Dance partners – global coordination and synergy in the energy transition
Dr. Mark O’Malley
Chief Scientist of the Energy Systems Integration Group
Abstract
The energy system transition is accelerating in reaction to policies and dramatic cost declines in wind and solar photovoltaic technologies. The transition is also making the energy system more interconnected with electrification of transport and heat. This interconnection is also impacting on individual energy consumers as they start to become prosumers. This interconnectedness has enormous benefits as it gives more degrees of freedom in the design of the future energy system and leveraging of synergies, but the added complexity is posing significant challenges. Coordination across all aspects of the energy system just like good dance partners is now a central theme in the future energy system. The coordination is not only beneficial in the energy system but also at the stakeholder level with lessons to be learnt from colleagues in other disciplines, countries and regions with an increasing need for a divide and conquer strategy globally to deliver at the pace and scale that is required. This talk with a few key examples will make the case for need for global coordination in the energy transition.
Bio
Mark O’Malley is on secondment as the Chief Scientist of the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG). ESIG is a global organization that brings together industry, regulators, policy makers and the research community to further our collective knowledge and understanding in Energy Systems Integration. He is also the Professor of Electrical Engineering at University College Dublin.
He is a co-founder of the Global Power System Transformation Consortium (G-PST) and is the co-chair of the Research Agenda Group.
In 2020 he completed a three-year assignment as Chief Scientist, Energy Systems Integration at the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA.
In 2017 he was the James M. Flaherty Visiting Professor in Electrical Engineering at McGill University where he worked on strategies to decarbonize the combined Eastern Canada and North Eastern US electricity grids.
He is recognized as a world authority on Energy Systems Integration and in grid integration of renewable energy. He works closely and collaboratively with researchers in other disciplines, including economists, social scientists, and geologists, and is on the advisory board of the European Platform for Energy Research in the Socio-Economic Nexus.
He is a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Engineering, a member of the Royal Irish Academy and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and has received two Fulbright Fellowships. He is also a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Tsinghua University.
The importance of gas networks for the security of supply and an efficient energy transition
Dr. Thomas Hüwener
Member of the Board of Management, Open Grid Europe GmbH
Abstract
Russia’s attack on Ukraine has shown that a reorientation of the European energy supply is urgently needed in order to become more independent of individual supplier countries and energy sources. In the short term, this means diversifying our natural gas sources, mainly through increased LNG imports. In the mid-term we need a rapid ramp-up of renewable energies and hydrogen.
In this context, OGE aims to provide important puzzle pieces to contribute to the security of supply in Germany and Europe: As a first step, we are currently building a pipeline to connect new LNG Terminal(s) in Wilhelmshaven to the German gas grid by the end of 2022. In this project, together with politicians and authorities, we are establishing a new speed that gives confidence and hope for faster action in the energy transition.
Secondly, we see hydrogen as a key element of the energy transition. The existing gas networks play an important role for transport and storage of hydrogen and will help accelerating the expansion of renewable energy. In addition to the importance of security of supply, climate protection cannot wait, which is why we need a faster ramp-up of the hydrogen economy. To actively promote this ramp-up, OGE is involved in several projects with strong partners at the national and European level, such as the “European Hydrogen Backbone”, H2ercules, or GetH2. But these projects urgently need suitable framework conditions which will require political support.
Another important pillar of the energy transition is CO2 transport: In order to support companies with unavoidable CO2 emissions to find their way to climate neutrality, CCU and CCS technologies need further development. Together with TES, OGE is actively involved in building an infrastructure for the transport of CO2 and thus enables a CO2 circular economy.
In these various fields of action, OGE paves the way to shape energy supply – today and in the future.
Bio
After having successfully completed the master’s and doctoral studies at Bochum and Essen Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Texas A&M University, Thomas Hüwener specialized in the fields of energy technology / systems and environmental engineering.
In 1997 he took over a position as a research assistant at the Institute of Turbomachinery at Essen University. In 2001 he joined E.ON Ruhrgas AG as a section manager in the Technical Applications Department, followed by several positions in the Pipeline Technology Department, in 2006 as head of the department, first with E.ON Ruhrgas AG, from 2010 onwards with Open Grid Europe.
In March 2013 he was appointed to the Board of Management of Open Grid Europe GmbH and in October 2013 he was nominated Vice President of the DVGW (German Gas and Water Industry Association).
Strategic collaboration on European energy related R&I – before and beyond RePowerEU
Speaker: Dr. Ing Marie Bysveen – Chief market developer CCUS, SINTEF and Head of European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) Joint Program on CCS
Abstract
The European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) has been a successful way of organizing the collaboration between industry, research and national governments/EU Commission. The future of this ‘modus operandi’ is under revision in 2022, and will therefore be elaborated in this talk by dr. Bysveen. She is from the not-for profit research institute SINTEF, and Norway, and she holds several key roles in the SET plan on CCUS.
An overview of how European funding on energy is organized will be presented. This includes national funding, Horizon Europe, the upcoming, large Clean Energy Technology Partnership (CETP), Innovation Fund – and Connecting Europe Facility (CEF). A success-story from CCUS on collaborative partnerships funding R&I by national governments will be given – namely ERA NET ACT (Accelerating CCUS Technologies).
An introduction to the roles of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) and the European Technology and Innovation Platform ZEP towards the European Commission will also be given – focusing on their advisory role on behalf of R&I and industry, respectively.
Finally – a few words will be given on the way forward, and the role of such collaborative efforts following up RePowerEU.
SMART Biochar Technology — A Shifting Paradigm towards Advanced Materials and Energy Research
Professor Yong Sik Ok
Korea University, Seoul, Korea
Chair and Program Director, Sustainable Waste Management Program, Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU)
Co-President, International ESG Association (IESGA)
Bio
Dr. Ok is a full professor and global research director of Korea University, Seoul, Korea. He has published over 900 research papers and books, 92 of which have been ranked as Web of Science ESI top papers (90 have been selected as “Highly Cited Papers” (HCPs), and two as “Hot Papers”). He has been a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher (HCR) since 2018 in Cross Field, Environment and Ecology, and Engineering. In 2019, he became the first Korean to be selected as an HCR in the field of Environment and Ecology. Again in 2021, he became the first Korean HCR in two fields: Environment and Ecology, and Engineering. He is working at the vanguard of global efforts to develop sustainable waste management strategies and technologies to address the rising crisis in electronic and plastic waste, and pollution of soil and air with particulate matter.
Dr. Ok has also served in a number of positions worldwide including, as an honorary professor at the University of Queensland (Australia), a visiting professor at Tsinghua University (China), an adjunct professor at the University of Wuppertal (Germany), and a guest professor at Ghent University (Belgium). He maintains a worldwide professional network by serving as a Co-Editor-in-Chief of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, an Editor of Environmental Pollution, a member of the editorial advisory board of Environmental Science & Technology, and an editorial board member of Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Chemical Engineering Journal, and Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, and several other top journals.
He currently serves as the Director of the Sustainable Waste Management Program for the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) and the Co-President of the International ESG Association. Moreover, he has served on the Scientific Organizing Committee of P4G Nature Forum: Climate Change and Biodiversity, and Nature Forum: Plastics and Sustainability. Dr. Ok has also served as the chairman of numerous major conferences such as Engineering Sustainable Development series (ESD series), organized by the APRU and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). In 2021, Dr. Ok hosted the first Nature conference among South Korean universities in Seoul on waste management and valorization for a sustainable future together with Chief Editors of Nature Sustainability (Dr. Monica Contestabile), Nature Electronics (Dr. Owain Vaughan), and Nature Nanotechnology (Dr. Fabio Pulizzi). Prof. Ok will host the first Nature Forum on Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) for Global Sustainability: the “E” Pillar for Sustainable Business.
Hydrogen Exports: can the promise become reality?
Professor Eric F. May FTSE, FIChemE, GAICD
Managing Director, Future Energy Exports CRC
Director, Gas Capture Technologies Pty Ltd.
Abstract
As advanced economies seek to decarbonise, hydrogen has been identified as a missing link that can help solve the primary challenge of storing renewable energy. However, this is not the first time hydrogen has been promoted as the key to transitioning our energy system and prudence about over-hyped claims and projections is warranted. While there are important differences between the present hydrogen bull-market and those of the past, key barriers to its wide-scale adoption for energy storage remain. In this talk, the main challenges that need to be addressed will be identified and some of the more likely paths by which hydrogen’s promise could become a reality will be presented. Research opportunities and activities underway at the Future Energy Exports CRC to help decarbonise LNG production and grow clean hydrogen exports will also be described.
Bio
Eric May is Managing Director of the Future Energy Exports (FEnEx) CRC and was named the 2021 Western Australian Scientist of the Year. His research team works closely with industry, conducting projects in hydrogen liquefaction, LNG production, gas separations, CCS and fluid property prediction. Eric was awarded the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year as part of the 2012 Prime Minister’s Prizes for Science. In 2017, he co-established Gas Capture Technologies Pty Ltd, a spin-out company for patented technologies to capture methane from coal mines, land-fill gas and other sources. Launched in 2020, the FEnEx CRC brings together 35 industry, government and university partners with resources of $163 million to conduct research focussed on the decarbonisation of LNG production and the growth of clean hydrogen exports from Australia.
Uncertainties of Approaching China’s Carbon Neutrality Targets
Prof. Yi-Ming Wei
Beijing Institute of Technology
Abstract
Carbon neutrality has become the global strategy. More than 130 countries and regions around the world have proposed carbon neutrality goals, accounting for about 90% of the global economy. China has set the goal of carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutral by 2060. According to the assessment (Wei et al., 2020), achieving China’s carbon neutrality by 2060 is a deep decarbonization action aimed at 1.5°C target, but the pathway approaching this target depends on the socio-economic development, low-carbon technology diffusion, breakthrough technology innovation, and carbon sink. In this talk, the Uncertainties of Approaching China’s Carbon Neutrality Targets will be introduced from Coal, CCUS, Biomass Energy, Nuclear Power, Hydrogen Energy, Carbon Sink.
Bio
Yi-Ming Wei is a distinguished professor of Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT), he is appointed as the vice president of Beijing Institute of Technology in 2019. He is the Founding Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research at BIT.
Yi-Ming Wei has more than 30 years of experience in the energy industry, including in academia, research, consulting. His recent research and teaching focus on Energy Policy and Energy Economics, CO2 emission and Climate Policy, Energy and Climate Policy Modeling. He has performed over 40 research projects for various China governmental agencies including NDRC, MOST, NEA, NSFC,CNPC,SGCC and CAS, and such international organizations as the World Bank, EU-FP7. He published 20 books and over 300 papers in peer review Journals including Nature-Climate Change, Nature-Energy, Nature-Communications, Nature-Sustainability, Climatic Change.Prof. Wei has been awarded by the Prize of Science and Technology for Young Scholars (2001), National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (2004), Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2005), Chair Professor of Changjiang Scholar program of the Ministry of Education of China (2008). Currently, Prof. Wei is the Co-editor-in-chief of Energy and Climate Change, Associate editor of Applied Energy. He is a Coordinate Lead Author (CLA) of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6).
