Younicos: Islands show how the energy transition works

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Düsseldorf, 28.01.2016 – According to Younicos co-founder Clemens Triebel islands which are successfully converting their power supply from diesel generators to renewable energies are the best role models for the German, as well as the global transition to renewable energy. “If we’re aiming for a high percentage of solar and wind energy, the expansion of renewables has to be matched with sufficient storage capacity from the start,” says Triebel. However, according to Triebel, the current German system is still discriminating against energy storage in favour of conventional power plants.

The Younicos Chief Visionary Officer will explain this thesis in greater depth in his keynote at Energy Storage Europe. Where he will share his experiences thus far and explain the company’s successful energy transition and large-scale storage concepts. The trade fair and conference, Energy Storage Europe is the world’s largest event of its kind and takes place in Düsseldorf from 15 to 17 March.

According to Triebel the energy transition is being unnecessarily slowed down and made more expensive by clinging to an outdated way of thinking: “We still produce power according to a 19th century paradigm which holds that energy is best produced by large generators that rotate constantly. If we contiue to cling to this notion, the grid will continue to be taken up by coal, gas and nuclear energy blocking space for solar and wind energy more and more frequently.”

Germany’s current energy policy aim stipulates that 80 percent of electricity comnsumption be covered by renewable energies by 2050. This, according to Triebel, will not work without storage. He calls on energy policymakers to take the goals they set themselves seriously and get the energy system into a state , in which it is ableto handle large amounts of renewable energy in the future. “The necessary storage capacities will not just appear overnight. We have to start developing them today. Parallel to this, we have to drive the development of new storage technologies forward in order to be equipped for the huge amounts of renewable energy that will be generated in future.”

Triebel thinks the market and and innovative business models are best suited to push the development of storage systems forward: “As soon as the flexibility of storage systems is remunerated in line with the market, the necesssary capacity will develop automatically” For example, companies could be rewarded for reducing their peak load using a storage system and therefore relieving the overall load on the grid. “We are right at the start of an exciting development here.”

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