scholarly journals The Challenges and Opportunities of Energy-Flexible Factories: A Holistic Case Study of the Model Region Augsburg in Germany

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 360
Author(s):  
Stefan Roth ◽  
Paul Schott ◽  
Katharina Ebinger ◽  
Stephanie Halbrügge ◽  
Britta Kleinertz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Local Network ◽  
Positive Contribution ◽  
Energy Balancing ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Renewable Electricity Generation ◽  
Model Region

Economic solutions for the integration of volatile renewable electricity generation are decisive for a socially supported energy transition. So-called energy-flexible factories can adapt their electricity consumption process efficiently to power generation. These adaptions can support the system balance and counteract local network bottlenecks. Within part of the model region Augsburg, a research and demonstration area of a federal research project, the potential, obstacles, effects, and opportunities of the energy-flexible factory were considered holistically. Exemplary flexibilization measures of industrial companies were identified and modeled. Simulations were performed to analyze these measures in supply scenarios with advanced expansion of fluctuating renewable electricity generation. The simulations demonstrate that industrial energy flexibility can make a positive contribution to regional energy balancing, thus enabling the integration of more volatile renewable electricity generation. Based on these fundamentals, profiles for regional market mechanisms for energy flexibility were investigated and elaborated. The associated environmental additional expenses of the companies for the implementation of the flexibility measures were identified in a life-cycle assessment, with the result that the negative effects are mitigated by the increased share of renewable energy. Therefore, from a technical perspective, energy-flexible factories can make a significant contribution to a sustainable energy system without greater environmental impact. In terms of a holistic approach, a network of actors from science, industry, associations, and civil society organizations was established and actively collaborated in a transdisciplinary work process. Using design-thinking methods, profiles of stakeholders in the region, as well as their mutual interactions and interests, were created. This resulted in requirements for the development of suitable business models and reduced regulatory barriers.

Trust is Good, Control is Better: A Review on Monitoring and Characterization Techniques for Flow Battery Electrolytes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Sigmar Schubert ◽  
Oliver Nolte ◽  
Ivan Volodin ◽  
Christian Stolze ◽  
Martin D. Hager
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Good Control ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Flow Battery ◽  
Large Share ◽  
Characterization Techniques ◽  
Renewable Electricity Generation ◽  
Storage Technologies

Flow Batteries (FBs) currently are one of the most promising large-scale energy storage technologies for energy grids with a large share of renewable electricity generation. Among the main technological challenges...

scholarly journals Procurement, finance and the energy transition: Between global processes and territorial realities

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862199112
Author(s):  
Lucy Baker
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Community Empowerment ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Asset Class ◽  
Renewable Electricity Generation ◽  
Utility Scale

Utility-scale renewable electricity generation is essential to decarbonisation as well as to ensuring affordable and secure electricity supplies around the world. Yet thus far there has been limited critical thinking dedicated to the complexities behind the finance and ownership of this new infrastructure and how national and local stakeholders should participate in and benefit from its development, particularly in contexts of high inequality in low- and middle-income countries. As the global renewable energy industry becomes increasingly consolidated and financialised, evidence from a number of countries suggests that despite the pro-environmental outcomes of utility-scale renewable electricity generation, the processes and institutions that procure and finance it have often failed to include or benefit individuals and communities living in the national and local vicinity. This paper therefore sets two key competing objectives of renewable electricity generation in context: as a predictable, long-term revenue stream for investors, and as a mechanism for socio-economic development and community empowerment. Building on scholarship from human geography, development studies and sustainability transitions, my analysis takes forward understandings of the role of finance in utility-scale renewable electricity generation as a key aspect of the political economy of the energy transition. In exploring the evolution of renewable electricity as a new and rapidly emerging asset class I consider how its development is increasingly determined by the frameworks and logics of finance and investment. Drawing on examples from South Africa and Mexico, I address the following questions: What are the evolving configurations and processes of finance and investment in utility-scale renewable electricity generation? How have they been facilitated? And what tensions have arisen from their implementation at the national and local level?

Renewable electricity generation proposed pathways for the US and China

2021 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 212-223
Author(s):  
Bismark Ameyaw ◽  
Yao Li ◽  
Yongkai Ma ◽  
Joy Korang Agyeman ◽  
Jamal Appiah-Kubi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Renewable Electricity ◽  
The Us ◽  
Renewable Electricity Generation
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