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reaches its limit, energy storage starts to play an important role on the pathway towards a carbon-neutral energy system. Battery storage for electricity has already made impressive strides over the past years. With the rise of variable renewable power production comes a greater need for short-term electricity storage to ensure reliability of the power system. Battery technology is becoming the dominant solution for meeting short-term needs offering huge flexibility and the most attractive cost-benefit ratio.
The buffers used in today’s energy system to deal with the variations of electricity production are, next to renewable hydro-electric power, mainly fossil-based energy carriers such as oil, gas and coal. These types of emission-intensive elements of the energy system will need to be phased out in a carbon-neutral world fit for the future.
An important aspect that decision-makers should consider is not to overly rely upon one direction only. Power system expansion and interconnection offers opportunities to link time zones and even climatic zones instantaneously. Nevertheless, the future energy system needs both interconnections and energy storage. It should never be a question of building one or the other – because they are complementary.
Trust, collaboration and the right investments
Time is of the essence in the move towards a carbon-neutral energy system. There have been several welcome policy announcements and initiatives of late, setting ambitious targets for a carbon-neutral future. This includes the stimulus initiatives and goals to accelerate the European Union’s Green Deal, goals put forward by countries such as the UK, Japan, China and South Korea.
While this is laudable, it is imperative that planning and execution cycles are accelerated to unlock the necessary investments in our energy infrastructure. Policymakers need to set a clear agenda and enable this to happen, which includes putting in place the right regulatory framework and ensuring a degree of collaboration in key areas such as grid codes and market mechanisms. The area of interconnected electricity networks is also becoming increasingly important in order to maximize the penetration of renewables. Both collaboration and innovation are important success factors.
We are solving a fundamental societal problem – bringing affordable, reliable and sustainable energy to all people
Be it offshore winds powering electric vehicles to desert-harvested solar power feeding air conditioning systems, a carbon-neutral energy system will reshape the world.
The challenge is so big that there is no room for picking winners – we need all sustainable solutions, current and future. We should not
waste our energy and time on arguing about which is the better option, but instead focus on building sustainable partnerships, because only then will we accelerate and make an impact.
Building a global, interconnected and truly sustainable energy system for today’s and future generations with the help of fascinating technologies will bring unbelievable value for sustainable societies. This is what makes me proud and excited to be part of bringing such a vision to fruition.
Above: The historic and potential future developments of the European interconnected grid
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