World Pellets 2012: on all aspects of pellets – raw material potentials, innovative pellet production systems, torrefaction, new combustion technologies, trade and market development, health and safety aspects, etc;

Market and Biomass Potential: available biomass resources and energy potential in rural areas including harnessing the energy potential of food industry by-products;

Energy: Co-firing CHP and district heating, Sustainable harvest of forest residues, Waste to energy, Small scale energy solutions, Refining torrefaction and pyrolysis;

Transportation: Biofuels for transport are under rapid development with new methods, producers and feedstock entering the market. Future biofuels will be produced in biorefineries to increase profitability and optimize feedstock use. Meanwhile, biofuels need efficient vehicles and motors to be competitive with current transport solutions.  How will the transport sector evolve over the coming years?

World Biorefinery: The efficient and most optimal use of biomass will require biorefineries with co-production of liquid, gaseous and solid biofuels for power, heat and chemicals. There are various strategies, business models, and technological choices, including torrefaction, pyrolysis, enzymatic evolution, thermal gasification, biogas, syngas production, etc. These sessions aim to showcase the current state-of-the-art on biorefineries with an overview of various projects and technological developments.

The Jönköping meeting also provides a venue to spotlight Sustainable Bioenergy Day (31 May 2012).
 

For further information and registration, see the conference website:

http://www.elmia.se/en/worldbioenergy/

Within the theme Smarter on the Way, the Vienna ITS World Congress will look at innovative systems to improve mobility, centred on low-carbon and environmentally-friendly transport policies using intelligent systems and services.

Eco-industries range from high-tech products and complex services in renewable energy, energy efficiency and air quality control to mature and well established applications in recycling and water and waste treatment. The EU has already developed a lead in many sectors (including water, air quality, waste, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources) providing opportunities for growth and jobs.

The aim of the conference is to identify where scientific support is needed to strengthen Europe's Eco-Industries as a source of growth and jobs.

The topics to be covered at the conference include: Energy from biomass (biofuels); Solar energy (photovoltaics; concentrating photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, solar thermal); Fuel cells (hydrogen); Wind power (wave, tidal and hydropower); Geothermal energy; Non-renewable energy sources (nuclear and fossil fuels); Energy transmission-distribution and storage; Lighting and energy-efficient buildings; Energy saving and sustainability.

The proceedings of the meeting will be formally released as a book, entitled "Fuelling the Future: Advances in science and technologies for energy generation, transmission and storage", to be published by BrownWalker Press.

The deadline for late registration is 23 May. 

The conference will provide a platform for delegates to discuss a range of topics facing the electricity industry in four sessions over the two days, including: Energy challenges: a global perspective; CEO Forum: financing investments, refining strategies; EU Islands: test beds for mainland integration?

The Union of the Electricity Industry-EURELECTRIC was set up to represent the common interests of the electricity industry at pan-European level, together with its affiliates and associates on several other continents. The association was formed as a result of a merger in December 1999 of the sister sector bodies UNIPEDE and EURELECTRIC.

The guidelines can be downloaded here: http://ses.jrc.ec.europa.eu/images/stories/deliverables/2012.2783-jrc_rr_cba_for_smart_grids_online.pdf

In a separate presentation, Norela Constantinescu, of the European Commission’s, Energy Directorate (DG ENER) outlined EC commitments to fund wind energy R&D, under the 7^th Framework Programme (FP7) – about EUR 130 million – the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) – about EUR 565 million for offshore wind projects – and under Horizon 2020.

The EEGI is an industrial initiative under the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) and aims to enable the distribution of up to 35% of electricity from dispersed and concentrated renewable sources by 2020.  Most of the European network was built over 30 years ago and designed for one-way energy flows from large centralized fully controllable power plants to the customer. The European energy system, however, is facing radical changes, while the integration of renewable energy requires new planning and operation procedures for high voltage networks as well as distribution networks. A nine-year research, development and demonstration programme and implementation plan has been drawn up, with costs estimated to reach around EUR 2 billion, not counting the costs of deploying the final solutions.

The report is available from the SmartGrids website: http://www.smartgrids.eu/documents/EEGI/EEGI_Member_States_Initiative_-_Final_Report.pdf

Top of the list of challenges are energy efficiency, lifetime, safety and environmental considerations, as well as costs, says the report. At present, the costs of investment in new technologies outweigh the immediate potential for returns on a commercial scale. But, adds the report, with increased levels of research funding becoming available,  “… the improvements in storage capacity and economy will allow present-day storage technologies to be more useful in Smart Grid applications and will make energy storage more competitive compared to alternative technologies.”

There is a wide range of technologies for storing electricity, ranging from mature technologies such as pumped hydropower, which has been around for over 150 years, and compressed air storage, to cutting edge supercapacitors, thermochemical storage, superconductive magnetic energy storage (SMES) and new, more cost effective lithium-ion and non-conventional batteries, such as ZEBRA cells and flow batteries. Storage technologies are often specific to certain applications and even, such as hydropower, precise geographical and geological locations. This, explains the report, makes it difficult to compare their respective strengths and disadvantages.

On the whole, cost considerations aside, the value of a given technology depends on how much energy it can store, how quickly this can be made available and what its discharge duration is. Uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), for example, need almost instant availability of back-up energy for a matter of seconds until, for example, diesel generators can come on-stream. This makes mature, low-cost, conventional battery technologies particularly attractive. At the other extreme, hydro-pumped storage (PHS) facilities can provide hundreds of megawatts within seconds, for many hours at a time, making them valuable for power regulation, peak power generation and to provide secondary and tertiary reserves of power.

For other applications, such as storing energy generated by intermittent renewable energy sources, storage and discharge requirements can be measured in hours, or even days. In these cases, slow response technologies, such as thermal energy storage, may be more appropriate. Molten salt storage is already being used to store electricity from solar towers for distribution on overcast days or at night, while thermal storage is used to store energy generated by wind turbines during off-peak times for use at peak times, when it can be sold at higher prices.

Meanwhile, new battery technologies, such as the ZEBRA cell (which has a central positive electrode) and flow batteries (where both the electro-active materials are dissolved in the electrolytes) are being used both for conventional large-scale power utility applications as back-up systems, and for renewables, such as large photovoltaic fields and wind farms.

While mature technologies, such as hydropower – which accounts for over 95 GW worldwide, with over 300 plants – compressed air and conventional lead-acid (PbA) batteries are widely used, little research effort is being devoted to developing them any further. “The technical potential of new pumped hydro plants in Europe is very low,” says the report, “due to the high potential impact on the environment and the necessity of an adequate altitude profile and geology.” About 75% of the total potential for hydropower in Europe has already been developed.

At present, says the report, the most intense research effort is being directed at improving the performance of relatively recent battery technologies, particularly lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries and reducing their cost. First introduced in 1991 by the Sony Corporation (Japan), these batteries “represent the state-of-the art in small rechargeable batteries”. They are now widely used in consumer electronic devices, such as computers, digital cameras and cell phones, as well as military, space and electric vehicles. “Efficient cells could be put into packs for large-scale uses,” says the report, “but the cost is still too high.” Priority is therefore being given to lowering the cost of these batteries (currently over 420 EUR / kWh). In 2003, the production of small Li-ion batteries reached 800 million units and roughly doubled between 2003 and 2007, and is growing at 20% - 25% per year.

Although the automotive industry is currently driving much of the development in Li-ion battery technology, their fast charging, light weight and high energy density properties make them strong candidates for use for energy storage in grids and, says the report, “they are becoming the energy storage of choice for future electric mobility applications.” Supply of the raw materials is not expected to run out for a long time, either. Identified lithium resources are estimated to be about 39 Mt, whereas, says the report, “even the highest demand scenarios do not exceed 20 Mt for the period 2010 to 2100.” Research cited by the report anticipates that the market for Li-ion batteries will jump from $2 billion annually in 2011 to $14.6 billion by 2017   However, concludes the report, “despite their interesting perspectives, the electrochemical storage systems are poorly used in smart grid applications (<0.1 %), with lithium-ion batteries still covering a small share of this battery market.” To penetrate further, the technology has to evolve and costs come down dramatically.

For further information:

• the 2020 Technology Roadmap included in the 2009 SET-Plan Communication;
• the Implementation plan for 2010-2012, agreeing on Key Performance Indicators, mapping of existing EU and national projects, identifying financial needs and barriers;
• mobilising the aviation sector through the Biofuels Flightpath Initiative;
• publishing of a Call for Expression of Interest to support the 2012 ERA-NET Plus for demonstration of advanced bioenergy technologies.
  

However, many barriers to implementation remain, especially for financing large-scale demonstration and first-of-its-kind-commercial plants and for ensuring stable and predictable regulatory environment. The aim of the 2012 EIBI Conference is to fill these gaps by presenting the EIBI activities and outcomes in a transparent manner and by outlining risks and opportunities for the development of advanced bioenergy technologies. It will focus on the technological development and steer away from controversial issues such as the "food vs. fuel" debate, social exclusion, loss of biodiversity, impact on water resources, deforestation and soil erosion, which are better addressed in other forums.

Speakers (to be confirmed) will include European Commissioner Günther Oettinger, Rudolf Strohmeier (Deputy Director-General, DG Research and Innovation), Claude Turmes MEP,  Philip Lowe (Director-General, DG Energy), Maive Rute (Director Biotechnologies, Agriculture, Food, DG Research and Innovation), and many more from both the public and private sectors.

• Confirmed the value of the JRC methodology and model for assessment at the country and European levels;
• Identified improvements in the methodology which enhance the scope of the assessment;
• Addressed the issue of data availability in the Member States and their collection;
• Suggested the JRC to apply the methodology to the EU, Norway and Switzerland.

The list of participants in the workshop can be found here.

1. The JRC/UCC pumped storage transformation – site identification methodology. The final report is available here.
2. Locating sites for pumped hydroelectric energy storage, by David Connolly, Aalborg University.
3. Assessing the potential for PHS – the RWE/Fichtner approach. The results of this assessment can be found here.
4. Assessment of the potential of small-pumped hydro energy storage in the South East of France, the UNITe/Hydrowatt approach.
5. Potential sites for new pumped hydropower storage in Thuringia, the HPI Hydroprojekt approach.
6. Introducing costs in the assessment of potential PHS sites.

the participants divided into four working groups which, in successive rounds with different group composition, debated the following areas:

• Area 1: energy (methodological) aspects: the methodology in general; the topologies chosen; definitions of potentials; categories of users (policy-makers, developers, etc.); assumptions; benefits of a multi-criteria approach; required outputs;
• Area 2: GIS aspects: tools used and other tools available; sources of data; accuracy; implementation of a multi-criteria approach; presenting the outputs; incorporation of costs; requirements of the sensitivity analysis.
• Area 3: environmental, social and spatial planning aspects; environmental aspects of PHS and of transforming to PHS; application of the Water Framework Directive; country strategic impact assessment; permitting process
• Area 4: economic aspects: introducing costs in the model; definition of costs to be included; methods to estimate costs; sources of data.

The workshop synopsis will shortly be available here.

Join the EUSEW 2012 and organise an Energy Day in your city, town or region between 18 and 22 June 2012 (weekends before and after accepted).

Energy days can be any event to promote renewable energy or energy efficiency - from exhibitions, conferences, online events and performances to guided tours, open door days, workshops, media campaigns, concerts and much more....

EUSEW 2012 in Brussels

The European Institutions, associates of the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign and other important players in the field will organise a series of events in Brussels during the EUSEW.

These will include a three-day policy conference organised by the European Commission from 19 to 21 June 2012.

For further information:

http://eusew.eu/