11th AnnualSET-PlanConference 201820–21 NovemberMesse Wien Exhibition and Congress Center

IntegratedSET-Plan

This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and

innovation programme

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Brau Union Österreich is working consistently and continu-ously on implementing the HEINEKEN wide sustainability strategy, Brewing a Better World, and is on track to meet the strategy’s objectives by 2020. Magne Setnes, Brau Union Österreich’s Managing Director, said, “As the larg-est brewery company in Austria, we are highly conscious of our responsibilities in relation to the environment, social issues, customers, consumers and staff. Beer is a natural product – it is made from raw materials that are depend-ent on the environment remaining intact. Our ambition for Austria is to reconcile the best beer culture in Europe with the environmental and social challenges we face. Partner-ships for the future are an important focus for us in achiev-ing this, and we have already implemented demanding projects in this context.”

“Brau Union Österreich is part of the HEINEKEN family and is bound by the UN Global Compact. As a member of the UN Global Compact Steering Committees Austria, I am

responsible for implementing the business impact aspects of the SDGs. Brau Union Österreich is actively driving for-ward SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals), and ‘living’ it on a daily basis,” explained Gabriela Maria Straka, Head of Communications/PR & CSR at Brau Union Österreich.

Sustainable Partnerships for the FutureTwo Brau Union Österreich breweries are partners in an innovative and sustainable community project, which uses waste heat from the fermentation process to supply heat and warm water. In the Puntigam Brewery Quarter in Graz, the Puntigam Brewery supplies heat and warm water to some 800 homes, along with offices and business premises. And construction began on 900 residential units in May 2018 on the former Schwechat Brewery site, with a heat pump being used to turn heat from fermentation during the brewing process into sustainable natural heat for customers’ homes.

Sustainable Beer Culture

Construction begins on brewery heat project in Schwechatl. to r. Walter Mayr, Board Member, NÖ Wohnbaugruppe; Manuela Somos, Aura Wohnbau; Gerhard Sacher, CEO of EVN Wärme GmbH; Karin Baier, Mayor of the municipality of Schwechat; Friedrich Klocker, Board Member WienSüd; Maria Lechner-Trenker, Atlas Wohnbau; Horst Eisenmenger, Authorised Officer WienSüd; Gabriela Maria Straka, Head of Communi-cations/PR & CSR Brau Union Österreich; Christian Huber, Schwechat Brewery Master Brewer; Peter Friedl, Project Manager EVN Wärme

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Brau Union Österreich is working consistently and continu-ously on implementing the HEINEKEN wide sustainability strategy, Brewing a Better World, and is on track to meet the strategy’s objectives by 2020. Magne Setnes, Brau Union Österreich’s Managing Director, said, “As the larg-est brewery company in Austria, we are highly conscious of our responsibilities in relation to the environment, social issues, customers, consumers and staff. Beer is a natural product – it is made from raw materials that are depend-ent on the environment remaining intact. Our ambition for Austria is to reconcile the best beer culture in Europe with the environmental and social challenges we face. Partner-ships for the future are an important focus for us in achiev-ing this, and we have already implemented demanding projects in this context.”

“Brau Union Österreich is part of the HEINEKEN family and is bound by the UN Global Compact. As a member of the UN Global Compact Steering Committees Austria, I am

responsible for implementing the business impact aspects of the SDGs. Brau Union Österreich is actively driving for-ward SDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals), and ‘living’ it on a daily basis,” explained Gabriela Maria Straka, Head of Communications/PR & CSR at Brau Union Österreich.

Sustainable Partnerships for the FutureTwo Brau Union Österreich breweries are partners in an innovative and sustainable community project, which uses waste heat from the fermentation process to supply heat and warm water. In the Puntigam Brewery Quarter in Graz, the Puntigam Brewery supplies heat and warm water to some 800 homes, along with offices and business premises. And construction began on 900 residential units in May 2018 on the former Schwechat Brewery site, with a heat pump being used to turn heat from fermentation during the brewing process into sustainable natural heat for customers’ homes.

Sustainable Beer Culture

Construction begins on brewery heat project in Schwechatl. to r. Walter Mayr, Board Member, NÖ Wohnbaugruppe; Manuela Somos, Aura Wohnbau; Gerhard Sacher, CEO of EVN Wärme GmbH; Karin Baier, Mayor of the municipality of Schwechat; Friedrich Klocker, Board Member WienSüd; Maria Lechner-Trenker, Atlas Wohnbau; Horst Eisenmenger, Authorised Officer WienSüd; Gabriela Maria Straka, Head of Communi-cations/PR & CSR Brau Union Österreich; Christian Huber, Schwechat Brewery Master Brewer; Peter Friedl, Project Manager EVN Wärme

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AUTHORS

Bernhard Gahleitner Official opening plenary session

Sonja Starnberger Plenary sessions 2 & 3 Parallel sessions 2 & 4

Tara Esterl Parallel session 1

Catrin Haider Official opening day 2 Parallel session 3

Hans-Martin Neumann Plenary session 4

Aikaterini Chrysochou Concluding key-note panel discussion

#SETPlan18 www.setplan2018.at

CONTENT

Official opening plenary session 4 How can Research and Innovation help the EU to achieve the 2030 energy and climate objectives as well as the long-term decarbonisation strategy?

Plenary session 2 6 Investing in Research and Innovation to speed up the energy transition: what are the tools and instruments?

Plenary session 3 8 The global energy transition: how can R&I benefit from global cooperation?

Parallel session 1 10 Citizens asking for and investing in the energy transition: how can R&I answer?

Parallel Session 2 12 Industry as a facilitator of clean energy and carbon-neutral feedstock: what demonstrations and pilots are needed now for 2050?

Official opening day 2 14 How to engage cities, regions and communities to achieve the 2030 energy and climate targets as well as the long-term decarbonisation strategy?

Plenary session 4 16 Transforming Cities and Buildings Summary

Parallel session 3 18 The energy system of the future: what technologies and innovations can integrate energy systems and grids?

Parallel session 4 20 Renewables for 2050: what comes next?

Concluding key-note panel discussion 22 Energy Innovation in the EU post 2020

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Design: Eckart Grafikdesign, www.eckart.cc · Pictures: www.ingimage.com

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Official opening plenary sessionHow can Research and Innovation help the EU to achieve the 2030 energy and climate objectives as well as the long-term decarbonisation strategy?

Stimulating Research and Innovation will play a crucial role in enabling the EU to make its long-term contribution to the Paris Agreement.

“We have to use the decisive momentum today to achieve a shift in global economy towards a decar-bonized society”, said Dominique Ristori, Director- General for Energy at the European Commission, in his opening speech of the 11th Set-Plan conference 2018, held under the auspices of the Austrian Presidency. The overall key challenge is the transformation from a fossil-based economy to a decarbonized system with special focus on the sectors Transport and Mobility, Industry as well as Household and Cities. Research and innovation are the top priorities to develop break-through and clean energy technologies.

Development of such technologies is a key opportunity for the global economy: clean energy technologies are the largest growth market of the 21st century. “In the future, energy should be clean, safe and affordable for everyone. Austria is a technology and innovation leader in this sector and sees decarbonisation as a great economic opportunity,” highlighted Norbert Hofer, Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology. Austria pursues a clear strategic path-way towards decarbonisation 2050 as specified in its “Energy Research and Innovation Strategy” and the recently published “Climate and Energy Strategy” #MISSION2030. Global cooperation in networks like Mission Innovation is the key to boost innovation and to bridging the gap between research and market.

According to Jaromir Kohlíček, ITRE Vice Chair at the European Parliament, the transfer of the energy system can only be achieved if the implementation of new renewable energy sources is further expended. Energy potentials, e.g. in the North Sea, must be harvested and the development of full sectoral integration of power and gas grids, utilizing hydrogen as a seasonal storage should be prioritized. In addition to development of new technologies also their impact on the environment should be assessed.

All speakers agreed that full sectoral integration is an opportunity to increase the overall efficiency of the energy system, with particular focus on the develop-ment of the existing infrastructure. Cost reduction of renewable energy is crucial. To reach this goal, public funding needs to seed private investments and to brigde the “valley of death” during the development of new technologies.

Chair Dominique Ristori Director-General for Energy, European Commission

Welcome and keynote speeches Norbert Hofer Austrian Federal Minister for Transport, Innovation and Technology

Jaromír Kohlíček ITRE Vice Chair, European Parliament

Dominique Ristori Director-General for Energy, European Commission

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Nils Røkke, Chairman of EERA, started the panel emphasizing that a bright future is ahead of us if we grasp the opportunities of a low carbon society. Collective action is needed and new networks and private public partnerships such as Mission Innovation and the Breakthrough Energy Coalition will help to close the gap in financing of new technologies. Nonetheless, there are still various challenges to reach the 2030 and 2050 targets. We need to decarbonise the power and industrial sector, heating and cooling as well as the agricultural sector, and, keep excellent researchers in Europe.

The role of hydrogen needs to be emphasized, be-cause an all-electric world is too expensive – transport of gas is approx. 10–20 % cheaper than transport of electricity. Hydrogen, is a key enabler, and can be used in all sectors. Thus, it is essential to build-up a hydrogen market and to develop new business models, said Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Secretary General of Hydrogen Europe.

Mechthild Wörsdorfer, IEA Director of Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks, stated that the world is currently moving away from reaching the Paris Climate Goals. The IEA tracks the clean energy progress and states that more effort in most of the sectors is needed. The main innovation gap, however, is in the field of energy storage.

Laetita Ouillet, Eindhoven University of Technology, added that also basic research in this area, particularly in the fields of batteries and improved systems is needed.

According to Monika Hausenblas, Executive Vice President for Safety and Environment, Shell, decar-bonisation is only possible if carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies are widely used. In addition to a rapid technological scale-up, decisive policies need to be developed and implemented.Customer choices and mindset need to be considered if the energy transition should work.

Large-scale reasearch programmes, such as the Austrian Flagship Region Energy, will help to bring the stakeholders of research, public, private sector and the customers together and to demonstrate that the energy transition is possible, said Theresia Vogel, Managing Director of the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund. The Flagship Region Energy is funded with up to 120 M€, total investments including the private sector of up to 400 M€ are expected.

Panel discussion Nils RøkkeChairman of EERA

Laetitia Ouillet Director, Strategic Area Energy, Eindhoven University of Technology

Monika Hausenblas Executive Vice President for Safety and Environment, Shell

Mechthild Wörsdorfer IEA Director of Sustainability, Technology and Outlooks

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis Secretary General, Hydrogen Europe

Theresia Vogel Managing Director of the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund

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Plenary session 2Investing in Research and Innovation to speed up the energy transition: what are the tools and instruments?

Participants agreed on the importance of having the right mix of funding instruments for different phases in the innovation cycle from basic research to market uptake, of ensuring that they complement each other optimally (also using synergies between national and EU funds), of designing public financing instruments so that they leverage private investments, and of offering advisory to help researchers, businesses, and commu-nities understand and navigate the different options.

In his video address Commission Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, Jyrki Katainen set the scene highlighting the unique opportunity for Europe to lead the energy transition. More research and investments are necessary to take this chance. So, one major task is tackling the financing gap between lab demonstration and commercialisation to enable impactful technologies to reach the market, even though innovative clean energy projects are often risky for private investors. As public grants alone cannot solve this, new support instruments aim at making the most effective use of public finance through a mix of measures. As exam-ples he cited the Innovation Council proposed under Horizon Europe, which will blend grants and debt-like instruments to provide direct tailor-made funding for high-potential innovators, and the public private invest-ment vehicle signed with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to attract external private capital.

Patrick Child, Deputy Director-General of DG Research & Innovation, elaborated some more on the EU’s instruments to support R&I in the next Multi-annual Financial Framework. He announced that Horizon Europe with its increased budget of 100 billion Euro for seven years, of which at least 35 % shall be spent on climate and energy R&I, will offer an import-ant contribution, grouped around three instruments: the European Innovation Council; InvestEU, which will encompass a variety of programmes, including expansion of successful existing ones like InnovFin Energy Demonstration Projects, that will finance projects related to innovative energy system assets, manufacturing processes or services via loans, guarantees, or quasi-equity; and the Innovation Fund, the successor to NER 300 that will support innovative projects in energy intensive industries, as well as RES, CCU and CCS. He also gave examples for collaborations within and beyond the realm of the EU, like the SET-Plan or Mission Innovation.

Diego Pavia, CEO of KIC InnoEnergy SE, shared lessons learned from scrutinizing 3500+ innovation cases and investing in 500 of them. To improve effi-ciency in deployment of public money, he proposes to supplement Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) with more market oriented indicators, e.g. about design to cost, availability of the right team to market the innovation, an existing supply chain and availability of raw materials in Europe etc., to draw attention to these key success factors. Another key success factor is up-skilling the work force to deal with sector coupling etc. To accelerate energy transition, he recommends focusing more on the demand side of innovation. An important step could be to delegate 30 % of the 240 bn € energy-related public procurement money to innovative public investments. Extending the waiver on not counting such investments towards public deficit from Member States also to regions and municipalities would remove that obstacle to creating demand. No new money would be needed, only a shift from a risk averse to a more risk-taking attitude, Also, bringing citizens more into play as purchasers of sustainable technologies would accelerate the energy transition. “Clean energy FOR all Europeans” should become “Clean energy WITH all Europeans”.

Alexandra Amerstorfer, Managing Director, Kommu-nalkredit Public Consulting GmbH, confirmed from the perspective of management of Austrian environ-mental subsidy schemes, that financial instruments are needed to complement each other and address each phase of the value chain from research with low TRL to higher TRL to market uptake. She also emphasised

Session chair and keynote speech Patrick Child Deputy Director-General, DG Research & Innovation

Video address Jyrki Katainen Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, European Commission

SpeakersAlexandra Amerstorfer Managing director Kommunalkredit Public Consulting GmbH (KPC)

Wilhelm Molterer Managing Director European Funds for Strategic Investments, European Investment Bank

Diego PaviaCEO, KIC InnoEnergy SE

Peter Sweatman CEO and Founder of Climate Strategy & Partners

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the importance of publicity for best practice projects to trigger knock-on effects.Also, public money awarded to a project is sometimes perceived as a seal for quality, which can make the decision easier for investors. Social drivers should be researched, since often it is not the missing technical solution, but misleading or lack of communication that prevents citizens from becoming involved, from driving the market. Finally, co-operating with the financial sector on green and sustainable finance solutions is an important way forward.

Wilhelm Molterer, Managing Director European Funds for Strategic Investments at the European Investment Bank, drew attention to the magnitude of investment needs of 150 billion EUR annually for energy to reach the Paris climate target.In his opinion, the toolbox to achieve this should include a proper and sound regulatory environment that is predictable and able to deal with risks. Further, a range of activities to attract private capital, not just looking at banks. To attract more investors from abroad to the European capital markets, less fragmentation and a more holistic European perspective would be helpful. Then, advisory for public and private entities to develop projects properly and make them bankable. A one-stop-shop could help simplifying the use of available instruments, especially for SMEs. Last, but certainly not least, instruments like the EFSI guarantee facility can play an important part in crowding in private capital.

Peter Sweatman, CEO and Founder of Climate Strategy Partners, shared insights from a survey of 50 experts on innovation needs to reach net zero 2050. According to them, only 40 % is technology innovation, thus a broader view encompassing product/service, business model and societal innovation is necessary. Innovation opportunities and the potential to build, or build upon a competitive advantage for Europe are highly correlated in many of the decarbonisation pathways, but especially in the buildings and energy sectors.In terms of funding, the experts think a balanced instru-ment mix consisting of about 26 % public grants and 12 to 19 % each of private sector debt, equity and green bonds, public soft loans, and risk-sharing instruments would be appropriate. Overall, they estimate that aggregate climate R&I must increase by a third compared to 2017 for the 2021 to 2027 period, that public and private finance need to scale up together, and that Horizon Europe’s climate-related R&I allocation should increase from at least 35 % to up to 50 %.

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Plenary session 3The global energy transition: how can R&I benefit from global cooperation?

Climate change is a threat on a global scale that can only be addressed successfully if all players world-wide act together on many different issues and levels. This panel, chaired by Hans Van Steen, Director for Renewables, Research and Innovation and Energy Efficiency at DG Energy, European Commission, focused on R&I as one such area. It showcased examples for successful co-operation initiatives and examined perspectives and requirements for future partnerships. It looked into the challenge of co-opeti tion, i.e. working together with partners that are competitors at the same time, and on how to create “triple-win” policies and instruments. These should enable the EU to meet its climate and energy goals along with the added value of creating synergies and accelerating clean energy solutions at global level.

Dolf Gielen, Director of the IRENA Innovation and Technology Centre, pointed out, that since technology was there already, what was needed was more focus on an enabling market design, on the needs of con-sumers – i.e. easy and affordable solutions, and on digitalisation as a key enabler. He mentioned that there are many good projects world-wide, but not yet enough monitoring and communication of the results. Thus, one area where international co-operation can add value is

by capturing and sharing the lessons learned, by bringing policy makers, investors, experts and innova-tors from many countries together to learn from each other, to inspire, build confidence in the technologies by demonstrating what can be achieved. Also, tracking investment levels and outcomes globally could high-light gaps of global significance. Last, but certainly not least, cross-border R&D programmes can support the best ideas and expertise, wherever they are found.

Tony Day, Executive Director of the International Energy Research Centre, suggested that the ideal energy research project should be a partnership of actors from along the whole value chain – from research to manufacturing and end use – since the best way of getting close to market is working with commercializing partners. In his opinion, demonstra-tors should not be seen as an almost ready final product, but as living laboratories.He also admitted that large consortia can be difficult to build, manage and maintain. International co-operation – though often very fruitful – can add an extra layer of complexity including due to different standards (e.g. on data protection) being used in different countries, and due to the necessity of combining the requirements of different national funding programmes.

Thembakazi Mali, Interim CEO of SANEDI, under-lined that we should not forget that there are inno-vative technologies coming out of Africa which could be shared, and that we should therefore encourage bilateral co-operation which goes both ways. In terms of energy innovation projects, she proposed that countries where technology development is not yet so strong could contribute to research endeavours by focusing on demonstration and deployment. Africa for example, has lots of RES resources to be harnessed. Technical skills transfer and localisation of different technologies are important, and they can also initiate new markets for future deployment.

The message of Mahesh Morjaria, Vice-President PV Systems at First Solar, was that the vision of clean, affordable and abundant electricity from PV is real. The cost challenge has been solved, and solar could now even provide grid flexibility and reliability services, as was shown in demonstration projects in the USA.He identified system integration issues as the next big challenge since more system flexibility needs to be achieved to accommodate more renewables in turn. Options to achieve this, listed in order of increas-ing complexity and cost, are: markets & operations, demand response, grid expansion, flexible generation (e.g. “dispatchable solar”), and energy storage. As the

Session chair Hans Van Steen Director for Renewables, Research and Innovation, Energy Efficiency at DG Energy, European Commission

Speakers Dolf GielenDirector, IRENA Innovation and Technology Centre

Mahesh Morjaria First Solar, Vice-President PV Systems

Tony Day Director of the International Energy Research Centre (IERC) Ireland

Kentaro Morita Director General for Technology Strategy Center, NEDO

Thembakazi Mali Interim CEO, SANEDI South Africa

Naomi Chevillard Policy Advisor, Solar Power Europe

Gwennael Joliff-Botrel Head of Unit G1 – Strategy, DG RTD, European Commission

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latter two have especially much cost savings potential, there are Research and Innovation Opportunities to be jointly explored.

Kentaro Morita, Director General for Technology Strategy Center at NEDO, used Japan’s project Sun-shine as an example for how very ambitious goals can be achieved if a project is based on long-term policy, with long-term commitment. This project moved PV cost from 200 USD to 1 USD per Watt in 43 years. Looking at this, he felt, it does not look impossible to achieve the 2050 goals.Given that in the face of climate change today, we are all facing the same goals, he called for global co-op-eration, including the involvement of Asian companies in European projects, and reported that NEDO had already conducted demo projects in France, Germany, Poland, Portugal and other European countries.

Gwennael Joliff-Botrel, Head of the Strategy Unit at the European Commission’s DG RTD, highlighted first achievements of the Mission Innovation initiative, which was launched in Paris in 2015 and as of Novem ber 2018 included 23 countries and the Euro-pean Commission. In this time, it had already sparked around 40 new international co-operations such as calls for proposals from India and France on Off Grid

Access to Electricity or RD&D programmes on clean energy materials in Canada and Mexico. Also, activi-ties to increase private sector engagement and invest-ment in energy innovation, were underway including a pilot instrument for public-private RD&D co-investment initiated by the Commission or an innovative public- private procurement tool in Sweden.

Naomi Chevillard, Policy Advisor at Solar Power Europe, drew attention to important cost reductions already achieved in RES and named integrating them more strongly into all sectors of the economy as the challenge ahead. Priorities for EU R&D should include improving the efficiency of technologies, strengthening key enabling technologies and initiatives on sector coupling. As tools she proposed ambitious budgets under the MFF, facilitating access to funds for busi-nesses, e.g. via a one-stop-shops. Demonstration and late-phase research projects, as well as a stimulation of the demand side, e.g. via the buildings regulation, are important to make sure technologies reach market. She also emphasized that much of PV added value is downstream (in installation, operation, maintenance) and thus accrues also in countries without PV manu-facturing facilities. Finally, dialogue and co-operation with European and international stakeholders should be continued.

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Parallel session 1Citizens asking for and investing in the energy transition: how can R&I answer?

The session is about the active consumers and the questions how we can empower them and how to get them engaged. The session was moderated by Heidelinde Adensam.

PEAKapp (presented by Johannes Reichl, energy institute at the Johannes Kepler University in Linz) provides data about how different customers can be approached. Some customers are serious minded and some are more entertaining oriented. For the latter the project provides games and comparisons with their neighbors and peer group. The project has a large testbed. The plan was to reach 2500 participants, but after 4000 accepted customers the project had to stop the enrollment due to budget restrictions. More than half of the general population lives in apartments. Therefore, they very often don’t have the possibility to invest in their own PV or e-car. The project tries to find out, if citizens stay interested over a longer period of time. Therefore, the test period comprised 70 weeks and it could be shown that the motivation is the highest in the first week after the installment, but even after 70 weeks the motivation is still very high. In the end of the test duration a push message was sent to the customers to reduce their electricity. More than 40 % of the consumers reduced their consumption by more than 50 %. Moreover, a message was sent for the next day with the information when PV is shining and with discounts from 10–50 %. The first preliminary

results show that a 10 % price reduction leads to 1.7 % increased consumption. He highlights that to reach a higher percentage of engaged participants we need to reach all customers, but that currently seems like a movement of those that are better off. In the inter-views some participants complained that, in their opinion, they finance and enable the 100.000 € e-cars from richer people. Speed is needed that we keep the support from the other customers as it is very hard to win it back. We have to keep in mind that it is not only technological, but also a social transition.

Education and concentrating on the whole value-chain of energy is very relevant for Luc Hossenlopp from Schneider Electric. Especially the usage of energy and the consumer is very important. The energy system has to move from energy centric to citizen centric. The society has to save energy by considering the different types of customers and also the different possibilities of appliances as for example data centers. Moreover, new technologies along the value chain are still relevant and for example the AC/DC distribution will be very important. For all stakeholders, the citizen- centric approach means new business models (DSOs, utilities, aggregators, etc.) as for example “comfort as a service” business model. Moreover, energy manage-ment systems (as for example by a product of E.ON/Microsoft) and providing value for the customer, when their flexibility is used for new services like the distri-bution grid and enabling peer2peer trading will be new business models. Moreover, the modelling of energy systems and market designs has to be improved to enable these business models and decision making of policy makers. Therefore, digital twins can be used for tools that support with this decision making.

Wolfgang Urbantschitsch from E-Control also wants to win the customers to participate in the energy tran-sition. He argues that we need both approaches, the top-down and bottom-up approach. In the top-down approach the business models are created to attract citizens. He is waiting for these new business models to create a new demand and new markets. On the other hand, in the bottom-up approach the costumer are asked what they want to have in future! And this is very relevant and needed at this stage. They have to be aware and educated about their energy consump-tion and about the options they have. The first step is that they have more information about their consump-tion. Smart meters are therefore the precondition to make the energy consumption more transparent. In a study from E-Control, customers were asked about the preferences of citizens. The findings are very positive on the one hand side and show that the citizens want

Project Pitch PEAKapp by Johannes Reichl Energy Institute at the Johannes Kepler University Linz

Chair Heidelinde Adensam Director Energy Efficiency and Buildings, Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism

Panel discussion Luc HossenloppEnergy CTO and Digitization VP, Schneider Electric

Josh Roberts Advocacy Officer, REScoop

Lidia Borrell-Damián Director for Research and Innovation of EUA

Wolfgang Urbantschitsch Vice President of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER), E-Control

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to participate in the energy transition, but they show as well that the customers distrust the market participants to report the possibilities in an honest way. The project PEAKapp shows that the costumers want to have apps and want to have more information about their consumption. Based on this information they can find out how to engage themselves. It is very important that we must not forget those who cannot participate in these cooperations. One question that still has to be answered is about the ownership/operator of the grid. It is very important to involve the DSOs. They should enable these cooperations. There-by, grid stability can be ensured and that no parallel grids/structures are established. Therefore, these established players should be part of energy commu-nities to bring in their knowhow for example for the operation and connection of the cooperatives to the DSOs. It is important that markets in new cooperatives will work in a competitive way and that no new domi-nant market positions are established. Urbantschitisch adds that it is important to keep the energy affordable for everyone. The regulators have to find a trade-off between the enabling and incentivizing new tariffs for cooperations on local level. On the other hand everyone should pay a fair price; especially those that cannot afford to participate in cooperations. Moreover, the system should stay simple and under-standable. Therefore, only two grid tariffs should exist, the normal tariff and the interruptible tariff. It is Urbantschitsch’s opinion that is not a good idea to introduce new complex tariffs.

Lidia Borrell-Damian from the European University Association shows that R&I can participate to the energy transition by increasing the skills, by scientific input for policy and by interesting results from research projects. She explains that a coordinated action in the university sector is needed and to build a community of experts that can tackle the further development of the education. Two important documents of the UNI-SET project were published: a roadmap and an action agenda. In this project a skills gap for technical, social, economic and political topics was analyzed. 500 missing skills were identified in this project and room for educational improvements. For example it was shown that a need for techno-entrepreneurial science is needed. Moreover, it is very relevant the researchers and students learn how to give non-expert talks and to talk to consumers. The role of universities is to design master and doctoral programs in a way that the relevant skills are provided that the future researchers are able to find out what is important for consumers.In a study performed by the University of Brussels 50 homes were interviewed about the technical characteristics like the heating systems and about their characteristics. The study showed that there exist 4 types of people: the economist (focus on economical return on their investment), the environmentalist (doesn’t mind sacrificing comfort), the technician

(is monitoring everything; technology-oriented) and the compromiser (focuses on compromise between comfort/money and environment). Even when the study has some limitations as only 50 homes were studied. The study could illustrate that we all react to different stimuli and this is very relevant for regula-tors/policy makers and designers of incentive regimes. In order to help the citizens, the programs have to be designed in a way to use the knowledge we have about the customers. Therefore, scientific multi- disciplinary is very important to address the customer. Normally the link between universities and industry is research and not education. Especially for the educational programs a higher industry involvement is necessary. For example the industry involvement in doctoral programs is only 25 %. We need to change the trend that the industry is less engaged with edu-cation than with research. The industry is providing internships, but this is not yet enough. We still have to find out which incentives are needed to get the industry involved. The relationship between the industry and research should focus to create added value at local level. Moreover, it is crucial for success that we the experts explain things at the level of knowledge of different customer and stakeholder groups. By coordinating our different knowledge can increase the outputs and results, especially when we include the customers and ask them about their goals.

Josh Roberts from REScoop.eu explains that custom-ers were a bit late to the energy game, but that they are not too late for the energy transition. He cites a study that in 2050 45 % of the energy need could come from citizens, even more will participate in coopera-tives and 83 % of the citizens will somehow be involved with the energy markets. Most probably the local energy communities will be named as citizen energy communities in the clean energy package. It will be ensured that citizens are active stakeholders and not only receivers. Still the question remains how we en-gage them. The foundations are laid, but continuation is needed to look at social innovation. As a summary, it can be said the benefits for customers have to be found and we have to empower them to enable projects by themselves.He explains that it is a matter of fairness that everyone can participate in the energy transition and that we do not leave someone behind. He gives the example of the new RES directive, with the possibility for mainstream access to financing in RES by everyone. Moreover, educating people to know about their rights is one important step. For example the customers can be educated about energy efficiency.

This great session and the interesting talks and discus-sion showed that the technology is in place and that it is not only an energy transition, but a social transition as well and we need to incorporate the customers. For the future SET plan the focus has to be even more on the customers.

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Parallel session 2Industry as a facilitator of clean energy and carbon-neutral feedstock: what demonstrations and pilots are needed now for 2050?

Energy intensive industries have become increasingly energy efficient over the last decades, and many European plants are among the world’s benchmarks. To continue progress towards decarbonisation, entirely new production processes need to be explored. In parallel the energy system must evolve, to meet the resulting demand for renewable electricity and green gas(es) at competitive prices. This session moderated by Isabella Plimon, Director for Innovative Technolo-gies and Bioeconomy at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, demonstrated that industry already is part of the solution and highlighted future requirements.Most speakers underlined the importance of public support for R&D in helping develop breakthrough technologies, and of a good combination with public- private risk sharing mechanisms and financial sector involvement to move towards full industrial-size application, identified as a major challenge due to the magnitude of the required investments.

To start, Eva Maria Plunger from Verbund Solutions GmbH, introduced H2FUTURE, a project funded by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, which works on full-scale demonstration of a PEM electrolyser powered by renewable electricity to generate green hydrogen for use in the steel-making

process and for grid balancing. Five use cases will be tested as of 2019, and continued operation of the electrolyser is foreseen after the project end.

Magne Setnes, CEO of Brauunion Österreich AG, mentioned facilitating factors for achieving change: Companies should set themselves ambitious targets (Heineken group pursues an 80 % carbon footprint reduction goal for 2030) and politics should acknowl-edge the financial risks that industry takes in deploying innovative solutions. Examples from Austria include Göss Brewery which achieved carbon neutrality by combining many differ-ent energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions over the years, and two breweries where waste heat from the brewing process is now used to heat nearby residential and commercial areas in co-operation with local utilities, illustrating the role of strong regional partnerships.Communication and awareness are vital to create a bigger movement. The beer industry, which collectively has many more consumer touch points than govern-ments, can play an important role raising awareness and simultaneously also building a basis for a business model that can sustain the sometimes higher cost of clean energy.

Markus Rarbach, Head of Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives at Clariant, reported that the one common denominator throughout their large portfolio of specialty chemical products is customer requests for sustain-ability. Thus, the company pursues aggressive goals for reducing CO2 emissions and resource use and works on sourcing raw materials more sustainably. Over 10 years, they developed an innovative solution to produce advanced biofuels from agricultural waste in an energy self-sufficient process that allows nutrients to be recycled back, which will also be applied for other sectors in the future.This shows that industry can cope well with change when it is evolutionary and occurs on a level playing field. If, however, substantial change is required in a short time frame, with high unpredictability and many players in the value chain involved simultaneously, then there are substantial risks that need to be shared between public and private sector. An example is the development of biorefineries.

Steinar Eikaas, Head of Low Carbon Solutions at Equinor (formerly called Statoil) highlighted the need to start working now on large-scale solutions that enable decarbonisation of the heavy industry and heat sec-tors, as well as flexible power solutions, and storage, the latter two becoming all the more important with

Project Pitch H2future by Eva Maria Plunger Verbund Solutions GmbH

Session chair Isabella Plimon Director, Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism

Panel discussion Markus RarbachHead of Business Line Biofuels & Derivatives, Clariant

Steinar Eikaas Head of Low Carbon Solution, Equinor (former Statoil)

Johann Prammer Head of Strategic Environmental Management, Voestalpine AG

Mårten Görnerup CEO, HYBRIT Development AB (Hybrit project)

Magne Setnes CEO, Brauunion Österreich AG

Otmar Schneider Head of Asset Development Refining & Petrochemicals, OMV

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the increasing share of intermittent energy sources in the system. He advocated for hydrogen from natural gas with permanent offshore CO2 storage as an option since building a robust hydrogen infrastructure now would enable this being used by green hydrogen in the future.Ongoing projects involving Equinor include the H2M Magnum plant in the Netherlands, where hydrogen generated from natural gas will fuel an existing power plant as well as possible other uses, and H21 North of England which aims at switching the public gas grid to H2.

Using the example of the steel sector, Johann Prammer, Head of Strategic Environmental Manage-ment at Voestalpine AG, identified requirements for the decarbonisation of industry. Firstly, large scale innovation programs need to pro-vide public support up to (and including) successful deployment in order to obtain cost-efficient and CO2- effective technologies for manufacturing and energy supply. Secondly, breakthrough technologies for decarbonsing steel making will have intense energy demands – e.g. for power or H2. Establishing efficient, reliable and cost-effective infrastructure to generate, supply, store, and transmit this energy requires a large scale public and EU-wide investment initiative, especially as demand will also grow from other sec-tors, like transport. Finally, industry investment to use the break-through technologies at full scale is the big challenge that can only be mastered by a mobilisation of the financial sector combined with support from public funds.

Also Mårten Görnerup, CEO at HYBRIT Develop-ment AB, focused on a fossil-free future for iron and steel making. The approach to be demonstrated in the HYBRIT project – using green hydrogen for the process – could bring CO2 emissions per ton of steel down to zero from about 2.000 kg, a potential of minus 7 % of global CO2-emissions if deployed world-wide. He agreed with the previous speakers that an ambi-tious EU strategy for long-term decarbonsiation needs to be flanked by financial instruments and policies for fundamental research and more importantly for later- stage research and demonstration and for rollout.

Otmar Schneider, Head of Asset Development Refining & Petrochemicals at OMV, mentioned applications for renewable liquid fuels as an important complement to electro-mobility, e.g. in the aviation sector, where high density fuels are needed, and cited sector coupling as a chance to gain quick successes with reasonable costs. But he also reminded that getting from pilot to industrial scale means enormous investments. The ingredients he considers necessary to achieve these are political and financial support, commitment to technology neutrality and a co-ordinated EU approach how to best leverage R&D support. Also, for industry to make its contribution and be a driver of innovation, it is important that competitiveness at EU and global level is maintained.

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Official opening day 2How to engage cities, regions and communities to achieve the 2030 energy and climate targets as well as the long-term decarbonisation strategy?

Josef Plank opened his speech by reminding the audience of the historic success that was achieved three years ago, with the Paris Agreement. He argued that the decisions that were taken in Paris need to be implemented which requires a large transformation of our current economic system: the substitution of fossil fuels. The latest IEA report showed that we are reaching a global all-time high in carbon emissions which means that for Mr. Plank, the message is clear „it’s time to act on all levels!“ Furthermore, Josef Plank highlights that huge opportunities lie within the change of the energy system. In this regard, the Austrian position is clear, the country does not see nuclear power as part of the solution but wants to focus on energy efficiency and clean and sustainable technol-ogies. Sector coupling, so Plank is most important for realizing the energy system of the future. He continues to describe current activities in Austria, highlighting the Mission 2030 strategy which has been endorsed by the government in 2018, which is the country’s first comprehensive climate and energy strategy. For renewable energy, Austria’s objective is to increase the ratio of renewable energy to gross final energy con-sumption to 45–50 % by 2030. Regarding greenhouse gas emissions, Austria plans to reduce them by 36 % in 2030 compared to 2005. Additionally, the country will invest into suitable energy storage systems and puts strong focus on R&D. That’s why Austria is and will continue to be highly involved in European R&D pro-grams. Austria, so Plank, believes that R&D can open up new possibilities for companies. Finally, Plank high-lights that Cities, regions and communities – are key to achieve the energy & climate targets. Communities and cities are at the level of the citizens, he argues. Austria has a long successful tradition in bottom up initiatives, with the rise of biomass and solar thermal energy as two examples. The federal ministry of sustainability and tourism supports municipalities and regions with a program called climate regions. Additionally, Austria takes great pride in the e5 net-work, a program that encourages municipalities to act in a sustainable manner at all levels: in dealing with energy, consumption, mobility and the economy.

His ministry supports this way of cooperation, so Plank, „if we enable the leaders and pioneers – others will follow!“ he believes. Projects in cities and regions show that energy transition is a big opportunity and can also be an economic driver and contribute to regional economic growth, so Plank. At the end of his speech, Mr. Plank thanks the organizers of the SET-Plan conference which provides such an important platform to exchange know-how and ideas.

In his opening speech, Markku Markula, referred to the recent report of the Intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) as a wakeup call to all politi-cians. He claims for an enhanced collaboration be-tween the politicians, because Europe has the oppor-tunity for a transformation, but it needs more ambition. As an example, he mentions his city, Espoo, which has set itself the target to become carbon neutral by 2030.The whole Helsinki regions wants to achieve the same goal by 2035. Markula also highlights digitalization as one key enabler for the achievement of the climate & energy targets. Then he continues to talk about the role of cities, which has, in his his opinion, changed a lot during the last years. Nowadays, so Markula, cities are enabling and catalyzing.20 years ago, the covenant of mayors started as a bottom up initiative in Europe. Now, so Markula, we need to encourage all of the worlds regions. Finally, Markula formulates his criticism towards the current practice in Europe. First of all, he calls for a more concrete using of the various existing financing in-struments in Europe. He acknowledges the results of 11 years of the SET-Plan but he also highlights that we need to move from small to big projects and that the very successful European R&I projects need to stop working in silos. Markula also adds that the key researchers currently spend too much time on ad-ministration and that they don´t target enough on the business models meaning not only traditional private businesses but the businesses of the cities as well. Finally, he concludes that the governance still has a lot of weaknesses when it comes to bring the SET-plan achievements into practice in the regions and cities. In order to overcome this barrier, the Committee of the Regions, together with the European Parliament started to organize annual “science meet regions” events and the committee of regions also called their members and asked who wants to be volunteering in building local place based ecosystems and to learn how to use the different instruments. Finally, Markula mentions an initiative on the global level, Sustainable development goals leadership program that also aims to integrating the latest research on the implementa-tion at pioneering cities, like Espoo.

Keynote speeches Josef Plank Secretary-General, Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism Austria

Markku Markkula Vice-President of the European Committee of the Regions

Gerassimos Thomas Deputy DG Energy, European Commission

As the last speaker of the opening session, Gerassi-mos Thomas, highlights the important achievements of the SET-Plan process, which has reaffirmed the important role of technology development through R&I for the decarbonization of our energy system. Thomas describes that, a lot has been arranged for the future, especially a lot of financing has been agreed upon, for example a robust Horizon 2020. Within the SET-Plan, 13 concrete implementation plans have been set up, which are raising over 20 billion euros. Nevertheless, he continues to elucidate, there are still a lot of chal-lenges ahead. First of all, achieving the 2030 targets and beyond that, going to full carbonization by the mid of the century. Therefore, Thomas urges, that much more needs to be done. He continues his speech, focusing on the aspects that are being discusses on the second day of the conference. He highlights why cities are so important: it´s because they are consuming 70% of the energy, they produce 70 % of the CO2 emissions and it is expected that more than 70 % of the Europeans will be living in cities by the mid of this century.Thomas also stresses the importance of individual action of citizens. He then reflects on the previous opening speakers who have highlighted how cities can be part of the solution and that we already have a lot of frontrunner cities in Europe. Thomas talks about the Smart City Lighthouse projects which are being financed through H2020 and which are already opera-tional. He also mentions the new energy performance of buildings directive that just came into force and a number of other initiatives that help address the chal-lenges in the cities. Thomas then goes on to identify the common theme of topics discussed on day 2 of the conference: in his opinion, an integrated approach is needed in all the areas, for cities, renewables, and also for system integration. Thomas highlights that the integrated approach is a key element of the SET-Plan, because it brings all actors together and avoids the building of silos. In this sense, Thomas sees a big benefit of having the diverse audience participating in the SET-Plan conference.

As a responsible company, we consider it only natural to contribute substantially to reaching climate protection targets. Which is why we are already focusing on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) as a fuel. CNG is currently the most cost-efficient way to achieve a long-term reduction in road traffic emissions. Because natural gas as a fuel causes up to 80% fewer ozone-forming substances – all while saving up to 50% on every tankful. Reason enough to further expand our already comprehensive nationwide network of CNG service stations.

Experience more OMV at: www.omv.com

The energy for a better life.

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Plenary session 4Transforming Cities and Buildings Summary

The main question of the plenary session 4 of the SET-Plan Conference 2018 was how cities and regions can be transformed into low carbon urban systems and how EU R&I policies and funds can contribute to this transformation. Energy transitions begin in cities, regions and communities because they combine the different domains of buildings, mobility and ICT. They are responsible for providing good services for their citizens and to involve them into planning and decision making. It was discussed how cities can be supported in dealing with transformation processes and which challenges and opportunities they face.

The session started with a presentation of the EU funded Smart City Lighthouse project “Smarter Together” by Julia Girardi-Hoog (City of Vienna) and Hans-Martin Neumann (AIT Austria Institute of Technology). It is an urban renewal initiative where three cities (Vienna, Munich and Lyon) are working together and implement several actions to reach climate and energy targets. The consortium of Smarter Together is transdisciplinary in nature and involves

various partners from research, industry, municipalities and civil society. Citizen participation plays an important role in the project, for which several instruments and methods have been developed. The main results are to be present in the public space and to use creative methods to keep citizens interested in the project. Monitoring and evaluation results will not only include numbers on the technical performance of integrated energy, mobility and ict systems, but also on the lessons learned to harvest the replication potential for similar projects in the future.

Urban research is very important for the EC and all EU member states, but according to Mr. Hans-Günther Schwarz from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Trans-port, Innovation and Technology there is a need to strenthen the collaboration between EU member states and to provide a strong program management for joint research activities. He proposed programs with a mission to provide instruments to involve those actors who are actually struggling with problems. The programs should be more precise in who should be part of the processes (e.g. not industry as itself but certain industries). Mr. Schwarz also proposed funding instruments with a prolonged lifetime to support a sustainable implementation. Political actors should engage with civil society actors to ensure sustainable investments in the future. To sum it up Schwarz said if there should be a change in Europe, a clear vision on the urban level had to be developed.

The universities’ view of the subject was provided by Annemie Wyckmans from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She points out that a city is not just made to be energy efficient but to provide a quality of life in every part of the city. Wyckmans suggests implementing this holistic view on a physical district within test areas and to integrate the fields of technology, data, citizen participation, regulations, real estate, energy utilities, mobility and business models etc. Only if it is tested in real life districts for a long-time, cities can benefit. But also, the perspective of different disciplines need to change regarding the purpose of a city. They need to be educated to work together and to co-create to develop new partnerships and prototypes. Stakeholders need to shift from incre-mental change to truly open innovation.

A key word often used during the session was, of course, technology. Gerhard Stryi-Hipp from Fraunhofer ISE talked about the need to define those technologies that are needed to address different challenges in the urban energy transition. Furthermore, it needs to be defined how energy systems are linked

Project Pitch Smarter Together by Julia Girardi-Hoog City of Vienna & Hans-Martin Neumann AIT Austrian Institute of Technology

Session chair Charlina Vitcheva Deputy Director General of the EU Joint Research Center (JRC)

SpeakersHans-Günther SchwarzAustrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, Chair of the SET-Plan Working Group on Smart Cities and Communities

Annemie Wyckmans Head of NTNU Smart Sustainable Cities, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, EERA Joint Programme on Smart Cities

Gerhard Stryi-Hipp Head of group Smart Cities at Fraunhofer ISE and President of the ETIP Renewable Heating and Cooling

Michaela Mischek-Lainer Managing Director of 6B47 Althan Quartier Projektentwicklungs GmbH

Bernd Vogl Planning Director, Chief Energy Planner, City of Vienna

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to other sectors. From that point on, the versatile actors and processes can be identified (e.g. building owners, administration, energy providers). As a result, the city administration can take over the new role of steering transformation processes. The city needs to find out about the drivers and barriers of the stake-holders to efficiently run the processes. Cities should develop a better understanding of the long-term future of energy systems and therefore set their goals and targets accordingly. Research on the other hand must provide tailored solutions for the needs of the cities (e.g. technology, target system design, monitoring and evaluation). Stryi-Hipp suggested living labs to test initiatives and to work with stakeholders on site, for instance in positive energy districts. The research side of implementation should be strengthened and then cities are on a good way to make the positive energy districts happen.

Another important view on transforming cities and buildings is the one from real estate that was provided by Michaela Mischek-Lainer. She addressed three dimensions of challenge: the market, the construction and the customer. She points out that the cities should must lead the urban transformation towards sustain-ability and cannot leave the initiative to actors from the private sector, as there is very often a lack of understanding and of incentives. Why investing in technologies and concepts they don’t know about or don’t recognize its value? For more acceptance and understanding, new technologies must be combined with social innovation and integrated approaches towards citizen participation. But also, regulations to create and maintain fair market conditions.

Bernd Vogl from the City of Vienna demanded a clear vision of the future and the decarbonization of a city. It must be clarified where the renewable energy comes from, which are most certainly the surroundings of a city and are therefore to be included in the trans-formation processes. Better collaboration within the different stakeholders and to work together on specific problems is the key to success. Support in dealing with financing opportunities and other systems would make the collaboration more efficient.

The key challenges defined were mostly the collabora-tion between policy, research and industry and the consequences of urbanization in terms of energy demand and carbon emissions. Other challenges were how to integrate RES into the energy market and how to find the right business models. The plenary session also discussed key opportunities like cities as front-runners for decarbonization and adaptation to climate change. But also, learning and partnerships and how to implement standards and prefabs for the construc-tion industry. The next steps should be the linking of energy issues with the sustainable development goals and making use of digitization for reaching the climate and energy targets. The importance of providing funding instruments that have a longer lifetime should be noted by those responsible. Concrete visions that also include affordable housing, renewable resources and mobility solutions can help to achieve the goals for 2050.

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Parallel session 3The energy system of the future: what technologies and innovations can integrate energy systems and grids?

Session 3 is moderated by Tudor Constantinescu from the European Commission who firstly gives the floor to Mr Alvaro Nufuentes who opens the parallel session with a project pitch on the project wisegrid. The 17.6 million € large project provides a set of solutions, technologies and business models which increase the smartness, stability and security of an open, consumer-centric European energy grid and pro-vide cleaner and more affordable energy for European citizens, through an enhanced use of storage technolo-gies and electro-mobility and a highly increased share of Renewable Energy Resources. Further Alvaro ex-plains that wisegrid aims to deliver the tools and busi-ness models that will facilitate the creation of an open market and enable all energy stakeholders to play an active role towards a democratic energy transition.

Following the project pitch, Konstantin Staschus from ENTSOe gives his input statement starting with answering the question “What do we need to prepare for a decarbonised Europe?”. He states that we are facing lots of complexity and lots of uncertainty, but compared to other parts of the world, he believes that Europe is in a lucky situation. He argues that the answer to the complexity is quite simply: “try to decar-bonize the entire energy system by the middle of this century”. If we have doubts about how to do it and we argue about who loses and who wins, he claims that the answer to these problems has been consistent in

Europe: “try to let the market do as much as possible!” Staschus promotes a full decarbonisation with market solutions. Staschus represents the ETIPs net (european technology and innovation platform smart networks for energy transition) which recently published a vision for the year 2050 that has as the biggest feature the decarbonisation of the entire energy system, almost full circularity and quite a bit of electrification. And in this vision ETIPs net describe, if you will have a lot of electric cars and you will have a lot of heat pumps, you will need a lot of seasonal storage – we don’t know what´s the best yet, whether hydrogen or heat storage or other kinds of gases, but we describe in that vision how that might look and feel, how the costumer would be at the center with decision power, and how the dif-ferent sectors will be coupled. On the question of what to prioritize precisely, Staschus mentions three areas: governance and market design for a high renewables energy system including digitalization; making the market fit for flexibility and finally, a holistic model and unified architecture for the power system and for the energy system as such. On the question on who to cooperate with, he mentions that cooperation has to happen obviously across sectors. From the smart grid and sector coupling perspective the regulation is important. He explains that different taxes are blocking sector coupling right now. He understands that that is not easy to solve in Europe, but believes that if we don’t address that and if we don’t address several other regulatory issues early enough then we will be blocking a lot of other technological and methodological prog-ress. Finally, he therefore argues to get the regulators on board as soon as possible.

The next speaker, Rik De Doncker, Director of the E.ON Energy Research Center and Institute Power Generation and Storage Systems at the RWTH Aachen, is focusing on the sector coupling of e-mobility. He believes that in the future the main dominant energy carrier will be electricity, because it’s the energy form that we can transform/convert most efficiently in other forms which we need. Regarding electric cars, he argues that to have a market for it we need to be able to charge 300 KW in only 10 minutes. Currently, the battery will be destroyed if you charge too fast. This was tested it with TESLA batteries. Prof. De Doncker has the feeling that the car manufacturers are pushing the problem of the e-cars back to the grid – or to the DSOs. And it’s true that infrastructure for high power charging is not there yet. As a thought experiment, he calculated what happens when you have all the cars in Germany as e-cars in the grid: if you charge them in the urban environment, we would need 21 times the peak capacity of the grid and that is obviously not

Project Pitch WiseGRID by Álvaro Nofuentes Prieto etra

Session chair Tudor Constantinescu Principal Advisor to DG Energy, European Commission

SpeakersKonstantin StaschusENTSOe Chief Innovation Officer

Rik De Doncker Director of E.ON Energy Research Center and Institute Power Generation and Storage Systems, RWTH Aachen

Kaija Valdmaa Project manager Estfeed project, Elering

Susana Paardekooper Researcher at Aalborg University

Philippe Jacques Managing Director EMIRI Association

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doable. His key message is therefore to move to a distribution grid that is DC (direct current). Because PV is DC, batteries are DC and if you put all this together in a DC grid, you are not only more efficient but you save massive amounts of materials; and the materials get more and more expensive.

The next speaker is Kaia Valdmaa who works for Elering which is the main grid operator in Estonia. For her, the future of the energy system is all about data and building of smart services with that data, so that we can bring the consumer in the market. She explains that data access and sharing is relevant and that the end consumer must be able to share their data. For this purpose, Elering found the solution to establish a data exchange layer, meaning that there is no central place where data is installed. They are currently pilot-ing cross border cooperation on this. On the question of which R&I support is needed, Kaia answers that we need an environment which facilitates the development of data-exchange and technologies. She highlights the existing gap between research and market argues that a chain of measures is needed for prototyping, for scaling up a product etc. and that we need to talk a lot about innovation – not invention. Kaia criticizes that EU support is often given to one big project, but what the start-ups really need is support for references, they need to be able to have testbeds in the EU. For Kaia, the EU bureaucracy is sometimes too big and we think too long before we start acting. She also mentions that innovative public procurement can be a solution, because it would help the technology developers.

The next speaker, Susanna Paardekooper is researcher at Aalborg University and works on energy system analysis with a focus on heating and cooling. In her recent work, she started looking at how the future energy system could look like. In her opinion, there will not be a lot of nuclear power and not really much CCS. Regarding biomass, there is still the question on how sustainable it is. For Paardekooper, the importance of energy efficiency becomes therefore very clear. From the Danish perspective, gas will be a key enabler for the industry. As hydrogen and green gases for heating will become very expensive because of their difficult production, they should be reserved for the industry and specific transport. She appeals that innovations need to start happening and that we need large roll-out of changes which will work well if we tar-get urban areas. Finally, she sees that sector coupling is becoming a bigger part of the vision.

The last speaker is Philippe Jacques, Managing Director of the Energy Materials Industrial Research Initiative. In his statement, he focuses on advanced materials. First, he answers the question “What R&I do we need now to be on track for 2030 and for 2050?” For Jacques, materials research should focus on mak-ing new technologies affordable, just as it happened with PV. Research should focus on improving the performance, lifetime & stability, competitive manu-facturing. In his opinion, It is also of utmost importance to minimize raw material consumption and to globally reduce energy consumption. Asked about suitable governance Instruments, Jacques argues for a re-inforcement of strategic R&I efforts addressing the same challenge. Special attention should be given to pilot plants and demonstration activities.

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Parallel session 4Renewables for 2050: what comes next?

To reduce carbon emissions world-wide, an increasing share of the energy requirements for all applications must be covered from renewable energy sources (RES). Within the EU SET Plan, R&I efforts are already ongoing to unlock the EU renewable energy potential and integrate performant and cost-effective RES technologies in the EU’s energy system, among others via the five related SET implementation plans as moderator Piotr Tulej, Head of Unit ‚Renewable Energy Sources’ at European Commission DG Research and Innovation, said in his introduction.Speakers took stock of achievements in different RES technologies and highlighted ways forward. They agreed on the importance of R&I to help tackle the important challenge of bringing renewable energy cost further down by increasing technology performance, efficiency and system integration, increasing lifetime, considering the full value chain from materials up to systems and recycling, by establishing strong collaborations between research and industry, and by using technology infrastructures and pilot lines to bridge the gap between lab and industry.

To start, Reinhold W. Lang, from Johannes Kepler University Linz, introduced the project SolPol a main overall aim of which is to make plastics key enablers for advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Plastics will contribute to simultaneously

improving performance and to reducing costs, two of the big challenges to be mastered by all renewable energy sources for a faster uptake, as became evident form the following panelists’ contributions as well. Application examples include the immense market for extremely low-cost solar thermal systems world-wide, which would enhance the quality of life of many by improving hygiene, or, for photovoltaics, novel encapsulation polymers that are now becoming available to further decrease module costs and to accelerate market penetration and growth.

Simon Perraud, deputy director at CEA Liten, showed that some renewables are already competitive with fossil fuel power plants in terms of levelized costs of electricity. But renewable electricity costs need to be decreased further, to enable a stable electric power system combining renewables and storage, to enable sector coupling, which will require large amounts of renewable power at very low cost, and to be compe-titive in the global energy system. He also showed that the future of PV is in very high efficiency – a key factor for bringing costs down – citing among others tandem solar cells as a very promising technology, and concluded with the outlook that the European Industry has a key role to play in this process.

Christian Holter, CEO of S.O.L.I.D. solarinstallation + design GmbH, reminded the audience of the fact that the share of heating and cooling in energy demand is large, which at times gets overlooked with discussions focusing often on the segment of renewable electricity. He is convinced that decarbonisation of the energy system will only work if we consider renewable solutions for heating and cooling, with a significant involvement of solar energy. Cooling demand is expected to increase noticeably world-wide. To meet it sustainably, it is important that new buildings already consider cooling integration. Challenges to be tackled are the efficiency, storage, economics and simplification of cooling solutions.In the area of heating, the focus on the demand side should be on reducing demand and on operating at lower temperatures and more efficiently. On the supply side, Large Scale Thermal Seasonal Storage facilities should be installed, while system operation should be managed and optimized with multiple energy sources, so that different types of renewables could be deployed to cover multiple needs the best way, benefiting from the respective strengths of different technologies (e.g. use low grade energy for space heating and save biomass for other applications like process heat and peak operation).

Project Pitch SolPol by Reinhold W. Lang Johannes Kepler University Linz

Session chair Piotr Tulej Head of Unit, RTD Unit G3 ‚Renewable Energy Sources‘ European Commission

SpeakersSimon PerraudDeputy director, research funding programmes, CEA Liten

Christian Holter CEO, S.O.L.I.D. solarinstallation + design GmbH

José Pinheiro EDP Renováveis

Simon Forrest Chief Executive Officer, Nova Innovation Ltd

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He sees Europe at a good starting point knowledge- wise, but emphasised this needs to develop further to remain on the forefront, in view of quick progress world-wide.

José Pinheiro from EDP Renováveis described the journey of the WindFloat Atlantic project from proto-type to commercialization. After a successful five-year trial of the floating wind turbine support structure, Challenge # 1, i.e. developing a reliable and full-scale tested technological solution and proving that it works can be considered successfully mastered. To solve Challenge # 2, bankability, a project due diligence has been conducted, and the European Investment Bank has agreed to finance the project through the InnovFin Energy Demo Projects facility set up with the European Commission to develop “first of a kind” projects. Other funding comes from NER 300 and the Portuguese Fundo Ambiental. Now work focuses on Challenge # 3: Making the technology cost-competitive with other RES. This shall contribute to getting Europe decarbonized while maintaining knowledge, building a supply chain and creating jobs.

Simon Forrest, Chief Executive Officer at Nova Innovation Ltd, described the benefits of harnessing tidal energy as a very predictable, abundantly available energy source, without visual impact, that will be able to deliver renewable baseload power.His company started with a “plug and play” tidal power station of only 100 kW capacity, to keep costs low initially and harvest learnings from this phase before moving to large scale installations. Currently, they are on target to fulfil the EU cost reduction target for 2025 for tidal energy. “30 years ago, wind was an emerging technology; 20 years ago, few were developing “expensive” solar; 10 years ago, offshore wind was in its infancy. Tidal energy is the next big thing,” he concluded, stressing also the very fruitful co-operation with other SMEs, and the asset of a well-educated population which Europe has and will need for the future to deliver solutions.

The very active debate with the audience included also a question from the citizen workshop, whether Europe should not better focus on implementing the already available technologies faster instead of keeping looking for new ones. Panelists were unanimous in that both is needed: Existing technologies should be deployed, and given the magnitude of the task of decarbonisation it remains important to develop new solutions, with a view of getting better system integration and stability and lower costs, to make renewables deployable and affordable world-wide.

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Concluding key-note panel discussionEnergy Innovation in the EU post 2020

The closing keynote is chaired by Gerassimos Thomas, the Deputy Director general at DG Energy, European Commission. He welcomes all final speakers on stage and asks them to summarize the conference and to present their personal key findings.

Isabella Plimon, Director for Innovative Technologies and Bioeconomy at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, was the first one to take the speech. According to her the message was clear: to drive the world to a low CO2 future. She added, that there is plenty of projects that just need to be acknowledged, thus implemented, while at the same time working across sectors. More specifically she stated that “Energy is always based on how you inter-connect things” and urged the delegates to stay on the path of a low carbon and sustainable future, by being competitive.

The Strategic Programme Coordinator for Energy and Urbanisation Research at the Austrian Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology Hans-Günther Schwarz, stated that the trick of organising the SET-Plan was to figure out what the participants would be able to take from it. What was achieved at the end, was that they showed that on a European level, things can be pulled forward, the people saw that in the matters that were discussed and gained deep knowledge over the Strategic Energy Technology Plan. It is a challenging agenda, but it shall be pushed forward, and this should happen collaboratively.

Andreea Michalache, Manager of European Affairs and International Cooperation Direction at the Romanian Ministry of Energy announced the next SET-Plan conference which will take place in May 2019 in Bucharest and which will focus on how to make the energy transition happen locally.

Wolfgang Hribernik, Head of Center for Energy, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, is organizer of the conference. To wrap up the outcome of the conference Wolfgang stated this favourite quotes from the speakers. From Domic Ristori: We need to show and reach our targets. What he concluded is that in fact there must be a base line is to send cross sectors. This is a challenge for energy systems. We must include research issues as well as other divisions. From Konstantin Stachus: We need to get an idea on ow to utilise flexibility and storage. From the industry sessions, the industry sectors, research challenge for energy efficiency and decarbonisation. A question that rose was what the target energy system will be in the future.

To close the panel Gerassimos took the time to thank everyone for the message. He noted that the commission now has some additional food for thought. He will take what Wolfgang said that we must work in parallel. This conference has shown that innovation and technology will bring solutions we haven’t thought about. We need to make sure that there is more gain through collaboration and sufficient funding.

Chair Gerassimos Thomas Deputy DG Energy, European Commission

SpeakersIsabella PlimonDirector, Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism

Hans-Günther SchwarzAustrian Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, Chair of the SET-Plan Working Group on Smart Cities and Communities

Andreea Mihalache Manager of European Affairs and International Cooperation Direction, Romanian Ministry of Energy

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11th AnnualSET-Planconference 2018

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This project receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

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