“GET – GREEN EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES” is the new independent media platform for energy supply, efficiency improvement and alternative energy sources and storage.
There is still a high potential to save energy in industry. Efficiency is not only important for the profitability of a company, it is also target-oriented and saves resources.
The importance of efficiency, especially in energy production, the role played by hydrogen, industrial processes, resource and recycling management, how energy can be stored and much more can be found in the new GET.
“GET – GREEN EFFICIENT TECHNOLOGIES” is a publication of the of PuK. The trade medium will be published in 2023 in German as a print and digital edition on 25 May and 7 November and in English only as a digital edition on 5 July and 29 November.
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Editorial Harvest the sun Humanity consumed 595 EJ (exajoules) of energy in 2021. That corresponds to 165,410 TWh or 165,410,000,000,000 KWh. We produced around 80 per cent of this energy by burning fossil fuels. Our electricity demand accounted for one-seventh of the 165,410 TWh. Humanity discharged nearly 38 billion tons of additional CO 2 into the Earth’s atmosphere for this in 2021 alone. Notwithstanding all the lip service of the countries responsible about intentions to save energy, a pronounced upward trend continues. Meanwhile, global climate change as the quintessence of this behaviour has become impossible to ignore. The consequences have become too glaring and obvious, including wildfires that are almost impossible to extinguish, collapsing mountain peaks and – especially ominous – continent-wide droughts that last for months alternating with disastrous flooding caused by extremely heavy rain. Smart energy generation and consumption Humanity has to make two crucial changes: Decarbonise energy generation and reduce consumption with smart technology. While neither is free, both can be realised without working miracles. On the energy generation side, the sun could make the biggest contribution as a backstop technology. Year after year, it supplies approximately 1.5 · 10 18 KWh (1,500,000,000,000,000,000 KWh) of energy to Earth’s surface. That is more than 5,000 times humanity’s current global energy demand – for free! Unfortunately, the use of photovoltaics is tied to the location and time of day. Wind as a secondary form of energy largely lacks the necessary constancy as well. Energy for run-of-river power stations also originates from the sun. They are sensitive to water shortages caused by extended droughts. Their number is often limited by geomorphologic conditions, especially in densely populated industrialised countries. Complicated transport Humanity is bound to transport energy from high-yield regions to the points of consumption. Unfortunately, this is anything but trivial. The profoundly humorous nickname “Stromkanister” (“electricity canister”) of a participant in a German online forum is a good example. On closer examination, this name reveals the crucial weakness of electricity, which is currently being celebrated as a cure-all. Unlike fossil fuels, transporting it in a simple canister is in fact impossible. Storing electricity in rechargeable batteries is expensive, and the storage volumes are small. Even giant pumped-storage power plants lack the capacity to meet the demand of industrial nations for more than a day. And there are too few of them. The world does not have cross-continental high-voltage power networks. Hydrogen suggests itself here as a carbonfree energy storage medium. The article contributed by Hydrogenious LOHC offers a solution for its worldwide efficient transportation. Save, save, save Using the laboriously transferred energy intelligently is the other adjustment. Numerous solutions for this exist, ranging from simple to spectacularly high-tech. A few particularly interesting ones are found on the following pages. Have fun reading! Ottmar Holz GREENEFFICIENTTECHNOLOGIES 2023 3
