption might be rebounded and causes more CO2 emissions and environment pollutions. Hopefully, many countries like the UK, Germany, Japan, China, etc. announced their roadmap and timetable of carbon neutrality by 2050 or 2060 and promised to increase renewable energy as well as decrease fossil energy largely. Consequently, we acknowledged that climate mitigation is still a priority of global governance and needs to pay even more efforts to apply the Paris Agreement and the United Nations SDGs. Under this background, we organized this special panel to measures the impacts of the COVID-19 on the world economy and energy consumption and to discuss the issues of climate change, energy policy and international cooperation. We are pleased to invite some world well-known scholars in these fields to discuss the above issues and how to design a Low-carbon Energy System aims at a Zero-emission Sustainable Society in the post-COVD-19 Pandemic Era.
Energy Efficient Freight Transport and Logistics
Dec. 8th 11:00-13:30 (GMT+0)
The global market of transport and logistics is expected to reach USD 15.5 Trillion by 2023 according to the Transparency Market Research, which is a main impetus of global economic growth and plays a significant role in improving the overall competitiveness of industry. Meanwhile, world delivered energy consumption in the transportation sector increases at an annual average rate of 1.4% and is projected to consume 130 quadrillion Btu in 2030 according to the International Energy Outlook. With an increased demand of logistics, transportation tools such as vehicles, ships and aircrafts also produce numerous emissions of pollutant and greenhouse gases nowadays. In order to solve such concerns, energy efficient and green logistics has become one of the important directions of the sustainable development under the environment of vigorously developing low-carbon economy.
Both the original research papers and review studies about the energy consideration in this area are invited, including but not limited to the following fields: Green transportation planning focusing on reducing energy consumption and GHG emissions such as electric vehicle routing problem and charging station deployment problem; Sharing economy such as logistics under crowdsourcing mode, on-demand ride-sharing services, and self-service express cabinet; Reverse logistics and closed-loop supply chain; Operation management of green ports and shipping networks; The role of energy consideration in road traffic management and network design with traffic flow model; New technology application in green logistics such as unmanned drone, 3D printing, Internet of Things, robotized warehouse system, and big data; Energy management problem arisen form the intra-logistics and external-logistics of industrial plants; Other issues such as intermodal transportation and renewable energy resources.
Big Data Analytics for Smart Energy Systems
Dec. 9th 11:00-13:00 (GMT+0)
The comprehensive digitization, informatization, and intelligence of the energy system have made the amount of relevant data increase exponentially, and it has the remarkable characteristics of massive, multi-source, heterogeneous, and so on. By combining massive data with collected information from different links of the energy system, various entities, such as power utilities, customers, energy investment, society, etc., can use big data analytics technology to deepen the understanding of the energy system and its relevant links and create new value. This panel will discuss big data analytics application in the smart energy systems.
Women in Applied Energy
Dec. 7th 11:00-12:30 (GMT+0)
“Women in Applied Energy” was established in 2019. It’s a platform with added value for women lean in and the missions include: empower women researchers in the Applied Energy’s community to obtain career achievements; create a supportive platform for addressing gender-related issues with mentorship; advance gender equality and “Women Power” in energy science, technology, and engineering.
The panel is organized by “Women in Applied Energy” and panelists from different areas will share valuable experience about women development and further discussion is also arranged.
Scholarly Publication
Dec. 5th 11:00-12:30 (GMT+0)
Several honoured guests are deliberately invited to discuss about how to publish in an international journal. The panel focus on future publishing issues, including, but not limited to:
Working towards High Impact Publications
Switch on academic publishing in China
Forget about Impact Factors and find true value beyond
Why Publications and how to write Them?
Response to referees in review of paper manuscripts
Stories behind the paper
Trends of Scientific Publishing — from a publisher’s perspective
Accelerated climate change and the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus
Dec. 4th 11:00-13:00 (GMT+0)
The term ‘anthropocene’ refers to the epoch of global developments caused by the human impact on geology and the earth’s ecosystem. It is currently characterized by an accumulation of extreme weather events, including the hottest summer on record in the Northern Hemisphere causing the second lowest Arctic sea ice minimum on record, a very destructive wildfire season in California and a persistent severe drought in Central and Eastern Europe as measured by NASA. The food-energy-water nexus (FEW-Nexus) represents key sectors of the Anthropocene increasingly and centrally impacted by the accelerating climate change. In this panel, the interlinkages between the FEW nexus sectors and their embeddedness in the socio-economic-ecological system (SEES) will be considered and elaborated against the context of the accelerated climate change.
From AR to AI in the Energy Industry
Dec. 10th 12:00-13:30 (GMT+0)
Negative Emissions Technologies
Dec. 10th 15:00-16:00 (GMT+0)
Even as the deployment of carbon free energy and industrial technologies accelerates, it seems increasingly likely that the world will overshoot allowable carbon dioxide emissions required to keep global warming below the 2C target. This panel will discuss some of the possibilities around the deployment of negative emissions technologies (NETs), which might provide a path to mitigate carbon emissions from sectors that prove hardest to decarbonize, while also helping to restore atmospheric CO2 levels to more manageable levels. Panelists will address several promising technologies for net zero or negative emissions in the energy generation, shipping, and industrial materials sectors, as well as discuss the interaction between negative emissions technologies and various carbon pricing schemes.
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Keynote speech
Prof. Daniel M. Kammen
University of California, Berkeley
Have we reached ‘peak carbon’ emissions?
Abstract
Have we reached peak carbon emissions—that long hoped-for moment when the global emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, stop increasing and start to decline? The answer is “quite possibly, yes.” Solar and wind power are now the cheapest forms of new energy technology across most of the United States. The costs of solar energy projects have fallen by close to 90 percent over the past decade, and wind by 70 percent. Batteries and other forms of energy storage are now falling in cost as fast as solar and wind energy ever have, due to a series of new innovations. Transition to clean energy, however, is no longer a function of technology costs and market forces, but of politics and the entrenched, massively-subsidized, fossil fuels legacies. The global costs of fossil fuel subsidies – estimated to be $0.5 – 5 trillion per year are on par with the total investments in clean energy over the past decade (Kammen, 2020). Fossil-fuel damages are global, but the most immediate impacts are on the poorest citizens in every nation through local air pollution, health damages from work in the fossil-fuel sector, and the impacts on the areas with the poorest infrastructure. Climate protection can only proceed if social justice is at the forefront.
Short bio
Dr. Daniel M. Kammen is a Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, with parallel appointments in the Energy and Resources Group where he serves as Chair, the Goldman School of Public Policy where he directs the Center for Environmental Policy, and the department of Nuclear Engineering. Kammen is the founding director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory (RAEL; http://rael.berkeley.edu), and was director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center from 2007 – 2015. In 2020 Kammen was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Prof. Reinhard Madlener
RWTH Aachen University
Power Generation from Variable Renewables and Flexibility Needs Implied
Abstract
The ongoing transformation of the energy system towards sustainability, characterized by decarbonization, decentralization, digitalization and democratization, requires a sufficient amount of flexibility to accommodate rising shares of variable renewables. In this talk, an overview of the most relevant flexibility options in the electricity sector is provided, and also of the main actors and issues and important economic and policy considerations. Moreover, the policy and regulatory needs are discussed that are necessary for a smooth and efficient transition to energy system integration. Finally, some reflections are offered regarding the need for sustainable regulation, industrial organization, business economics, system-friendly citizen energy and prosumer engagement, and technology.
Short bio
Prof. Madlener is the founding and current Director of the Institute for Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior (FCN), which forms an integral element of the interdisciplinary and integrated E.ON Energy Research Center established at RWTH Aachen University in 2006. His main research interests, on which he has published extensively over the last 25 years, are in the fields of energy economics and policy; sustainable energy systems; energy efficiency and rebound; the adoption, temporal & spatial diffusion of innovation; and investment in (optimal mixes of) innovative energy technologies under uncertainty. The main teaching activities of Professor Madlener comprise Energy Economics, Environmental & Resource Economics, Economics of Technological Diffusion, Behavioral Energy and Environmental Economics, Economics of Technical Change, Smart Grid Economics and Management, and Public Choice. He acts as Senior Editor of the Energy Policy journal and serves on the Editorial Boards of a number of international scientific journals, including Applied Energy; Energy Efficiency; Energy Systems; Energy, Sustainability & Society; International Journal of Energy Sector Management; and the Journal of Energy Storage, amongst others.
Prof Xiaohua Xia
University of Pretoria
The State Of Research, Development and Innovation of Electrical Energy Efficiency in South Africa
Abstract
An overview of South African research productivity in various energy efficiency fields using the Scopus data base, is given for the 30-year period, 1986 to 2016. The study, coordinated by the Academy of Science of South Africa, aims to inform the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of opportunities for further development in terms of human capital development, intellectual property output and technology development and innovation, in order to promote the adoption of energy efficiency technologies in South Africa. A methodology consisting of a number of agreed steps was established to identify 10 areas and four categories of South African interests, and their performances are compared to see the research strength, weakness and strength. To benchmark, 10 other countries are selected for the same 10 areas and over the same 30-year period. South Africa scores fairly well internationally in terms of research outputs. Relatively strong areas such as industrial energy systems in MMM and M&V are reflections of South African established research strengths. South Africa follows more or less the broad international trends in terms of restructuring and consolidation of cross-disciplinary fields for micro-grids, which consists of traditionally strong South African research areas in renewable energy, power systems, integrated building energy systems and energy storage. There is accelerated growth in SSL, and a slight decline in batch chemical processes, while emerging research areas such as tribology, smart grids and M&V show rapid growth. Some research, as well as some more recent research on supercapacitors and the South Africa climate change targets, snapshots are shown, as later influenced by the ASSAf study.
Short bio
Prof. Xia is a professor in the Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering Department, University of Pretoria, director of the Centre of New Energy Systems, and the director of the National Hub for the Postgraduate Programme in Energy Efficiency and Demand-side Management. He obtained his PhD degree at the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 1989. He was academically affiliated with the University of Stuttgart, Germany, the Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France, and the National University of Singapore before joining the University of Pretoria in 1998. His current research interests are industrial energy systems and building energy systems. He is an IEEE fellow and an NRF A-rated scientist. He was elected a fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering in 2005, and a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2011. He has been an associate editor of Automatica, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II, IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, and specialist editor (control) of the SAIEE Africa Research Journal, and currently sits at the editorial board of Applied Energy, Advances in Applied Energy, and Annual Reviews in Control. He is a registered professional engineering by the Engineering Council of South Africa, and a certified measurement and verification professional by the American Association of Energy Engineers. He is an elected board member of measurement and verification council of South Africa (MVCSA) since 2014. He is the founding director of Onga Energy Efficiency and Management Pty Ltd – the first SANAS accredited M&V Company against ISO 17020 and he is invited as a technical assessor for the South African National Accreditation Systems (SANAS) for M&V inspection bodies in South Africa. He is a scientific advisor to two ministers of the South African government – the Department of Energy and the Department of Science and Technology, and he is also an advisor to Chinese State Council Overseas Office as a member of the Scientific Committee.
Prof Ju Li
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Challenges for Battery Energy Storage Systems
Abstract
The market price of Li-ion battery cells dropped by a factor of ~6× since 2010. This epic cost-down is on par with the development of solar photovoltaics and is the best news for Renewable Energies and Climate Grand Challenges in the last decade. With LIB cell cost at ~$90/kWh today, battery chemistries well validated in the electrical vehicles industry at 500GWh scale with cycle life up to 10,000 cycles are ready to “move the needle” in a big way. Grid-scale LIB offers one possible way to keep human beings on track in the near-term to meet the IPCC goal of halving global CO2 emission by 2040-2050, that demands Terawatts and 100s of TWh. However, there are still key technical challenges in fire safety and recycling. There were >20 fire accidents amongst ~500 battery energy storage stations in South Korea within 3 years. Interestingly, some of these fires did not start from the battery, but from the power electronics and accessories. Better fire extinguishers, sensors, software, electrical systems, and safer electrolytes/electrodes are needed. In terms of recycling, waste LIB contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Currently, less than ~10% of LIBs are recycled. Without state-of-the-art recycling technologies, scaling up would be environmentally disastrous. Tremendous materials and chemical engineering work remain in order to fully close the loop in Li, Co/Ni, F, P, Cu. Further reducing the cost and integration with software are also essential. To scale up the current LIB industry by another factor of 100×-1000× is a civilization-scale endeavor. It must be done “Right”.
Short bio
Prof. Li has held faculty positions at the Ohio State University, the University of Pennsylvania, and is presently a chaired professor at MIT. His group (http://Li.mit.edu) investigates the mechanical, electrochemical and transport behaviors of materials as well as novel means of energy storage and conversion. Ju is a recipient of the 2005 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the 2006 Materials Research Society Outstanding Young Investigator Award, and the TR35 award from Technological Review. Ju was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2014 and a Fellow of the Materials Research Society in 2017. In 2016 Ju Li co-founded one of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Low-Carbon Energy Centers, the Center for Materials in Energy and Extreme Environments (CME). Li is the chief organizer of MIT A+B Applied Energy Symposia that aim to develop solutions to global climate change challenges with “A-Action before 2040” and “B-Beyond 2040 technologies.
Prof Xiliang Zhang
Tsinghua University
The pathway of China’s energy system transformation to achieve the 2060 carbon neutrality goal.
Abstract
President Xi Jinping announced China’s new climate pledge of achieving carbon neutrality before 2060 in his speech to the United Nations on September 22. The presentation will provide some results of an analysis of the climate goal conducted by Professor Zhang’s group using CGEM model, showing how China might become carbon neutral by 2060 in terms of economic restructuring, improvement in energy efficiency, electrification of the final energy uses, deployment of renewable and nuclear energy, and other breaking carbon technologies, and public policy. The speech will also give an overview of China’s national carbon emissions trading system development which would play a critical role in accelerating the low carbon energy economy transformation for next decade.
Short bio
Dr. Zhang is Professor of Management Science and Engineering and Director of the Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy at Tsinghua University. His current research interests include low-carbon energy economy transformation, integrated assessment of energy and climate policies, renewable energy and automotive energy. Since 2015, Professor Zhang has been heading the expert group on China’s national carbon market design, which is a taskforce of the Climate Change Department in the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. He also served as the co-leader of the expert group for drafting China’s Renewable Energy Law from 2004 to 2005, which was organized by the Environmental Protection and Resource Conservation Committee of the National People’s Congress, and as a lead author of the 4th and 5th IPCC Climate Change Assessment Report. Dr. Zhang is the current Chair of the Energy Systems Engineering Committee of the China Energy Research Society and a member of the board of directors of Chinese Society of Sustainable Development. He holds a PhD in Systems Engineering from Tsinghua University.
Prof. Denise Mauzerall
Princeton University
Evaluating Opportunities to Simultaneously Address Air Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in China
Abstract
The Chinese government has declared a war on air pollution while also pledging to be carbon neutral by 2060. This talk will provide a comparative analysis of synergies and trade-offs for air quality and greenhouse gas mitigation among a variety of energy technology interventions that displace the use of coal. Key findings include that economy wide electrification, particularly of the residential and transport sectors with heat pumps and electric vehicles have clear co-benefits for both air quality and climate. Conversely, the use of synthetic natural gas results in substantial trade-offs with air quality improvements accompanied by substantial climate disbenefits. Furthermore, improvements in air quality increases the efficiency of solar PV electricity generation which leads to further displacement of coal and air quality improvements thus creating a virtuous cycle for air quality, health and climate.
Short bio
Prof. Denise Mauzerall’s research examines opportunities to simultaneously reduce air pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions while improving public health and food security. Current research is examining the potential air quality, health and climate benefits of increased electrification in China, air quality and climate co-benefits of various substitutes for residential coal stoves in China, China’s role in overseas development financing of electric power generation, evaluation of upstream methane leakage from on and off-shore oil and gas wells, evaluation of the effect of air pollution on the ability to generate solar electricity, and evaluation of the potential to increase nitrogen use efficiency in agriculture. Her group has published over 85 papers on environmental/energy topics in top research journals. She served on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chartered Science Advisory Board from 2014-2017, is on the executive advisory board for the Institute of Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, Germany, spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on opportunities to simultaneously address air pollution and greenhouse gas mitigation, and has been a contributing author to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which shared the Nobel Peace Price with Vice President Al Gore. She sits on the executive editorial boards of the Atmospheric Environment and Advances in Applied Energy journals. At Princeton she is on the executive committees of the Andlinger Center for Energy and Environment, the Global India Center and the Program in Technology and Society: Energy track. She directs the PhD program in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs where she is a core professor in the Center for Policy Research on Energy and Environment.
Prof. Eric Masanet
University of California, Santa Barbara
Technology Prospects for Decarbonizing Global Cement and Concrete Cycles
Abstract
The cement and concrete cycle accounts for 6-9% of global energy-related CO2 emissions. Reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement will require reducing these emissions to near zero by mid-century—a goal that has heretofore appeared elusive due to growing demand, energy- and carbon-intensive production processes, long-lived process technologies, and lack of rapidly-scalable material substitutes. However, a number of emerging innovations in materials science, process heating technologies, carbon capture and utilization, and materials efficiency and substitution may offer new pathways for decarbonizing this “hard to abate” source of emissions. This presentation will review the innovation landscape across the cement and concrete cycle, present new decarbonization pathways these innovations may enable, and discuss stakeholder actions and policy options for accelerating their adoption.
Short bio
Eric Masanet is Professor and Mellichamp Chair in Sustainability Science for Emerging Technologies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research develops energy and materials systems models to identify technology and policy pathways for decarbonizing industrial systems. From 2015-2017, he led the Energy Demand Technology Unit at the International Energy Agency in Paris, where he oversaw energy analyses of the global industrial, transport, and buildings sectors. He is currently a Lead Author of Chapter 5 (Demand) for Working Group III of the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report and a member of the Research Advisory Board at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE). He is also the former Editor in Chief of Resources, Conservation, and Recycling, the leading peer-reviewed journal on sustainable resource systems. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Prof. Phil Taylor
University of Bristol
Potential Technical, Economic and Environmental Benefits of Multi Energy Systems Planning and Operation
Abstract
Energy systems are vitally important for UK industry and society. The energy trilemma (energy security, environmental impact and social cost) presents many complex interconnected challenges which have huge relevance internationally. These challenges vary considerably from region to region due to historical, geographic, political, economic and cultural reasons. As technology and society changes so do these challenges, and therefore the planning, design and operation of energy systems needs to be revisited and optimised. Current energy systems research does not fully embrace a whole systems approach and is therefore not developing a deep enough understanding of the interconnected and interdependent nature of energy infrastructure. The global energy systems research community would strongly benefit from a more diverse, open, supportive community with representation from many disciplines beyond traditional engineering (such as Computing Science, Statistics, Anthropology, Geography, Economics and Applied Mathematics) to help implement a whole systems approach. A deeper level of understanding, through a whole systems approach, is necessary in order to consider how best to plan, design, integrate, regulate and operate energy systems and their associated markets in the future.
Short bio
Professor Taylor Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at University of Bristol, is an internationally leading researcher and industrial expert in energy systems, who has worked in industry and academia for over 25 years. He joined Newcastle University in 2013 as Dean and Director of the multidisciplinary Institute for Sustainability, and later, became the Head of the School of Engineering. Professor Taylor is Co-Director of the £20m EPSRC National Centre for Energy Systems Integration (CESI) and the Director of the £10m EPSRC Supergen Energy Networks Hub. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and non-executive director of Northern Powergrid, UK.
Can Europe become the first carbon-neutral continent in the world?——A systemic approach to the energy transition in Europe
Peter D. Lund
Abstract
The European Union launched the Green Deal package to reach carbon-neutrality by 2050. The Fit-for-55% policy frame lays the necessary steps till 2030 with 55% emission cuts. The European Academies were invited by the Commission to provide advice on a systemic approach to this transition, considering technical, economic, regulatory, and social aspects simultaneously, including the particularities of member states. There are several possible pathways to carbon-neutrality and achieving it by 2050 is possible, but this requires urgent action. Any successful policy must involve a carbon pricing mechanism (but socially just). Electrification and strong system integration form an important technical pathway. Policy must also stimulate behavioural change alongside technology.
Bio
Peter D. Lund is Professor in Advanced Energy Systems at Aalto University, Finland. He is Honorary Professor at Southeast University (Nanjing). He has >40 years of experience in clean energy technologies, systems, and policies. He has led Finland’s R&D on new energy technologies. Dr. Lund is active in senior roles with European energy initiatives: he chaired Advisory Group Energy of European Commission 2002-2006 and Energy Steering Panel of European Academies Science Advisory Council 2013-2017, Co-Chair of European Academies’ Science Advice for Policy on the energy transition 2019-2021. He is vice-chair of Finnish Climate Panel, Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Open Energy, member of Applied Energy EB, etc. He is D.Sc. from Helsinki University of Technology (1984); London Business School Alumni (1989). Jiangsu Friendship Award and Medal (2020).
Plummeting solar, wind, and battery costs can accelerate our clean electricity future
Amol Phadke
Abstract
Global carbon emissions must be halved by 2030 to limit warming to 1.5°C and avoid catastrophic climate impacts. Most existing studies, however, examine 2050 as the year that deep decarbonization of electric power systems can be achieved—a timeline that would also hinder decarbonization of the buildings, industrial, and transportation sectors. In light of recent trends, these studies present overly conservative estimates of decarbonization potential. Plummeting costs for wind and solar energy have dramatically changed the prospects for rapid, cost-effective expansion of renewable energy. At the same time, battery energy storage has become a viable option for cost effectively integrating high levels of wind and solar generation into electricity grids. This paper uses the latest renewable energy and battery cost data to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of achieving 90% clean (carbon-free) electricity in the United States by 2035 and shows that it can be achieved without increasing wholesale electricity costs compared to today (2020). Two central cases are simulated using state-of-the-art capacity expansion and production-cost models: The No New Policy case assumes continuation of current state and federal policies; and the 90% Clean case requires that a 90% clean electricity share is reached by 2035.
Bio
Dr. Amol Phadke is a Staff Scientist, Lead of the India Research Program, and Deputy of the International Energy Analysis Department, Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
He is an Affiliate and Senior Scientist at the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley.
Currently, his work is focused on, grid scale battery storage, heavy-duty electric vehicles, deep RE penetration in the India power sector, and appliance and equipment efficiency in several emerging economies.
Amol has published over 80 journal articles, research reports, and conference papers. His work has been featured in the Times of India, Economic Times, The Hindu, Nature Magazine, India and numerous other publications. Amol regularly advises the national government, utilities, and regulators in India on energy policies and programs. Amol has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Government College of Engineering, Pune, India, and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group, from UC Berkeley.
Fast Charging Batteries for Mass-Market Electric Vehicles
Chao-Yang Wang
Abstract
Electric vehicles (EVs) should allow drivers to recharge quickly anywhere in any weather, like refueling gasoline cars. However, none of today’s EVs allow fast charging due to the risk of lithium plating, the formation of metallic lithium that drastically reduces battery life and even results in safety hazards. In this talk, we present a new approach enabling 10-minute fast charging of energy-dense Li-ion batteries in any temperatures (even at -50 °C) while still preserving remarkable cycle life. We further show that fast rechargeability is an economical answer to mass-market EVs, making possible a vehicle battery costing only $3,500 while eliminating range anxiety.
Bio
Chao-Yang Wang, Academician of National Academy of Inventors, is William E. Diefenderfer Chair Professor of Mechanical, Chemical, and Materials Science & Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He has 220+ publications, 36,000+ citations, an H-index of 104. He holds 140 patents and has published two books, “Battery Systems Engineering” by Wiley and “Modeling and Diagnostics of Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells” by Springer. His work on all-climate battery (ACB) was selected by 2022 Winter Olympic Games to power electric vehicles serving the Games, as well as adopted by several carmakers. Dr. Wang’s expertise covers the transport, materials, manufacturing and modeling of batteries and fuel cells.
Waste-to-Energy: High-Quality Solid Fuel Production from Biomass and Wastes
Kunio Yoshikawa
Abstract
In the Waste-to-Energy processes, the conversion of waste and biomass resources into high-quality solid fuels is a critical pre-treatment step. We have developed an innovative hydrothermal treatment technology (HTT) that can perform this conversion utilizing high-pressure (around 2-3MPa) saturated steam. Any kind of burnable materials can be converted into coal-like granular products and only 10-15% of the products are enough as fuel for steam production in a boiler. In this presentation, commercial experiences of HTT will be introduced focusing on the treatment of municipal solid waste, sewage sludge, and empty fruit bunch (EFB).
Bio
Dr. Kunio Yoshikawa is a professor emeritus and a researcher at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. His major research areas are energy conversion, thermal engineering, combustion, gasification, waste treatment technologies, and atmospheric environmental engineering. He published more than 200 papers and supervised 57 Ph.D. students. He is an associate editor of Applied Energy. His main awards are AIAA Best Paper Award in 1999, ASME James Harry Potter Gold Medal in 2001, JSME Environmental Technology Achievement Award in 2006, Best Educator Award of Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2014, and Best Editor Award of Applied Energy in 2020.
Challenges and technology enablers for the safe utilization of hydrogen energy
Shan-Tung Tu
Bio
Shan-Tung Tu received his B.Eng degree in 1982 and Ph.D degree in 1988 from Nanjing Tech University. He is a Chair professor of mechanical and power engineering, East China University of Science and Technology. Prior to this, he has worked in Nanjing Tech University and East China University of Science and Technology as a professor and vice present, and a guest scientist to Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. He was elected as an academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2019.
Driven by the safety concern of the process and energy equipment, Professor Tu has long devoted to developing knowledge related to design of high temperature equipment. He is an author of more than 400 papers and received a number of distinguished awards, including China National Science and Technology Progress Award, National Technology Invention Award, China Youth Science and Technology Award, ASME Best Paper Award and so on. He has been the honorary president of Chinese Pressure Vessel Institution (since 2010) and the honorary president of Chinese Materials Institution (since 2015) of China Mechanical Engineering Society, Chairman of Asian Oceanic Regional Committee of International Council for Pressure Vessel Technology. He is currently an honorary professor of the University of Nottingham. He is also serving a number of journals as an associate editor or editorial board member, including Applied Energy, Int J Pres Ves and Piping, J of Materials Science and Technology and so on.
Why we must move beyond LCOE for Renewable Energy Design
Eric Loth
Abstract
The design of renewable energy systems such as wind turbines or solar panels has ubiquitously employed the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). However, LCOE fails to account for time-varying factors of energy prices and energy reserve requirements, which are becoming increasingly important as energy grids become more dynamic and as renewable energy penetration rises. If we consider these factors, renewable energy systems (especially those with energy storage) may perform poorly if designed with LCOE. This is particularly true when considering dispatchability, which LCOE fails to consider entirely. Therefore, new metrics are urgently needed to design future renewable energy systems. To better value energy based on time-dependent generation and grid demand, the Cost of Valued Energy (COVE) has been developed based on a fundamental price-demand relationship for the grid. Case studies for new energy systems show the benefit of COVE compared to LCOE as a design metric.
Bio
Eric Loth is the Rolls Royce Professor and Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. He is a Fellow of the ASME, the AIAA, and was named a Yip Visiting Fellow of the Magdalene College at Cambridge University (U.K.). Dr. Loth has given invited talks at several universities (Harvard, MIT, Oxford, Penn, Princeton), several national labs (NETL, NREL, NRL, SNL), and the several conference and events (ARPA-E Congressional Showcase, MIT A+B, World Energy Storage Conference), with research covered by American Scientist, Popular Science, USA Today, MIT Technology Review, CNBC, and several other media outlets.
The role of policy in de-risking investment in renewable energy – a balancing act?
Robert Gross
Abstract
Around the world prices of renewable energy have fallen dramatically. In the UK for example, government auctioned contracts known as Contracts for Difference, or CfDs, have proved very attractive to investors and bid prices have fallen from over £100/MWh to under £40/MWh.
Some commentators ask whether renewables still need government support through long term contracts like CfDs. The logic is that long run contracts make investment less risky, but they largely remove incentives for renewable generators to respond to changes in the wholesale market price of electricity.
Others argue we have only just started to deliver the massive shift in power infrastructure needed for decarbonisation of the electricity system. They argue that we need to keep the costs of capital as low as possible to help afford huge new investments needed in low carbon power.
The talk lays out the key issues and provides analysis of the impact of risk on the cost of capital.
Bio
Robert Gross is the Director of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) and Professor of Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College London. He has published extensively on a wide range of issues related to energy policy. A particular focus has been on electricity market design and incentives for renewable and low carbon energy.
Robert is a Fellow and Council member of the Energy Institute, former Chair of the British Institute of Energy Economists (BIEE), and member of the Academic Advisory Panel for Ofgem. He has extensive experience with UK policymaking and of engagement with international bodies such as the IEA.
Future of Low-carbon Transmission Network
Peter Crossley
Abstract
Modern society is dependent on flexible electrical energy, available on demand, at an affordable social and environmental cost. Today, most of our electrical energy is produced by converting the carbon stored in coal or natural gas into heat energy and then via turbines and synchronous generators into electrical energy.
To address the challenges of global warming, Exeter University is discussing and exploring methods to reduce our reliance on ‘pre-historic’ solar energy stored in fossil fuels, and exploiting ‘real time’ solar energy available via wind, waves, photovoltaic, solar thermal, bio-mass and hydro. To incorporate these green, but often intermittent energy resources, electricity networks will have to become ‘smarter’. Real time information will have to be communicated between the producers and consumers of electricity, the local and national energy stores, and the operators of the transmission and distribution grids. A “low-carbon smart-grid” refers to the balancing of supply and demand without resorting to the conventional burning of coal and gas.
To fully utilise our national renewable energy resources, we need to recharge energy stores when supply exceeds demand and recover the energy when the balance reverses. A financially astute consumer or community will buy and store electricity when the price is low, and sell stored electricity when the price is high. However, storage is only part of the solution and energy management systems will be required to ensure energy use is sensitive to supply availability and real-time pricing. For example, ‘smart homes’ will receive information, informing appliances that energy costs are about to go high and unless absolutely necessary they should not operate. This reduces demand by automatically shifting the use of white-goods, EV charging or storage based heating systems to periods when the wind is blowing, the sun is shining, the transmission and distribution network infrastructure has spare capacity and energy demand is relatively low.
Bio
Peter Crossley is Honorary Professor at the University of Exeter. Immediately prior to joining the Exeter Smart Grid Centre in 2021, he was Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Power Networks at the University of Manchester. He is a named author on 105 Journal and over 250 conference papers in subjects related to smart-grids, power system protection and control, and the impact of low carbon technologies on transmission and distribution networks. He is also a Fellow of the Chinese Society of Electrical Engineers, a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Chartered Engineer in the UK.
Sector Coupling in Facilitating Integration of Variable Renewable Energy in Cities
Yong Chen
Abstract
To accommodate high shares of variable renewables in an effort to address global climate change, the future power system would require significant enhancement in grid flexibility. This presentation highlights the importance of sector coupling as a key source of flexibility that cities can explore to stabilise grid operations. However, quantifying sector coupling opportunities requires an integrated approach to model increasing complexity and interconnectedness of energy systems. Cross-sectoral synergies through sector coupling technologies should be measured against optimisation objectives in different scenarios. The study aims to help cities understand the great potential they hold to accelerate the race to net zero.
Bio
Yong Chen has been working on energy related issues for more than 20 years. He is now leading the sustainable urban energy program at the International Renewable Energy Agency’s (IRENA) Innovation and Technology Centre (IITC). Prior to this role, Mr. Chen had functioned as Regional Program officer for Asia and the Pacific, representing the Agency at various forums and advising IRENA’s Member States in the region to accelerate renewable energy deployment. Before joining IRENA in 2012, Mr. Chen had been with Stockholm Environment Institute, conducting research and providing consultancy on renewable energy.
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Panel session
Women in Applied Energy
Time: Nov. 29h 14:10-16:00 (GMT+1)
“Women in Applied Energy” was established in 2019. It’s a platform with added value for women lean in and the missions include: empower women researchers in the Applied Energy’s community to obtain career achievements; create a supportive platform for addressing gender-related issues with mentorship; advance gender equality and “Women Power” in energy science, technology, and engineering.
The panel is organized by “Women in Applied Energy” and panelists from different areas will share valuable experience about women development and further discussion is also arranged.
For detailed information, please click here.
Big Data Analytics for Smart Energy Systems
Time: Nov. 30th 13:00-15:20 (GMT+1)
The comprehensive digitization, informatization, and intelligence of the energy system have made the amount of relevant data increase exponentially, and it has the remarkable characteristics of massive, multi-source, heterogeneous, and so on. By combining massive data with collected information from different links of the energy system, various entities, such as power utilities, customers, energy investment, society, etc., can use big data analytics technology to deepen the understanding of the energy system and its relevant links and create new value. This panel will discuss big data analytics application in the smart energy systems.
For detailed information, please click here.
Smart district heating networks
Time: Dec. 1st 9:30-11:30 (GMT+1)
Integration of the heating sector into the future smart energy systems constitutes a priority towards decarbonizing the energy sector. Higher share of renewables and sectorial integration can leverage the transition to coherent energy systems. This shift demonstrates substantial potential in terms of environmental and economic benefits. However, more effort is required for alleviating the social barriers, handling the legal implications, and realizing the technical implementation at large scale.
Real-time process data, advanced modelling and digitalization are some of the envisaged tools for addressing the technical challenges. Smart district heating networks promise to reduce operating temperatures, optimize the management of multi-energy sources, and provide increased flexibility to the grid and the end-users.
This panel aims at:
- Evaluating the role of artificial intelligence, data management and digitalization towards increasing the efficiency of district heating networks.
- Discussing the potential and limitations of enhanced flexibility, integration of renewables and sector coupling.
- Shedding light into the future layout of district heating networks.
For detailed information, please click here.
Decarbonising heating and cooling sector: a whole-system perspective
Time: Dec. 1st 13:00-14:40 (GMT+1)
Many countries around the world have pledged to achieve the net-zero emission target in the next three decades. Decarbonising heating and cooling sector is a crucial step toward reaching carbon neutrality. Given the interdependent nature of the energy system, any major programme for rolling out low-carbon technologies and fuels for heating and cooling will have substantial impacts on other energy vectors such as electricity and hydrogen/gas. The aim of this panel session is to provide an overview of various options for decarbonising heating and cooling, and explore their potential impacts on the whole energy system.
For detailed information, please click here.
Challenges in the commercialization of biomass renewable energy technologies
Part I Time: 14:50 pm-16:30 pm Dec. 1st CET (GMT+1)
Part II Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm Dec. 3rd CET (GMT+1)
As the world marks the fifth anniversary for the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change, promising steps towards carbon neutrality are taking shape. In a response to deal with the climate crisis and environmental pollutions, many countries have revised their energy schemes, where renewable energy plays an important role. Among the different forms of renewable energy, biomass has been considered as an imperative resource that can be used to provide a variety of energy needs, including generating electricity, fueling vehicles, and providing heat. According to some estimations, biomass is considered as the fourth largest energy source in the world after coal, petroleum, and natural gas, which is accounted for 14% of the world’s primary energy consumption. The main advantage of biomass, as the only renewable carbon source, over all other renewable resources is the possibility to be converted into solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels through different conversion routes.
However, the commercialization of biomass renewable energy technologies has been facing with challenges due to the natural characters of biomass including low bulk density, low energy density, high moisture content, high oxygen content, feeding issues, soot and tar generation and fouling problems during thermal conversion. The topics of this panel discussion mainly include the development space and technical challenges of biomass based bulk chemicals/high value-added chemicals/power generation/fuel cell etc. We hope that this panel will provide researchers some inspiration and facilitate the development of advanced techniques for exploring efficient biomass utilization systems in the future.
Accelerated climate change and the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus
Time: Dec. 3rd 12:00-13:40 (GMT+1)
The dramatic events of 2021 reveal that in the Anthropocene, climate change can affect everyone, rich and poor around the globe. This year illustrates the importance of the transformation of the fossil fuel-based societies into net-zero-emission societies to avoid severe damages through climate change. The food-energy-water nexus (FEW-Nexus) is at the centre of this transformation process to enable a net-zero emission resilient future. We will discuss the socio-economic transformation options presenting examples from Africa, China and Europe.
We will discuss industrialization of countries to enhance economic growth and inclusiveness by preserving their effectiveness in fighting climate change. The job creation potential of developing countries for a decarbonized economic development is another topic of debate. Furthermore, the technology transfer option to support developing countries in their transformation process will be presented. Thereby a focus will be set on the biogas potential especially for Africa and Europe.
For detailed information, please click here.
Agrivoltaic
Design and operation optimization of aggregate energy systems
Demand Response in Smart Energy Systems
