Taking small, unconventional steps towards the climate target

In order to slow down climate change and reduce the consumption of resources, all areas of social life must drastically reduce emissions of_CO2, methane and other climate-impacting gases and significantly increase energy efficiency. If the first area requires a change in energy production, increasing efficiency will force us to reduce consumption. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the necessary technical solutions come together to form a whole with which these transformations can be achieved. The most important field is energy generation with renewable (RE), decarbonized sources, but it is not the only one.

Innovations for energy generation

There are a large number of innovative, sometimes unconventional solutions for industry in particular. Some ideas are already ready for the market today, while others are just beginning to show potential for the future.

For the production and use of renewable energies:

• Flying wind turbines: They efficiently harvest the wind in higher air layers and transmit the energy mechanically or directly as electricity to the ground station,
• Solar energy: Flexible solar cells for textiles allow energy to be generated on truck tarpaulins, for example,
• Osmotic power plants are used as base load generators near river mouths into the sea to take advantage of the different salt content of seawater and fresh water,
• the use of gas engine and fuel cell cogeneration plants,
• methane pyrolysis for_CO2-free hydrogen production to supply fuel cells,
• reversible _{high-temperature} H2 electrolysis for steel production. In the critical state, the system operates as an electricity-supplying fuel cell,
• solar kerosene_generated from water and_CO2 using solar energy,
• Conversion of green hydrogen with artificial_{CO2 into} synthetic natural gas.
• the proven biogas plants.

Another aspect is_CO2-neutral heat generation. Here, too, the intelligent networking of individual technologies is important in order to achieve the overall result. This includes heat pumps, as well as condensing boilers and heating networks, and combined heat and power generation. Solar thermal energy makes just as much of a contribution to climate-neutral heat generation as power-to-gas and the use of (natural) gas with the highest fuel utilization rates.

Storing renewable energy
Short and long-term storage is almost as important as generating energy from renewable sources in order to absorb load peaks as well as generation peaks and ensure a continuous, stable energy supply:

• Flexible energy management for a full supply of renewable energy: The smart grid ensures constant voltage and frequency,
• Next-generation energy storage systems with significantly increased energy density. Li-ion batteries are being replaced by Li-metal and magnesium batteries. They allow the storage capacity to be multiplied,
• inexpensive large-scale storage systems from used Li-ion batteries,
• Heat storage as battery salt-water electrolyte/melt storage (so-called "Carnot batteries" made from sustainable materials),
• Fuel cell use with hydrogen and alcohol,
• underground compressed air storage in combination with gas turbines and heat exchangers,
• thermal storage made of volcanic rock in combination with steam power plants,
• small storage units with vanadium redox flow technology similar to a fuel cell,
• electrothermal storage systems for the reversible conversion of different energy states by combining electrical heat and cold storage,
• retrofitting a universal charging infrastructure using plug-in technology and replacing charging stations with plug-in cables and inductive charging stations.

Less consumption, more reliability
Reducing consumption and increasing reliability are not contradictory. On the contrary, there are concepts and technologies that promote both goals at the same time and are already available today:

• Networking and automation of decentralized generators to create a virtual power plant,
• Expansion of blockchain technology,
• Introduction of the 5G standard as a driver for simpler, wireless implementation of Industry 4.0,
• Single Pair Ethernet (SPE) as the core of the wired Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and generally flexible, tool-free plug and connection technology,
• wireless power transmission,
• efficient power supply through active power factor correction (PFC) with harmonic and EMC filtering,
• power electronic technologies such as silicon carbide (SiC) or gallium nitride (GaN), which promise a higher power density and higher efficiency,
• intelligent lighting and the use of single-layer OLEDs,
• the retrofitting of systems to increase resource efficiency and efficiency. For example, through drives with AFE converters,
• the advancement of mechanical engineering 4.0 concepts with assembly line-free, modular production.
• the use of artificial intelligence,
• thermal management for computer and embedded systems to increase reliability by operating in the optimum temperature range,
• predictive maintenance of machines with on-line diagnostics and condition monitoring,
• energy bus systems.

From energy generation to energy storage to the operating level, many small adjustments can be made to reduce energy consumption and at the same time increase the efficiency of the systems, bringing the goal of climate-neutral production within reach. Joachim Krause/dsc