www.siemens.com/pof

Pictures of the FutureThe Magazine for Research and Innovation | Special Edition: Green Technologies

Renewable Energy

Tomorrow’s Power Grids

Energy Efficiency

Solutions for a Sustainable, Low-Carbon Future

How Vehicles, Cities and Alterna-tive Energy Sources will Interact

Squeezing Better Results out of Today’s Technologies

Pictures of the Future

ContentsEnergy Efficiency

Smart GridsRenewable Energy

Sections

12 Scenario 2030The Electric Caravan

14 Solar Energy – DesertecPower from the Deserts

20 Offshore WindHigh-Altitude Harvest

23 Floating Wind FarmsTapping an Ocean of Wind

24 Wind TurbinesRecipe for Rotor Blades

27 Facts and ForecastsWhy Renewable Energy is Needed

28 Renewable ResourcesEnergy for Developing Countries

29 Interview Prof. OberheitmannWhy China Wants to Conserve Energy

30 Interview with Prof. Wan GangChina’s Minister of Science

32 BiomassFlaming Scrap

66 Scenario 2025Energy-Saving Sleuth

68 Urban Energy AnalysisCities: A Better Energy Picture

71 Trends: Energy for EveryoneLight at the End of the Tunnel

73 World’s Largest Gas TurbineUnmatched Efficiency

76 Coal-Fired Power in ChinaOlympic Efficiencies

78 Steam Turbine MaterialsPreparing for a Fiery Future

82 CO2 SeparationCoal’s Cleaner Outlook

85 CO2 SequestrationTesting Eternal Incarceration

88 Power Plant UpgradesNew Life for Old Plants

90 Steel PlantsEfficiency Catches Fire

92 Mining ElectrificationMonster Drives

94 AirportsFlight from Carbon Dioxide

96 Facts and ForecastsMore Efficient Buildings

97 Energy Efficient BuildingsNature is their Model

100 Intelligent SensorsWhen Buildings Come to Life

104 Lamp Life Cycles Let there be Savings

107 UN Emission CertificatesIndia’s new Light

108 Interview: Rajendra K. PachauriNobel Prize Winner & IPCC Chairman

109 Off-Grid SolutionsNew Sources of Hope

110 Efficient AppliancesMiracle in the Laundry Room

113 Facts and ForecastsThe Energy-Efficiency Pay Off

114 Self-Sufficient Alpine HutForecasts that Come Home

116 Combined Heat and PowerHow to Own a Power Plant

117 Energy StoragePiggybanks for Power

118 Rail TransportHigh-Speed Success Story

121 Rail System Life CyclesTimely Trains

124 ViennaA Model of Mobility

4 Interviews and FactsDr. Steven ChuProf. Hans Joachim SchellnhuberThe Sources of Greenhouse Gases

8 Siemens Environmental PortfolioClimate Change is Powering Growth

134 Crisis and Climate ProtectionEngines of Tomorrow’s Growth

164 Venture Capital: Green Dwarfs 126 Environmental City Studies

London: Shrinking Footprints Munich: A CO2-Free City

Pictures of the Future Special Edition on Green Technologies | Fall 2009 3

38 Scenario 2020New World

40 Trends: Tomorrow’s Power GridsSwitching on the Vision

44 HVDC TransmissionChina’s River of Power

48 Energy StorageTrapping the Wind

50 Interview with Dan ArvizuDirector of the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory

52 Intelligent BuildingsPlugging Buildings into the Grid

54 Smart MetersTransparent Network

56 Virtual Power PlantsPower in Numbers

58 Facts and ForecastsGrowing Demand for Smart Grids

60 ElectromobilityFrom Wind to Wheels

Pictures of the Future | Editorial

2 Pictures of the Future Special Edition on Green Technologies | Fall 2009

In recent weeks there have been signsthat the world may have left the worst of

the financial and economic crisis behind —and already some people are playing downthe causes of the worst crisis in 80 years.However, we shouldn't ignore a simplefact: activities aimed exclusively at short-term gains don't create long-term value!

This is particularly true when it comesto climate change. Current efforts to limitwarming are based on the expectation thatthe global community will set course to-ward a sustainable future. The aim is to im-prove the balance between environmental,economic and social interests.

One of the most significant factors af-fecting the achievement of this goal is how

Peter Löscher is President and CEO of Siemens AG.

vehicles at night, when electricity ischeaper, and sell it during the day at peakprices. Electric vehicles will also have animportant stabilizing function. Just a fewhundred thousand electric vehicles con-nected to the power grid would providemore “balancing power” than Germanycurrently needs to cover its demand peaks.

The most reliable, cheapest, and mostenvironmentally-friendly source of energyis reduced consumption. That’s why there’sa huge need for energy-efficient technolo-gies (p. 66-125). Experts expect worldwidedemand for such technologies to grow by13 percent annually in the coming decade.A large part of our product range is aimedat this future market, which could be worthmore than €2 trillion by 2020. We providethe most energy-efficient and high-per-formance power plant turbines. We helpour customers to reduce energy consump-tion in their buildings by as much as 40percent. We've developed industrial drivesystems that save up to 75 percent of elec-tricity, thus recouping their purchase pricewithin 18 months. That’s the positive sideeffect of energy-efficient technologies. Be-cause the customers' energy costs are re-duced, their competitiveness increases.

The importance of renewable energysources will grow considerably in the next20 years (p. 12-33). According to calcula-tions made by the International EnergyAgency and Siemens, in 2030 we will beharvesting about 13 times more energyfrom wind and 140 times more solar en-ergy than we do today. In just six hours,the world’s deserts receive as much energyfrom the sun as the world's entire popula-tion consumes in a year. Our goal must beto capture as much of this energy as possi-ble and to transport it with as few losses aspossible to the places where it is needed.

To help achieve this goal, we have madeacquisitions to enhance our leadership inthe area of solar thermal technology. Today, Siemens is the only company thatcan offer all of the core technologies forharvesting and transmitting solar energyfrom a single source. This underscores ourclaim to be the leading technology partnerin the Desertec project. Here, the aim is toimprove the energy supply in North Africawhile covering 15 to 20 percent of Europe'senergy needs from wind and solar powerplants in the Mediterranean region by themiddle of this century. We will do our shareto ensure that this “Apollo project of the21st century” becomes a reality.

Cover: Siemens recently completedconstruction of the world’s largestoffshore wind farm 30 km from theDanish coast. Outfitted with 91 turbines, Horns Rev II will pump 210 MW of electrical power into Denmark’s grid — enough to supplyover 136,000 households. Advanced sensing will minimize maintenance.

we deal with energy. Because of populationgrowth and increasing prosperity, ourglobal energy needs are expected to growby 60 percent by 2030. During the sameperiod, we must dramatically reduce green-house gas emissions. To “square the circle,”we need to act quickly and comprehen-sively at two levels: We have to generate,distribute and use energy more efficiently.And we must expand the proportion ofpower generated from renewable energysources. On both of these levels, no othercompany can compete with Siemens. Thevalue of our certified environmental port -folio rose from €19 billion in business year2008 to €23 billion in 2009. In this specialissue of Pictures of the Future we've assem-bled examples from this “green” portfolio.

One key topic involves the intelligentelectrical networks of the future — so-called “smart grids” (p. 38-63). These willenable us to tap and feed in energy at anypoint in the network. They thus represent a vital step on the road to a future systemof power generation that will be muchmore diversified and decentralized.

Smart grids will also open the door toa society based on zero-emission electricvehicles (p. 60). These vehicles will be morethan just a means of transportation. Theywill be smart, mobile energy storage unitsthat will even generate income for theirowners, who will be able to recharge their

The Road Toward a Sustainable Future

Interview | Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

Prof. Hans JoachimSchellnhuber is Directorof the Institute for ClimateImpact Research in Pots-dam. Schellnhuber, 59,was one of the first re-searchers to investigatethe consequences of cli-mate change. The physi-cist was also ResearchDirector at the TyndallCentre for ClimateChange in Norwich (UK)from 2001 to 2005. Theexceptional value of hiswork was officially rec-ognized when the Queennamed him “HonoraryCommander of the MostExcellent Order of theBritish Empire” (CBE).German Chancellor An-gela Merkel appointedSchellnhuber to serve asAdvisor on Climate Issuesto the Federal Govern-ment in 2007. Interview conducted inSpring, 2007.

4 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2007 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2007 5

Are greater efficiency and renewable energy enough?Schellnhuber: Not on their own. In particu-lar, we’re going to have to use carbon seques-tration. That means whenever carbon is com-busted, the CO2 must be captured rather thanbeing emitted into the atmosphere. This ismost effective in biomass power plants —that way, the net amount of carbon in the at-mosphere is reduced. In addition, the operat-ing life of existing nuclear power plants couldbe extended, since their associated dangersare low compared to those of global warming.On the other hand, their contribution to gen-erating capacity cannot be boosted substan-tially without ramping up the industry to reprocess spent plutonium — or buildingthousands of new nuclear power plants. In myopinion, however, the gains from extendingthe operating life of nuclear facilities shouldbe channeled into developing alternative energy sources.

Do you think the industry will cooperatein this reorientation of the world’s energysystem?Schellnhuber: Yes, if conditions are right.Governments must establish guidelines and set targets. I think it’s sensible for each countryto draw up its own roadmap, and then to combine these into a kind of world road atlas.There’s no escaping the fact that we need tohalve global CO2 emissions by 2050, comparedto 1990 levels. And industrial countries shouldreally be reducing carbon emissions by 60 to80 percent, because they’ve produced muchmore CO2 than developing countries.

How effective is emissions trading?Schellnhuber: The concept calls for trade in emissions allowances, whereby the state deliberately ensures a stringent market. That’sfine, in principle, but it can’t remain an isolatedmeasure. Important, too, is greater use of innovative technology, although it pays to remember that the biggest gains are always aresult of reducing energy waste. London aloneproduces as much CO2 as all of Portugal. Yet itsincreasing energy demand can be completelyattributed to the increasing use of appliancesthat consume power when in standby mode.That can be changed, as every engineer knows.

What’s the short term roadmap?Schellnhuber: 2007 and 2008 are decisiveyears, because the pressure will be on to de-velop a successor agreement to Kyoto. Then,over the next five to ten years, important deci-sions are going to have to be made regardingthe modernization of a lot of power plants.

What can a global company like Siemensdo about the climate challenge?Schellnhuber: German companies have thestrengths needed to cope with climate change.Don’t forget, people used to poke fun at Ger-mans because of our concern for the environ-ment. But our industry can help launch a newindustrial revolution — and even post goodearnings in the process — which will one daylead to a zero-emissions society. Invest now,and you’ll later have the advantage of beingable to supply your technology to the majormarkets of the future, such as China and India.

Where does the U.S. fit into this equation?And do you think it will start to control itsgreenhouse emissions before it’s too late?Schellnhuber: Countries like India and China,which are consuming increasing amounts ofenergy, will continue to point the finger at theU.S. as long as it fails to cut emissions. But I

think there’s a good chance that policy in Wash-ington will change. The U.S. probably won’tsign up to the Kyoto Protocol, but it could endup setting similar targets. The U.S. mightchange as Europe has. Here, many people did-n’t want to recognize warming. They thoughtthere would be another 50 years to go beforethe train would derail. But today I sense agrowing interest among people.

Has the Stern Report brought about a realsea change in opinion?Schellnhuber: Years of warnings from scien-tists have weakened those who argued thatglobal warming was a fantasy. Now Stern hasmanaged to tear down the last remaining wallsof resistance by taking the facts and calculatingtheir economic impact. His arguments willcarry a lot of weight, because when it comesto politics, economic arguments count.

Interview conducted by Jeanne Rubner

In his report, British economist Sir NicholasStern warns that the world economy is indanger. Stern says the concentration ofgreenhouse gases in the atmospheremust be kept below 550 parts per million(ppm) if global warming is to be limitedto a maximum of two to three degreesCelsius. Do you agree?Schellnhuber: Two to three degrees — thatdoesn’t sound like much, but it is. The temper-ature rise between the last ice age and the cur -rent temperate period was only five degrees,yet what a difference those five degrees havemade for the world! But let me spell out in de-tail what the Stern Report says. Even if we

meet the 550 ppm target, we will still face a90-percent probability of global warming ofmore than two degrees. That’s pretty alarming.I would tighten Stern’s demand and stipulatean upper limit of 450 ppm. That way, there’s a50-percent probability that global warmingwill be limited to two degrees, although a 50-50 chance is not particularly reassuring either.Basically, to be sure of meeting the two-degreelimit, we would have to cut emissions to below400 ppm in the long term.

Why two degrees? Is that, so to speak, the point of no return if we are to get a handle on global warming?Schellnhuber: It’s not a hard and fast line,but once we cross it, the damage becomesrapidly uncontrollable. The temperature of theplanet would increase to a greater degree thanat any other time during the last 20 millionyears — all within just one century. Thatwould be a real roller-coaster ride for theearth, an unprecedented phenomenon.

Would global warming that significantlyexceeded two degrees really have a dramatic impact?Schellnhuber: Yes, it would. For a start, thesea ice in the Arctic and the ice on Greenlandwould melt completely, and the ice in theAntarctic would melt in part. In the long term,sea levels would rise enormously as a result.We’d have to evacuate practically all coastal areas; human civilization as we know it wouldhave to be reinvented. What’s more, becauseof the direct CO2 transfer from the atmosphere,the oceans would become more acidic, and

marine life would also have to adapt. Second,the atmosphere would be more heavily ladenwith water vapor and energy, resulting in in-creasingly violent storms. Third, the variationin precipitation patterns would become moreextreme, meaning even less rain in placeswhere there is already little rainfall, and viceversa. Just one consequence of this would beincreasing desertification. And fourth, becauseof the greater temperature difference betweenland and sea, Europe would face the prospectof a monsoon effect.

How much would it cost to meet thetwo-degree target?Schellnhuber: According to Stern, we wouldhave to invest around one percent of worldGDP in order to limit global warming to be-tween two and three degrees. His report reliesheavily on model calculations produced by ourinstitute as part of an international comparativeproject. We adopted new methods of economicanalysis, because earlier studies on the costs ofprotecting the atmosphere, mainly originatingin the U.S., were based on false premises. Theybarely took account of technological advancesin the use of environmentally friendly energysources and therefore came to an unrealisticallyhigh figure. According to our results, even thecost of sticking to the two-degree limit is lessthan one percent of global economic output.Stern has factored in a safety margin, makinghis calculation more pessimistic than ours.

And what would be the costs of doingnothing at all?Schellnhuber: At least ten times higher thanthe costs of protecting the atmosphere, that isto say somewhere between ten and 20 percentof world GDP.

What concrete measures can we take?Schellnhuber: Essentially, the world’s energysystem needs to be put on a new, low-carbondiet. That means, first of all, conserving energyand using it more efficiently, and, secondly,greatly increasing our use of renewablesources — including wind and solar power,and geothermal energy and biomass. By farthe most cost-effective method here is simplyto use less energy. The British town of Woking,for example, has reduced its CO2 emissions byalmost 80 percent over the last ten years, saving a lot of money in the process. There’stremendous potential here. For instance, thermal insulation for buildings, low-energylights, low-consumption vehicles, and lotsmore. Developing renewable energy sourcesis, by comparison, more expensive, but it is imperative in the long term.

The Cost of Climate Change

According to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the 650-page Stern Report, which was

submitted on October 30 of last year, was the most important document produced during his entire

time in office. The author, Sir Nicholas Stern, was a government advisor to Blair. Blair himself has de-

fined climate change as a key political challenge. Indeed, the World Economic Forum in Davos at the

end of January of this year supported Blair’s point of view, revealing a real consensus, particularly

among participants from leading industrial nations, that action on climate change is urgently needed.

According to Stern, a former Chief Economist at the World Bank, if the concentration of greenhouse

gases in the atmosphere isn’t kept below 550 parts per million (ppm), there will be grave conse-

quences for the world economy. By way of comparison, the level of greenhouse gases at the beginning

of the Industrial Revolution was 280 ppm, while today’s figure is 430 ppm — and currently rising by

2.3 ppm a year. If we succeed in limiting greenhouse gases to 550 ppm, there will be global warming

of between two and three

degrees Celsius, the maxi-

mum increase that climate

researchers still consider

endurable. This goal can

be achieved only if the

current rise in emissions of

C02 and other greenhouse

gases is halted by 2020,

and thereafter reduced by

around two percent per

year. That will cost money

— one percent of world

GDP per year, according

to Stern’s estimate. Yet

inaction would be much

more expensive. A tem -

perature increase of five

degrees Celsius could end

up costing as much as one

fifth of world GDP per year.

2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100

0

Global emissions (in billion tons of CO2 equivalents per year)

Greenhouse gas emissions peaking–––– in 2015, followed by a reduction of 1.0% p.a.–––– in 2020, followed by a reduction of 2.5% p.a.–––– in 2030, followed by a reduction of 4.0% p.a.–––– in 2040, followed by a reduction of 4.5% p.a.

10

20

30

40

50

60

Strategies for stabilizing greenhouse gases at a level of 550 ppm.

The longer the delay before such measures are introduced, the

greater the rise in emissions until that point — and the more radi-

cally emissions will have to fall annually. The goal by 2050 is a 25-

percent reduction from the current level — with a world economy

that will be three or four times larger than today’s (i.e., they will

have to fall by 75 percent per unit of GDP).

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Why Carbon Dioxide Emissions Need to be Cut in Half by 2050

About one third of the approximately 44.2 billion

tons of CO2e that are emitted annually around the

world as greenhouse gases comes from agriculture,

forestry, land clearing measures and waste. “CO2e” refers

to CO2 equivalents. Other greenhouse gases — including

methane, laughing gas, fluorocarbons and industrial

gases (e.g. sulfur hexafluoride) — are converted into

these equivalents to show their global warming potential

compared to carbon dioxide (CO2). Methane’s global

warming potential, for example, is 21 times that of CO2,

with one ton of methane corresponding to 21 tons of

CO2e. More than two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emis-

sions (currently about 28 billion tons of CO2e) are ener-

gy-related, meaning they are caused by people’s energy

consumption. The emissions result from electricity gen-

eration in power plants, generation of heat, and fuel

combustion by transport vehicles. In Germany, about 87

percent of greenhouse gases result from energy use,

while the remaining 13 percent come from other sour -

ces, including agriculture and the chemicals industry.

Power generation is the source of nearly 40 percent

of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. The largest

The Sources of Greenhouse Gases

| Facts and Forecasts

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2007 7

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Canada

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South

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Share …

of total world CO2 emissions

of total world primaryenergy consumption

of total world gross domestic product

of total world population

Top 10 CO2 Emitters

00 1000 2000 3000 4000

5

10

15

20

25 Energy-related CO2 emissions

per capita and year (in tons)

Population (in millions)

North America

2006

2006 20062006

2030

2030

Europe

South America

Africa / Middle East

Asia

Regional Distribution of Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions

The size of each circle corresponds to the total emissionsof the region in question, and is computed by multiplyingper capita emissions and population.

6 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Dr. Steven Chu, 61, is the 12th United StatesSecretary of Energy.Before his appointmenthe was director of theLawrence BerkeleyNational Laboratory inBerkeley, California. He was also Professor ofPhysics and of Molecularand Cell Biology at UC,Berkeley. While atStanford University hiswork led to the NobelPrize in Physics in 1997.

Interview conducted in Spring, 2008.

Are we on the edge of a climate crisis?Chu: Climate change is a real threat to ourlong-term future. The issue is, what will happen if temperatures go up two degrees,four degrees, six degrees Celsius and so on? A six degree reduction in average global temperature is the difference between whatwe have today and what was experienced during the Ice Age. And six degrees on theplus side would also be a very different world.The glaciers on Greenland would have a goodchance of melting away. Parts of Antarcticawould melt. If these things happen, sea levels would increase by seven to ten meters.Bangladesh would be half underwater. What’s

more, the glacial watershed storage systemsthat our economies are based on will bethreatened. There will be increased speciesextinction. And there are other things that we can’t really measure at this point. Forinstance, we don’t know what the tippingpoint is for the release of the CO2 that islocked in the tundra of Siberia and Canada.This is actually a biological question becausethere are bacteria in the tundra that willbecome active at a certain temperature. Butwe don’t know what temperature. When theycome back to life they will release methaneand CO2 in such quantities that it will dwarfthe amount of greenhouse gases that humansare putting out now.

What can we do to avert global warming?Chu: I think the single most important thingwe can do is to put a price on carbon. This can be a cap and trade system, a tax or what-ever. But it has to be a very clear signal, and it needs to be implemented without loop-holes. If the next U.S. president makes energy and climate change an initiative theway Kennedy made it an initiative to reach the moon, this would go a long way to solvingthese problems.

What other steps should be taken?Chu: First of all, we should mandate efficien-cies in things like computers and consumer appliances. Second, we should require thatbefore a house can be sold or even rented, the owner must provide a statement from utility companies certifying gas and electricityusage for the last 12 months. This would

allow buyers and renters to compare energyrequirements for different buildings. Guesswhat this would do? It would encouragehomeowners at least one year before deciding to sell or rent out their property to seal major leaks, put in more insulation,and possibly install more energy-efficientheaters, air conditioners, etc. This would alsohelp home owners and builders to do a betterinitial job of making new homes energy efficient because they would appear moreattractive to prospective buyers. What wouldthis cost? Almost nothing. The utility compa-nies already have records of electricity and gas use on every home. So why not provide

this information to homeowners as a feedbackmechanism?

What technologies offer the greatesthope for a sustainable energy future?Chu: I think we should take a fresh look at geothermal from the local level with the useof better designed heat pumps, but also at the utility-generation level where you canenhance its effect by introducing a heat transfer fluid such as water or CO2. The reason for this is that anywhere you go, if you dig deep enough, you will find heat. Even if you only go down a few meters youget very stable temperatures. The earth iscooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. So you can think about heat pumpsthat will cool you in the summer and warmyou in the winter. I think photovoltaics, solarthermal and biofuels are also getting a newlook. There are also artificial photosyntheticsystems that allow you to take electricity orsunlight and make a chemical fuel. In the long term, artificial photosynthesis will supply the world’s transportation fuel needs.While we will soon develop batteries to power plug-in hybrids and all-electric vehicles, it will be a while before we get trains and trucks that work on the same principle. Hence, in the foreseeable future, we will need a high energy-density transportation fuel that can be provided by an artificial photosynthetic system that requires far lesswater than fuels based on growing plants oralgae. This is a technology we are going tohave to master.

Interview conducted by Arthur F. Pease

Interview | Steven Chu

Prescriptions for a Threatened Planet

N2O 6%

Industrial gases1%

CO2

81%

CH4

12%

CH4: methane (e.g. from cattle)N2O: nitrous oxide (laughing gas, e.g. from power plantsand vehicle emissions)Industrial gases: fluorocarbons (e.g. from refrigeration systems), sulfur hexafluoride (e.g. used as an insulator gas)

Major Sources of GreenhouseGases. One Fifth Are NotFrom Carbon Dioxide

share of CO2 from power plants results from turning fos-

sil fuels into usable energy such as electricity and district

heating; a small share is also generated during the facil-

ities’ construction and by the supply of fuels. The cumu-

lative CO2 emissions of lignite power plants, for example,

are about 1,000 grams per kilowatt-hour (g/kWh) of elec-

tricity; hard coal plants produce 780 g/kWh. And the

atmosphere even feels the effect of nuclear power

plants, which give off small amounts (around 25 g/kWh)

of CO2 from uranium mining and enrichment.

Photovoltaic facilities account for about 100 g/kWh of

CO2, due to the production of solar cells, modules and

inverters. Wind plants (20 g/kWh) and hydroelectric facil-

ities (4 g/kWh), by contrast, have very low CO2 emissions.

A look at the regional distribution of energy-related

emissions shows the biggest shares are from the U.S.

and China (about 20 percent each), followed by Europe

(14.5 percent), Russia (nearly 6 percent), India (4.5 per-

cent) and Japan (4.3 percent). According to the IEA,

energy-related emissions will rise by almost 50 percent

to about 40 billion tons of CO2 by 2030 if countermea-

sures aren’t taken. As the world’s largest coal consumer,

China is expected to produce twice as much CO2 as the

U.S. by 2020. But China’s emissions are still low, seen on

a per capita basis: about five tons of CO2 per year, com-

pared to roughly 7.8 in Europe and 19 tons in the U.S.

Sylvia Trage

2030

2006

2030

2030

Non-energy use3%

Other energy sector5%

Industry17%

Buildings13%

Power generation42%

Transport20%

26.9 billiontons of CO2

per year

Energy-Related CO2 Emissionsby Key Sectors

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 9

Pictures of the Future | Environmental Portfolio

8 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

Why Climate Change Is Powering GrowthSiemens’ leadership in products and solutions designed to protect the environment and the climate is worth a bundle. In fiscal year 2009 the company posted sales of €23 billion in this area and helped its customers reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 210 million metric tons.

Just about everyone today agrees that climate change is threateningboth the environment and the global economy. In the summer of

2008, the heads of the leading industrialized nations — the G8 —pledged to work to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050. This isalso the target being pushed by climate experts on the Intergovernmen-tal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). It’s clearly time for the world to act.According to a study conducted by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern,the consequences of extreme weather or a rise in sea levels could im-pact the global economy and necessitate expenditures of between fiveand 20 percent of gross world product (GWP).

On the other hand, implementation of effective measures to combatclimate change would cost much less. Limiting the rise of average globaltemperature to under two degrees, for example, would require an esti-mated investment of only around one percent of GWP a year. Such an in-vestment would make ecological sense, and in most cases economicsense as well — after all, it would provide many companies with oppor-tunities to achieve sustainable growth.

For many years, Siemens has been a leader in environmentally-friendly power generation and distribution, as well as energy-efficientproducts ranging from lighting systems and drive units to building tech-

nology and solutions for environmentally-friendly production processes.In 2008 a company-wide team led by Siemens Corporate Technology forthe first time documented the company’s complete Environmental Port-folio, which lists all products and solutions that help protect the environ-ment and battle climate change. The list accounts for more than 25 per-cent of the company’s sales, and in 2009 amounted to €23 billion —much more than any competitor. In the same period of time, Siemenscustomers reduced their carbon dioxide emissions by 210 million metrictons, which is more than 40 times the level of CO2 that Siemens itselfproduces.

Independent auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers regularlyconfirms the validity of the Siemens Environmental Portfolio and thesavings it has generated, as well as the method Siemens used to calcu-late the savings. The Siemens Environmental Portfolio is expanding at anaverage annual rate of ten percent and will easily achieve the initial tar-get the company set of €25 billion by 2011. Siemens also has ambitiousgoals for its own environmental protection activities. In 2007, the com-pany emitted a total of 5.1 million tons of CO2 equivalent. This figureconsists of all emissions generated by energy consumption for electricityand heat, direct greenhouse gas emissions and emissions produced

Combined Cycle Power Plants:Achieving 58% Efficiency

The most environmentally- and climate-friendly conventional power plants are

combined cycle gas and steam facilities that use natural gas. Such plants have

a peak efficiency of more than 58 percent, and their CO2 emissions per kilo-

watt-hour (g CO2/kWh) are only around 345 grams. The corresponding aver-

age figures for coal-fired plants worldwide are 30 percent peak efficiency and

1,115 g CO2/kWh. The Siemens Environmental Portfolio therefore includes the

modernization of old coal-fired plants. The company’s technicians recently

raised the efficiency of the Farge plant operated by E.ON by three percentage

points to 45 percent — an improvement that reduces annual CO2 emissions by

100,000 tons. The Environmental Portfolio for fossil power generation also in-

cludes fuel cells, heat and power co-generation, and power plant control

technology.

Mass Transit:Cutting Energy Bills by 30%

The transportation sector accounts for 25 to 30

percent of global end-consumer energy con-

sumption. And mobility is going to substantially

increase in the future, which means transporta-

tion must become more environmentally

friendly. The Velaro high-speed train — the

world’s fastest rail vehicle — requires the equiva-

lent of only two liters of gasoline per person and

100 kilometers when half full. The consistent

lightweight design of subway trains in Oslo has

reduced energy consumption by 30 percent.

Road traffic energy efficiency can be improved

as well — by using LEDs in traffic lights, for ex-

ample. Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio for the

transportation sector also includes traffic and

parking management systems, airport naviga-

tion lighting, and rail traffic automation and

power supply systems.

Server Farms:Achieving 80% Utilization

Rapidly growing data volumes and ever-more

powerful computers are pushing up energy

consumption and putting a strain on the envi-

ronment. Experts have calculated that computer

servers around the world require the complete

output of 14 power plants in the 1,000-mega -

watt class. Siemens’ “Transformational Data

Center” Environmental Portfolio component

balances economy, ecology, and flexibility by

addressing all aspects of a server farm, from

planning and construction to operation and

outsourcing. It also includes systems for active

energy management and computer center

automation. The Transformational Data Center

has enabled Siemens-operated server farms to

increase their capacity utilization to more than

80 percent, which in turn lowers energy con-

sumption.

Power Transmission:5,000 MW Energy Highway

High-voltage direct-current power transmission

(HVDC) has proven to be a very effective tech-

nique for transmitting electricity over long dis-

tances with minimal losses. An example is an

HVDC “electricity highway” being built in China

between Yunnan Province in the southwest and

Guangdong Province in the south. In mid-2010,

this HVDC line will begin transmitting 5,000

megawatts of environmentally friendly electricity

from hydropower plants over a distance of 1,400

kilometers at 800 kilovolts. Other ecological

power transmission and distribution systems

from Siemens include power grid links for off-

shore wind parks, gas-insulated transmission

lines, gas-insulated transformers, and the Siplink

DC coupler, which eliminates the need for diesel

generators on docked ships.

Light-Emitting Diodes:Saving up to 900 Billion Kilowatt Hours

The use of efficient lighting technology could reduce global electricity con-

sumption by more than 900 billion kilowatt-hours per year, which is twice the

annual electricity consumption of France. Based on the current worldwide

electricity mix, such a reduction would also lower CO2 emissions by more than

500 million metric tons per year. Energy-saving lamps from Osram boast a

high level of luminous efficiency and use up to 80 percent less electricity than

light bulbs. They also last up to 15 times longer. LEDs are the light sources of

the future. These semiconductor compounds directly convert electricity into

light and last for more than 50,000 hours. Like energy-saving lamps, LEDs con-

sume up to 80 percent less electricity than light bulbs. Siemens’ Environmental

Portfolio also includes fluorescent lamps and electronic ballasts, Halogen En-

ergy Savers, and high-intensity discharge lamps.

Medical Scanners:Up to 97% Recyclable

Ever-more efficient devices and the retrofitting

of existing equipment with the latest technology

are reducing the environmental impact of med-

ical systems. The Somatom Definition computer

tomograph uses up to 30 percent less electricity

than a conventional unit and also contains 83

percent less lead. As much as 97 percent of the

Somatom Definition’s weight can be recycled.

The Magnetom Essenza magnetic resonance

unit has a lower wattage for energy and cooling

than its conventional counterparts, thereby re-

ducing electricity costs by as much as 50 per-

cent. In addition, the use of refurbished systems

reduces CO2 emissions by 10,400 tons per year.

eration sector as well. The average efficiency rating for coal-fired powerplants worldwide is 30 percent. Siemens technology achieves a 47 per-cent efficiency rating, however, and combined cycle plants will soonreach 60 percent. Consumers can also do their part — for example, byusing energy-saving lamps and light diodes, both of which consume 80percent less electricity than incandescent light bulbs. New refrigeratorscan also help, as these require as much as 75 percent less energy to op-erate than 1990 models.

Siemens is the only company able to offer efficiency-enhancing prod-ucts, solutions, and green technologies acrossthe entire value chain. It offers everythingfrom equipment for power generation, trans-mission, and distribution to energy-savingservices, as well as state-of-the-art IT solu-tions for energy management. All of these arepart of the Environmental Portfolio, which in-cludes:

Products and solutions that display extraor-dinary energy efficiency, such as combinedcycle power plants, energy-saving lamps, andintelligent building technologies.

All equipment and components related tothe utilization of renewable energy sources(including components for renewable powergeneration itself) — e.g. wind power facilitiesand their grid connections; steam turbines forsolar energy.

Green technologies for water treatmentand air quality maintenance. Experts from

through business trips. By comparison, automakers produced two to fivetimes more emissions per employee — and oil companies generatearound 200 times that level. Despite its relatively low CO2 footprint,Siemens is determined to achieve a 20 percent reduction in greenhousegas emissions relative to sales by 2011, as compared to 2006 levels.

The growing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has a major im-pact on climate change — and we must do everything in our power todiminish this trend. There’s still time to act. Most of the technologyneeded to do so is already available. London offers a good example. Ac-cording to a study conducted by McKinsey onbehalf of Siemens, the British capital couldcut its CO2 emissions by 44 percent betweennow and 2025 using solutions already avail-able — without reducing its citizens’ quality oflife.

The greatest potential for energy savingscan be found in buildings, which account fornearly 40 percent of global energy consump-tion. Savings of approximately 30 percentcould, for example, be achieved here throughmore effective and efficient insulation, venti-lation, air conditioning and heating systems.The situation is similar in industry, where thelion’s share of electricity consumption is ac-counted for by electric drives. Equippingthese with state-of-the-art frequency convert-ers would result in a 60 percent reduction inelectricity consumption. Similar potential forimprovement can be found in the power gen-

10 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 11

Corporate Technology and the Siemens Sectors have also calculated forthe first time the greenhouse gas savings potential for each Siemensproduct and solution. Their calculations are based on a before-aftercomparison specific to each product or solution, such as the effect of apower plant modernization, or the impact that energy performance con-tracting has on energy optimization in buildings.

Direct comparisons were also made with a reference technology. Forexample, emission reductions resulting from the use of low-loss, high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission systems were calculatedthrough a comparison of emis-sions generated by conventionalAC transmission. The expertsalso compared new facilitieswith existing ones, whereby cor-responding average global emis-sion factors for power genera-tion were utilized.

The following example illus-trates how the method works:State-of-the-art combined cyclepower plants have an efficiencyrating of approximately 58 per-cent and emit 345 grams of CO2

per kilowatt-hour (g CO2/kWh).The experts compared this tothe global average emission fac-tor for electricity generationacross all energy sources, whichis currently 578 g CO2/kWh. The

product of the 233 g CO2/kWh difference and the amount of electricitygenerated annually at new combined cycle plants installed by Siemensduring the corresponding business year equals the emission reduction.

Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio reduced annual CO2 emissions forthe company’s customers by 210 million metric tons in 2009. In fact,products and solutions installed during 2009 alone led to savings of 62million metric tons. That total is set to increase to 300 million tons by2011, which corresponds to more than the current CO2 emissions of Tokyo,New York City, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Rome combined.

Siemens has firmly embeddedits Environmental Portfoliointo its business strategy. Thecompany consistently ad-dresses the growth market forclimate protection solutionsand plans on expanding itslead in this area. This will notonly safeguard Siemens’ ownfuture and generate value foremployees and shareholders;it will also make a major contri-bution to reducing CO2 emis-sions worldwide. Customerswill benefit from enhanced en-ergy efficiency, which willlower costs and enable themto succeed in a fiercely com-petitive environment.

Norbert Aschenbrenner

Air and Water Treatment:Radical Reductions in Pollutants

Siemens’ Environmental Portfolio includes systems for maintaining water and

air purity. The Cannibal system for wastewater processing reduces biological

solids in water by up to 50 percent. In addition, Siemens supplies systems for

treating industrial waste water used in sectors such as the paper industry. Flue

gas treatment systems, such as electric filters, remove air pollutants such as ni-

trogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. Such systems, in fact, achieve nearly 100-

percent separation at power plants, industrial facilities, and waste incineration

plants. Finally, the Meros process for cleaning sinter exhaust at steel produc-

tion facilities lowers emissions of dust, heavy metals, organic compounds, and

sulfur dioxide by more than 90 percent in many cases.

Pictures of the Future | Environmental Portfolio

Wind Power:3.6 Megawatts per Turbine

Renewable energy sources are becoming in-

creasingly important. In Germany, they already

account for more than 15 percent of electricity.

Siemens supplies highly efficient wind power

facilities for applications on land and offshore.

Some 8,000 Siemens wind turbines are in opera-

tion worldwide. Since 2003, the company has

installed over 9,000 MW of wind power, which

save 20 million metric tons of CO2 per year. The

largest turbine has an output of 3.6 megawatts

and a rotor diameter of 120 meters. The rotor

blades, which are single-cast and thus have no

seams, are tough enough to withstand even

gale-force winds. Siemens also offers complete

photovoltaic facilities, thermal-solar power

plants, and biomass plants.

Buildings:Saving € 2 Billion in Energy

Buildings account for around 40 percent of

global energy consumption, thus making them

responsible for 21 percent of greenhouse gas

emissions. The biggest energy consumers in

buildings are technical installations and lighting.

Optimized heating, ventilation and air condition-

ing systems can reduce energy consumption in

renovated buildings by 20 to 30 percent on aver-

age. Siemens Building Technologies has to date

run more than 1,000 energy saving contracting

projects worldwide. These projects have result-

ing in savings of more than two billion euros

and have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by

over 1.4 million tons. Such savings alone are

enough to recoup the initial investment associ-

ated with this type of model.

Industry: Enormous Energy-Saving Potential

Whether for steel, paper, or other products — the world’s 20 million motors

used in manufacturing account for 65 percent of the electricity consumed by

industry. Energy optimization measures for such motors could cut annual CO2

emissions by 360 million metric tons — that’s almost Australia’s annual emis-

sion figure. Energy-saving motors’ losses are more than 40 percent lower than

those of standard motors. By enabling various drive speeds, the use of a fre-

quency converter cuts energy consumption by up to 60 percent. Siemens’ En-

vironmental Portfolio also includes diesel-electric drives for ships, solutions for

the metalworking and mining industries, energy recuperation systems for the

paper industry, and energy management and consulting services.

~ 15 Mt

~ 40 Mt

~ 50 Mt

~ 50 Mt

~ 60 Mt

~ 60 Mt

∑ ~ 275 Mt

2002–2005*

* Based on comparisons with existing installations: Wind power(since 2003), combined cycle plants, high-voltage direct-currenttransmission (HVDC), energy performance contracting** Includes all greenhouse gases: Emissions from production, electricity and heat consumption, business trips, and the company’svehicle fleet. Mt = megatons (millions of metric tons)

2007 2009 2011 (target)

5.1

60

210

114

300 CO2 reductionsby customers

CO2 reductionsachieved throughSiemens productsand solutions inthe year in ques-tion

Annual savings through products and solutions from previous years

Mt CO2

Rome

Hong Kong

Singapore

London

New York City

Tokyo

Totalgreen-house gasemissionsproducedbySiemens**

Totalemissions (as CO2

equivalent)

20072006 2009 2011 (target)

Sales from Environmental Portfolio productsand solutions (in € billions)

17

2008

19

23

25

Environmental Portfolio: €25 billion by 2011

Siemens Cuts CO2 by asmuch as the Emissionsof Six Major Cities

Sou

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: Sie

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15

14 African Sunlight for EuropeThe goal of the DesertecIndustrial initiative is to helpEurope meet its future energyrequirements by supplying solarpower from North Africa. By2050, 15 to 20 percent of Europe’s energy requirements may be met by solar imports. This would require 2,500 sq km ofdesert for solar power plants and 3,500 sq km for transmission linesthrough out the entire EU-MENA region. The technology to do it exists today.

20 High-Altitude HarvestSiemens has built the world’slargest offshore wind farm on theNorth Sea off the Danish coast.There, 91 turbines pump around210 megawatts of electricalpower into the network – enoughto supply over 136,000 house-holds with electricity. The rotorsare so stable they can withstandhurricanes.

23 Tapping an Ocean of WindSiemens and Statoil Hydro haveinstalled the world’s first large-scale floating wind turbine –opening the door to harvestingthe power of the wind on the highseas. The turbine, which is located off the southwest coast ofNorway, is held in place by three steel cables moored to anchors onthe seabed. The power generated by this first floating windmill will be sent ashore via a marine cable.

Highlights

2030Harvesting electricity in 2030. A solar ther-

mal power plant in the Moroccan desert

covers 100 square kilometers, which makes

it the world’s largest installation of its kind.

Using HVDCT lines, the electricity is trans-

mitted as direct current at 1000 kilovolts to

the coast, where it transforms salt water

into pure drinking water. From there, it is

transmitted across the sea to Europe, where

it provides clean power to many countries.

12

The Electric Caravan

Renewable Energy | Scenario 2030

Morocco in 2030. Karim works as an engineer in the

world’s largest solar thermalpower plant, which transmits

energy from the desert to faraway Europe. Every evening he

takes the time to admire the sunset above the countless rows

of parabolic mirrors. But todayhe’s not doing it alone.

want to miss the daily evening show. Before thesun sets he wants to reach the hill above the“frying pan” — his colleagues’ name for a hugesolar thermal installation in the Moroccandesert.

In the glow of sunset, the level field ofcountless mirrors is transformed into a sea ofred flames. It’s a spectacle Karim has never yet

The reflected image of the man walking pastthe glittering parabolic mirrors is oddly dis-

torted. It wanders like a mirage through theseemingly endless row of mirrors, stops brieflyand then continues on its way. There’s not abreath of wind, and even though the sun is nowlow, the temperature is still over 30 degrees Cel-sius. Karim is in a hurry, because he doesn’t

missed in the five years since he was sent hereto help manage the world’s biggest solar ther-mal power plant.

Together with his colleagues, he lives andworks in a small settlement on the edge of theinstallation. With the help of thousands of sen-sors, solar thermal power experts here monitorthe power plant, which covers 100 square kilo-

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 13

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 15

Desert PowerBy 2050, electricity generated at solar-thermal powerplants and wind farms in Africa and the Middle East is expected to cover 15 to 20 percent of Europe’s energyneeds. That’s the goal of the Desertec Industrial Initiative.Siemens is a founding member and technology partner.

Solar-thermal power plants convert sunlight

into electricity. Pictured here is the Solnova 1

plant of Abengoa Solar near Seville, Spain, and a

plant in California’s Mojave desert (small picture).

Suddenly, he no longer had a quiet mo-ment. There were calls from the Chan-

cellery, ministries, ambassadors, and companyrepresentatives by the minute — and althoughProf. Hans Müller-Steinhagen from the Ger-man Aerospace Center (DLR) in Stuttgart, Ger-many, is used to acting more like a managerthan a researcher, he was still overwhelmed.

“When you’ve got 250 people working foryou, you can’t just hide in the lab,” he says.Still, what he experienced in the summer of2009, when the whole world started talkingabout Desertec, was something completelydifferent. In fact, just as Müller-Steinhagen fin-

of researchers in Stuttgart under the directionof Müller-Steinhagen’s colleague Dr. FranzTrieb has determined that solar-thermal powerplants could meet the world’s entire energy re-quirements. To achieve that, however, it wouldbe necessary to cover an area measuringaround 90,000 square kilometers — that’sabout the size of Austria — with mirrors.

But, according to the DLR, which hasstudied the associated technology for over 30years, if only 15 to 20 percent of Europe’senergy demand — the goal of the Desertecproject — were covered, an area of around2,500 square kilometers would be sufficient.

An additional 3,600 square kilometers wouldbe needed for the high-voltage power linesthat would transmit electricity to Europe.

This vision is now gaining traction thanksto several large companies that joined to formthe €400 billion Desertec Industrial InitiativeGmbH (DII) at the end of October 2009. Ac-cording to DLR estimates, €350 billion will beneeded to build the project’s power plants and€50 billion for associated transmission tech-nology.

Partners in the initiative include companiesthat are normally rivals, as well as a majorbank and the Münchener Rück insurance com-pany, one of the largest reinsurers in theworld. Siemens is one of the driving forces inthe initiative — which should be no surprisegiven that its portfolio of solutions for solar-thermal power plants includes all the key com-ponents such as steam turbines and receivertubes, power plant control technology, andsystems for transmitting high-voltage directcurrent with low losses (HVDC, see p. 44).

“Solar-thermal power works — there’s noquestion about it,” says Müller-Steinhagen. Infact, a cluster of power plants in California’sMojave Desert has demonstrated for over 20years that a huge amount of electricity can begenerated with solar energy. The facilities feedsome 350 megawatts into the grid — enoughelectricity to power 200,000 households.

Solel, a solar thermal company thatSiemens acquired in late 2009, contributed so-lar collectors and receivers to plants in the Mo-jave Desert. In addition, the company is in-volved in a number of projects, predominantlyin Spain, which are due to enter service in2010 and 2011. In these cases, efficient UVACreceivers, devised by Solel, were chosen byproject developers.

There are many reasons why solar thermaltechnology is now being widely discussed andemployed, with increased awareness of theneed for climate-friendly power being chiefamong them. In addition, technology for low-loss transmission of electricity over long dis-tances has now established itself, while recentinnovations have made solar-thermal powerplants even more efficient. When oil pricesbegin rising again, as is expected after theeconomic crisis, solar-thermal electricity mayquickly become competitive. In fact, its pro-duction in favorable regions already costs lessthan €0.20 per kWh.

Major Alliance. If there’s one person whomight be called the father of Desertec, it’s Dr.Gerhard Knies. Knies is Chairman of the Super-visory Board of the Desertec Foundation,which developed the Desertec concept that is

| Solar Energy

ishes describing this, the phone rings — thistime it’s the German Embassy in London, ask-ing if he’d be willing to do a presentation.

Along with the Desertec Foundation andthe German Association for the Club of Rome,Müller-Steinhagen’s Institute of TechnicalThermodynamics is one of the nerve centersfor a project that has been compared in sizewith the Apollo space program — which cul-minated in the 1969 moon landing. Desertec,however, focuses on the sun rather than themoon — more specifically on the sun’s energy.In conjunction with the Trans-MediterraneanRenewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), a team

14 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

meters. As soon as these tiny digital assistantsregister a defect, Karim and the rest of his main-tenance crew go to work.

Karim, a true son of the desert, movesthrough the heat very slowly and carefully —and in contrast with his European colleagues,who rush around sweating, his shirts always re-main dry. But now he too is in a hurry, and he’srelieved when he has reached the garage withthe off-roaders.

Trained as an engineer, Karim is a calm anddeliberate man. He seldom uses bad language— only in the rare cases when there isn’tenough sugar in his tea or when one of his col-leagues has forgotten to “tank up” the off-roader, as has just happened.

The electric vehicle wasn’t plugged into anelectrical socket — sockets that are suppliedwith power from the solar thermal installation.Nevertheless, Karim gets into the driver’s seatand presses the starter button. The vehicle’s150 kilowatt electric motor starts up with a softpurr. A pictogram on the control panel indicatesthat the battery only has 10 percent of its fullcapacity. When fully charged, the vehicle has arange of 350 kilometers — and ten percent isnot enough to get him up the hill.

But the off-roader is equipped with a small,highly efficient gasoline engine for emergen-cies, which works like a generator and gives thevehicle an additional range of 300 kilometers.And the gas tank is still full. Karim is satisfied,steps on the gas pedal, and the off-roader joltsoff almost silently along the sandy trail towardthe hill.

The final meters are the most difficult ones.The electric off-roader pushes through the sandwith great effort, but eventually it reaches itsgoal. Karim climbs out of the vehicle and hur-ries to the top of the hill. The sun has alreadyreached the horizon, and the temperature hasdropped noticeably. A gentle breeze is comingfrom the sea. But Karim doesn’t notice it, be-cause he now smells something burning.

Nearby he finds a small campfire. In front ofit sits a nomad holding a teapot above thecrackling flames. The old man greets him withthe traditional “Salam” and motions for him tocome closer. Karim hasn’t seen any nomads inthis area for a long time now — but he knowsthat they’re always on the go. He gives the oldman a friendly nod and sits down beside him atthe campfire.

“My name is Hussein,” says the nomad as hehands Karim a glass of tea. “What brings youhere?” Karim shovels several spoonfuls of sugarinto his tea. He points down the hillside. “Doyou see those countless mirrors that are justnow reflecting the last rays of the sun? They aregenerating electricity from the sun’s heat. This

power plant produces enough electricity to sup-ply all of Morocco. My job is to make sure every-thing runs smoothly.”

Hussein looks down at the installation,which is starting to glow red in the sunset. “Apower plant? I’d say it looks like a work of artcreated by some crazy European.”

Karim grins. “You’re not too far off the mark.This technology was in fact developed in Eu-rope. Installations like this one are being built allover North Africa. They’ve been going up foryears. The mirrors automatically swivel so thatthey’re always facing the sun. They capture thesun’s beams and focus them on a pipe that isfilled with a special salt. The salt is heated to asmuch as 600 degrees Celsius and generatessteam, which in turn drives a turbine that pro-duces electricity.”

Hussein points to the west, where the sun isdipping beneath the horizon. “And what hap-pens after it gets dark?” he asks. “The powerplant is equipped with storage systems thatcontain the same kind of salt that’s in thepipes,” explains Karim. “This salt stores so muchheat that the plant can also produce electricityat night.”

The nomad looks thoughtful. “But what dowe need all that electricity for?” he asks.“There’s only dust and gravel here wherever youlook, and Casablanca is far away.” Karim pointsto a gigantic high-voltage overhead line leadingnorthward from the installation through thedesert until it is lost from sight. “We use someof the power to change seawater into drinkingwater,” he says. Hussein nods. This makes senseto him.

Karim likes explaining things to people and isnow hitting his stride. “But we also sell a lot of itat good prices to European countries that wantto become less dependent on oil, natural gas,and coal. The energy is transported to them viaelectricity highways like this one. It works like acaravan — the electricity travels across dis-tances as great as 3,000 kilometers to Europeancities that use enormous amounts of power.However, by transmitting it at 1000 kilovoltshardly any electricity is lost in transit.”

Karim sips his tea with satisfaction. “Thedesert holds our past and also our future,” hemuses. “In the old days we pumped petroleumout of the ground and today we’re harvestingsolar energy.”

The old man lays a hand gently on Karim’sshoulder. “The sun gives us everything we needto stay alive — our forefathers already knewthat,” he says with a smile as he hands a warmblanket to his guest. “But the night is coming onquickly. Here, take this. In spite of your giganticpower plant down there you’re shivering like asick camel.” Florian Martini

Renewable Energy | Scenario 2030

on such days,” says Valerio Fernandez, Directorof Operations and Maintenance at AbengoaSolar, which operates Solnova. “The turbinetherefore has to be flexible enough to make upfor these fluctuations.”

As the morning sun rises, Fernandez in-spects the Solnova construction site, whereworkers are busy tightening bolts and assem-bling and polishing equipment. “On the wholein Seville we have very good conditions forsolar-thermal power plants. About 210 days ayear of perfect sunshine, from morning toevening,” says Fernandez. The Spanish feed-inlaw for subsidizing solar-thermal power hastriggered a real boom. Since 2006, producershave been entitled to receive a maximum ofapproximately €0.27 per kWh from the gov-ernment, and civil servants are being buried inapplications.

Big Up-front Investment. Depending on thelocation and sunlight intensity, it now costs upto €0.23 to produce a kWh of electricity, whichis relatively high. Electricity from wind power,on the other hand, can already be produced at

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 17

Reliable and highly flexible steam turbines from

Siemens, such as the SST-700, are ideal for the

special requirements of solar-thermal power plants

(right: Solel’s Lebrija plant in Spain).

competitive prices in many regions in Europe.But things weren’t always this way. Thirtyyears ago, it cost around €3 million to installone MW of onshore wind-power output, whiletoday it costs only €1 million. Experts expect asimilar development with regard to solar-ther-mal power. Here, the high cost at the momentis mainly due to the initial investment. For ex-ample, a 50-MW facility with heat storagecosts around €300 million, which has to bepaid off over the plant’s useful life, which canextend up to 40 years.

Heat storage isn’t cheap, as indicated by ex-isting systems at the European Center for SolarEnergy Activities, the Plataforma Solar deAlmería, as well as in Andasol. But by storingheat produced during the day, both locationscan generate electricity at night as well. Upuntil now, large insulated tanks containingliquid salts with a melting point of around 200degrees Celsius have mostly been used as stor-age media. Researchers at DLR and other facili-ties are now trying to find ways to reducecosts by altering the storage media or fine-tuning power plant components to ensure that

as little heat as possible is lost during the heatexchange process between the hot heat trans-fer agent and the steam.

Fernandez thus expects that the initial in-vestment per MW of installed generating ca-pacity will soon decrease. “So far we’ve beenproducing mostly one-of-a-kind equipmentand procuring special components, like re-ceiver tubes, from small production series. Butwhen mass production for solar-thermal plantsbegins, investment and power generationcosts will fall dramatically,” he predicts.

Perfect Match. Industrial consolidation isproving helpful in this context. The acquisitionof Solel Solar Systems by Siemens in October2009 is a case in point. Solel has decades ofexperience in the development and manufac-ture of solar field equipment, including thehigh-tech receivers. In addition the company isactive in the planning and construction ofsolar fields. This is a complementary fit withthe traditional Siemens competencies for thepower block, where steam is transformed intoelectrical energy, as Umlauft from Siemensconfirms: “Siemens and Solel are a perfectmatch. We are the market leader in steamturbines for solar thermal power plants and,with the power block, we can offer a key partfor solar power plants.”

Bringing the ability to supply the mostimportant key components under one roofopens up greater possibilities for enhancingefficiencies of the integrated solution, thinksAvi Brenmiller, CEO of Solel Solar Systems:“Together, we will utilize our know-how inthese core competencies to further optimizethe water/steam cycle and to further boost theefficiency of solar thermal power plants.”

Solel is not the first acquisition of Siemensin the field of CSP. In March 2009 a 28 percentinterest in Archimede Solar was bought. TheItalian company develops receiver tubesthrough which molten salt rather than specialoil flows. The advantage of this promisingThe Desertec concept: Solar power in the desert, wind on the coasts, and a network of transmission lines.

2.000 km

Solar-thermal power plants

Area needed for solar-thermalplants to provide electricity to:

World (2005 consumption)

EU 25

Power lines (e.g. HVDC, with extensions)

Photovoltaic

Wind

Hydroelectric

Biomass

Geothermal

MENA

Desertec’s Energy Mix

Sour

ce: D

eser

tec

Foun

dati

on

16 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Renewable Energy | Solar Energy

optimize the facility’s yield, the mirrors con -tinuously track the sun to within one-tenth ofa degree of arc. The light they reflect is chan-neled into vacuum-insulated receiver tubesthat contain a special oil that is heated tonearly 400 degrees Celsius. The oil later trans-fers its heat to water in heat exchangers,thereby creating steam.

“At that point, a solar-thermal plant beginsoperating like a conventional facility,” saysUmlauft. That’s because the downstream“power block,” in which electricity is generatedfrom steam, employs the proven technologyused in steam-turbine plants.

But solar-thermal plants have special re-quirements with regard to turbine size andflexibility. For one thing, turbines in certaintypes of solar plants need to be able to start upvery quickly when the sun rises. That’s onereason why many solar power plant operatorsopt for customized Siemens technology. InMay 2009, Siemens opened a new turbine pro-duction hall in Görlitz, Germany, that producesthe SST-700, the world market leader when itcomes to parabolic trough power plants. Infact, Siemens’ share of this market is morethan 80 percent. Together with control sys-tems from Siemens, the SST-700 turbine isalso being used in another power plant in An-dalusia: Solnova 1 in Sanlúcar la Mayor, nearSeville. Power generation was scheduled tobegin at the facility in late 2009.

SST-700 turbines are already in operation inmany CSP plants around the world. The modelis popular due to its reliability and specifica-tions — which are very well-suited to the sizeclass currently in operation — and its flexibil-ity. “This is important because in Seville wehave light cloud cover about 90 days a year.The plant’s output can fluctuate considerably

According to estimates by Greenpeace, De-sertec would lead to the creation of some twomillion jobs in participating countries by 2050.

Dr. René Umlauft, CEO of Siemens’ Renew-able Energy Division, has supported the initia-tive from the start. “Desertec can make a keycontribution when it comes to establishing asustainable energy supply system,” he says.“And with the solutions from its EnvironmentalPortfolio, Siemens is the right technology part-ner for this visionary project, many of the ele-ments of which have already been imple-mented in Europe.”

now being refined in the DII. A retired physi-cist, Knies’ favorite quote is from Albert Ein-stein, who said: “We can’t solve problems byusing the same kind of thinking we used whenwe created them.”

Knies believes this logic fits in very wellwith the issue of climate change broughtabout by CO2 emissions, as this developmentcan only be counteracted by revamping theenergy supply system. Over the years, he hasput together an impressive group of support-ers, including TREC, the Club of Rome, DLR,and Prince Hassan of Jordan.

Desertec: 100 gigawatts of installed capacity wouldcover 15 to 20 percent of Europe’s electricity needs.

“We all understood that putting a halt toclimate change would require CO2-free tech-nologies like wind power, geothermal systemsand, above all, solar-thermal facilities — all ona mass scale,” he says. Whereas Müller-Stein-hagen is one of Desertec’s technology design-ers, Knies got the associated political processmoving. His work culminated in the launch ofthe implementation phase in the summer of2009, when a consortium was established andsupport was obtained from companies such asSiemens.

The DII intends to develop business plansand financing concepts to supply the MENA re-gion and Europe with power produced usingsolar and wind energy ressources. The goal isto build a belt of solar-thermal power plants inNorth Africa and the Middle East, which wouldbe linked via high-voltage lines with local con-sumers and European countries. Plans call forachieving a capacity of 100 gigawatts (GW)and the supply of 700 terawatt-hours (TWh)per year by 2050, which would cover 15 to 20percent of Europe’s electricity needs.

Obviously, these plants could meet an evenhigher share of energy demand in the dynami-cally growing countries in which they wouldbe located. The electricity requirement in theMENA Region (Middle East and North Africa) isexpected to increase five-fold over the next 30to 40 years, to 3,500 TWh. “Solar-thermalplants and wind power facilities could, for ex-ample, play a key role in the energy-intensivedesalination of seawater,” says Knies.

Moreover, because as much as 80 percentof the value created through construction ofthe power plant facilities will remain in theMENA countries themselves (e.g. through theproduction of mirrors, foundations, andframes), a project like Desertec would alsogreatly boost development in the region.

For instance, Siemens is the market leaderin the construction of new offshore wind tur-bines, many of which can be found on Euro-pean seas (see p. 20), and it has, throughSolel, strengthened its capability to offer thekey components for the construction of para-bolic trough power plants from a single sourceand to further enhance the efficiency of theseplants. Siemens technology can be found insolar power plants built by other companies aswell. At the beginning of 2009, for example,the Andasol parabolic trough plant went on-line in Andalusia, Spain.

Just Follow the Sun. The Andasol plant isequipped with curved parabolic mirrors laidout in long rows covering an area of 500,000square meters. These mirrors will enable theplant, which will consist of three complexes inits final expansion stage, to generate 150 MWin all, and 176 GWh per complex and year. To

Ninety percent of the earth’s population lives within less than 3,000 kilometers from the earth’s sunbelt.

Areas with the Best Potential for Solar-Thermal Facilities

Suitable: 100–150 GWh/km2.year

Good: 150–200 GWh/km2.year

Outstanding: 200–300 GWh/km2.year

Sour

ce: S

olar

Mill

eniu

m

Three Ways to Put Solar Power to Work

The basic principle underlying solar-thermal

electricity generation (concentrated solar

power — CSP) is simple: Energy from the sun

heats water, either directly or indirectly. The

water vaporizes, and the resulting steam

drives a turbine whose motion is converted

into electricity in a generator. The large tur-

bines used in today’s coal-fired power plants

operate at over 600 degrees Celsius and at

pressures of up to 285 bar, thereby enabling

an efficiency as high as 46 percent. CSP

plants have much lower steam parameters

and outputs, which is why smaller turbines,

like the Siemens SST-700, are used at such

facilities. In addition, many CSP power plants

(especially those not equipped with heat

storage) need to be started up very quickly at

sunrise, which in turn requires highly flexible

turbines. There’s also another important difference between CSP units and coal

power plants: Power generated at the former is completely CO2 free.

All CSP plants concentrate solar energy using mirrors distributed across a small

area in order to generate high temperatures. The most widely used technology

today employs half-open parabolic mirrors, with a receiver tube mounted along

the focal line (top). A liquid flows through this tube as a heat transfer agent; a

special synthetic oil is the most commonly used substance today. The oil is

heated to approximately 370 degrees Celsius, after which it transfers its heat via

a heat exchanger to water, which drives a turbine in the form of steam. Alterna-

tively, special salts can be used instead of thermal oils. These salts can be heated

up to 550 degrees, thereby increasing the efficiency of the plant. Some compa-

nies are now also testing direct steam generation systems in which water is used

as the heat transfer agent in the receivers and is sent on to the turbine as hot

steam in a closed loop. As a result, a heat exchanger is no longer required. Many

solar-thermal plants are also equipped with heat storage so that they can pro-

duce electricity at night as well. Here, steam is either stored directly in heat-insu-

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 19

plus, which could be transmitted to Europe.Clearly, in such a case, losses must be mini-mized — and this is where high-voltage directcurrent transmission (HVDC) comes in.

Electricity Highway. “Transferring power viaconventional AC lines over thousands of kilo-meters from Africa to Europe would lead tohuge losses,” says Dr. Dietmar Retzmann, Sie -mens’ leading expert for HVDC trans mis siontechnology. “Such losses can be greatly redu -ced by using HVDC lines and undersea cables.”HVDC loses only around ten percent of powerover 3,000 kilometers — that’s roughly thedistance from the southern end of the Saharato Central Europe. Siemens is now building themost powerful HVDC connection in the worldin China, where 5,000 MW of power will be

transported 1,400 kilometers (see p.44). “SuchHVDC lines are like electricity highways,” saysRetzmann. “We’re going to need them in Eu-rope when we expand our grid and largeamounts of electricity from wind power facili-ties will have to be moved great distances.”

Desertec might therefore become a keycom ponent of tomorrow’s energy networks.The project provides solutions in three key ar-eas, according to Michael Weinhold, chieftechnologist at Siemens Energy. “Energy sys-tems must be effective in terms of three di-mensions,” he says, “economy, environment,and security. Desertec will be good for the en-vironment, it will be designed in an economi-cal manner, and it will enhance European en-ergy security because it will substantiallyre d uce dependence on fossil fuel imports.”

The key issue with solar-thermal power to-day is no longer feasibility but the ability toachieve efficiency in large-scale applications.The main issue for the MENA Region is to en-sure continued stable economic developmentand a reliable supply of energy for desalinationplants which produce drinking water. The wa-ter table in Sanaa, Yemen, for example, is sink-ing at the rate of six meters per year, accordingto Müller-Steinhagen. In Egypt, new watersources with a volume equivalent to the entireflow of the Nile need to be tapped by 2050.Desalination at solar-thermal facilities couldmeet a large por tion of this requirement. Inconjunction with mo dern technology, the sunthat beats down on this region, could one daybe bringing water, electricity, and life to thedesert. Andreas Kleinschmidt

lated pressure containers or the heat from the steam is transferred to an addi-

tional storage medium — usually in the form of the special salts that can also be

used in the receiver tubes. Utilizing salt as both the transfer agent and storage

medium eliminates the need for a heat exchanger, which may one day lower

both investment and operating costs relative to other technologies. CSP power

plants can also be built as central receiver systems that use flat mirrors to reflect

sunlight onto a small area on the top of a centrally located tower (bottom) that is

often taller than 100 meters. This approach enables the highest possible temper-

atures to be achieved (up to 850 degrees Celsius). However, the farther away the

mirrors are from the tower, the lower the efficiency, which is why such plants must

be kept small. A cost-saving alternative is offered by Fresnel technology. Here,

long strips of flat mirrors (which are cheaper to produce than parabolic troughs)

reflect light onto a receiver tube suspended above them (middle). However, the

low initial investment cost for Fresnel power plants comes at the price of lower

efficiency. Experts believe that the market for solar-thermal power plants will post

double-digit annual growth between now and 2020, reaching a volume of over

€20 billion by then. A number of competing technologies will probably continue to

exist side by side as they undergo further development. Andreas Kleinschmidt

Andreas Kleinschmidt

How a Parabolic Trough Plant OperatesSolar field with parabolictroughs

Heat transfer medium (e.g. salt) Heat storage

Cold

Hot

Water-cooled condenser

Steam turbine

Generator for producingelectricity

Heat ex-changer

Sour

ce: S

iem

ens

18 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Renewable Energy | Solar Energy

Prof. Hans Müller-Stein-hagen, 55, has headed theInstitute of Technical Ther-modynamics at the GermanAerospace Center since 2000.After earning a PhD in pro -cess technology, he wor kedfor seven years at the Uni -versity of Auckland in NewZealand, before becoming adean at the University ofSurrey, UK. Working clo selywith designers and facilityoperators, Müller-Steinha -gen’s teams have made solarelectricity generation muchmore efficient. Their instituteis a global leader in its field.

Making Solar-Thermal Power Competitive

produced in Africa and the Middle East to Europe involves projects that can only be suc-cessfully implemented by a large number ofbig companies — companies that can supplyhigh voltage direct current technology andthat also possess the necessary project expert-ise. Siemens is in a very good position to playsuch a role.

What type of research still needs to be performed?Müller-Steinhagen: Our main goal is to in-crease electricity production efficiency. If wecould increase our efficiency to 20 percentfrom the current average of 15 percent, wecould reduce the area needed for the mirrorsby one-third. Don’t forget that the collectorsaccount for nearly half of the total investmentcost. We’re also experimenting with directsteam generation, where water in the receivertubes is converted into steam and sent on di-rectly to the turbine. We have worked withSiemens here on liquid separators. Losses canalso be minimized through the use of differ-ent storage media. So, if we can boost effi-ciency through many measures, even if it’sjust one percentage point at a time, the cu-mulative effect over the lifespan of a facilitycould be substantial. The German AerospaceCenter is therefore working closely withSiemens in many areas to ensure that the so-lar-thermal plants of the future will be built inthe near, rather than in the distant, future.

Interview conducted by Andreas Kleinschmidt.

When will solar-thermal electricity becomecompetitive?Müller-Steinhagen: That depends on pricesfor conventional fuels — and in 2008, we sawjust how volatile they can be. It also dependson the development of investment and oper-ating costs for solar-thermal facilities. We’vealready overcome the first major challengewith the launch of the Desertec Industrial Ini-tiative. As we begin producing more solar-thermal electricity, it will become cheaper.Costs will decline when large companies startusing and further developing the technology.One result will be the mass production ofcomponents. I’m confident that we can be-come competitive in about 15 years.

Saving the world with big projects is a concept that has sometimes caused majorproblems — for instance in dam construc-tion projects. Isn’t it possible that this couldhappen with Desertec?Müller-Steinhagen: Although Desertec is agigantic project as a whole, it’s also the sumof many smaller and more easily manageableprojects. After all, many plants, each with acapacity of at least 50 megawatts, could grad-ually go online. That sort of value is commonin Spain today. This approach will work be-cause investment costs can be kept at a man-ageable level. And with the right financial in-centives, such plants can be operatedprofitably. At the same time, the infrastruc-ture needed to transport some of the energy

future technology is that unlike oil, which ageswith frequent temperature changes and thusmust be replaced, molten salt can remain inthe cycle. It also allows operation at tempera-tures up to 550 degrees Celsius, which boostsefficiency because the steam that drives theturbine can also be brought to higher temper-atures and pressures.

What’s more, the use of salt eliminates theneed for high-loss heat exchangers becausethe salt in the receiver tubes can also be usedas the storage medium and can be pumpedinto an insulated tank as well. After it cools,the salt flows back into the receiver, where itagain “harvests” solar energy.

Construction of a new factory for produc-ing Archimede receivers in northern Italy hasbegun this year; the facility is expected to

enter service in 2010. Archimede tubes arealready being used at a solar field in southernItaly.

Instead of using special oil or molten salt,it’s also possible to produce steam directly inabsorber tubes. This eliminates the need foran expensive heat transfer agent, as water canbe used to generate steam directly. Togetherwith the DLR, Siemens has been working onthe associated technology for many years.Thanks to the major advances achieved so far,it will be possible to operate some of the para-bolic collectors at the Andasol-3 power plantwith such a direct steam generation system.

Conditions for solar power generation areeven more favorable in the deserts of the U.S.and North Africa than in southern Spain.Egypt, for example, is considered to be ideal

for solar power because the Nile can providesufficient cooling water for the condensers inthe steam cycle. However, condensers can alsobe cooled in dry regions using air, although ef-ficiency in this case is 20 percent lower. Suchan approach might make sense in parts of Al-geria, for example, where stone deserts offeran optimal location for solar-thermal powerplants for a different reason: There are no sandstorms that could damage mirrors.

Algeria is the site for the future Hassi R’Melpower plant, a 160-MW facility currently underconstruction that combines a conventional gasand steam turbine plant with solar technology.The facility will initially generate electricity forthe local market. However, with the construc-tion of more and more power plants, NorthAfrica will eventually have an electricity sur-

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 21

High-Altitude HarvestSiemens is building the world’s largest offshore wind farm 30 kilometers from the Danishcoast. The project is both a technical and logistical challenge because the individual com-ponents are huge, weigh dozens of tons, and must operate flawlessly in the windy NorthSea — even during a hurricane. What’s more, they have to do all this for 20 years or more.

The construction of the world’s largest offshore wind

farm — the Horns Rev II off Denmark — is a chal-

lenge from the production of rotors and trans-ship-

ment at the harbor to assembly on the open sea.

1,500 rpm. The generator is hidden at the backand can produce 2.3 megawatts (MW) of elec-trical power once the wind speed exceedseleven meters a second — but only if no visi-tors are present in the nacelle. “When anyone isvisiting, the wind turbines are switched off forsafety reasons,” says Møller, who heads Off-shore Technology at Siemens Wind Power divi-sion in Denmark. However, this is small conso-lation for visitors. Even though you arestanding on a secure grid, you can’t help butfeel there’s very little between you and theabyss beneath your feet. The North Sea swell

is lapping at the foundations 60 meters below.At the same time, the structure sways lightly inthe wind — despite its weight of over 300tons. “It’s designed to do that,” says Møller,“because flexibility is what provides our windpower plants with their tremendous stability.Even severe storms haven’t caused any prob-lems.”

Møller presses a switch and two roof wingsopen up above the nacelle to unveil a view ofthe North Sea. Dozens of wind turbines extendout in a row toward the horizon like a string ofpearls. Some are rotating energetically in the

Anybody visiting Jesper Møller at his fa-vorite workplace needs to have a head for

heights, good sea legs, and no inclination to-ward claustrophobia. Secured with ropes, weclimb narrow ladders and ride unsteady freightelevators in order to get to the top of a win-dowless tower. On arrival, Møller invites hisguests into the inner sanctum: the approxi-mately six meter-long cylinder that forms thehead of a wind power plant.

A neon tube lights up the long shaft con-taining the gearbox, which transforms the ro-tation of the blades into a generator speed of

Renewable Energy | Offshore Wind

20 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

breeze; others are waiting to be commis-sioned, while a few more are mere founda-tions protruding out of the sea. Horns Rev II isthe name of this wind farm, which is situatedon a sandbank about 30 kilometers off theDanish coast. The park is still under construc-tion but when completed at the end of 2009,it will be the largest offshore wind farm in theworld. A total of 91 turbines from Siemens willthen be able to pump around 210 MW of elec-trical power into the network — enough tosupply over 136,000 households.

World Record for Wind Power. Such su-perlatives are nothing special by Denmark’sstandards because they are already multipleworld record holders. This small kingdom isnot only the largest producer of wind powerplants, but also generates 20 percent of its en-ergy requirements with wind power. In com-parison, Germany, has so far only managedseven percent. Perhaps the figures aren’t sosurprising when you consider that Denmark isa windy country and enjoys only ten calm daysa year. On really windy days, the windmills canproduce half of the country’s electricity, andon a stormy night, this figure can even rise to100 percent.

However, this bounty of green energy doeshave its downside. Because such plants rely onthe wind, long-term energy production plans

are out of the question. As a result, thesewhite giants can play only a limited role whenit comes to meeting the fluctuating demandfor grid power. In contrast, other types ofpower plants, such as gas and cogenerationplants, can be run up or run down according todemand. That’s why Energinet.dk, the state-run network operator, uses a sophisticated en-ergy management system that is partiallybased on several weather forecasting systemsto get the best out of variable wind energy.

In order to quickly respond to fluctuations,excess wind-generated electricity is diverted to

trolled system. A host of sensors, both insideand outside the compartment, continuouslymeasure the vibrations of the machine parts.Using this data, experts from Siemens can re-motely recognize when a problem is brewing,because each unusual reading triggers analarm. In this way experts can detect anom-alies and prevent damage from occurring.

Only the most observant visitors notice thatthe nacelle and blades incline slightly upwardsat an angle of seven degrees “We have tomaintain a safe distance between the bladesand the mast,” says Møller. “They are so flexi-

withstand during strong winds,” explainsNielsen.

The secret of the blades’ stability can befound in the 250-meter-long production hallwhere they are manufactured using “IntegralBlade Technology,” a patented process (see Pic-tures of the Future, Fall 2007, p. 60). What’sremarkable is that the rotor blades are manu-factured as a single component without seams— a method that only Siemens has mastered.At the start of the process, workers roll outlong alternate layers of fiberglass mats andbalsa wood in a form to make a kind of “sand-

Norway’s pumped storage power plants to beused later during calm weather. Although cur-rently capable of coping with peak loads andstabilizing the network, this arrangement maynot be equal to future demands — particularlyas the Danish government plans to substan-tially expand its use of wind power in comingyears.

And that’s just fine as far as Møller is con-cerned. He has been building wind farms forthe last ten years and has developed a specialbond with his turbines. “Although the work isroutine,” he says. “I experience something spe-

ble that they bend inward considerably instormy conditions.”

Robust Blades. Søren Kringelholt Nielsen andhis 800 employees at Siemens Rotor BladeManufacturing, which is located 230 kilome-ters away in Aalborg, ensure that the hugeblades are flexible. All the blades for the Euro-pean market are produced here. The floor ofthe factory is covered with neat rows of the gi-gantic rotor blades, each of which is biggerthan the wing of a jumbo jet. The surface ofthe blades is so smooth that you can’t see or

A wind turbine produces enough energy to boil sixliters of water in just one second.

cial every time I ascend a windmill and lookout over the North Sea.” Just in front of him,the huge 45-meter rotor blades stretch intothe sky, their tips roaring through the air at220 kilometers per hour and producingenough energy to boil six liters of water everysecond. Depending on the strength of thewind, it’s possible to alter the white blades’ an-gle of attack so that they operate in the mostefficient manner.

The 82 ton-nacelle can also turn on its ownaxis in the wind — courtesy of a computer-con-

feel a single seam, while the edges at the tipsare nearly as sharp as knives. Despite theirsize, the aerodynamic blades can be bent byseveral centimeters using nothing more thanyour hand.

“This apparent fragility is deceiving,” saysNielsen, who heads Rotor Blade Manufactur-ing in Aalborg. “The blades are extremely ro-bust. Imagine placing a mid-sized car at theend of a three-kilometer beam. The forces thatare being placed on the other end of the beamare the same as those a rotor blade needs to

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 23

| Floating Wind Farms

Gale-force winds are whipping waves todizzying heights as a thin silhouette of an

80-meter-high mast dimly appears through themist. Driven by the howling wind, the mast’srotor blades spin furiously in the night air. Al-though it has neither pillars nor stilts for sup-port, the mast stays upright, leaning onlyslightly. It’s hard to believe, but there it — aprototype wind turbine floating on the water.

Since late 2009, the turbine has been pro-ducing 2.3 megawatts while bobbing in thenorth sea about 12 kilometers southwest ofthe Norwegian coast. Over the next two yearsthe prototype installation will prove whether itcan stand up to the region’s notoriously nastywind and waves. The floating wind turbine is acooperative project between Siemens’ Renew-able Energy division — the world market leader

ballast tanks — a concept that has been usedwith floating drilling platforms for many years.The buoy’s 120-meter-long float is designed toensure that the structure’s center of gravity isfar below the water surface, thus preventingthe wind turbine from bobbing to and fro inthe waves like a bathtub thermometer. Themast’s ballast tanks make it possible to pre-cisely set its center of gravity. And to ensurethat the structure doesn’t drift, it is held inplace by three steel cables moored to anchorson the seabed. The power generated will besent ashore via a marine cable. The simple an-chor/steel cable design is the key that makes itpossible to install the turbine in very deep wa-ters, unlike a massive pillar design, whichwould become uneconomical at depths in ex-cess of 100 meters.

Future offshore wind

turbines will be fixed to

a steel tube extending

120 meters under the

surface. Along with

three steel cables, the

tube makes the design

robust enough to work

on the high seas.

Tapping an Ocean of WindStatoilHydro of Norway and Siemens have developed the world’s first floating wind turbine — opening the door to harvesting the power of the wind on the high seas.

for offshore wind farms — and the Norwegianenergy company StatoilHydro. As Norway’s po-tential wind energy sites are often in natureconservation areas, the country’s energy sectoris looking to the sea. Denmark set up its firstoffshore wind farms more than 15 years ago,but to date, these have all been located nearthe coast in depths of less than 30 meters,where anchoring is relatively easy. Expansion,however, is difficult, due to factors such as fish-ing grounds and bird migration zones.

But now Siemens and StatoilHydro are tak-ing their Hywind project out to the high seas,where winds are stronger and more consistentthan near the coast. According to the NationalRenewable Energy Laboratory in the U.S., forinstance, wind potential at 5 to 50 nauticalmiles off U.S. coastlines is greater than the in-stalled generating capacity of all U.S. powerplants, which is more than 900 gigawatts.

Deep. Norway is ideal for prototype testing be-cause the seabed drops steeply offshore. At 12kilometers from land, where the wind turbineis located, the seabed is about 220 meters be-low the surface. StatoilHydro is responsible forthe underwater part of the facility, whileSiemens will supply the tower and the com-plete turbine. For its Hywind prototype, Statoil-Hydro is using a “spar buoy” concept that fea-tures a steel and concrete buoy equipped with

“We hope to be able to use this concept atdepths of up to 700 meters,” says Siemens Re-newable Energy Division CTO Henrik Stiesdal,who is based in Brande, Denmark. At greaterdepths, the costs for steel and anchors wouldmake such facilities too costly. An offshorefarm with up to 200 turbines could supply al-most a million households with electricity.

The first step in that direction is to test theprototype. The prototype is outfitted with anelectronic control system to ensure that the tur-bine doesn’t tip too far and become unstable.The system makes it possible to alter the angleof the rotor blades and thus the structure’s re-sponse to incoming wind, thereby enabling thefacility to balance out any swinging motions.It’s also been suggested that the generator andhub could be tipped, which would shift the fa-cility’s weight and compensate for swayingmovements. “We still need to test all of thesethings,” says Sjur Bratland, project manager forStatoilHydro. “What we’re doing here is devel-oping technology for a future market. With itsturbine expertise, Siemens is a reliable partnerwith a lot of forward-looking ideas.” Bratlandbelieves the Hywind solution will be perfect forregions that have deep coastal waters notsuited for ordinary offshore windfarms, few en-ergy resources and little available land, butgood wind conditions at sea. Candidates in-clude Japan and the U.S. Tim Schröder

How to Become a Windmill Builder

In August 2009, Siemens opened one of Eu-

rope’s most up-to-date training centers for wind

energy in Bremen, Germany. Aptly named the

Wind Power Training Center, it has a floor area of

about 1,100 square meters, and is situated be-

tween the European and Industrial harbors of

the north German Hanseatic city, where it serves

primarily as a training center for service techni-

cians. Prospective assembly workers are not only

offered theory courses covering the construction

and operation of wind power plants, but are also

given the opportunity to carry out practical

maintenance work on real objects.

A hall measuring about 600 square meters forms

the heart of the building, which houses a 2.3MW

wind turbine from Siemens, a simulator for the

control technology, ladder constructions, a scaf-

folding, and crane and tower models. “In this El-

dorado for technicians, our employees can

demonstrate their knowledge of the technical

processes in a wind turbine, as well as the rele-

vant safety aspects of wind turbine construction,

management, and servicing — all in a practical

setting,” says project manager Nils Gneiße.

“Thanks to this experience, they will be able to

perform maintenance work for customers faster

and more efficiently.” Wind power plant opera-

tors particularly benefit because the mainte-

nance requirements and costs fall, while the reli-

ability of the turbines increases.

According to Gneiße, the ten-meter turbines, which weigh some 80 tons, are more than just training

objects that provide hands-on experience. “With the help of these turbine nacelles, we want to in-

crease safety for our technicians,” he says. That’s why the training program offers emergency exer-

cises under real-life conditions — up to now a first for this type of training center. “Regardless of

whether an employee becomes stuck during maintenance work or simply gets cramps — at a height

of a hundred meters even minor incidents are considered emergencies that call for swift action,” says

Gneiße. Along with training facilities in Brande, Denmark, Newcastle, UK, and Houston, Texas, the

center in Bremen covers global training needs in terms of wind power. Every year some 1,000 techni-

cians, most of whom will come from Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region and the

Asia-Pacific region, are to be trained here, as are Siemens customers. Sebastian Webel

22 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Renewable Energy | Offshore Wind

Swimming Packhorse. By the time a bladebegins its life on a mast at Horn Rev II, it willhave an amazing journey behind it. First of all,blades are strapped onto articulated trucks forthe 280-kilometer journey to Esbjerg harbor,one of Siemens’ transport hubs for wind farmsin Europe. Here, the individual blades are at-tached to rotors and loaded — together with

kept to a minimum during the 20 years inwhich the blades must withstand wind andweather. “Repairs on the open sea cost aboutten times as much as repairs on land,” saysNielsen. To further increase their resilience, allthe blades are equipped with a lightning con-ductor. “Statistically, each blade will be struckat least once by lightning.”

wich.” The bottom and top sections are subse-quently joined and a vacuum is created inside.The vacuum sucks liquid epoxy resin throughthe fiberglass mats and the balsa wood. Here,the resin finds its way through all of the layersand evenly joins the two sides of the blade. Fi-nally, the blades are “baked” in a gigantic ovenat a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius foreight hours. “At the end of this process wehave a seamless rotor blade with no weakpoints,” says Nielsen. Weaknesses are unac-ceptable because maintenance costs must be

“Repairs on the open sea cost about ten times as muchas repairs on land.”

the nacelles and the masts — onto the “SeaPower,” an assembly ship that transports thecomponents of three separate wind powerplants to their destinations in the North Sea.Gigantic cranes lift the 60-ton rotors onto thedeck of the ship, stacking three huge propellersper rotor on top of one another, before placingthe tower sections and the nacelle besidethem. This swimming packhorse then trans-ports its freight, which weighs over 1,000tons, 50 kilometers to Horns Rev II.

From his nacelle 60 meters above the NorthSea, Møller has spotted the Sea Power. “Ittakes six to eight hours to completely assem-ble a wind power plant,” he says. The assemblyship’s crane lifts the steel tower, the nacelle,and finally the rotor onto a yellow pedestal —a steel foundation that was driven 20 metersinto the sandy seabed some time earlier. Thecomponents are then bolted together by hand.

“Naturally, this is possible only with goodweather. As soon as the height of the wavesexceeds 1.5 meters the work is called off. Andthis can happen quite often on the North Sea,which is renowned for being rough,” saysMøller. He points at an old ferry that is an-chored not far from the wind farm. “That’s ourhotel ship. It’s home for the workers who areresponsible for the installation and cabling ofthe wind mills. They spend two weeks at atime here at sea.”

In contrast, stays in the nacelles, which arefar from comfortable, are of course muchshorter. The limit is three days. In case evacua-tion is impossible in the face of a rapidly-devel-oping storm, each tower is outfitted withemergency storage facilties for fresh waterand energy bars. On the other hand, there arevisitors who have climbed the tower with Jes-per Møller who have indicated that they wouldrather stay a little longer because, even whenthere is no emergency, the cramped nacelleseems preferable to the idea of climbing backdown to a swaying boat at the foot of the mast— especially when you’ve forgotten your sea-sickness pills. Florian Martini

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 25

— despite their huge size and strength — musthave an optimal aerodynamic shape rightdown to the smallest angle and, most crucially,they must be very robust. This is because manyof them are destined for offshore wind farms,where repair and replacement costs are ex-tremely high. “The cost to the manufacturer ofcarrying out a repair on the open sea is aroundten times as high as that for an onshore instal-lation,” says Burchardt. “On the large turbinesan everyday wind speed of 10 meters per sec-ond forces 100 tons of air through the rotorevery second. That requires a robust blade!”

Extreme quality requirements such as thesehave caused many manufacturers to pull out ofthe offshore sector. In the meantime, Siemenshas not only become the most experienced,but also the largest supplier of offshore windturbines.

Blade Baking. In the Aalborg facility’s produc-tion hall, which is some 250 meters in length,there are huge blade-shaped molds like cakepans, stretching out along the floor and evenhanging upside down from the ceiling. There’snot a hint of chemical smell and most workersdon’t have to wear special protective clothing.

explains Burchardt, “and once it has been in-jected with epoxy resin it turns into a fiber-rein-forced plastic composite. Unlike products fromrival manufacturers, our rotor blades don’t con-tain any polyvinyl chloride, which has been as-sociated with dioxin. This means they’re not aproblem to dispose of at the end of their 20year service life, because they are primarilymade of recyclable fiberglass.”

How can such a length of fabric give a rotorblade its enormous strength? “The mold is ini-tially lined with many layers of fiberglass. In factthere are seven metric tons of this material in a45-meter blade, and 12 tons in a 52-meter blade.To enhance stiffness, a layer of wood is placedbetween the fiberglass layers,” says Burchardt.He indicates the different layers of fiberglassand the wooden mat carefully embedded inthe midst of the multilayered structure. “Theother side of the blade is made up of the sameingredients and then joined with its mate. Butinstead of fixing the two sides together with an

“With this method it only takes 48 hours fromthe first step to a completed blade, instead ofseveral days,” says Burchardt with evident pride.“That’s one day to place all the fiberglass, andanother to inject and bake. After that the bladeis adjusted and painted white — it’s a mixture ofhigh-tech and skilled handicraft.” Once com-pleted, the rotor blades are delivered by truck orship to customers worldwide, including destina-tions as far away as the U.S. and Japan.

Good Vibrations. Before delivery, samples ofthe rotor blades have to go through a variety ofstatic and dynamic tests. First of all, they aresubjected to 1.3 times the maximum operatingload. To simulate 20 years of material fatigue,the blades are then mounted on special testbeds and made to vibrate around two milliontimes, before the endurance of the material isagain tested with a final static test.

In Brande, a town of 6,000 inhabitants lo-cated some 150 kilometers south of Aalborg,

In a patented process, wind mill blades arebaked as a single piece — without any seams.

“A few years ago we developed a method ofmanufacturing the blades as a single, all-in-onepiece,” says Burchardt. “Using this integral bladeprocess — or one-shot technique, as we alsocall it — we’ve been able to do away with adhe-sives. As a result, the workforce is not exposedto toxic vapors. At the same time there are noindividual components to clutter up the hall,and we end up with a rotor blade that is pro-duced in a single casting and therefore withoutany seams whatsoever, which makes it consid-erably stronger than other blades.”

At the far end of the hall, Burchardt halts atone of the blade molds, which an employee islining with what look like lengths of white fab-ric. The material has the appearance of a finelywoven carpet but feels like plastic. “Fiberglass,”

adhesive, we fill the interior with bags of air andthen inject several tons of liquid epoxy resin in-side, which finds a smooth course between thepockets and the fiberglass and thus evenly joinsthe two sides of the blade. Finally, we bake thewhole thing for eight hours at a temperature of70 degrees Celsius.”

As Burchardt speaks, a mold is lowered fromthe ceiling and seamlessly encloses the two sidesof a blade. It is only now that the shape of thehuge units on the backs of the molds becomesevident. In their closed state, the molds act as ahuge cake pan with an integrated oven, andonce the epoxy resin has been injected, they areheated to bake the blade into a solid whole. Thebags inside the blade defy the heat and preventthe blade from collapsing during production.

2,700 Siemens employees manufacture theheart of every wind power plant: its turbines’nacelles (housing). During a trip through theDanish countryside, past its fields and farmsand some of the country’s 3,500 wind turbines,I ask why the biggest manufacturers of windpower plants are in Denmark.

“There are historical reasons,” says HenrikStiesdal, Chief Technology Officer at Siemens inBrande. “It all began with the energy crisis of1973/1974. In a move to reduce its dependenceon oil, Denmark looked at the possibility ofbuilding nuclear power plants. In response,talented engineers designed the first wind tur-bines. In the mid-1980s, a number of countriesintroduced tax incentives for wind power, mak-ing it a lucrative business. As the only country

Renewable Energy | Wind Turbines

Catching the WindSiemens Wind Power is more than just the global market leader for offshore windturbines. In Denmark, in a unique, one-shot process, the company produces rotorblades that are up to 52 meters in length. It also manufactures one of the world’slargest serially-produced wind turbines, which has an output of 3.6 megawatts.

Finished blades await shipment (below),

while new ones are already in the making (right).

Here, huge molds are being removed (center)

from raw blades (left).

24 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007

Low black clouds and bone-chilling wind areblowing in over the whitecaps on the North

Sea. By most people’s standards this is any-thing but great weather. But for Claus Bur-chardt, head of blades research and develop-ment at Siemens’ Wind Power Business Unit,nothing could be better. “For us, good weathermeans a stiff wind,” he says. “Without that, wewould be struggling to find customers.”

Rather than standing at the beach, Bur-chardt is sitting in a small office on the out-skirts of Aalborg, Denmark’s third largest city.Together with 5,500 fellow employees ofSiemens Wind Power, Burchardt builds hugewind power plants, each of which can generateenough electricity to boil a bath full of ice-coldwater within 30 seconds. In fact, the individual

components of such a wind turbine are so largethat, for logistical reasons, some are built farfrom Denmark. One such location is Fort Madi-son, Iowa, where a new rotor blade factoryopened in September, 2007. Local infrastruc-ture also plays an important role in choosinglocations. Thus, Aalborg, for example, was se-lected because of its proximity to a harbor withquays capable of handling rotor blades, someof which are over 50 meters in length.

“The big challenge in Aalborg,” says Bur-chardt, “is to ensure that all of the rotor bladeswe produce, some of which weigh 16 metrictons, are manufactured to such a high level ofprecision that they perform exactly as requiredwithout any need to upgrade or adjust themfor 20 years.” To achieve this, the rotor blades

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 27

Economic development and population growth in

many emerging markets are causing the global de-

mand for energy to increase rapidly. In the World Energy

Outlook from 2007, the International Energy Agency (IEA)

forecast that global consumption of energy will rise by

over 50 percent by 2030 if current policies are maintained.

China and India alone will be responsible for half the in-

crease. Fossil fuels will continue to be the key source of

primary energy, and will be responsible for 84 percent of

the increase in consumption between 2005 and 2030.

Above all, coal will experience a boom. Today, China and

India consume 45 percent of all coal used globally; by

2030, this figure is likely to reach over 80 percent.

Based on these predicted increases, CO2 emissions will

reach double the 1990 level by 2030 (graphic above and

Pictures of the Future, Spring 2007, p. 83). To ensure that

greenhouse gas emissions will fall despite these develop-

ments, 187 countries agreed on the key points of a new

climate protection agreement at the World Climate Confer-

ence in Bali in December 2007. The agreement was planned

to be ready for signing at the Copenhagen conference in

December 2009 and become legally binding by 2012, when

the Kyoto Protocol expires. At Kyoto, the industrial nations

committed themselves to cutting their greenhouse gases

by an average of five percent by 2012 compared with

1990. The new agreement should provide for a reduction

of 25 to 40 percent by 2020. To achieve this goal, the in-

dustrial countries are to provide more climate-friendly and

energy-efficient technology to developing countries.

Environmental engineering continues to grow. Accord-

ing to the German development organization GTZ, $71 bil-

lion was invested in renewable energy in 2006. That was

43 percent more than the equivalent figure for 2005. Of

that sum, $15 billion was accounted for by developing and

emerging markets.

In the future, the use of regenerative energy will

expand — particularly in countries such as China, India,

and Brazil. A 2007 GTZ TERNA country study reports that a

good 80 percent of all power generated in China is

produced by fossil plants, most of which run on hard coal.

Hydroelectricity contributes between 15 and 18 percent,

nuclear energy about one percent, and wind energy much

less.

According to the China’s 11th five-year plan, this situa-

tion is expected to change as follows: by 2010, natural

gas, water, wind, and nuclear energy should collectively

account for 38 percent of the country’s energy production.

By 2020, 20 percent — 290 gigawatts (GW) — should be

produced by water alone; today, the equivalent figure is

128 GW. At 676 GW, China’s hydropower potential is

greater than that of any other country.

Wind power, which also enjoys considerable potential,

is to be boosted from 1 GW to 30 GW between the end of

2005 and 2020. The photovoltaic market is also growing

by the end of 2006, it had reached 65 megawatts, around

half of which powers households in outlying regions. By

2020, some 1.8 GW is expected to be installed in the form

of photovoltaic generators.

Why Renewable Energy is Needed

| Facts and Forecasts

Frost & Sullivan anticipates that sales in the regenera-

tive energy market will increase from $6.9 billion in 2006

to $17.9 billion in 2013. Aside from tax breaks and spon-

sorship, Beijing has introduced other economic incentives

to promote renewable energy. “By 2013, photovoltaics will

probably even outpace wind power to become the fastest-

growing energy source in China,” says Frost & Sullivan re-

search analyst Linda Yan.

Another way of generating power in a climate-friendly

manner involves technologies for efficiently separating

CO2. These include coal gasification, combustion with

pure oxygen and CO2 separation from flue-gas. Although

many pilot projects along these lines already exist (pp. 36,

40), there is still some way to go before these technolo-

gies can become widely used. According to a forecast

made by the IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change) in 2005, the energy produced by all of the plants

using CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technologies will still

account for less than three percent of the energy gener-

ated worldwide by 2020.

From 2000 to 2030, the cost of CCS systems is ex-

pected to drop by half from between $50 to $100 per ton

of CO2 to between $25 to $50. As a result, the IEA believes

that the proportion of CCS plants could rise to 20 percent

by 2030 and to 37 percent by 2050. In this case, the CO2

emissions resulting from worldwide power generation

could be reduced by up to 18 gigatons by 2050. And that

would represent an important contribution to achieving

the Bali targets. Sylvia Trage

0

5,000

10,000

15,000

1990 2005 2015 2030

Global demand for primary energyActual and forecast figures

Carbon dioxide emissionsresulting from combustion of energy carriers

1990 2005 2015 2030

Millions of tons (Mtoe)

17,700

8,755 20,688

41,900

Millions of tons

Renewable energy

Nuclear energy

GasCoal

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GasCoal

Oil

0

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

Predicted Energy Demand and CO2 Emissions

Data is based on the International Energy Agency’s “Business as usual” scenario.

Clear political and technical measures are necessary to reduce CO2 emissions.

Sour

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20,000 Sales in millions of US$ Average growth rate (2005 – 2011)between 10 and 13% per year

Demand for Renewable Energy in Europe

In 2011, renewable energy sales in Europe alone are likely to reach almost

$18 billion. That’s nearly three times the 2001 level.

2001 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 2011

26 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007

with the know-how to build fully functionalwind turbines, Denmark experienced a boomthat has continued to this day.”

Although it’s good weather outside — inthe Danish sense — Stiesdal is evidently con-tent to remain in his cozy office. From a drawerhe produces a chronology of wind powertechnology and places it on his desk. “The firstwind turbines we built in the early ‘80s had anoutput of only 22 kilowatts. Since then outputhas doubled around once every four years.At 2.3 and 3.6 megawatts, our modern plantsproduce more than a hundred times as muchpower. At least for now, the smaller plantsstill account for around 80 percent of ourbusiness.”

Stiesdal points to a large map of Europe.“Recently we completed one of the world’slargest offshore-projects — the Lynn and InnerDowsing facilities for Great Britain. This projectconsists of two adjacent windfarms about fivekilometer off the Lincolnshire coast, east ofSkegness. Together, they have an installed ca-pacity of 194 megawatts and are expected toprovide enough electrical power to meet the

enough energy to supply my home town ofOdense and its 185,000 inhabitants, includinghouseholds, industry, street lighting and every-thing,” he says, before entering a giant hallwhere turbines are produced.

500-ton Giants. Here, massive metal nacelles,each containing a 2.3-megawatt machine, arelined up. We approach one of the roundedstructures, whose top is folded up at eitherside, offering a view of the interior. “We’restanding at the front of the drive shaft. That’swhere the rotor and its three blades will bemounted from the outside. For an offshoreturbine this is a job that takes place on theopen sea.

The towers are assembled on land. A spe-cially designed ship, complete with crane, isused to transport them along with the nacellesand rotor blades to an offshore site. It then takesless than half a day to install a single turbineweighing 500 tons. Once the rotor begins turn-ing, its motion is transmitted via the drive shaftto the gear unit. This, in turn, transfers thetorque, which varies depending on wind

wind turbines are neatly stacked, awaiting in-stallation. On the left are the huge steel nosecaps, which will later adorn the turbine hous-ing, in the middle the machine nacelles, and onthe right the gigantic rotor hubs, each of whichweighs around 35 tons. The blades from Aal-borg are delivered straight to the site of installa-tion. The various components for the towers,which are up to 120 meters in height, comefrom external suppliers in Denmark, Germany,the U.S. and Korea, depending on the windfarm’s location.

Once in the hall, the white nacelle of the3.6-megawatt turbine is unmistakable. Unlikeits smaller relative, it is angular in shape. Meas-uring some 13 meters in length, four meters inwidth, and four meters in height, it is also big-ger. The innards of the turbine are reached via aladder. Various systems are spread over two sto-ries, as if it were a small house. “Everything’sbigger in this turbine,” says Stiesdal with typicalunderstatement. “But we’re already working oneven bigger ones. In fact, before long the rotorblades on our turbines may be longer than 60meters.” Sebastian Webel

Renewable Energy | Wind Turbines Before installation at sea (bottom), Henrik Stiesdal

(right) makes sure that everything is perfect —

including turbine assembly (center), and

a final endurance test (left).

The first wind turbines produced 22 kilowatts —that’s less than one hundredth of today’s output.

annual demands of more than 130,000 homes,”he says.

Stiesdal’s eyes shine with enthusiasm. “InOctober 2009, the number of installedSiemens turbines worldwide exceeded 8,100.Together, they have a capacity of almost 9,600megawatts. That’s enough to produce 25 bil-lion kilowatt hours – around 70 percent ofDenmark’s electricity consumption, which isapproximately 36 billion kilowatt hours. Our165 MW Nysted offshore wind farm, for exam-ple, which is off the southern coast of thefourth-biggest Danish island Lolland, generates

strength, to the generator. The result is electricalenergy.”

Stiesdal, a hobby sailor, points out that a sys-tem of this order of magnitude requires muchmore than just mechanical parts. “Today a 2.3-megawatt turbine like this contains many levelsof processors and electronics. It might look sim-ple and easy to understand, but the closer youlook at it, the more complicated it becomes.”This applies all the more so to the top-of-the-range, 3.6-megawatt turbine. On our way to in-spect this giant, we cross the storage area. As ifin a child’s toy box, all the components for the

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 29

| Interview Oberheitmann

The boom in renewable energy sources is benefiting developing countries, especially in remote areas not connected to power grids. It is also leading to environmental projects in large emerging markets such as India and China.

Renewable Energy | Renewable Resources

28 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Africa is dark when seen from space — atleast at night compared to Europe and

North America. There are two reasons for this.Africa is sparsely populated and it lacks electric-ity. Some 500 million people south of the Sa-hara live without electricity — that’s nearlyone-third of the 1.6 billion people who stillheat with wood and use kerosene lamps forlight.

Power plants and transmission lines are ex-pensive, especially on the poor, but large, landmasses of Africa and Asia. In fact, the Interna-tional Energy Agency estimates that expandingelectrification to an extent that would halvethe number of people living in poverty world-wide would cost around $16 billion a year forthe next ten years. Such a reduction of povertywas one of the “Millennium DevelopmentGoals” set by the United Nations at the turn ofthe century. It’s far from being achieved — andsharply rising prices for fossil raw materialshaven’t done anything to help.

Still, there is hope, as technological advanceshave made “eco-electricity” more affordable. Amission in Tanzania, for example, now generateselectricity with a hybrid facility consisting ofsolar cells and an engine that runs on oil madefrom the local jatropha bush, thereby eliminat-ing the need for a diesel generator. The World

Bank invests $3.6 billion per year in energyprojects, half of which focus on tapping renew-able sources and improving energy efficiency.

Toward the End of 2007 the World Banklaunched the “Lighting Africa” initiative. Thegoal of the initiative is to provide up to 250 mil-lion people in Sub-Saharan Africa with accessto electrical lighting. Lack of lighting is one rea-son why millions of children in Africa can’tstudy at night. With this in mind, Siemens sub-sidiary Osram has become the world’s firstlighting systems manufacturer to replace mil-lions of light bulbs in Africa and Asia with en-ergy-saving lamps. In line with the Kyoto Proto-

col, the company will receive CO2 certificates tohelp finance the project (see p. 107).

Ministry of Renewable Energy. Some coun-tries have made progress. In India, for example,many people know about alternative energysources, even though one out of three Indianslives without electricity. This awareness is dueto the fact that the energy shortage caused bythe oil crisis of the 1970s led the governmentto establish a Ministry of New and RenewableEnergy; the country now plans to meet 10 per-cent of its electricity needs with power from al-ternative sources by 2012. India is already fifthin the world when it comes to installed windpower output.

The goal of the Chinese government is to in-crease the share of energy produced from re-newable resources from the current eight per-cent to 15 percent by 2020.

China also has a system similar to the one inGermany that requires energy suppliers to pur-chase ecologically-produced electricity at afixed price. World Bank energy expert AmilCabraal says that emerging markets are in-spired by Europe’s extensive investment in re-newable energy sources and the EU’s plans tomeet 20 percent of its requirements with envi-ronmentally friendly power and heat by 2020.

Still, Cabraal warns, the green energy revolutionwill require a huge amount of technological ex-pertise and planning.

It’s a massive challenge, and mistakes areeasily made. The Capgemini consulting firm,for example, claims that Beijing’s plans to in-crease China’s capacity by 950 gigawatts (or1,000 power plants) between 2006 and 2020will result in a 30 percent shortfall. It’s alsoclear that the global climate problem cannot besolved by micro power plants or distributed so-lar cell facilities alone. Says Opitz: “It will besome time before the world can stop using bigpower plants.” Jeanne Rubner

Renewable Energy for Developing Countries

Economist and China expert Prof. AndreasOberheitmann, 45, isthe director of the Re-search Center for Inter-national EnvironmentalPolicy (RCIEP), as well asa guest professor atTsinghua University inBeijing. Oberheitmannpreviously worked at theRWI economic researchinstitute in Essen. His activities at RCIEP focus on a programsponsored by the GTZtechnical cooperation organization that seeksto develop practical solutions to problems associated with climateprotection in developingcountries.

Interview conducted in Spring, 2008.

Why China Needs and Wantsto Conserve Energy

How big is China’s appetite for energy?Oberheitmann: China’s current primary ener -gy consumption is 2.4 billion tons of hard coalunits (HCU), which corresponds to about 16percent of global consumption. China is thussecond only to the U.S. in total energy con-sumption, and depending on how its gross do-mestic product (GDP) develops, it will be con-suming 6.8 to 11.7 billion tons of HCU by 2020.

That’s three to five times today’s figure —a huge increase. What will per capita consumption be like?Oberheitmann: Our energy demand modelprojects that in 2020 each Chinese citizen will

consume an amount of energy equal to thatused by the average German today, which isaround 6.4 tons of HCU. In terms of per capitaGDP, China may wind up being wealthier thanGermany is by 2020 or 2030, given purchasingpower parity. Still, we believe it will take manyyears for China to achieve the level of energyefficiency now common among countries likeGermany. For example, China currently re-quires 3.5 times more energy than the globalaverage to generate one euro’s worth of GDP.However, because the renminbi is significantlyundervalued at the moment, the difference is not as great in terms of purchasing powerparity.

That isn’t good news for the climate...Oberheitmann: That’s right, unfortunately.China is expected to surpass the U.S. withinthe next two years as the number one pro-ducer of CO2 emissions. China already emits6.1 billion tons of CO2 per year, and that figurewill climb by ten billion tons by 2020. If drasticmeasures aren’t taken, China will play a keyrole in pushing up CO2 emissions worldwide.

Does China need to undergo the indus-trial revolution process as we know it inthe West? Can’t it start using environ-mentally friendly energy sources now?Oberheitmann: Yes and no. History is repeat-ing itself — but at a much faster pace, withsome stages being skipped. That’s an argu-ment to get China to sign up to environmentalprotection. It’s true that the industrialized

As indicated by this satellite image, electricity is

still scarce in Africa. Small solar power units and

environmentally-friendly vegetable oil stoves

(below) can help to mitigate the effects of

poverty. In China (right) much of the

economy is fueled by cheap coal.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 31

the first developing country to draw up a gov-ernment concept for addressing climate change.This concept focuses on fundamental, techno-logical, and applications research, and also in-cludes measures for getting the public invol -ved in the process. One way we do this is byex plaining to people what could be achieved ifeveryone turned up their air conditioning ther-mostat one degree, left their cars home for oneday, used environmentally friendly detergentsetc. In this way, we sensitize people to the factthat everyone can contribute to environmentalprotection and help stop climate change.

Industry plays a key role in this regard,since outdated machines in factories cancause significant environmental damagethat seriously endangers nature and hu-man health. Modern equipment, on theother hand, operates more efficiently andcleanly… Wan: That’s correct. Environmental protectionalso involves making industrial processes moreefficient, improving process planning, andcombining technologies to create closed cy-cles. Residual heat from steel production, forexample, can be converted to electricity; slagcan be processed into construction materials;and cooling water can be purified. This notonly eases the strain on the environment andconserves energy; it also creates value. We’renow starting to do such things in China. Weknow that Siemens is a worldwide leader inenvironmental protection and the optimizationof industrial processes, and that the companycontinues to lead the way in these areas.Siemens thus has a lot of market potential.

What types of partnerships need to beformed to enable the efficient use of suchtechnologies in China?Wan: Environmental protection is an issue thateveryone around the globe needs to address,and each of us has to do what he or she can tohelp. In general, it’s important to make thetechnologies that are already being used in theindustrialized nations affordable to developingcountries like China. Technology transfer alsofurthers development and market expansion.The more these technologies are utilized, themore money and energy we can all save. Atthe same time, China itself has to become in-novative through its own power. Still, being an innovative country doesn’t necessarilymean doing everything yourself or reinventingthings.

One aspect that is of great concern to in-ternational companies is the protection ofintellectual property. There’s a feeling

that reality still doesn’t correspond to of-ficially stated intentions here. What isChina doing to correct this?Wan: China has made a major effort to ad-dress this issue over the last few years. Wejoined the WTO in 2001, and we’ve also signedinternational agreements and established a le-gal system for dealing with these matters. Nu-merous legal proceedings have been carriedout and many court rulings have been madethat protect intellectual property in China. Weknow we still need to do more, and we there-fore continue to work hard on further improv-ing our standards. We also know that protec-tion of intellectual property is one of thefundamental conditions for establishing an in-novation-focused society. After all, people willonly be motivated to develop innovations ifthey’re certain these will be protected. Chinesecompanies need to understand that the pro-tection of foreign technologies also guaranteesthe protection of their own new develop-ments. This realization will ultimately have agreater impact than tougher laws. We’ve madea lot of progress over the last five years in thisregard, and the situation will improve even further over the next five.

The Chinese government has traditionallyplayed a major role in technological de-velopments in the country. Now, how-ever, Chinese industry is also becoming adriving force behind innovation. Whatrole would you like to see each of themplay in the future?Wan: The government will support thosethings it deems important, and it will provideinvestment accordingly. Take fuel cell vehicles,for example. The technology here is not yetready for the market, which is why the govern-ment needs to fund its development. However,in those situations where a particular technol-ogy can soon be launched on the market, thegovernment will simply create favorable condi-tions for its introduction and then let the mar-ket do the rest.

You yourself spent many years doing re-search at a German university, and alsoworked as a manager at a German au-tomaker — so you’re familiar with the re-spective strengths and weaknesses of theEast and West. How would you compareconditions in the two societies?Wan: Europe’s strength — and the strength ofGermany in particular — lies in the ability of itsindustries to develop many products on theirown. Siemens offers a good example of this.The company has developed its own strategyfor success; it invests at an early stage in inno-

vations and then brings its products to marketworldwide. China’s industry, which is relativelyyoung, is still unable to keep up with suchprocesses from either a strategic or a financialperspective. That’s why government support isso important, especially when it comes tobringing companies, universities, and researchinstitutes together. Let’s look at fuel cell vehi-cles again. The government coordinated coop-eration between experts from universities, re-search centers, and the automotive industryhere in order to develop key components anddrive systems. We then installed the technol-ogy in different vehicles from manufacturerssuch as Volkswagen, SAIC (Shanghai Automo-tive Industry Cooperation), and Chery. In doingso, we spread out the technology. I think thistype of cooperation is our great strength.When products developed in such a mannerare ready for the market, the government willdiscontinue its involvement.

Just how advanced are fuel cell vehiclesin China?Wan: We finished building our fourth genera-tion at the beginning of this year. It now takesone of our fuel cell vehicles less than 15 sec-onds to accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour,and the top speed is 150 kilometers per hour.We will be presenting these hydrogen-fuel ve-hicles at the 29th Summer Olympics next yearin Beijing. Around 20 fuel cell passenger carsand about ten fuel cell buses will be used atthe Olympic site, along with 50 battery-pow-ered electric buses and another 300 battery-powered small cars. All of these vehicles arethe result of Chinese research projects that welaunched five to seven years ago — and nowwe’ll be seeing the technology used for thefirst time in real applications.

Interview conducted by Bernhard Bartsch.

Renewable Energy | Interview Wan Gang

30 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007

Professor Wan, you’ve been China’s Min-ister of Science and Technology for half ayear now. What challenges does Chinaface in these fields?Wan: You have to look at things from two dif-ferent perspectives. China has achieved verygreat economic successes since opening up tothe West, and it’s well on the way to industrial-ization. This progress has led to many positivethings — but it’s also created problems interms of energy security, environmental pro-tection, and climate change. We’re nowsearching for ways to achieve sustainable de-velopment, which is obviously a challenge notonly for China but also for all humanity.

What role do technological developmentsplay in overcoming the challenges Chinafaces?Wan: A huge role, because in order to solvethe problems, we need to be innovative. Thisview is also reflected in the long-term develop-ment plan we published in 2006. China isseeking to become an innovation-focusedcountry over the next ten to 15 years. How-ever, it’s not enough to have scientists address-ing the problems we face; China’s people needto understand the importance of sustainabledevelopment. Our main task at the Ministry ofScience and Technology is therefore to supportall activities that promote sustainability.

What key technologies are being pushedthe most in China today?Wan: We’re focusing on several different ar-eas, the most important of which are newforms of power generation such as clean coalsystems and renewable wind and solar energy.We’re also working on environmental protec-tion and information technology systems.Health care-related research is also important,from biotechnologies and pharmaceuticals tonew diagnostic techniques and the develop-ment of various types of medical equipment.Fi nally, we’re conducting extensive basic re-search into forward-looking technologies suchas nanotechnology. Again: it’s crucial to getthe entire population involved in these issues.

How do you plan to do that?Wan: At the end of May 2007 China became

countries have largely produced the CO2 that’saccumulated in the atmosphere to date —with the U.S. accounting for around 27 percentand China only 8 percent. However, China willaccount for a major share of future emissions.

China’s energy policy seems inconsistentat times. The Chinese put a new coal-firedpower plant into operation every fewdays, but the government also addressesenvironmental issues… Oberheitmann: Economic growth requiresenergy. To get it, China must install between 60and 100 gigawatts of new power generationcapacity each year. That’s nearly the equivalentof Germany’s current total capacity. More than70 percent of the new facilities in China arecoal-fired plants, which of course produceCO2emissions. China’s government is aware ofall this, which is why its current Five-Year Plancontains ambitious goals such as reducing spe-cific energy consumption per unit of GDP by20 percent between now and 2010. Chinaboth needs and wants to conserve energy. Itseconomy is now growing at ten percent a year.Obviously its energy consumption can’t growat the same pace. In response, the country isintroducing measures that will also improveenergy security. And China has produced re-sults. The four-gigawatt Huaneng Yuhuanpower facility, for example, has an efficiencyrating of 45 percent — a top value for a steampower plant. China is also building the world’shighest-capacity direct current transmissionline, which will be able to supply 5,000megawatts. In addition, the country plans tolimit new residential construction in largecities to buildings that require 65 percent lessenergy than the level required by today’s stan-dard. Investments are also being made in dis-trict heating systems.

Can China also make greater use of distributed energy sources such as solarcells and wind turbines?Oberheitmann: Such an approach is good forremote areas not linked to the power grid. Tibetuses a lot of hydro power, for example, and so-lar-thermal facilities for hot water can be foundthroughout the country. Although photovoltaicsystems are still often very expensive, China isthe world’s leading manufacturer of solar cells.In remote areas, photovoltaic systems are usedmostly as a substitute for biomass, althoughthey also power small diesel generators. Photo -voltaic power isn’t usually channeled into thepublic grid. The situation with regard to solarpower could change over the long term, ofcourse, if oil prices increase dramatically.

Interview conducted by Jeanne Rubner.

Prof. Wan Gang, 57, hasbeen China’s Minister ofScience and Technologysince April 2007. Wan received a Master’s degreein automotive engineer-ing at Tongji University inShanghai. In 1990 he received a PhD from theClausthal University ofTechnology in Germany,after which he joined Audiin Ingolstadt, working ini-tially in the Vehicle Devel-opment department andlater serving on the Plan-ning Committee. At theend of 2000 Wan returnedto Tongji University to coordinate a nationwideresearch program for thedevelopment of electric vehicles and hydrogentechnology. In 2004, hewas named president ofhis alma mater. Interview conductedin Fall, 2007.

China’s Road to Sustainable Development

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 33

Flaming ScrapA technology developed by Siemens makes it possible to convert biomass waste into energy with a high degree of efficiency.

Renewable Energy | Biomass

32 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

Our little toy” is how engineers at the resid-ual waste cogeneration plant in Böblin-

gen, Germany, refer to their 20-meter tower,which is crammed into a hall located next to aresidual waste and slag bunker. The engineersare used to large numbers — over 150,000tons of waste is burned here each year in orderto produce electricity and heat. “When we saytoy, we aren’t being derogatory,” says plantmanager Guido Bauernfeind. “On the contrary,the SIPAPER Reject Power facility is perfect forus.” One reason for this is that since September2008 another type of raw material has alsobeen converted to energy here — garden andforest scrap that has fallen through the facility’ssieves.

The facility's tower, which is clad in silverysheet metal, is itself a small power plant. Itsfurnace chamber looks like a giant pizza ovenwhose vaulted interior is lined with fire bricksand is additionally insulated by half a meter of

being considered. “Organic waste from beerproduction would also be a possibility,” saysSchwarz, who adds that the required technicaladaptations would not be all that difficult toimplement. “Basically, what we always need isa fuel with a certain type of particle size distri-bution — but we create that ourselves whenwe process it. The water content during thisprocess can be up to 40 percent.”

The key to efficient combustion involves de-termining the optimal fuel-air mixture — con-trol is fully automatic. “SIPAPER Reject Poweroffers great potential for exploiting biomass,”Schwarz says. The most interesting markets forthe exploitation of biomass waste at the mo-ment are in the European Union — especiallyin Germany and in the Eastern European EUmember states — as well as in Brazil and In-donesia.

Biomass Boom. “Biomass harbors huge,largely untapped potential,” says Dr. MartinKaltschmitt of the Biomass Research Center(DBFZ) in Leipzig. According to the DBFZ, morethan 30 biomass power plants that use scrapwood or forest wood went on line in Germanyin 2007 alone, and a total of more than 210such facilities are currently operating in thecountry. The development of biogas facilitieshas been even more dramatic. Energy produc-tion in 2007 was 828 petajoules (43% as heat,38% as electricity, and 19% transport), whichcorresponds to around six percent of total pri-mary energy use in Germany. “That figurecould be almost doubled if all existing techno-logical potential were to be harnessed,”Kaltschmitt explains. In any case, Kaltschmittsays, we can expect the biomass boom to con-tinue throughout Europe and around the worldfor the coming years at least.

It’s possible that bio-energy productioncould cover one-third of global energy require-ments by 2050. This would require the ex-ploitation of around one-fifth of arable land,according to the Copernicus Institute inUtrecht, Netherlands. However, Thomas Nuss-baumer, a professor of Bio-energy at LucerneUniversity of Applied Arts and Sciences inSwitzerland, believes such a developmentcould exacerbate hunger in the Third World. Tosupport his argument, he cites the negative re-sults associated with first-generation agrofuelsmade from corn, rapeseed, soy, and sugarcane. But Nussbaumer admits that the poten-tial to expand agricultural production in devel-oping countries is still high. “Ideally,” he says,“The edible portions of plants would be usedfor food and animal feed production, while therest would be put to work in energy produc-tion.” Urs Fitze

concrete. The outside temperature thus re-mains hand-hot, even when the fire withinreaches 950 degrees Celsius.

The RBB Böblingen energy cooperative col-lects about 16,000 tons of sieve residues fromclipping and forest thinning work each year.These are chopped into chips that are thenused as fuel for cogeneration plants and wood-fired heating systems. The pieces that fallthrough the sieves are too small for this, how-ever, as they would turn into slag after com-bustion and clog the furnace grates in largepower plants. They also have a much lowercalorific value, which would necessitate a spe-cialized combustion procedure. “Our capacitywould also preclude burning this material atour cogeneration plant,” Bauernfeind added.

A solution was offered by SIPAPER RejectPower technology, which was originally devel-oped by Siemens’ Industry Sector for the paperindustry (see Pictures of the Future, Spring

2007, p. 94). Up until a few years ago, the pa-per industry disposed of its waste in landfills.Today, it either avoids waste or converts it intoenergy. But the tiny particles of waste pro-duced during paper production couldn’t be ef-fectively burned, as they were simply too inho-mogeneous and damp.

The answer came in the form of a wheelthat flings the particles at high speeds into thefurnace chamber. This setup makes for a muchbetter distribution of the particles and thusmore effective combustion. It also eliminatesthe danger of slag buildup. The first SIPAPERReject Power facility entered service nearly fouryears ago at a paper mill in Austria, where itproduces heat and electricity for the factory’sown use. “This form of waste recycling cuts thefactory’s primary energy use by up to a third,”says Dr. Hermann Schwarz, a technology prod-uct manager at the Siemens Industry SolutionsDivision in Erlangen.

The technology, which is particularly suit-able for burning damp biomass made up of dif-ferent parts, “is ideal for medium-sized biomassfacilities generating five to 25 megawatts,”says Manfred Haselgrübler, Reject Power man-ager in Linz, Austria.

Larger systems are better served by conven-tional power plants that use either reciprocat-ing grates or a constant air flow. But smaller fa-cilities, such as Siemens’ cogeneration plant inBöblingen, which has a thermal output of fivemegawatts, can enjoy impressive efficiency. In-deed, the Böblingen facility has an energy yieldof 85 percent. An 800-kilowatt generator deliv-ers electricity to the grid; the remaining energyis heat, which is channeled into the plant’s ex-isting district heating network.

The Böblingen biomass plant marks the be-ginning of what will be a series of applications.For instance, burning coarse colza meal is also

In Brief

According to the International Energy

Agency IEA, the global consumption of pri-

mary energy will rise by 55% between 2005

and 2030 if current policies are maintained.

Fossil fuels will continue to be the key source

of primary energy. However, because of the

combustion involved, by 2030 the quantity

of CO2 emitted due to increased use of fossil

fuels would be double that of 1990. For this

reason the BRIC states are increasingly resort-

ing to energy sources involving low CO2 emis-

sion and renewable sources such as wind,

water, sun and biomass. China’s eleventh

five-year plan states that by 2010, 38% of the

country’s power is to come from water, wind,

nuclear energy and natural gas.

By 2050, 15 to 20 percent of Europe’s en-

ergy needs could be satisfied by solar and

wind power from North Africa and the Middle

East. That’s the goal of the Desertec Industrial

Initiative, whose founder companies include

Siemens. The technologies needed to accom-

plish this goal are available now, from solar

thermal plants that produce power from sun-

light in Spain and California to high-voltage

direct current (HVDC) transmission lines,

which can transmit electricity over long dis-

tances with low losses. Solar-thermally pro-

duced electricity is expected to be competi-

tive in about 15 years, says Prof. Hans

Müller-Steinhagen of the German Aero space

Center in an interview. (p. 14)

Siemens built the world’s largest offshore

wind farm 30 kilometers off the coast

of Denmark. In terms of technology and lo-

gistics it’s a formidable challenge. The indi-

vidual components weigh dozens of tons and

must function flawlessly under rough North

Sea conditions for 20 years. The 91 turbines

can pump around 210 Megawatts of electri-

cal power into the network – enough to sup-

ply over 136,000 households. The one-piece

rotor blades are extremely robust and up to

90-percent recyclable. Together with Statoil

Hydro, Siemens has additionaly built the

world’s first floating wind turbine. The swim-

ming windmill is located 12 Kilometers off

the southwest coast of Norway at a depth of

about 220 meters. (p. 20)

The boom in renewable energy sources is

benefiting developing countries, especially in

remote areas not connected to power grids. It

is also leading to environmental projects in

large emerging markets such as India and

China. In an interview with Pictures of the Fu-

ture, China’s Minister of Science and Technol-

ogy Wan Gang describes his country’s road to

sustainable development. Economist and

China expert Prof. Andreas Oberheitmann ex-

plains, why China needs and wants to con-

serve energy. (p. 28)

Siemens has developed a new technology

for biomass energy production. The process

makes it possible to convert inhomogenous

and damp sieve residues from wood chip pro-

duction into electricity and heat with a high

degree of efficiency. According to Dr. Martin

Kaltschmitt of the Biomass Research Center in

Leipzig, Germany, one can expect the Biomass

boom to continue throughout Europe and

around the world for the coming years. By

2050, bio-energy production could cover one-

third of global energy requirements. (p. 32)

In 2008 Siemens for the first time docu-

mented its complete Environmental Portfolio,

which lists all products and solutions that help

protect the environment and battle climate

change. The list accounts for more than 25

percent of the company’s sales, and in 2009

amounted to €23 billion: much more than any

competitor. In the same period of time,

Siemens customers reduced their carbon diox-

ide emissions by 210 million metric tons,

which is roughly more than 40 times the level

of CO2 that Siemens itself produces. Inde-

pendent auditing company Pricewaterhouse

Coopers regularly confirmes the validity of the

Siemens Environmental Portfolio and the sav-

ings it has generated, as well as the method

Siemens used to calculate the savings. (p. 8)

LINKS:

Desertec Foundation: www.desertec.org

Research Center for International

Environmental Policy China, RCIEP:

www.rciep.tsinghua.in

International Energy Agency IEA:

www.iea.org

A process developed by Siemens makes

it possible to convert inhomogeneous

and damp sieve residues from wood chip

production into electricity and heat.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 35

Investments in clean technologies — from efficient

and renewable power generation and transmission

to green buildings and CO2 capture and sequestra-

tion — can help overcome the economic crisis.

emissions trading system will help cut theU.S.’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percentby 2050.

In terms of private investment, in the firstthree quarters of 2008 alone, American ven-ture capital firms invested $4.3 billion in cleantechnology companies. And with investmentsin the fields of renewable energy and energyefficiency expected to reach $150 billion overthe next ten years, at least five million greencollar jobs are expected to be created in theseand other areas.

All of this makes a great deal of economicsense because these measures will reduce de-pendence on energy imports and cut associ-ated costs by several billion dollars per year —steps that will pay ever-increasing dividends asthe world economy regains momentum and oilprices resume their ascent. Christian Buck

| Interview Edenhofer

Prof. Ottmar Edenhofer,48, studied economics andphilosophy and is deputydirector and chief econo-mist of the Potsdam Insti-tute for Climate Impact Research. He is also profes-sor for the Economics ofClimate Change at BerlinTechnical University. SinceSeptember 2008, he hasbeen one of the chairmenof the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change(IPCC). For the next sevenyears, he will lead WorkingGroup III of the IPCC, whichdeals with measures tostem climate change. Professor Edenhofer is par-ticularly interested in theinfluence of technologicalchange on the costs andstrategies of climate protec-tion, and on the political in-struments that are used toshape climate-protectionand energy policy.

Interview conducted inSpring, 2009.

Why Climate Protection Isn’t Optional

We’re currently struggling with two crisesat once —— the economic crisis and the climate crisis. Is that just a coincidence, or do you see parallels?Edenhofer: There definitely is a parallel. Bothare crises of sustainability. Sustainability canbe formulated as an imperative: Act in such away that you don’t destroy the foundationsthat enable you to act in the long run! In the financial crisis, the banking sector destroyedthe foundation of its own business.

Were people too greedy?Edenhofer: Maybe, but a more important fac-tor was that the banking sector worldwide wasimproperly regulated, so that it wasn’t possible

to stop the greed. The emphasis on share-holder value made investors focus on short-term results. For the U.S., in particular, therewas the added problem that the Federal Re-serve Bank — through its cheap-money policy— essentially transferred the dot-com bubbleto the mortgage bubble. All of that destroyedthe foundations of the economy. And in theclimate crisis, we’re in the midst of destroyingthe foundations of our existence.

Is human short-sightedness the source ofboth crises?Edenhofer: I think it would be more correct tocall it institutional short-sightedness. The sys-tem doesn’t permit any longer-term horizons— that’s the crucial point. Every manager hasto satisfy the demands of the capital marketand his or her shareholders. I think it’s naive tobelieve the problem can be cured just by ap-pealing to people’s sense of ethics.

Policy-makers want a new regulatoryframework for the global financial mar-ket. What regulations would they have toestablish to ensure better treatment ofthe climate?Edenhofer: More than anything else, we needa global emissions cap and trade system withtwo basic prerequisites. First, an agreementamong nations that emissions of greenhousegases must be cut by 50 percent below 1990levels by 2050. That way, there’s an 80 percentprobability that global warming will be limitedto two degrees Celsius. Emissions trading lim-its CO2 where prevention is most cost-effec-

34 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Pictures of the Future | Economic Crisis and Opportunities

These are difficult times for the climate. Theeconomic crisis is dominating the political

agenda and crowding out discussion of green-house gases and energy efficiency. In Ger-many, newspapers are running headlines like“Climate Protection on Hold” and “Climate Pro-tection at Risk.” Some politicians share thisview and would like to suspend those climate-protection programs that are already agreedon, at least until the economy rebounds.

Is climate protection a luxury for bettertimes? “No,” says Prof. Ottmar Edenhofer, chiefeconomist of the Potsdam Institute for ClimateImpact Research (PIK) in an interview with Pic-tures of the Future. “Anyone who claims it isdoesn’t understand the fundamentals of eco-nomics,” he says. The global recession de-mands government intervention, and this canbe directed in part toward climate protection.

Engines of Tomorrow’s GrowthAs times get tougher, temptation is mounting to cut costs and relax standards in the fight against global warming. Yet investments in greater sustainability benefit not only environmental protection but also the health of economies.

“In the short term, climate protection programsstimulate the economy. In the long term, theypromote the spread of new technologies,” hesays.

That view is shared by Nobuo Tanaka, whoheads the International Energy Agency (IEA) inParis, France. “If governments are spendingmoney on economic stimulus packages, whynot promote renewable energies?” he asked atthe World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzer-land. Such investments support the economyin the short term and are also sustainable,Tanaka pointed out.

At the moment, however, the falling pricesof raw materials and emissions rights are re-ducing the pressure on nations and companiesto find sustainable alternatives for their supplyof energy. “Low prices are encouraging waste,”says environmental expert Prof. Ernst Ulrich

von Weizsäcker in an interview with Pictures ofthe Future. He believes that some countries arenow approaching the matter with reduced ur-gency. “However,” he adds, “the Chinese are ontheir toes, and they’ve made energy efficiencya national objective.”

In the U.S., too, the new Administration isrethinking environmental issues. PresidentBarack Obama wants to become a global leaderin the reduction of greenhouse gases. His “NewEnergy for America” plan intends to put a mil-lion hybrid cars on American roads by 2015and ensure that the United States gets onefourth of its electricity from renewable sourcesby 2025. A good ten percent of the U.S. gov-ernment’s stimulus package — in other words,around $83 billion — will be invested in the ex-pansion and modernization of the country’senergy infrastructure. In addition, a national

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 37

Siemens believes that investing in climateprotection could promote growth. Othersdisagree. Is this something we can affordonly when the economy is strong?Weizsäcker: That’s the impression being givennow by some. This thinking has its roots in theregulation of pollutant emissions, where onlythe rich countries could afford environmentalprotection. But in the case of climate protec-tion, the problems are mostly caused by therich. They use more energy, eat more meat andfly more. The economic crisis offers a great op-portunity to reverse this course and create jobsat the same time. In Europe and Japan, that’salready understood. Now it seems that this ideais being accepted in the U.S. as well.

Prof. Ernst Ulrich vonWeizsäcker, 70, is aphysicist and biologist. Hehas served as a professorat German universities, asdirector of the UN Centerfor Science and Technol-ogy in New York, as president of the WuppertalInstitute for Climate, Environment and Energy,and as a member of theGerman Bundestag for theSPD. Most recently, Profes-sor von Weizsäcker wasdean of the Donald BrenSchool for EnvironmentalScience and Managementat the University of California in Santa Barbara. He is considereda leading force behind theconcept of sustainable development.

Interview conducted inSpring, 2009.

Why Increased Efficiency Will Lead to aMore Advanced Civilization

times more energy efficient with simple meas-ures. But as long as energy is cheap, that does-n’t happen. We could make energy more ex-pensive in small steps through taxes oremissions certificates, in parallel with increas-ing energy efficiency. That’s fair in social termsand makes efficiency more profitable. Investorscould make long-term plans. Habits willchange, possibly even our relationship to theautomobile. There might be more car-sharinginstead of ownership, for example.

Raw materials’ prices are falling becauseof the crisis. Couldn’t that cause countriessuch as China to become less concernedwith energy efficiency?

Do you expect the U.S. to take a leadingrole in climate protection?Weizsäcker: Obama can’t change the U.S.overnight. But the country is more receptive toclimate protection than commonly thought.Some states have been involved for years, andmany companies are far ahead of the politi-cians, too. Now the federal government is fol-lowing suit. Obama’s rescue plan for the autoindustry puts a lot of emphasis on the environ-ment. That’s a big step in the right direction.

Why does Europe have an edge here?Weizsäcker: In Europe, people earn a good liv-ing from environmental protection and energyefficiency. That’s where the future lies, in myview; that’s becoming the rhythm of technolog-ical progress. Energy and water are scarce. Weshould learn to use both three times, fivetimes, ten times more efficiently, and especiallythe end user. Then it’s fine if energy and waterget more expensive. Japan showed how to dothis in the ‘80s, when electricity and gasolinewere very expensive. After its modernizationprograms, the country was twice as efficient asAustralia or the U.S. at the time of the KyotoConference in 1997, providing twice as muchprosperity per kilowatt-hour.

Is higher energy efficiency the key in thefight against climate change?Weizsäcker: Yes. Today, we can conjure up tentimes more light from a kilowatt-hour than justa few years ago. Buildings can be kept warmwith a tenth of the heating energy used backthen. The whole country could become five

Weizsäcker: Yes, low prices are encouragingwaste again. But the Chinese are on their toes,and they’ve made energy efficiency a nationalobjective in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan.

How do you rate the economic stimulusprograms as they relate to climate protec-tion?Weizsäcker: The German government and theU.S. are acting pretty sensibly. The focus is onrescuing the credit institutions. At the sametime, Obama is pushing the auto industry to-ward more efficiency, and he wants to spendbillions on renewable energies. Environmentalconsiderations can help overcome the disorien-tation of the economy.

Are you optimistic about the future?Weizsäcker: We’ll manage, assuming that keycountries, such as the U.S. and China, have thecourage to adopt a climate-friendly course. Ibelieve that we’re moving toward a new, long-term Kondratiev wave — with a paradigm shifttoward more energy efficiency and the associ-ated innovations and investments. I like tocompare our current infrastructure and prod-ucts with the dinosaurs. Our cars, houses andappliances are wasteful and outdated. Thecoming society will be more efficient and moreelegant than today’s. In that society, for exam-ple, people will use computers that don’twaste energy and are as efficient as the hu-man brain. That won’t entail a drop in thequality of life. On the contrary, I see us enter-ing a new epoch of advanced civilization.

Interview by Christian Buck.

| Interview Weizsäcker

36 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Pictures of the Future | Economic Crisis and Opportunities

tive. Second, we also need a concept of fair-ness. We have to distribute emissions rightsamong countries in an evenhanded way. In myview, a fair proposal has been made in this re-gard. By 2050, the rights should be redistrib-uted in such a way that every person on earthhas the same right to emissions — for exam-ple, two tons per person per year.

Will developing countries accept that? After all, up to this point, pollution hasbeen caused mostly by the rich countries— at the rate of 19 tons per person peryear in the U.S. and eight tons in the EU.China is at two to three tons already, andIndia is at 1.5 tons per person.Edenhofer: There will continue to be consid-erable conflict and disagreement about the allocation, because the developing countriesalso want to take historical emissions into ac-count. What is more important, though, is thatwe agree that we have only a limited amountof capacity in the atmosphere for more CO2,and it has to be allocated reasonably fairly. After that, we have to achieve a carbon-freeglobal economy. If we develop the innovationsneeded for that, we can also resolve the alloca-tion conflict much more easily.

Does that mean that we will have to startliving more modestly?Edenhofer: Only if economic growth cannotbe decoupled from emissions. For decouplingto occur, however, pricing mechanisms willhave to set the right incentives — which iswhat emissions trading is designed to do.

No new moderation, in other words?Edenhofer: No one should be prevented fromexercising more moderation. But I think thatthe global economy can continue to grow at arate of two to three percent per year, becausethere is no reason why economies should bedependent on increased energy use to grow. Inthe last 150 years, labor productivity has risenfaster than energy productivity. Now we haveto reverse that relationship.

What sort of technological progress do weneed to achieve a CO2-free economy?Edenhofer: More energy efficiency, the cap-ture and storage of CO2, the promotion of re-newable energies, a moderate expansion ofnuclear energy, and the development of moreadvanced nuclear power plants.

That sounds like a huge economic stimu-lus plan. Do you think we can extricateourselves from the economic crisisthrough climate protection investments?

Edenhofer: We could indeed, yes. What is im-portant is that we now boost the economywith investments that also make sense for thelong term. That’s why we need an emissionstrading system that sends a clear price signalfor CO2 — a signal for every sector that pro-duces greenhouse gases; not just the electric-ity sector and energy-intensive industries, butabove all buildings and cars. There are manyoptions here that don’t cost anything and actu-ally generate revenue through energy savings.

Is emissions trading working in the areaswhere it is already established?Edenhofer: We’re not in bad shape in that re-gard. Emissions will surely fall in the electricalpower sector. But there is a sustainability prob-lem here too. Investors need a signal thatemissions have to continue to fall after 2020.That, in my view, is the responsibility of the cli-mate conference in Copenhagen (Denmark) inDecember 2009.

The climate protection discussion involves concepts similar to those in thefinancial sector, such as certificates, forexample. Are these systems similar instructure?Edenhofer: Yes. At some point, we will alsoneed a central bank for climate protection.Such an institution would regulate the marketfor CO2 certificates and prevent speculativebubbles. That’s similar to what a central bankdoes in the financial sector. In terms of globalemissions trading, the U.S., together with Europe, could take the lead in creating a trans-Atlantic carbon market of the kind proposed

by the EU in January 2009. The prospects forthis are good. This would be a signal to India,China, and others. We need to involve theselarge emerging economies because they canlimit CO2 emissions much more cost-effec-tively than the West can, where most powerplants already meet a high standard of effi-ciency.

How can the BRIC nations be persuadedto take part in this? After all, they stillhave a lot of catching up to do economi-cally.Edenhofer: China and India are well awarethat, in the future, they will not only be thelargest sources of emissions, but will also bethe ones who suffer most from climatechange. Many of their largest cities are locatedon the coasts, where a rise in sea levels couldbe very dangerous. In addition, these countriesneed new technologies to cope with theirheavy dependence on coal. In this connection,we’re right in the midst of a global renaissanceof coal. In light of that, it should be possible toput together a good package — with powerplants that capture CO2, which is then stored,for example.

As a member of the IPCC, you have firsthand experience with global climate protection politics. Is it realistic to thinkthat the community of nations will agreeon an effective plan? Edenhofer: We cannot afford a catastrophe. If it becomes possible to see and feel climatechange, it will be too late. In the next tenyears, we must create an agreement that com-prises at least the six countries that producethe most greenhouse gas emissions. Maybethe chances of developing a sensible responsearen’t very high. But when we are confrontedby historic challenges, we should ask notabout probabilities, but about necessities.

In short, climate protection isn’t optional...Edenhofer: Exactly. Anyone who claims it isdoesn’t understand the fundamentals of eco-nomics. That would be like saying we want tohave a market economy, but prices will be al-lowed to express the scarcity of goods onlywhen it’s convenient. That kind of thinking ledto the collapse of the Soviet economy, wherethere was always a reason to continue withsubsidies. Because of the long-term distortionof prices, the system was doomed to fail. Theability of our atmosphere to store CO2 is also alimited asset. Environmental protection istherefore not optional; it’s about implementingprice systems that express a very real scarcity.

Interview by Christian Buck.

China’s Yuhuan power plant has achieved

record efficiency using Siemens turbines.

44 China’s River of PowerStarting in 2010, hydroelectricplants are to supply energy tomegacities in southeast China —with power generated 1,400 kmaway. An HVDC transmission linefrom Siemens will transport thisenvironmentally-friendly electrici-ty in the most powerful system ofits kind anywhere.

48 Trapping the WindIn the future, fluctuations in windpower will have to be balanced bystorage systems in order to pre-vent power grids from being over-loaded. One option could be gi-gantic underground hydrogenstorage centers.

54 Transparent NetworkSmart meters enable consumersto monitor and manage theirpower use. Thanks to these digitalsystems, utilities can, for the firsttime, gain detailed, real-time in-sight into network dynamics, thusopening the door to significantsavings.

60 From Wind to WheelsElectric cars could play a stabi-lizing role in tomorrow’s powergrids, as mobile electricity stor-age units. Siemens is investigat-ing how vehicles, the grid, andrenewable energy sources inter-act.

Highlights

2020Pensioner Yun Jang listens to his nephew

explain how China is stilling its hunger for

energy. An IGCC power plant uses coal to

produce climate-friendly energy. The CO2

it generates is stored underground. Wind

turbines feed electricity into an intelligent

network, and automated building manage-

ment systems are linked with weather fore-

casts. People drive to work in plug-in hybrid

cars that are fueled by solar energy.

38 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 39

Wan, my old friend, do you rememberwhat our life was like just a few years

ago? Do you recall the days when our little vil-lage was still one of the few places in Chinathat wasn’t connected to the electrical net-work? I’m sure you’ll agree with me that thosewere literally dark days, even though there wassometimes a greater sense of community. Afterthe sun went down it was usually impossible toplay Mahjong, as the petroleum lamp in yourhut was too dim. I’ve come to believe that youactually didn’t mind a bit — you’re simply a badloser. That’s probably also the reason why youbought yourself a television as soon as we hadelectricity. Ever since then, our Mahjong games

China, 2020. Pensioner Jun Yang has been invited by hisnephew to visit the new Ministry of Energy. The small

village where Jun Yang lives has been connected to theelectrical grid for only a few years, so he’d like to know

where the energy that has changed his life comes from. Hereports on his experiences in a letter to his friend Wan.

New World

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | S c e n a r i o 2 0 2 0

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 4140 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

have been a thing of the past. You sit allevening in front of that thing, looking at aworld that you don’t understand.

For my part, I at least want to understandthe thing that has changed our little world somuch. I’m sure you remember my nephew Li,who is doing well professionally at the Ministryof Energy. He’s a very modern person, and he’sthe one who gave my wife all of those electricalhousehold appliances. Ever since then she’shad a lot more free time, and that has alsomade my life much more complicated. But I’mdigressing — pardon me. At any rate, Li invitedme to visit him in the Ministry’s brand-new ad-ministration building. Of course I accepted. Hethought this would broaden my horizons. Bynow, dear Wan, my horizons are so broad that Ican no longer see their limits.

It all began this morning at the train station.Li had said he would send a car to pick me up.The car came very soon, but I couldn’t hear thesound of an engine as it came around the cor-ner. The driver seemed to be amused when Iasked him if there was something wrong withthe engine. He explained that the car was pow-ered entirely by electricity stored in lithium-ionbatteries. However, he added that it had asmall combustion engine that would be used incase of an emergency – such as a charging sta-tion failure, for instance. The vehicle’s batteriescould be recharged by simply plugging the carinto a wall socket. When we reached the Min-istry, the driver parked the car in a parking lotunder a roof equipped with a solar collectorand the vehicle was automatically connectedto a docking station and to the grid. The batter-ies, he explained, are also used as buffers. Theystore excess energy from huge wind farms andlater return it to the grid when needed.

The administration building loomed intothe sky, and I felt a little bit lost in the giganticentrance hall. A friendly receptionist accompa-nied me to a glass elevator. She told me mynephew was waiting for me on the 40th floorand pressed a button. At just that moment Iwas catapulted upward, and I felt as though mystomach had stayed on the ground floor withthe nice lady in the foyer. The earth becamesmaller so fast that I had to close my eyes.When I opened them again I saw Li’s beamingface in front of me. “Welcome to our energymanagement headquarters, Uncle Jun,” he saidand led me — I was still a bit shaky — into a bigroom with a gigantic window.

“From here we always have a good overviewof the country’s entire energy supply,” he said.“As you know, about ten years ago Chinapassed the U.S. as the world’s biggest genera-tor of CO2 emissions, and that’s why we had toboost our efforts to preserve the environment.

Today we already produce a large percentageof our energy in ways that protect the climate,”said Li proudly as he pointed to the many windturbines on the horizon. “By the way, all of thewind turbines are linked via Internet with con-tinuously updated local weather forecasts, sothat we can effectively predict how much elec-tricity they will produce.”

Next, he pointed to a message that ap-peared on the window as though written by aspirit’s hand. “A bad storm has just been fore-cast for our region. Our warning system recom-mends that we adapt the wind farm’s perform-ance so that power networks won’t beoverloaded.” A short time later, it suddenly be-came comfortably warm and bright — just as itdoes after I’ve had a good cup of plum wine atyour house, Wan. But Li assured me that in thiscase it was due to the building managementsystem. This system is also linked with theweather forecast, and it automatically adjuststhe room temperature and lighting according-ly. By the way, there are no lamps in the entirebuilding. Instead, there are highly efficientlight-emitting diodes. All that saves a lot of en-ergy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions,says Li. I was surprised to hear that our oldcoal-burning stoves in the village emit moreCO2 than the gigantic coal-fired power plantnot far from this building.

My nephew explained that this brand-newpower plant was what they call an IGCC facility,which doesn’t burn the coal directly, but in-stead transforms it into a gas containing hydro-gen that then fuels a turbine. The CO2 is sepa-rated out in the process. You won’t believewhat happens next. The gas is collected, re-moved through pipelines, and finally pumpeddeep into the earth. There, in an undergrounddepot that used to be a natural gas reservoir, itcan remain for thousands of years without es-caping to the surface, according to Li.

Li obviously noticed my skeptical look, be-cause he laid his hand on my arm reassuringlyand said, “That’s really true, but now we’re alsobuilding power plants that don’t need any coalat all — for example, facilities that generateelectricity only from the ocean waves and float-ing wind turbines that are used on the opensea.” Basically, it’s crazy, isn’t it? What a lot ofeffort just to operate your TV and my wife’swashing machine!

Incidentally, my nephew gave me a very un-usual present when we parted: Mahjong as acomputer game. This way, I can even play italone, he said. Unfortunately, I don’t have acomputer, but he said that the game will alsowork with a TV. Wan, my old friend, are you do-ing anything next Sunday evening?

Florian Martini

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Scenario 2020 | Trends

through Europe’s grids, despite the fact thatmany of the continent’s power lines are nowover 40 years old. Gridlock is inevitable, how-ever, as traffic continues to increase. Accord-ing to the International Energy Agency, theEuropean Union generated roughly 3,600 tera -watt hours (TWh) of electricity in 2006. This isexpected to reach 4,300 TWh by 2030.

In addition, the energy mix is getting moreenvironmentally friendly. In 20 years, some 30percent of the world’s electricity is expected tocome from renewable sources. Today the fig-ure is only 18 percent. But as the percentageof electricity generated by renewables grows,so does the instability of the network. Becauseeco-friendly electricity is primarily generated bywind farms, much more energy than can beused is pumped into high voltage network in

stormy weather, while supply cannot be guar-anteed on calm days.

In addition to being able to accommodatea fluctuating supply of wind-generated elec-tricity, tomorrow’s grids will have to incorpo-rate a growing number of small, regionalpower producers. “The generation of electric-ity will become increasingly decentralized, in-corporating small solar installations onrooftops, biomass plants, mini cogenerationplants and much more,” says Dr. Michael Wein-hold, CTO of the Siemens Energy Sector. “As aresult, the previous flow of power from thetransmission to the distribution grid will be re-versed in part or for periods of time in manyregions.” According to Weinhold, our grid in-frastructure is not yet prepared for that.

Grid operators and governments agree on

how the challenge should be met. In additionto a massive expansion of electricity highways,the grids must undergo a fundamentalchange. “Right now they are not very intelli-gent,” says Weinhold. “The level of automationfor the system as a whole is very low.” Thelow-voltage distribution grid, in particular, isoften a total mystery to utilities. Because it in-cludes hardly any components capable ofcommunication in its present configuration, alot of important information remains con-cealed, such as the actual amount of energybeing used by consumers and the conditionand efficiency of the line system.

According to an Accenture study, up to tenpercent of energy disappears from the grid ei-ther due to inefficiency or electricity theftwithout being noticed by power providers. In

Motorists who venture into the maze of amajor city are part of a larger whole.

Tens of thousands of vehicles stream alonghighways from all directions and find their waythrough a dense network of roads. But keep-ing that network flowing is no easy task. Al-ready hopelessly clogged under the best of cir-cumstances, such networks can easily facegridlock. All it takes is a few fender benders —to say nothing of circumstances such as a sub-way strike or a snow storm. As a result, sooneror later, every city government must decidewhether to expand its transportation infra-structure or face collapse.

The situation with our power grid is similar.Electricity flows on copper “highways” frompower plants to centers of demand. Along theway, it passes through various “road networks”that are separated by substations. These facili-ties function as traffic lights or railroadswitches while also adjusting the electricity be-fore forwarding it to the next grid. In the high-

est voltage alternating current lines, electricityflows at 220 to 380 kilovolts (kV) across hun-dreds of kilometers from power plants to sub-stations, where the voltage is reduced to 110kV before the electricity is then fed into thewhat is called the distribution or high-voltagegrid. This grid is used for the general distribu-tion of power to population centers or large in-dustrial sites, where, depending on the region,the voltage is stepped down again to betweensix and 30 kV for the medium-voltage grid.This is followed by local distribution. Here,substations reduce the voltage to 230 and 400volts and send the power into the low-voltagegrid, which feeds consumers’ outlets.

Needed: Electricity Highways. Until now,electrons have flown relatively smoothly

More and more electricity will be generated

in the future. However, old grids can scarcely

handle the electricity generated today.

Electric “gridlock” is a real threat.

Switching on the VisionOur power grids are facing new challenges. They will not only have to integrate largequantities of fluctuating wind and solar power, but also incorporate an increasing number of small, decentralized power producers. Today’s infrastructure is not up to this task. The solution is to develop an intelligent grid that keeps electricity productionand distribution in balance.

Super Grids. The steadily increasing dis-tances between power generation sites andconsumers must also be bridged. One elementof a solution to this problem could be high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission,which is capable of transporting large amountsof electricity across thousands of kilometerswith low losses. Siemens is currently buildingthe world’s highest capacity HVDC transmissionsystem in China. The system is scheduled tobegin transmitting electricity generated at hy-droelectric plants with a record voltage of 800

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 43

Most of tomorrow’s electricity will be generated

from renewables such as wind. With HVDC tech-

nology, the power can be transmitted over long

distances (here an 800 kV transformer).

kV across a distance of 1,400 kilometers by2010. Weinhold believes that these electricityhighways will not only cross borders in the fu-ture, but will link entire continents. “We willsee the establishment of super grids in regionsthat can be interconnected across climate andtime zones,” he says, adding that this would al-low seasonal changes, times of day and geo-graphical features to be used to their optimalbenefit. Super grids could be used to transportenormous quantities of solar energy fromNorthern Africa to Europe, as described in the

Desertec project. “Electricity will draw the worldtogether,” predicts Weinhold.

In addition to new electricity highways, to-morrow’s grid will need more buffers to stop itfrom bursting at the seams. Intermediate stor-age is needed for the excess power fed intothe grid by fluctuating energy sources. Tradi-tionally, this has relied on pumped storagepower plants, but there is hardly any capacityfor further expansion in Central Europe. As aresult, wind farms will either have to be shutdown to prevent them from overloading thegrid during periods of overproduction or pro-ducers will have to pay someone to take theelectricity.

Cars as Buffers. One future solution could beelectric cars, which temporarily store excessenergy and later return it to the grid whenneeded — at a higher price. For example,200,000 electric cars connected to the gridcould make eight gigawatts of power availablequickly. That would be more than is currentlyrequired in Germany. As part of the EDISONproject, in which Siemens is also participating,testing will begin on the electric cars conceptand other solutions in Denmark in 2011.

It is abundantly clear to Weinhold that weare moving full speed ahead into a new era.“Just yesterday the big issue was oil, but cli-mate change is moving things in a different di-rection,” he says. Weinhold believes that weare currently on the threshold of a new electricage. Electricity is increasingly becoming an all-encompassing energy carrier. This is good forthe climate, because electricity can be gener-ated ecologically and transmitted very effi-ciently. Florian Martini

ERPBilling

Call centerCRM etc.

Assetmanagement

Energymanagementsystems (EMS)

System integrity

protection

Solar power

Distributionmanagement

systems (DMS)

Meter datamanagement

(MDM)

Industrialconsumers

Conditionmonitoring

Substation automation

and protection

HVDC andFACTS

technology

Wind power

Distributed energy

resources

Electric cars(batteries)

Distributionautomation

and protection

Smart metersand demand

response

Intelligentbuildings

Electric cars(batteries)

Distribution gridTransmission grid

Smart generation

Smartconsumption

Smart grid

The Smart Grid will Optimize Interconnections between Producers and Consumers

42 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Trends

inconsistently, could be connected to form avirtual network. “This would allow them tobundle their power and sell it in a marketplacethat is inaccessible to small suppliers,” saysGünther. The grid would benefit too. “Consoli-dated into a virtual power plant and acting asa flexible unit, small plants could make balanc-ing power available and thus help to stabilizethe grid,” says Günther. Balancing power isprovided in addition to the base load to coverpeaks in demand. As this type of power re-quires power plants that can begin producingenergy quickly, the price for a kWh of balanc-ing power is much higher than for a kWh ofbase load power. Base load power is generallyprovided by the workhorses of power genera-tion — coal-fired or nuclear power plants thatrun around the clock.

Stability will be crucial to tomorrow’s grid.But intelligent systems alone will not beenough to manage the large amounts of en-ergy provided by the growing numbers of windfarms or solar-thermal power plants. “There isalso work to be done on the hardware side,”says Weinhold. “We need to greatly expand thenumber of power lines, as physics limits thetransmission of electrical energy to wires orcables.”

According to the German Energy Agency(DENA) study, some 400 kilometers of high-voltage grid needs to be reinforced and an ad-ditional 850 kilometers of lines need to beerected by 2015 simply to transmit the windenergy that will be generated in Germany.

locally-produced energy marketplaces) proj-ect, which is subsidized by the German federalgovernment, Risitschka is responsible for de-veloping the information and communicationinterface between smart meters, the systemfor meter data management, and the elec-tronic marketplace. “Among the things we areinvestigating is how these digital links need tobe configured, i.e. what data should be trans-mitted and how can we obtain useful informa-tion from it,” she explains. The interfaces willconnect both private and commercial electric-

large cities in some developing nations, asmuch as 50 percent of electricity disappearsthis way, and power providers are often un-aware of outages — at least until the first com-plaint is received.

With a view to heading off impending prob-lems, in 2005 the European Union came upwith a concept, which it called the “smart grid”— a vision of an intelligent, flexibly control-lable electrical generation and distribution in-frastructure. “The energy system plus informa-tion and communications technology all enterinto a symbiosis in the smart grid,” says Wein-hold. “Not only does this make the grid trans-parent and thus observable, it also makes iteasier to monitor and control.”

Governments and companies are commit-ting large amounts of money to ensure thatthis vision becomes reality. The U.S. Depart-ment of Energy, for instance, has providedroughly $4 billion in subsidies for smart gridprojects in the U.S. German energy utilities areplanning to invest roughly €25 billion in smartgrid technology by 2020. Key components forthe power grid of the future are already avail-able and have even been installed on a limitedbasis in some countries. One example is smartmeters — intelligent, electronic electric me-ters.

“Smart metering is a key technology for thesmart grid,” says Eckardt Günther, who headsthe Smart Grid Competence Center at SiemensEnergy in Nuremberg, Germany. “With smartmetering, energy providers and consumerscan for the first time record in detail whereand how much electricity is being used andfed into the grid.” The advantage is obvious: Ifelectricity consumption is precisely recorded,

“In the future, electricity highways will not just crossborders but will link entire continents.”

flexible rates can be used to match consump-tion to supply. This lowers electric bills andCO2 emissions. In contrast, at present if moreelectricity is being consumed than was fore-cast, the production of electricity must be in-creased. Shedding some light on the distribu-tion grid isn’t the only advantage associatedwith smart meters. “Smart meters heightenenergy use awareness and help to better con-trol it,” adds Günther. “In addition, they are aprerequisite for actively participating in elec-tricity markets.”

Sebnem Rusitschka of Siemens CorporateTechnology is also convinced that tomorrow’sgrid will have to be smart. As part of theE-DeMa (development and demonstration of

ity customers within model regions to an elec-tronic marketplace and link them to energytraders, distribution grid operators, and otherparticipants. The project is scheduled for com-pletion in 2012. Rusitschka believes that proj-ects like E-DeMa will boost the smart grid’sprospects. “The technology is available and itworks,” she says. “The first larger-scale smartgrid solutions could become reality by 2015.”

Virtual Networks. Another component ofthe smart grid is the “virtual power plant”.Here, the idea is that small energy producerssuch as cogeneration plants, wind, solar, hy-dro or biomass plants, which have previouslyfed their power into the grid individually and

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 45

China’s River of PowerHow do you supply five million households with hydroelectric power from a distance of 1,400 kilometers? The answer is: with high-voltage direct-current transmission. Siemens is building the world’s most powerful such system in China.

With the help of high-power transistors, rectifier

modules, and smoothing reactors, a new HVDCT line

is able to transmit 5,000 megawatts over the 1,400

kilometers from Lufeng to Guangzhou.

Hydroelectric generation capacity on the Jinsha

River is being expanded. The resulting electricity will

be transmitted to major cities on China’s southeast-

ern coast by the world’s most powerful HVDCT line.

The high-voltage overhead lines comingfrom the hills to the left of the fence are al-ready carrying power, but the shiny new onethat crosses the fence to the right and disap-pears over the mountain is still dead. It will gointo operation in 2010 as a bipolar line trans-mitting power to Guangzhou in Guangdongprovince, over 1,400 kilometers away. Fromthere it will supply five million households inthe megacities Guangzhou, Shenzhen, andHong Kong on China’s southeastern seaboard.This will reduce the country’s annual emis-sions of CO2 by some 33 million metric tons ayear, as the electricity comes from a dozen hy-droelectric plants on the Jinsha (“GoldenSand”) River, one of the headwaters of theYangtze, which provide carbon-free power.

The overhead lines arriving from the left ofthe site are carrying conventional alternatingcurrent (AC) that has been generated by hy-droelectric plants, some of which are locatedas far as several hundred kilometers away. The1,400-kilometer transmission line to Guang z hou,however, will carry direct current. High-volt-age direct-current transmission (HVDCT) is nota new invention; as long ago as 1882, a trans-mission line of this type carried electricity fromMiesbach in Bavaria to an electricity exhibitionin Munich, 57 kilometers away. That, however,is where the similarities end. Back then thevol tage was a mere 1,400 volts; in China, theline will transmit at a record 800,000 volts.“The HVDCT line in China is the ultimate exam-ple of this technology. It will carry 5,000

It takes a jarring ninety-minute ride to coverthe distance from the city of Kunming in

southwestern China to Lufeng. Fie lds and herdsof water buffalo flash by the car window. Then,at long last, deliverance comes. Our driver turnsin at a blue sign bearing lots of Chinese char-acters and “800 kV” in Western script and letsus out just beyond a rolling gate. In front of usis a site measuring around 700 by 300 metersthat looks like something from another world.Gigantic pylons dripping with cables soar intothe sky, while workers below toil with spadesand wooden wheelbarrows to finish the last ofthe landscaping. The air is alive with a so no -rous hum. “That’s from the testing,” explainsJürgen Sawatzki, who is in charge of the instal-lation of equipment from Siemens at the site.

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | HVDC Transmission

44 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Plugging into HVDC’s Advantages

High-voltage direct-current transmission (HVDCT) is ideal for countries where power has to be trans-

ported over long distances. HVDCT becomes financially viable from around 1,000 megawatts and

600 kilometers upward. The 1,400-kilometer HVDCT line between the Chinese provinces of Yunnan

and Guangdong will transmit at 800,000 volts, a new world record. Compared to a 765 kV alternat-

ing-current (AC) line of the same length, which would require immense compensation for transmis-

sion losses, HVDCT will save around 36 percent in costs over a 30-year service life.

In the case of undersea cables, the advantages of HVDCT come into play over distances as small as 60

kilometers. Over longer distances, AC lines act like huge capacitors that are charged and discharged

50 times a second, eventually losing virtually all their power. This effect can be compensated for by

the use of coils, but such measures are not economical for underwater cables. As of May 2011, for

example, a 250 kV HVDCT line from Siemens will connect the Balearic Islands with the Spanish main-

land, 250 kilometers away, and carry 400 megawatts of power.

The forthcoming boom in offshore wind farms will provide a further boost for the HVDCT market.

HVDC PLUS is an innovative system from Siemens that features a new generation of power converter.

With its compact dimensions, it is designed to provide flexible and reliable transmission from off-

shore wind plants.

HVDCT back-to-back links are a special instance of this technology. The principle is the same as the

one governing a normal HVDC transmission system, except that the transmission and receiving

stations are on the same site. Their purpose is to link different AC power networks with dissimilar

voltages and frequencies by converting alternating current into direct current and then back again.

HVDCT is also increasingly being incorporated into synchronous three-phase AC networks, both for

long-distance transmission and to provide back-to-back links. This is because, as Prof. Dietmar Retz-

mann explains, HVDCT has the major advantage over AC transmission that it acts like a firewall, auto-

matically halting cascading failures within a network and thus greatly reducing the risk of a major

blackout.

So-called gas-insulated lines (GILs), meanwhile, are ideal for transmitting high power in urban envi-

ronments, where space — the cheapest form of insulation — is usually at a premium. The lines are

laid underground in a 50-centimeter pipe filled with a low-pressure gaseous mixture of nitrogen and

sulfur hexafluoride. This gas insulates the conductor so well that a power of up to 3,500 megawatts

can be transmitted at 550 kilovolts.

GILs require little maintenance and they do not deface the landscape. As a rule, they are used in ma-

jor cities, where it is impossible to build high-voltage overhead lines. In terms of construction costs

alone, GILs are between five and ten times more expensive than overhead lines. However, this extra

cost become smaller once the costs of land and maintenance for overhead lines are factored into the

equation. What’s more, GILs become even more attractive economically at higher transmission loads.

Another advantage of GILs is that the metal pipes that encase them block electromagnetic radiation.

This was an important consideration for the operators of the Palexpo congress center in Geneva,

where a Siemens-built GIL under the exhibition halls ensures that visitors and sensitive electronic

systems are shielded from radiation fields.

commissioning in June 2010. In the first proj-ect with China Southern Power Grid, Siemenshandled 80 percent of the total contract vol-ume, in the second 60 percent, and in thethird 40 percent. In the fourth project thisshare has fallen a bit further, coming in ataround €370 million out of the €1 billion thatthe system is costing. China Southern PowerGrid has stipulated that most of the compo-nents to be supplied by Siemens must be man-ufactured in China by subcontractors. Sowhereas Siemens is still responsible for the en-gineering of the thyristors, for example, thesecomponents and all the ancillary equipmentare being manufactured under Siemens super-vision by two Chinese firms.

Profiting from Innovation. It will not bepossible, however, to build future systems ofthis kind without Siemens’ know-how, sinceinnovation is continuously advancing the stateof the art in this field. “There’s a lot of newknow-how in the 800 kV technology, which isbeing used here for the first time,” explains Su-sanne Vowinkel, who works at Siemens’ En-ergy Sector as a commercial project managerin the field of contracts, issuing invitations totender to suppliers, and customer relations.

Innovations from Siemens include silicone-covered insulators that repel water and pro-vide better insulation when dirty. Meanwhile,engineers are already looking beyond the 800kV mark, as higher transmission voltages pro -mise even lower line losses. The move from500 kV to 800 kV has already reduced costs over30 years by one quarter. The name of the game,as Vowinkel points out, is to stay one step ahead.

Siemens has just landed a major contract inIndia and tendered bids for further HVDCTprojects in China, India, the U.S., and NewZealand. What’s more, HVDCT has already be-come the cornerstone of major projects for thefuture, such as Desertec, which will transmitpower from North Africa and the Middle Eastto Europe. Bernd Müller

46 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | HVDC Transmission

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 47

tage here is that one conductor is operated asan 800 kV positive pole and the other as an800 kV negative pole, thus giving a total of 1.6million volts between them. In other words,the power is divided between two conductorsin order to minimize transmission losses. Atthe same time, this is a precaution in the eventthat one pole should go down.

A number of tests are scheduled for thecoming months. Eight Siemens engineers, ac-commodated in an office above the valve hall,sit in the control room, gradually ramping upthe voltage onscreen. This is designed to pushthe components to their very limits and revealany weaknesses before the system enters serv-ice. A blackout in one of China’s large coastalcities would be a nightmare.

The left half of a large control screen dis-plays the operating load of the transmissionstation in Lufeng as “0 megawatts.” The rightside of the screen shows the status of the re-ceiving station in Guangzhou, where the di-rect current will be converted back into alter-nating current and fed into the public grid.Here a default reading of “9.999 megawatts” isdisplayed. Were the station in operation, thescreen would show a power of 5,000megawatts as well as a raft of other data fromGuangzhou, all of which will be transferred inreal time via a fiber optic cable that is laidalong the HVDC transmission route.

Know-how from East and West. Whereas theAC part of the system was built entirely by Chi-nese firms, the DC part contains a lot of Sie -mens know-how. Yet that doesn’t mean thatall the components were made in Germany.Half of the 48 transformers are of German pro-duction, while the others were manufacturedin China under the supervision of Siemens.

Sawatzki has been in China for ten yearsnow. The HVDCT system in Lufeng is his fourthfor network operator China Southern PowerGrid. All in all, the project will take three years,from the award of contract in June 2007 to full

would still be significantly higher than withHVDCT.

Sawatzki leads us into a hall the size of anaircraft hangar, where workers are installing apower stabilization system onto long polessuspended from the 20-meter-high ceiling — ameasure designed to minimize the chances ofa short circuit and associated electrical outageeven in the event of an earthquake. The de-vices look like a stack of huge plant trays andcould well have been inspired by the leg-endary Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Each traycontains a total of 30 shiny golden cans thatare carefully connected in series and wired tocontrol circuits with fiber optic cables.

Inside the tins are thyristors — convertervalves made of silicon, molybdenum, and cop-per — which are activated optically by means

megawatts; that’s the output of five largepower plants,” explains Prof. Dietmar Retz-mann, one of Siemens’ top experts on HVDCT.

Low Losses. Regardless of whether pow er istrans mitted as an alternating or a direct cur-rent, the goal is to ramp up the voltage asmuch as possible. For both types of transmis-sion, physics dictates that for a fixed amountof power, the current is inversely proportionalto the voltage. In other words, the higher thevoltage, the lower the current, thus reducingthe energy losses that result from the conduc-tor heating up. When transmitting over longdistances, however, HVDCT is superior.

“With our power highway in China, asmuch as 95 percent of the power reaches theconsumer,” says Wolfgang Dehen, CEO of

With HVDC, 95 percent of the power is transmitted; withAC, 87 percent — the equivalent of 400 megawatts less.

Siemens Energy. With AC transmission lines,this falls to 87 percent, which in this casewould amount to a loss of 400 megawatts —the output of a mid-sized power plant or 160wind generators. As a result of these reducedlosses, the HVDCT link will cut emissions by afurther three million metric tons of CO2 a year.

In theory, it would be possible to build ACtransmission lines over similar distances. Avoltage of 800 kV will transmit an alternatingcurrent over a distance of 1,500 kilometers.The problem is, however, that over long dis-tances the voltage waves at the beginning andthe end of the transmission line are shifted rel-ative to one another — the technical phrasehere is “phase angle” — and this necessitatesthe installation of large banks of capacitorsevery few hundred kilometers for the purposesof series compensation. This drives up theprice of such installations. And in spite of suchcompensation, the losses over long distances

of a laser beam 50 times a second, exactly inphase with the current as it switches polarity.This occurs so precisely — to within a millionthof a second — that the negative waves of thealternating current are “flipped” so as to createa direct current. Because this current still has ahigh ripple content, it next goes to the so-called “DC yard” right behind the valve hall.There, capacitors temporarily store charge,which they “inject” into the ripples, and coilsfilter out interference signals emanating fromthe rectifiers in the hall. All this is standard cir-cuitry, as found in any mains-operated electri-cal appliance, but the dimensions are gigantichere in the DC yard.

Bipolar Transmission. In another hall rightnext to the first one, the screed floor is beingpoured. Sawatzki draws a circuit diagram on apiece of cardboard and explains: “The rectifiersand the DC yard are in duplicate.” The advan-

Giant 800 kV transformers were tested in

Nuremberg (left) before being shipped to China

for installation (center). The control room of the

transmission station in Lufeng (right).

A gate at the Guangzhou receiving station alerts

visitors to its world-record transmission voltage.

Hydropower and HVDCT are cutting China’s CO2

emissions by 33 million metric tons a year.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 49

Trapping the WindPower produced from renewable sources such as wind and sunlight is irregular. Experts are therefore looking at ways of storing surplus energy so that it can be converted back into electricity when required. One option is underground hydrogen storage, which is inexpensive, highly efficient, and can feed power into the grid quickly.

Pumped-storage power plants are used to

stockpile surplus power (here an 80 MW plant in

Wendefurth, Germany). Underground storage

systems (below) could also be a solution.

The wind blows when and where it will, andit rarely heeds our wishes. These days, that

can have a serious impact on our power sup-ply, to which wind energy is now making anincreasingly important contribution. In 2007,wind power accounted for 6.4 percent or 39.7terawatt-hours (TWh) of gross power con-sumption in Germany, and this proportion, ac-cording to a projection by the German Renew-able Energy Federation (BEE), could rise to asmuch as 25 percent (149 TWh) by the year2020. By then, Germany should have windfarms with a total output of 55 gigawatts(GW), compared to 22 GW at the end of 2007.

Germany already accounts for approxi-mately 20 percent of the world’s total windpower generating capacity. Until recently, itwas the pacesetter, but has now been pushedinto second place in this particular world rank-ing by the U.S. Although this is all excellentnews as far as the climate is concerned, it pres-

ents the power companies with a problem.Wind power isn’t always generated exactlywhen consumers need it. As a rule, wind gen-erators produce more power at night, andthat’s exactly when demand bottoms out. Withconventional power plants, output can be ad-justed in line with consumption, merely byburning more or less fuel. With fluctuatingsources of energy, however, this is only possi-ble to a limited degree.

The ideal solution is to cache the surpluselectricity and feed it back into the grid as re-quired. The power network itself is unable toassume this function, since it is a finely bal-anced system in which supply and demandhave to be carefully matched. If not, the fre-quency at which alternating current is trans-mitted deviates from the stipulated 50 hertz,falling in the case of excess demand, or risingin the case of oversupply.

Both scenarios must be avoided, as thereSour

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48 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Energy Storage

would otherwise be a danger of damage toconnected devices such as motors, electricalappliances, computers and generators. Forthis reason, power plants are immediatelytaken offline whenever an overload pushesthe grid frequency below 47.5 hertz.

Oversupply can likewise pose problems.Germany’s Renewable Energy Act stipulatesthat German network operators must givepreference to power from renewable sources.But an abundance of wind power means thatconventional power plants have to be rampeddown. This applies particularly to gas- andcoal-fired plants, which are responsible forproviding the intermediate load — in otherwords, for buffering periodic fluctuations indemand. For the power plants assigned to pro-

Germany’s largest pumped-storage powerplant is in Goldisthal, about 350 km southwestof Berlin. The facility has an output of 1,060megawatts (MW) and could supply the entirestate of Thuringia with power for eight hours.In all, 33 pumped-storage facilities operate inGermany, providing a combined output of6,700 MW and a capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours(GWh). Each year, they supply around 7,500GWh of so-called balancing power, which cov-ers heightened demand at peak times — inthe evenings, for example, when people swi tchon electric appliances and lights. The energyheld in reserve by pumped-storage power plantscan be called up within a matter of minutes.

In Germany, however, simply increasing thenumber of pumped-storage power plants isn’t

Batteries and Compressed Air. Other majorindustrialized countries such as the U.S. andChina also make significant use of pumped-storage power plants. In addition, major ef-forts are being made to find alternative meth-ods worldwide. The best-known of all elec tricitystorage devices is the rechargeable battery,which can be found in every mobile phone. Al-though the amounts of energy involved hereare tiny by comparison, this has not stoppedsome countries from using batteries as a cachefacility for the power network. “In Japan, forexample, this method is used practicallythroughout the country,” says Dr. ManfredWaidhas from Siemens Corporate Technology(CT). “Batteries the size of a shipping containercan store about 5 MWh of electrical energyand are installed in the grid close to the con-sumer.” They are used as an emergency powersupply, as a reserve at times of peak load, andas a buffer to balance out fluctuations from re-

Electric vehicles could serve as mobile and readily-available storage devices for electricity.

vide the base load — primarily nuclear powerand lignite-fired plants — ramping up anddown is relatively complicated and costly.

On windy days, this can have bizarre conse-quences. For example, it may be necessary tosell surplus power at a giveaway price on theEuropean Energy Exchange in Leipzig. In fact,the price of electricity may even fall belowzero. Such negative prices actually became areality on May 3, 2009, when a megawatt-hour (MWh) was briefly traded at minus €152.In other words, the operator of a conventionalpower plant chose to pay someone to take thepower rather than to temporarily reduce output.

Storing Power with Water. By far the bestsolution is to cache the surplus electricity andthen feed it back into the grid whenever thewind drops or skies are cloudy. Here, a provenmethod is to use pumped-storage powerplants. Whenever demand for electricity falls,the surplus power is used to pump water up toa reservoir. As soon as demand increases, thewater is allowed to flow back down to a lowerreservoir — generating electricity in theprocess by means of water turbines. It’s abeautifully simple and efficient idea. Indeed,pumped-storage power plants have an effi-ciency of around 80 percent, reflecting theproportion of energy generated in relation tothe energy used in pumping the water to thetop reservoir. At present, no other type of stor-age facility is capable of supplying power inthe GW range over a period of several hours. Infact, more than 99 percent of the energy-stor-age systems in use worldwide are pumped-storage power plants.

such a simple option. There is a lack of suitablelocations, and such projects often trigger pro -tests. As a result, Germany’s power plant oper-ators coordinate their activities with their coun -terparts in neighboring countries. Ener gieBa den-Württemberg (EnBW), for example,uses pumped-storage facilities not only in Ger-many, but also in the Vorarlberg region of Aus-tria. Norway, too, which has a long history ofhydropower, is now looking to market its po-tential for electricity storage. However, the cap-ital expenditure for doing so would be substan-tial. Such a project would involve more thanjust laying a long cable to Norway. The grid ca-pacity at the point of entry in both countrieswould also have to be increased in order toavoid bottlenecks in transmission capability.“This would be necessary because elec tricity al-ways looks for the path of least resistance andwill take another route when it en coun ters anobstruction,” explains Dirk Ommeln from EnBW.

newable sources of energy. Sodium-sulfur bat-teries, which have an efficiency of as much as70 to 80 percent, are used for this purpose.

Similarly, in a method known as V2G (vehi-cle to grid), electric vehicles could also serveas local cache facilities for electricity in the fu-ture, provided they are connected to the gridvia a power cable. Although their batterycapacity is small in comparison with theamounts of energy required in the grid, thesheer number of such vehicles and the rela-tively high powers involved — e.g. 40 kilowatts(kW) per vehicle — could make up for this. “Asfew as 200,000 vehicles connected to the gridwould produce 8 GW. And that’s enough bal-ancing energy to improve grid stability,” saysProf. Gernot Spiegelberg from Siemens CT.

“On the other hand, we need to rememberthat such batteries will be relatively expensivedue to their compactness, safety specifications,and low weight,” warns Dr. Christian Dötsch

Comparative Energy Stored per Unit of Volume

kWh/m3

Pumped-storage power plant1

Compressed air energy storage2

Lead-acid battery

NaS battery

Lithium-ion battery

Hydrogen storage3

1 Height difference: 100 meters2 pressure: 2 MPa (= 20 bars)3 pressure: 20 MPa, efficiency 58%

0 100 200 300 400

0.28

2.7

70

150

300

350

from the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental,Safety and Energy Technology in Oberhau sen,Germany. “What’s more, the number of timesthey can be recharged is still very limited. Atpresent, the extra re char ging and dischargingfor the purposes of load balancing would seri-ously reduce battery life,” says Dötsch. (Formore, see page 60.)

Another concept is to warehouse potentialkinetic energy underground by a techniqueknown as compressed air energy storage(CAES). This involves pumping air, which hasbeen pressurized to as much as 100 bar, intounderground cavities such as exhausted saltdomes with a volume of between 100,000and a million cubic meters. “This compressedair can be used in a gas turbine,” says Waidhas.“You still need a fossil fuel such as natural gas,but energy is saved because the compressedair for combustion is already available.”

There are two CAES pilot projects world-wide: the first went into operation in Huntorf,Germany, in 1978; the second in McIntosh, Al-abama, in 1991. The basic idea behind CAES issimple, but there are drawbacks. “In both proj-ects, the gas turbines are custom made, andthat kind of special development costsmoney,” says Waidhas. “CAES only gives youstorage capacity of around 3 GWh.”

Hydrogen: Ideal Storage Medium? An inte -res ting alternative to the methods alreadymentioned is hydrogen storage. Here, surpluselectricity is used to produce hydrogen bymeans of electrolysis. The gas is then stored inunderground caverns at a pressure of between100 and 350 bar, where, according to ErikWolf from Siemens Energy Sector in Erlangen,Germany, leakage is not a problem. “Typically,each year, less than 0.01 percent is lost,“ hesays. “This is because the rock-salt walls ofsuch caverns behave like a liquid, and anyleaks seal up automatically.” For this reason,

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 51

says Wolf, any of the caverns already used forthe short-term storage of natural gas wouldalso be suitable for hydrogen.

Around 60 caverns are now under con-struction in Germany. “If we were to use only30 of these for hydrogen storage, we would beable to cache around 4,200 GWh of electricalenergy,” Wolf points out. Hydrogen has such ahigh energy density that as much as 350 kilo-watt-hours (kWh) can be squeezed into everycubic meter of available storage space. Thissignificantly exceeds CAES (2.7 kWh/m3) and ismatched only by lithium-ion batteries.

With hydrogen storage, whenever demandfor electricity rises, hydrogen is used to powera gas turbine or a fuel cell. “At present, under-ground hydrogen storage is unmatched by anyother energy-storage system,” says Wolf. “Eachcavern is capable of providing more than 500MW for up to a week in base-load operation –the equivalent of 140 GWh. By way of compar-ison, all the pumped-storage power plants inGermany have a combined capacity of only 40GWh.” What’s more, underground hydrogenstorage facilities can supply power quickly andare as flexible as a combined-cycle powerplant. Hydrogen has other advantages: Apartfrom storing energy for generating power orheat, it can also be mixed with syngas — from,for example, biomass plants — to produce fuelin a biomass-to-liquid process. That’s what’shappening in the context of a pilot project inBrandenburg, Germany. In April 2009 Enertr aglaid the foundation stone for a new test facilityin Prenzlau. This will be the world’s first hydro-gen-wind-biogas hybrid power plant capableof producing hydrogen from surplus windpower. The hydrogen will be used to power hy-drogen vehicles or will be mixed with biogas toproduce electricity and heat in two block-typecogeneration plants with a total output of 700kW. The facility is scheduled to enter service inmid-2010. Christian Buck

50 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Energy Storage | Interview Arvizu

In the future, electric vehicles could provide temporary storage of electricity, which could be fed back into

the grid as required, thereby improving the network’s stability.

Dr. Dan Arvizu, 59, is aphysicist and the directorof the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Re-newable Energy Laboratory(NREL) in Golden, Colorado.An expert on photovoltaicand battery technology, he worked for inter-national engineering and infrastructure companyCH2M Hill, as well as theSandia National Laboratoriesin New Mexico before his appointment as head ofthe NREL in 2005. One ofhis main objectives is topush the development ofenergy efficiency and alternative energy sources.

Interview conducted in Fall, 2009.

Smart Grids: Jump Starting Use of Renewable Energy Resources

Smart grids are a hot topic in the U.S. What’s your vision of this area? Arvizu: Of course no one knows for sure whata smart grid will look like, but I would expect itto be flexible, interactive, less vulnerable thanpresent systems, information-rich, and just plainmore sophisticated. Today, electricity mainlycomes from a network of big cables that havecentral power stations at various intersections.It provides a base load, on top of which vary-ing demand is met. The future of the electricgrid looks different, though. The grid will prob-ably not be centralized any longer. It will meetreal time needs better, and it will transport en-ergy more efficiently than the present-day grid.

projects. One exciting example is in Boulder,Colorado and is called “Smart Grid City.” We areinvolved in this project. One important elementis the installation by Xcel Energy, the sponsor-ing utility, of a broadband interconnection infra -structure that allows information to flow bothways between the consumer and the electricityutility. Forty-five thousand two-way meters arebeing installed. Additionally, a limited numberof households will be able to see online howthey consume electricity throughout the house.And in one test, some homes will have Web-addressable appliances that allow their poweruse information to be transmitted to the Inter-net, where the total energy use in one’s house

Can you flesh this out a bit? Arvizu: Today more than 60 percent of theenergy content in our supply gets lost in in-efficient conversion to electricity at the powerplant or on its way to the consumer. Clearly,this has to be done much more efficiently —for example, transmission efficiency can be improved over long distances by using a high-voltage direct-current transmission system.The grid of the future will also be able to inte-grate much more energy produced by solar,wind, and other renewable energy sources.And since these sources will be more widelydistributed throughout the country, energywill have to be bundled and distributed moreintelligently and the grid will need to accom-modate varying generation coupled with vary-ing loads. Finally, tomorrow’s grid needs to beprotected from physical and cyber attacks.

What advantages does the smart grid of-fer for consumers and energy producers?Arvizu: Mostly it gives you one thing — theopportunity to make wise decisions about yourenergy use and ultimately save energy andsave money! The smart network will allow consumers to monitor their electricity use,make choices about appliances and their use,and manage their overall energy needs basedon this information. This will also allow energyproviders to know how much energy their costumers actually use. That in turn may helpthem develop more accurate predictions of energy demand and meet it accordingly.

How far has the smart grid advanced so far?Arvizu: Worldwide, there are a number of pilot

could be calculated. This opens up the prospectof eventually doing away with the physical me-ter and measuring use only on the Internet.

How does the U.S. compare with other coun-tries regarding smart grid implementation?Arvizu: When it comes to deployment of renewable energy technologies, the U.S. lags behind other industrial countries. Other coun-tries have been driven primarily by heavy gov-ernment subsidies for solar and wind energy.That’s what Germany has done. This hasforced some countries, such as Denmark andGermany, to successfully deal with some of theinterconnection challenges that renewable en-ergy sources represent. Still, when it comes tothe smart grid, we have an even playing field;everybody is facing the same challenges.

You often point out that energy in the U.S. has to become cheaper. Today safetyregulations, labor costs, and commodityprices keep energy prices high. Alternativeenergy in the U.S. continues to be more expensive than conventional energy.Arvizu: That has to change. When we speak ofalternative energy, we mean wind, solar, hydro-power, etc. These sources have to become therule, not the exception. And they have to surviveeconomically on their own, without any subsi-dies. I believe this can be achieved through tech -nological innovation and market incentives suchas emissions trading for CO2. We also have toprice the externalities of fuel extraction, conver-sion, use, and emissions — e.g. environmentaldamage — into the prices consumers pay so thatfuel sources can be compared on the same basis.

What challenges will the massive integra-tion of solar and wind power plants intothe modern power grid cause?Arvizu: The main problem is that wind and solarpower are in variable, rather than constant, sup-ply. Additionally, these plants are often far fromurban centers. So one thing that we have to do isto intelligently interweave various energy sourcesthat produce the equivalent of a base load, whichtoday is still being met by coal and nuclear powerplants. Also, we should learn to use power whenit is available. For example, we could use electriccars, refrigerators, hot water boilers and indus-trial machinery in a way that takes advantage ofa cheap surplus of energy when it is available.

How could electricity be stored?Arvizu: Batteries will gain more prominence inthe future to meet fluctuating energy productionand demand. Battery-powered cars could makeexcellent storage devices. One could envision ascenario where one charges one’s car during thenight when energy is cheap and uses it or feedsit back into the grid during the day. Hydropoweris certainly the most straightforward storagesolution, but that is not an option everywhere.

In one of its studies NREL claimed that onfederal lands enough resources are avail-able from renewable sources to meet allU.S. consumption needs. That ‘s impressive— but it’s not a serious proposal, is it?Arvizu: Well, one can talk of various potentials.Theoretical potential is what could be achievedwith alternative energy resources if finances,politics, and technology were not an issue.These are limitations to the potential that realis-tically can be achieved. In one study we madesome realistic assumptions and asked if it’s fea-sible to produce 20 percent of electricity in theU.S. from wind by 2030. Our conclusion is thatthis is not a crazy idea. The necessary technol-ogy already exists. The current remaining hur-dles are politics, financing and transmission.

Some companies recently announced theyintend to build giant solar energy plants inAfrica to transmit electricity to Europe. Issomething like this conceivable for the U.S.?Arvizu: Sure. In the Southwest there’s plentyof sun and the desert is huge. At this scale andwith appropriate transmission, solar energy be-comes profitable. Interview: Hubertus Breuer

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 53

Plugging Buildings into the Big PictureAround 40 percent of the energy consumed worldwideis used in buildings to provide heating and lighting. Butin the future, intelligent building management systemswill ease the load on power and heat networks — andeven feed selfgenerated electricity into the grid.

In the future, buildings will actively

participate in the grid. In Masdar City

(small pictures) narrow spaces between

and under buildings will enhance cooling.

involved in the project. “The Masdar initiativeis not only a fascinating project; it also fits invery well with our energy efficiency programand the solutions offered by our Environmen-tal Portfolio,” says Tom Ruyten, who managesSiemens’ activities in Dubai.

Masdar is, of course, unique. After all, howoften do you have the opportunity to build acomplete city with a focus on minimizing itsenvironmental footprint right from the start?However, intelligent building managementtechnology is in demand everywhere. In indus-

The environmentally-friendly city of the fu-ture is being built in a desert in the United

Arab Emirates. Not far from Abu Dhabi, work-ers from all over the world are building MasdarCity. When complete, the city is expected tohave 50,000 inhabitants, meet its energyrequirements entirely from renewable sources,and produce zero carbon dioxide, a majorgreenhouse gas (Pictures of the Future, Fall2008, p. 76). Power is to be generated prima-rily by solar-thermal power plants and photo-voltaic facilities.

City planners expect improved efficiency tooffset the high cost of implementing ad-vanced energy solutions. In fact, the energyrequired per Masdar resident is projected to beonly one fifth of today’s consumption.

This goal can be achieved if forward-look-ing planning and modern technology comple-ment each other. In line with this philosophy,buildings in Masdar will be built close to-gether, thereby providing each other withshade and thus reducing air conditioning re-quirements. In addition, buildings will be builton concrete pedestals, thus helping to main-tain cool temperatures by allowing air to circu-

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Networking

52 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

to spread energy consumption. In fact, expertspredict a savings potential of up to 20 percent.

Small cogeneration plants in buildingscould also be better integrated into power net-works in the future. “If electricity demand ishigh, a cogeneration plant will deliver energyto the network, while the waste heat will befed into a local heat storage system or into thethermal capacity of the building,” predictsChristoff Wittwer from the Fraunhofer Institutefor Solar Energy Systems in Freiburg, Germany.“This heat can be used later by residents.”

Well-insulated water tanks capable of act-ing as heat stores are already available. Incontrast, heat storage based on phase changeis still at the R&D stage. Here, for example,surplus heat is used to melt a salt. Later, whendemand for heat increases, the melted saltreleases its stored heat and solidifies. Yield isvery high: “These types of cogeneration planthave an overall efficiency of over 90 percent,”says Wittwer. “In terms of primary energy,that’s much more productive than large-scalefossil fuel power plants that don’t exploitwaste heat.”

Managing Demand. Conversely, consumerscan also selectively switch off devices at peaktimes to ease network loads. The key is toknow when rates are lower. For example,washing machines and driers can be run atnight when electricity is cheaper. But whichhours offer the best prices? “Many appliancesare already capable of determining thisthrough signals in power lines,” says Dragon.“On and off times can be determined by asmart meter.”

This scenario would give utilities the advan-tage of being able to manage demand withintheir networks. It would also help them to pre-vent sudden peak loads from occurring — forexample, when large numbers of consumersturn on appliances at the same time.

However, consumers would have to con-sent to having their appliances turned on oroff by a utility depending on the network’sload — based on the premise that they wouldbe paying less for their power. Ultimately, bothparties have an interest in a flat load curve,which is achieved by leveling demand overeach 24-hour period. The challenge is to coor-dinate each building’s sub-systems with oneanother and control their communication withtheir surroundings. In other words, all isolatedsolutions should be combined.

“That is not a trivial matter because thesesystems have developed independently overmany years,” says Dragon. “We therefore needinterfaces that allow control systems to com-municate with one another.”

Software solutions that address this chal-lenge are being developed by Siemens Build-ing Technologies under the name “Total Build-ing Solutions” (TBS). Here, a variety of systemsare being linked into one unit. They includebuilding control and security technologies,heating, ventilation, air conditioning, refriger-ation, room automation, power distribution,fire and burglary protection, access control,and video surveillance.

“Only if all of these systems harmonize per-fectly can their economic potential be fully re-alized,” says Dragon. “Whether in a stadium,an office complex, a hospital, a hotel, an in-dustrial complex or a shopping mall — TBS willensure that the facility is working productively,users are being reliably protected, and energyis being used optimally.”

Large Savings Potential. The amount of en-ergy that can be saved through the intelligentnetworking of power utilities and consumersvaries from case to case. However, experts gen-erally agree that savings of 20 to 25 percentare realistic. “This figure fluctuates dependingon the type of building,” says Dragon. “Shop-ping malls often have a savings potential of upto 50 percent, while office buildings have be-tween 20 and 30 percent. For hospitals, we’retalking about five to ten percent.” These differ-ences depend on how buildings are used. Forinstance, in Europe many shopping malls areopen ten to 12 hours a day and closed on Sun-day. But a hospital operates around the clock.“That’s why hospitals don’t have much scopefor saving large amounts of energy. The heat-ing can be turned off in an office building butnot in a hospital,” says Dragon.

Advanced technologies not only save en-ergy in hot and temperate zones; they can alsodo so in icy areas. Take the new Monte-RosaHut of the Swiss Alpine Club, for instance,which is perched at an altitude of 2,883 me-ters. It will be largely self-sufficient — thanksto sophisticated building technology and com-ponents supplied by Siemens (see p. 114).Power will be supplied by a photovoltaic system,supported when necessary by a cogenerationunit.

In order to maximize efficiency, the build-ing’s control system will use weather forecastsand information on guest bookings, thus help-ing it to coordinate its power and heating sys-tems as well as energy storage and applicatepower demand. A smart algorithm will period-ically calculate the best end temperature, sothat the desired room climate can be realizedwith the least resources — thereby ensuringthat not even the smallest amount of energy iswasted. Christian Buck

energy consumption, but will also be able tocommunicate with household appliances andutilities. Starting in 2010, a European Uniondirective and legal regulations in Germany willrequire all new and modernized buildings tobe equipped with smart meters. Customerswill have better insight into their electricitycosts, while utilities will be able to more accu-rately predict demand, and thus offer newproducts, including dynamic rates, which canchange every 15 minutes.

Entire grids will benefit as it will be easier

trialized countries, for example, buildings arebeing transformed from mere energy con-sumers to active participants in the electricitymarket, where they offer self-generated powerfor sale. “More and more buildings have photo-voltaic or small wind power plants on theirroofs,” says Volker Dragon, who works in thearea of energy efficiency at Siemens’ BuildingTechnologies Division in Zug, Switzerland. “In-telligent electric meters — the smart meter —will usher in a lot of change in this area.”

These small boxes will not only measure

late beneath them. Today, 70 percent of theenergy consumed in Abu Dhabi is used to coolbuildings. Planned architectural measures areexpected to dramatically reduce that figure inMasdar.

Masdar’s green, high-tech vision, whichwas developed by British architect Sir NormanFoster, is scheduled to be completed in 2016.If it proves a success, urban developers and ar-chitects from around the world may orientatetheir plans according to the technologies thatprove themselves here. Naturally, Siemens is

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 55

Completely new business models based on smartmetering will arise in coming years.

month, instead of having to pay estimatedfees, as was the case in the past, and then re-ceiving a huge bill at the end of the year. Soliving in the dark about one’s own electricityconsumption will soon no longer be an issue,at least not in Arbon.

The benefits that smart energy meters offerutility companies go far beyond improved gridload planning. For one thing, the manual read-ing of conventional meters is subject to errorsthat generate additional costs, such as theneed for a second readings. These require dis-proportionate amounts of time and energy incomparison with standard reading trips. Smartmeters, on the other hand, are read automati-cally.

“On average, around three percent of thereadings of conventional meters are erroneousand need to be repeated,” says Dr. AndreasHeine, head of Services at Power Distribution.“Smart meters reduce this error rate to nearlyzero. So, if you’ve got an area with a millioncustomers, you can save more than €1.6 million

placing its conventional meters with SiemensAMIS units along with the complete meterdata management system. Ninety percent ofthe company’s new meters communicate witha central server that processes the hugeamounts of data, with most of this data trans-fer occurring via power line communication —in other words, the grid itself.

“Smart metering is leading to the formationof new business models", says Philip Skipper,from Siemens Metering Services. "In many

now being supplied with electricity for thevery first time. A total of 150,000 villages inIndia alone will be hooked up to the grid overthe next few years. As smart metering technol-ogy will be used here from the start, integrat-ing it into existing systems won’t be a prob-lem.

More developed markets — like Brazil, forexample, where the vast majority of house-holds already have electricity — will have tomodernize their systems to reduce electricity

per year, which corresponds to 53 percent ofthe previous cost for readings.”

No More Flying Blind. Most smart metersare now being used in highly developed coun-tries, with dozens of projects currently underway in the U.S. and Europe. Direct economicbenefits are generated in such nations mainlythrough a decrease in blackouts and efficiencygains in service processes. By installing around30 million smart meters with feedback chan-nels, Italian energy supplier ENEL, for example,has been able to automatically carry out 210million meter readings. The initial investmentof €2.1 billion can be amortized relativelyquickly through savings of around €500 mil-lion per year, while service costs per customerand year have been reduced from €80 to €50.

EnBW ODR, which supplies electricity to theregion east of Stuttgart, Germany, is now re-

types of cooperation models for smart meter-ing systems by partnering with U.S.-basedeMeter, one of the world’s leading providers ofmeter data processing services. Such partner-ships require a high degree of flexibility, how-ever, since the business logic behind smartmetering projects differs greatly from regionto region.

Time for Smart Meters. By 2030, globalelectricity production is expected to increaseby 63 percent over its 2008 level to approxi-mately 33,000 terawatt hours (TWh). Whereastoday’s poorer countries are expected to ex-pand their annual production by around fourpercent, electricity production in the most de-veloped regions will grow by only about 1.3percent per year. Completely new grid struc-tures are now being set up throughout largeparts of India and China, and many regions are

European Union, for example, has an energyefficiency and services directive that stipulatesthat all conventional meters be replaced bysmart meters by 2020. Indeed, all new build-ings built today have to have such meters.

According to Knaak, smart meters representjust a small component of a much larger proj-ect: the smart grid. With this energy network, itwill be easier to incorporate renewable sourcesof energy. In addition, electricity storage willone day play a major role here and with im-proved network load planning it will be possi-ble to reduce the occurrence of the sort of ma-jor blackouts that have caused havoc in Europeand the U.S. over the last few years. “Withoutsmart meters, there would never be a smartgrid,” says Knaak. “Together with Siemens, we,in our little town of Arbon, have laid part ofthe foundation for this flexible network of thefuture.” Andreas Kleinschmidt

cases the complexity and risk requires a newapproach and as a trusted and proven innova-tor in this space Siemens is serving as the serv-ice partner that drives the transformation ofthe metering function.”

Siemens prepared itself well for such new

theft and increase supply reliability. Smart me-ters will thus also be installed in many areas inthese markets. Finally, in many of the most de-veloped countries, legislation enacted as partof electricity market deregulation is leading tothe rapid introduction of smart meters. The

Transparent Network Power companies worldwide have begun installing electronic smart meters that allow customers to monitor consumption practically in real time and thus conserve energy. Such companies benefit from better grid load planning and lower costs.Siemens offers complete solutions that include everything from hardware to software.

Smart meters enable consumers to monitor

and manage their power use. Utilities also save

money and, for the first time, gain detailed

insight into network dynamics.

Having such data made available in some-thing closer to real time would conserve re-sources, as consumption could then be flexiblyadjusted, prices for consumers lowered orraised in line with peak loads, and power gen-eration capacity stepped down when less elec-tricity is needed.

Meters capable of such real-time data deliv-ery were not available to the average con-sumer until recently — but now, more andmore power suppliers are installing smart me-ters that electronically measure electricity con-sumption. Alexander Schenk, head of theAMIS Business Segment at Siemens’ Power Dis-tribution Division, explains. “Smart metersdon’t just substitute a digital display for me-chanical cogs; they also automatically forwardconsumption data to a control center and havea feedback channel.” Among other things, thisenables suppliers to send price signals to cus-

tomers, who can then reduce consumptionduring peak times in order to save money. Onesmart meter now on the market is the AMISmodel from Siemens, some 100,000 of whichare scheduled to be installed in Upper Austriaby early 2010 (see Pictures of the Future, Fall2008, p.63). Residents of Arbon, Switzerland,on the shores of Lake Constance will also soonbe enjoying the benefits offered by theSiemens meter.

“The near-real-time transmission of datafrom households, special contract customers,and the power distribution structure gives usthe kind of insight we need as to what’s goingon in the grid,” says Arbon Energie’s Knaak.“This allows us as a supplier to make more pre-cise forecasts of peak load times, and thusplan more efficiently.” Arbon residents will beamong the first in Switzerland to know exactlyhow much electricity they’re using every

When asked about the electricity meters inthe Swiss municipality of Arbon, Jürgen

Knaak, head of the local power utility, ArbonEnergie AG, says, “It’s time to get out of thedark!” What Knaak is referring to is the factthat for a very long time nearly all electricitycustomers and suppliers around the worldhave suffered from a huge lack of information.Consumers know nearly nothing about theirelectricity consumption habits, while suppliersknow very little about the state of their gridsat any given — including such basic informa-tion as whether loads in certain sections aredangerously high, or whether the supply volt-age has dropped dramatically in particularareas. That’s because data from electricity me-ters generally doesn’t become available untilmonths after power is actually consumed, andsuch information only shows the sum of theelectricity used over a specific period of time.

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Smart Meters

54 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 57

Power in NumbersSmall, distributed power plants and fluctuating energy sources such as wind andsunlight have one thing in common. They increase the need for reliable and economical operation of electric power grids. The virtual power plant is an intelligentsolution. It networks multiple small power stations to form a large, smart power grid.

Hydroelectric plants in Germany like those at

Ahausen and Niederense (below) have been in

operation for decades. They are now enjoying new

significance as part of a virtual power plant.

Distributed Energy Management System software

shows the current status of all systems included in a

virtual power plant and generates an operating

schedule (right) for its power generation. This

schedule is controlled in the demand mode (left).

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Virtual Power Plants

56 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

The many hiking trails around the village ofNiederense in the state of Westphalia, Ger-

many, offer tranquility, bird songs, the MöhneRiver and unspoiled nature. As idyllic as thissetting is, a small hydroelectric power stationbuilt in 1913 does not look out of place here.With an output of 215 kilowatts, the facility isone of the region’s smaller power plants. Yet itsSiemens-Halske generators have been tirelesslyproducing electricity for nearly 100 years. Andnow these old-timers have become a key part ofa much larger, innovative high-tech plan. SinceOctober 2008 they have been interconnectedwith eight other hydroelectric plants on the Listerand Lenne Rivers in a rural part of Westphaliaknown as Sauerland as part of ProViPP, theProfessional Virtual Power Plant pilot project ofRWE (a power plant operator) and Siemens.

Just about everybody stands to gain fromthe project — power plant owners, electricity

some additional power plants,” says MartinKramer, RWE Project Manager for DistributedEnergy Systems.

Externally, the nine small hydroelectricplants in the project function as a single largeone. Their total initial output for pilot opera-tion was 8.6 megawatts. Even though this vir-tual power plant is not yet actively participat-ing in electric power trading, its constituentplants have established a key prerequisite fornew forms of marketing. “Individually, suchplants are too small to market their capacitiesthrough energy traders on the energy ex-change, or as a balancing reserve for load fluc-tuations to power grid operators,” saysKramer. “To market electric power on the en-ergy markets for minute reserves — the powerthat must be available on demand within 15minutes — a virtual power plant is required tohave a minimum capacity of 15 megawatts.”

bar graphs showing which power stations arecurrently running at peak load or at base loadand how much power they are producing.

Using plant status information, such aselectric power output, and combining it withmarket forecasts, DEMS generates a forecastthat also takes into account the next day’sprices and the total power available. Evenweather data is factored into the energy man-agement system to provide a forecast of thepower available from sources with fluctuatingavailability, such as wind and sunshine.

Before a quotation is placed on the energymarket through an energy trader, it is checkedand approved by the portfolio manager. Once

As part of a virtual plant, even small energy producerscan sell their power on the electricity market.

DEMS was developed by Siemens when itbecame evident how the electric power grid andthe electric power market would be affectedby increasing supply from distributed and re-newable energies (Pictures of the Future, Fall2007, p. 90). In the background, communicationsystems ensure reliable connections betweenthe control center and individual power plants.Siemens communications devices in powerstations link the stations with the control cen-ter via wireless communication modems. Theadvantage of this approach is that it requiresno costly cables or rented landlines.

The virtual plant is highly distributed. ItsDEMS computer is in a control center in Plaidt

Today, since the nine-member virtual powerplant does not reach that level, it feeds itsenergy into the grid in accordance with Ger-many’s Renewable Energy Law (EEG). Follow-ing a planned expansion, however, its powerwill be sold directly in the energy market.

Cool Controls. At the heart of Sauerland’s vir-tual power plant is Siemens’ Distributed EnergyManagement System (DEMS). The system dis-plays the present status of systems, generatesprognoses and quotations, and controls electricpower generation as scheduled. The systemoverview is subdivided into producers and loads,contracts, and power storage. Convenientlypositioned at the center of the display is the“balance node” (the sum of the incoming andoutgoing power must equal zero). Additionalinformation is provided on “forecasting and us-age planning” and “monitoring and control.”As a result, a portfolio manager can view color

it has been approved and accepted by the mar-ket, DEMS generates an operating schedule forthe individual power plants in the virtual plant.The schedule specifies exactly when and howmuch power must be available from which plant.“DEMS does such a good job of modeling thatits schedules can be run exactly the way it de-fines them,” says Dr. Thomas Werner, ProductManager, Power System Management at Sie -mens Energy. No manual corrections are needed.

Martin Kramer of RWE agrees. “The systemis working extremely well. Once a schedulehas been generated, the energy managementsystem controls the entire process — includingthe requirements of the individual powerplants — fully automatically.”

near Koblenz, the operator stations are inCologne, and the power plants are in theSauerland. In spite of this complex mix, nostandards exist yet for distributed power plantcommunications. “Uniform interfaces and pro-tocols have yet to be defined,” says Werner,who points out that each virtual plant there-fore requires tailored solutions. “We needopen standards to substantially simplify thedesign of virtual power plants,” he adds.

Lucrative Reserve Power. Existing businessmodels for virtual power plants already prom-ise attractive profits. As a case in point, powergrid operators need to maintain a constantbalance in the power grid despite fluctuationsin consumption and electric power generation.This is where the virtual power plant’s opera-tor can sell reserve power and make a specificcapacity available as a minute reserve. Whenneeded, the purchaser places an order for the

traders, power grid operators, and of coursethe end customer, who could profit from moreintense competition. The virtual power plantconcept complements the big utility compa-nies with their large, central power plants bycreating new suppliers with small, distributedpower systems linked to form virtual poolsthat can be operated from a central controlstation. Such a pool can unite wind power, co-generation, photovoltaic, small hydroelectric,and biogas systems as well as large power con-sumers such as aluminum smelters and largeprocess water pumps to function as a singlesupplier.

With the Sauerland project Siemens andRWE plan to demonstrate the technologicaland economic utility of virtual power plantsand to expand their knowledge base for fur-ther applications. “The project — which willcontinue until 2010 — and the technology areworking so well that we’re going to connect

tent and often unavailable when they’re needed most. A

study performed by Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik GmbH

using data from the E.ON electric grid showed that there

are also days (March 17 and 18 in the graphic below)

when the available wind power exceeds grid demand.

With continued massive expansion of the number of wind

power plants, this situation will be exacerbated and be-

come more frequent in the future, even as the supply of

wind power continues to be well below demand on wind-

less days.

There is a two-pronged solution to this problem. On

the one hand, energy storage (see p. 48) — whether in

the form of pumped storage power plants, compressed

air storage, hydrogen caverns, or even the batteries of

electric cars (see p. 60) — could be expanded. On the

other hand, electric grids could be more comprehensively

linked — across regions, national borders, or even conti-

nents. The expansion of power grids is already unavoid-

able because offshore wind farms (see p. 20) and solar

thermal power plants in the desert will have to be con-

nected. Siemens is among the companies currently in-

volved in the erection of a high-capacity, high-voltage di-

rect current transmission lines (HVDC) in China to link

hydroelectric plants in the country’s interior with mega -

cities more than 1,400 kilometers away on the coast (see

p. 44). The State Grid Corporation, a grid operator in

China, expects $44 billion will be invested in HVDC tech-

nology by 2012.

According to the UCTE — the Union for the Coordina-

tion of Transmission of Electricity — some €300 billion

must be invested in new power and gas lines in Europe

over the next 25 years. “German utility companies alone

plan to invest €40 to €50 billion in the modernization of

the grids, with €15 to €25 billion of that going into smart

grid technology,” says Rolf Adam, a principal at Booz &

Company.

Smart grids (see p. 40) involve not only intelligent

electric meters and solutions for flexible billing, but also

energy management, grid status monitoring, and the in-

tegration of a wide variety of small, decentralized power

generators and consumers. All of this is intended to make

power grids more transparent, more flexible and more

secure.

Market experts at ABI Research expect that roughly

73 million smart meters will be installed worldwide in

2009. Two years ago, the equivalent figure was just 49

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 59

Growing Demand for Renewablesand Smart Grid Technologies

million. In the U.S. alone, the government hopes to have

a good 41 million intelligent meters installed as part of 15

projects by 2015. The U.S. Electric Power Research Insti-

tute (EPRI) estimates that the creation of a nationwide

smart grid over the next two decades will cost around

$165 billion.

Based on IEA and EPRI data, market analysts at Mor-

gan Stanley Research estimate that the worldwide market

volume for smart grid technologies will increase from

roughly $22 billion in 2010 to $115 billion in 2030. This

corresponds to an average annual growth rate of 8.8 per-

cent, making smart grid technologies one of the most

exciting growth markets of the decades ahead.

Sylvia Trage / ue

Discrepancy: Wind Power and Grid Load

Output (MW)

Supply greatly exceeds demand

Vertical grid load

Estimatedwind power2020

Actual wind power 2007

010 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 March 2007

5,000

10,000

15,000

20,000

25,000

Supply can’t meet demand

Smart Grid Technologies: Growth Market

Billions of dollars

Smart meters and their infrastructure

Demand management

Power transmissionand distribution

8.8% CAGR

2010 2015 2020 2025 2030

38

22

60

115

87

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ces:

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gan

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sear

ch, I

EA, E

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200

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CAGR: compound annualgrowth rate

How Renewables will Grow 2008-2030

2008

Solar 2%

Biomass 47%

Wind 38%

Solar 29%

Biomass 14%

Others 1%

Wind 52%

Geothermal 13%

Geothermal 4%

20,300

Fossilenergies

2030

33,000Worldwide power generation (in TWh)

Renewables (without hydro)in 2008: 581 TWh (3% of allpower generated)

Renewables (without hydro)in 2030: 5,583 TWh (17%)13%

21%

6%

41%Renewables

Hydroelectric

Nuclear power

Gas

Oil

Coal

17%

15%

20%

2%

32%

2.3% p.a.

68% 54%

3%

15%

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ces:

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orld

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16%

58 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA)

and Siemens, by 2030, worldwide electricity genera-

tion will grow by 63 percent relative to 2008, to a total of

33,000 terawatt hours (TWh). An increasingly large pro-

portion of this power will be based on renewable energy

sources. The IEA and Siemens expect that the amount of

electricity generated from wind, solar energy, biomass,

and geothermal energy will increase nearly ten fold from

581 TWh to 5,583 TWh, with wind power driving much

of that growth. According to these projections, the

amount of wind-generated electricity fed into the grid will

increase around thirteen fold.

Even more impressive is the growth in solar electric-

ity, which is expected to grow 140-fold, but from a much

lower level. If at least a portion of the Desertec project

(p. 14) is completed by 2030, much of this additional so-

lar electricity could be produced by solar thermal power

plants in the deserts of northern Africa and the Middle

East, in addition to photovoltaic systems. According to a

recent study by Clean Edge Inc., a market analysis com-

pany specialized in the clean technology sector, world-

wide sales for photovoltaic and wind energy systems and

biofuels will increase from roughly $116 billion in 2009 to

$325 billion in 2018. (Sales of solar thermal systems,

which Clean Edge did not take into consideration, must

also be added to this figure). Wind power will generate

some $140 billion by 2018.

Despite this growth in renewable energies, roughly

54 percent of the electricity generated worldwide in 2030

will still come from fossil energy sources such as coal and

natural gas. In order to protect the climate and to reduce

greenhouse gases, it is crucial that the efficiency of the

associated power plants — in other words, the conversion

of the energy contained in the raw materials into electric-

ity — be increased. Technologies must also be found to

remove carbon dioxide — either before or after combus-

tion — so that it no longer enters the atmosphere. The

potential of the associated efficiency improvement meas-

ures is best illustrated by the following example: If all

existing power plants were upgraded to the highest effi-

ciencies technically feasible today, this improvement

alone would reduce annual CO2 emissions by 2.5 billion

metric tons. That is roughly ten percent of all energy-

related CO2 emissions worldwide or roughly three times

Germany’s CO2 emissions.

If renewable energies were used, the amount of CO2

emitted during the generation of electricity would be

reduced to zero. But this comes at the cost of other prob-

lems. One such problem that should not be underesti-

mated is the fact that wind and solar power are inconsis-

| Facts and ForecastsTomorrow’s Power Grids | Virtual Power Plants

agreed-on power for a fee. The seller then startsup or shuts down generators as specified inthe contract within the agreed-on timeframeto stabilize the net frequency at 50 or 60 hertz.

Prof. Christoph Weber of Duisburg-EssenUniversity estimates that an energy traderwith a virtual power plant can increase earn-ings by several hundred thousand euros bypaying less to the power grid operator for“compensation power.” Such payments aredue when less or more power is fed into thegrid than had been specified in the operatingschedule. To avoid this, the electric power pro-ducer needs to adhere as closely as possible tothe agreed-on operating schedule — andthat’s the purpose of an energy managementsystem such as DEMS. An interesting alterna-tive to generating additional power is for thecentral control station to briefly shut downlarge-scale consumers such as aluminumsmelters. Another useful alternative is to sellelectric power at the European Energy Ex-change (EEX) in Leipzig, provided that the costof producing one megawatt hour is lower thanthe current exchange price.

There are other uses of virtual power plants,as was shown in the case of a municipal powerplant in Germany’s Ruhr district. Augmentingelectric power lines to supply energy for a newresidential area would have required a largecapital investment. So instead of new lines,

the area’s electric power needs were met by in-stalling distributed, gas-powered, mini block-type cogeneration plants and interconnectingthem to form a virtual power plant that deliv-ers electric power and heating. This made itpossible to postpone a huge investment forseveral years. Virtual power plants could also be“produced” from less obvious components, suchas by interconnecting the emergency powergenerators in hospitals and factories with thebattery storage systems common in telephoneand Internet communications centers.

Virtual power plants also have a macroeco-nomic advantage. “The benefit of a power stationnetwork extends far beyond its present appli-cations,” says Werner. At present consumptionrates, for example, global copper reserves willbe exhausted in 32 years (Pictures of theFuture, Fall 2008, p. 22). And if the infrastruc-tures of countries such as India and China con-sume as much copper as the industrial coun-tries, shortages and price increases of thisscarce metal are likely to occur even sooner.

But if newly-industrializing countries basethe expansion of their energy infrastructureson intelligent power grids and virtual powerplants that generate electricity near where itwill be used, i.e. in a distributed system, fewerpower lines will have to be built to transportelectricity, and the limited copper reserves willlast longer. Harald Hassenmüller

Energy exchange

Invoicing

Weather service

Influenceableloads

Communicationsunit

Remote meterreading

Distributed loads

€

Distributed mini block-type cogeneration and

photovoltaic systems

Wind farm

PV system

Block-type cogenerationpower plant

Biomasspower plant

Network management

system

Communications network

Concentrator

Fuel cell

Advanced IT is the Core Element of a Virtual Power Plant

Energy management

system

E

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 61

From Wind to WheelsIndustrial companies and energy suppliers are working closely together to make the vision of electric mobility a reality. Along with automotive engineering, the focus here is on the interaction between vehicles, the power grid, and the technologies needed for storing and bidirectionally transmitting energy derived from renewable sources.

Tomorrow’s electric vehicles will redefine mobility.

Not only will they recharge in only minutes at fast-

charge stations. They will also function as mobile

power storage units for the smart grid.

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Electromobility

60 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

270 kilowatts of power and a top speed of250 kilometers per hour, also boasts hightorque and impressive acceleration right fromthe start. Whereas a combustion engine needssome time in order to fully develop its power,an electric motor delivers its full performanceimmediately.

The Greenster is a pioneering vehicle thatdemonstrates just how chic electromobilitycan be. Still, because the model was devel-oped in only three months, its individual com-ponents were not all part of a new componentapproach but instead represent a combinationof available standard components. “The suc-cessor Greenster II model, which is alreadybeing planned, will have optimally matchedcomponents,” says Prof. Gernot Spiegelberg,head of the Electromobility Team at SiemensCorporate Technology (CT). Such componentsinclude a fast-charge unit and precisely tunedcomponents for battery management, motorcontrol, and charging electronics. The newGreenster II will be completed by the end of2010.

RWE, Siemens will soon be installing 40 charg-ing stations at locations in Germany, with 20stations planned for Berlin. In addition, RWE isnow staging a roadshow in Germany that fea-tures the Greenster. Siemens is participating inthe tour, which also made a stop at the IAA In-ternational Motor Show in September 2009 inFrankfurt am Main.

Siemens is pursuing the development ofelectromobility through a comprehensive ap-proach involving not only automotive engineer-

Siemens covers all facets of electromobility — fromvehicle technology to power grid integration.

ings. After all, if 10,000 vehicles simultane-ously tap the grid for 20 kW each, the resultingrequired output will be 200 megawatts —which is what a medium power plant produces.

Batteries on Wheels. The energy specialistsfor “Inside Car” and “Outside Car” are currentlyparticipating in Denmark’s EDISON project,which stands for “Electric vehicles in a Distrib-uted and Integrated market using Sustainableenergy and Open Networks.” EDISON, the

When the west wind rises and the NorthSea begins to churn and send its heavy

breakers crashing against the dunes of Jutland,thousands of windmills go into action on theDanish coast. Today, 20 percent of Denmark’selectricity is produced by wind power, makingit the world leader in this area, and this figureis set to rise to 50 percent by 2025. Still, thegood feeling about so much renewable energyis dampened by the fact that when the windblows too strongly, the wind-turbine rotorsgenerate more electricity than Denmark’s gridcan handle. Up until now, Danish power utili-ties have had to send this surplus electricity toneighboring countries — and pay for doing so.

It is therefore not surprising that Denmarkis a pioneer in the development of storagetechnologies to accommodate excess electric-ity, with researchers focusing mainly on the

batteries used in electric vehicles. Currentplans call for one out of ten cars in Denmark torun on electricity from wind power in tenyears. Although this goal may seem ambitious,given that there are hardly any electric vehi-cles on European roads today, Denmark ismoveing ahead rapidly with electric mobilitythrough a broad range of projects — andSiemens is providing support as a develop-ment partner in two areas: connecting vehi-cles to the grid and automotive engineering.

Road to the Climate Summit. For example,together with Ruf, a German company thatspecializes in custom vehicles, Siemens willpresent three electrically-powered Sport UtilityVehicles (SUVs) at the UN’s World ClimateChange Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark,in December 2009. These vehicles are based

on the Porsche Cayenne chassis and have anintegrated charging system with which theycan be charged from any power outlet thatprovides 230–380 volts. A plug for this appli-cation has already been standardized. Charg-ing times will depend mainly on what type ofoutput the outlet offers. Developers expect tosee an initial charging power of around tenkilowatts (kW), and up to 43 kW over themedium term, which corresponds to a charg-ing time of between 20 minutes and twohours. Charging will take place via an electricalconnection under the fuel tank flap.

In Spring 2009 at the Geneva Motor Showin Switzerland, Ruf and Siemens presented aPorsche 997 Targa-styled model that had beenconverted into an electric car known as theeRuf Greenster (see Pictures of the Future,Spring 2009, p.96). This vehicle, which offers

Standardized Charging. The SUVs, for theirpart, will be charged at the UN conferencewith wind power and will be used in a shuttleservice between the conference center andthe airport. Each vehicle can accommodatefour passengers and their luggage. The con-cept includes a “power pump” from Siemensthat communicates with the vehicle’s electron-ics. This is one of the key challenges for elec-tromobility — and not just in Denmark. Afterall, drivers will want to recharge their electricvehicles at any location — be it a garage, su-permarket, or company parking lot. In a man-ner similar to cell phone invoicing, the electric-ity used will be billed by a provider. However,for such a system to work, it will be necessaryto reliably identify the vehicle and exchangedata between its onboard electronics and thecharge pump. In a project with energy supplier

mobility,” he says. In addition to CT re-searchers, that team includes specialists fromSiemens’ Energy and Industry Sectors, who areneeded because future electromobility will beabout more than just the vehicles themselves.The idea is that as electric vehicles enter themarket, the power grid will have to be updated.It will, for example, be necessary to install sys-tems that can accommodate the total electricityrequirements of the individual vehicles in pub-lic areas such as inner-city parking garages andsports stadiums. Here, one distribution trans-former complete with switchgear will beneeded for every 50 vehicles. This means sev-eral dozen such transformers will have to belinked via medium-voltage switchgear. Havingseveral thousand vehicles parked in one placewill require major facilities, and these will haveto be installed in basements or separate build-

Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.There, test vehicles will be charged with windpower from the public grid. When demand inthe grid rises, parked cars will feed electricityback into the network. The Danes are hopingthat a fleet of thousands of vehicles will beable to offset fluctuations in the wind-powersupply. Instead of having separate electricitystorage units to buffer against the fluctua-tions, the cars and their batteries will provideadditional storage capacity, which is why EDI-SON will focus on achieving a bidirectionalflow of electricity from the grid into vehiclesand back. The results could be significant. If,for instance, 200,000 vehicles, each rated at40 kW, are connected to the grid, a total out-put of eight gigawatts would be available atshort notice — more than Germany requires asa cushion against consumption peaks.

ing — as is the case with Greenster and theSUVs — but also systems for connecting vehi-cles to the power grid. Here, both the chargingprocess and communications are being ad-dressed. Spiegelberg refers to these two areas as“Inside Car” and “Outside Car.” “We’ve put to-gether a team that covers all facets of electro-

world’s first and most extensive project of itskind, will bring a pool of vehicles to power out-lets and connect them to the fluctuatingpower of the wind. The associated technologyfor vehicles and the grid will be developed andprepared for use over the next two years.

Practical testing will begin in 2011 on the

62 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Tomorrow’s Power Grids | Electromobility

Contaminated Grid? One of Holthusen’s jobsis to study how the grid will be affected whenmillions of electric vehicles are plugged into itand disconnected every day. He is thereforecarrying out his research at the RisØ researchcampus, which has its own electricity grid.“This enables us to monitor the effects of sucha situation on a small scale,” he explains.

In this context, things become particularlytricky if harmonics occur when batteries arehooked up to the 50-hertz grid, as these canresonate and unbalance the grid frequency.Such disturbances, which are referred toas “grid-quality contamination,” can lead tofailure of the entire network if large wavesform.

There are no quick fixes for such a scenarioyet — but Holthusen is working on answers. Inhis tests, he connects up to 15 batteries, eachof which weighs 300 kg and has an energycontent of 25 kWh. By comparison, a mid-range vehicle requires around 18 kWh to travel100 kilometers. Holthusen then uses softwareto measure how the batteries affect the gridand to cushion the results of connection.

300 kW so that batteries can be recharged insix minutes. Electrics would then be on a parwith conventional vehicles.

Lithium-ion batteries with such fast charg-ing capability are expected to be ready formarket launch in the near future. However,new battery technologies will have to be de-veloped if a car is to be charged in as little asthree minutes (see p. 117).

Siemens’ testing activities are not limitedto Denmark, of course. The company’s re-searchers are also active in Germany, where,they are working with Harz.EE.mobility in aproject designed to determine how distributedwind, solar, and biogas power systems can bebetter aligned with the grid.

Three participating districts in Germany’sHarz region are looking at how to incorporateelectric vehicles into such a system. In this

Where Motors Are Going. While the SUVsare being readied for their assignment inCopenhagen, Kuhn and his colleagues aretesting a new drive system for the Greenster II,the younger brother of the model presentedlast March. Greenster I was a concept car —but Greenster II will be the world’s firstPorsche-based electric vehicle to be manufac-tured in a small production series.

The key component here is a double motorfor the rear axle. Whereas the Greenster I wasequipped with a rather large central motor, inthe Greenster II each rear wheel will be pro-pelled by a small drive unit located relativelyclose to the wheel. Usually, the output of amotor is distributed across the wheels via a dif-ferential, which isn’t an ideal arrangement forfast cornering.

The double-motor concept, however, usesan electronic control system that ensures opti-mal propulsion of the right and left wheels,which are exposed to different loads in acurve. It’s thanks to this phenomenon, whichexperts refer to as torque vectoring, that a

driver can still handle a vehicle perfectly in ex-treme situations.

With a central motor concept, all the powermust be transferred via a bulky and heavy dif-ferential, which adds weight to the vehicle.With the double motor concept, however, asmall control unit is all that’s needed to sendcommands by wire to the individual electricmotors. Kuhn and his colleagues are nowstudying how well the electronic differentialworks. “It’s not just in the ‘Outside Car’ areathat we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” saysKuhn. “The electric drive system is also highlycomplex in its own right.” If everything goeswell with “Inside Car,” the complete GreensterII will be put on a test rig in 2010.

It’s already clear to Spiegelberg what willhappen next. “The coming years will see thedevelopment of electric vehicles whose four

In addition to Siemens, the EDISON consor-tium includes the Technical University of Den-mark (DTU) and its RisØ-DTU research center,as well as Denmark’s Dong Energy andØstkraft power utilities, the Eurisco researchand development center, and IBM. In the EDI-SON project, various working groups are re-sponsible for developing all the technologiesneeded for electromobility. Here, Siemens ismainly responsible for fast-charge and batteryreplacement systems. “Siemens’ portfolio al-ready contains many components that we arenow adapting and reprogramming,” says SvenHolthusen, who is responsible for the EDISONproject at Siemens’ Energy Sector.

Another major obstacle to electromobilityis the length of battery recharging times. Withthis in mind, Holthusen and his colleagues areworking on a fast-charge function that oper-ates with much higher voltages and currents— initially with 400 volts and 63 amps.Holthusen’s approach is considered to be real-istic since many European households alreadyhave a 400-volt connection in the basement orother storage areas for electric ranges andother devices.

“We go a great deal further in our tests,however, in order to determine what’s possi-ble,” says Holthusen. More specifically, hewants to raise charging power to as much as

connection, Siemens will deliver chargingposts, an energy management system for theintegration of electric cars into the smart grid,and associated communication systems.

In addition, researchers at Siemens CT labsin Munich are analyzing electronic compo-nents, particularly with regard to bidirectionalcharging and discharging. Scientists atSiemens Corporate Technology want to usetest rigs to simulate various load situations.

“First we’re going to test individual drivesystems and then complete vehicles,” saysKarl-Josef Kuhn, who is responsible forconstructing bidirectional test rigs in Spiegel-berg’s team. “Later on, we’ll connect thevehicles to a simulation of the grid that will beprovided by the Energy Sector.” This will bedone to determine how smoothly a vehicle canbe connected to the grid infrastructure.

wheels will each be equipped with their ownsmall drive unit,” he says. These motors will re-cover brake energy and eliminate the need fora large central motor and the transmission andaxle shafts, thereby creating more space.

Moreover, unlike axle shafts, electroniccomponents can be installed anywhere in thevehicle and don’t necessarily have to be locatednear the electric motors. This will offer design-ers completely new possibilities for things likeside-mounted wheels that also hold the driveunits. In addition, vehicle entry and exitingcould be facilitated in large multi-passengervehicles by removing the center console andinstalling active fold-out seats.

In general, vehicle interiors could be com-pletely redesigned and made even safer — forexample, by getting rid of the hard steeringcolumn and replacing it and the pedals withlevers or joysticks for operating the car. Com-pletely new features are conceivable. In fact,we can’t even begin to imagine the type of rev-olutionary breakthroughs that electromobilitywill lead to. Tim Schröder

Prof. Gernot Spiegelberg (right). With the Greenster

model, Siemens and Ruf are demonstrating just

how attractive electric cars can be. When used as

grid-connected storage units, they can even earn

money with their batteries.

We can’t even begin to imagine the type of revolution-ary breakthroughs that electromobility will lead to.

Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 47Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 63

In Brief

Our power grids are facing new challenges.

They will not only have to integrate large

quantities of fluctuating wind and solar power,

but also incorporate an increasing number of

small, decentralized power producers. Today’s

infrastructure is not up to this task. The solu-

tion is to develop an intelligent grid that keeps

electricity production and distribution in bal-

ance. (p. 40)

Power produced from renewable sources

such as wind and sunlight is irregular. Experts

are therefore looking at ways of storing sur-

plus energy so that it can be converted back

into electricity when required. One option is

underground hydrogen storage, which is inex-

pensive, highly efficient, and can feed power

into the grid quickly. (p. 48)

Renewable energy sources have to become

the rule, not the exception, says Dr. Dan Arvizu,

director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Na-

tional Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in

an interview. Therefore it’s necessary that re-

newable energy also reach consumers who are

far away from energy sources. The world’s most

powerful HV DCT system, which Siemens is

building in China, shows how these eco-friendly

energy sources can supply millions of citizens in

far-off megacities. In 2010 the system will be-

gin transmitting electricity at a record of 800

kilovolts over a distance of 1,400 kilometers

from hydroelectric plants to the southeastern

coast of China. This will cut the country’s annual

CO2 emissions by around 33 million tons. The

HVDCT line will transmit 5,000 megawatts —

equal to the output of five large power plants .

(pp. 44, 50)

Not only must power production become

more efficient, so too must electricity con-

sumers. Around 40% of the energy consumed

worldwide is used in buildings to provide

heating and lighting. But in the future, intelli-

gent building management systems will ease

the load on power and heat networks—and

even feed self-generated electricity into the

grid. (p. 52)

Power companies worldwide have begun

installing electronic smart meters that allow

customers to monitor their consumption

practically in real time and thus conserve en-

ergy. Such companies benefit from better grid

load planning and lower costs. Experts say

completely new business models based on

smart metering will arise in coming years.

Siemens offers complete smart meter solu-

tions that include everything from hardware

to software. (p. 54)

Small, distributed power plants, fluctuating

energy sources such as wind and sunlight,

and the deregulation of electric power mar-

kets have one thing in common. They in-

crease the need for reliable and economical

operation of electric power grids. The virtual

power plant is an intelligent solution from

Siemens. It networks multiple small power

stations to form a large, smart power grid. As

a part of this virtual plant, these small energy

producers can sell their power on the electrici -

ty market. (p. 56)

Industrial companies and energy suppliers

are working closely together to make the vi-

sion of electric mobility a reality. Along with

automotive engineering, the focus here is on

the interaction between vehicles, the power

grid, and the technologies needed for storing

and bidirectionally transmitting energy de-

rived from renewable sources. Tomorrow’s

e lec tric vehicles will redefine mobility. Not

on ly will they recharge in only minutes at

fast-char ge stations. They will also function

as mobile power storage units for the smart

grid. (p. 60)

LINKS:

Smart grid platform of the EU:

www.smartgrids.eu

EDISON Project:

www.edison-net.dk

National Renewable Energy Laboratory:

www.nrel.gov

Masdar Initiative:

www.masdar.ae

European Network of TSOs:

www.entsoe.eu

Electric Power Research Institute:

www.epri.com

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 65

we can also develop such companies moreproductively than our competitors can.” By dis-cussing their strategy with Siemens expertsthe companies benefit from Siemens’ technicalexpertise and global presence.

Dr. Ralf Schnell, CEO of SVC, is proud of histeam. “Since its founding in 1998, SVC has par-ticipated in over 150 companies — and a thirdof the firms in our current portfolio offer solu-tions that boost energy efficiency. We’re activein all major markets — in Europe, Asia, and theU.S.,” he says. SVC invests €2 to €5 million perfinancing round in early-stage companies. Butrecently, it started offering minority stakes of€10 to €30 million of so-called growth-capitalfinancing to established companies. The firstsuch investment was made in German wasteheat specialist Maxxtec AG. Every investmentends with either the sale of the company or anIPO. “At that point, the bottom-line returnmust be solid,” Schnell explains.

Coping with Demand Peaks. SVC is on trackfor success with Seattle-based Powerit Solu-tions, in which it acquired an interest in May2009. Powerit, which has seen its sales doubleyear after year, helps industrial firms avoid

Energy companies justify this policy by argu-ing that they must maintain generating capac-ity to cover even extremely rare demandpeaks.

To avoid such peaks, Powerit Solutions linksand matches all key production power con-sumers. Food production facilities, where re-frigeration units account for a big share ofelectricity consumption, are a good example.Using predictive algorithms, Powerit’s soft-ware determines when, how, and by howmuch to turn off or down equipment withoutaffecting food quality or production. “Our ex-perience with various industries gives us pre-cise knowledge of the processes involved,”says Zak. “We use this data to generatecomplex decision-making matrices that helpus balance energy savings with productivityrequirements. And the systems are adaptive,so they can adjust to a plant’s changing elec-tric profile.” This strategy makes it possible toreduce the power consumption not only ofongoing processes but also of processes to becarried out at a specific time in the future.

Powerit Solutions customers exploit suchcapabilities to take advantage of demand re-sponse programs — special contracts that al-

low providers to cap electricity supply at shortnotice, for example in midsummer, when airconditioners are running and the grid is indanger of overloading. Customers can savemillions of dollars in just a few years throughthese programs, enabling them to recoup theirinitial investment very quickly.

Powerit Solutions’ industrial green technol-ogy activities still largely focus on North Amer-ica; around 70 of its solutions can be found inthe U.S., Canada, and Mexico. With the injec-tion of financing by SVC, however, the com-pany’s expansion can now be accelerated.

Bob Zak of Powerit Solutions and B. G.Kulkarni of Transparent have a lot in commonin terms of business goals. Both intend to con-quer the global market with their green tech-nologies. And both have a partner in Siemensthat offers financial strength, a global net-work, and industrial expertise, especially in en-vironmental solutions.

Some environmental technology compa-nies in the SVC portfolio call themselves “greendwarfs.” Together with the “green giant” —Siemens — they can more effectively maketheir vision of efficient resource utilization areality. Andreas Kleinschmidt

Project Financing with Siemens

Major projects require solid financing; and strong financial partners are all the more important these

days, now that banks are restricting credit. With its numerous major projects, Siemens Project Ven-

tures (SPV) has demonstrated that Siemens can embark on new paths with its customers when it

comes to the issue of financing.

Siemens Venture Capital (SVC) financially participates in companies, whereas SPV provides financing

for major projects. SPV’s activities to date have included financing the construction of a large coal-

fired power plant in Indonesia (project volume: $1.7 billion), as well as the construction of Bangalore

Airport ($585 million). “Siemens provides a portion of the financing and helps to raise funding for

projects in bank or capital markets,” explains Johannes Schmidt, head of Equity & Project Finance at

Siemens Financial Services. The company is helped here by its excellent contacts in the banking and

financial community.

SPV focuses on infrastructure projects in the energy sector, the traffic and transport infrastructure

(e.g. rail projects), and the healthcare sector. Siemens consistently plays a key role in SPV invest-

ments, whether as a general contractor or a supplier of important components. Like SVC, SPV also

seeks to gain a solid return through its financing ventures. “This means our most important skill has

to be the effective assessment of the risks of financing projects in relation to the potential earnings

they offer,” says Schmidt. “Siemens’ expertise and project experience is very helpful here, of course.”

Green technology projects are becoming more important for SPV as well. In May 2009, for example,

the company acquired 25 percent of BGZ AG, which is itself an investment firm with 140 employees.

The company implements solar, biomass, and wind power projects that also use Siemens technology.

Based in the northern German city of Husum, BGZ had installed 950 megawatts of wind power ca-

pacity worldwide by the end of 2008.

Volker Friedrichsen, the company’s founder, chief partner, and CEO, is glad to have SPV on board as a

new investor. “In Siemens, we’re pleased to have found a strong international partner to help us meet

our financing requirements in the high-growth market for renewable energies. Together with Siemens,

we’ll intensify our efforts to enter new markets,” he says.

peaks in electricity demand during productionoperations. Powerit Solutions President BobZak has been overwhelmed by demand for hisproduct. “Today, everyone wants to improveenergy efficiency in production and have solu-tions tailored to their processes. That’s impor-tant, as avoiding demand peaks saves compa-nies lots of money,” he says.

This is the case in the U.S. at least, becausemany energy contracts stipulate that monthlyenergy invoices for industrial customers mustbe calculated on the basis of a single con-sumption interval — the one with the highestload — even if actual consumption over theentire month is lower. The intervals used byU.S. utilities are often only 15 minutes long.

64 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Pictures of the Future | Siemens Venture Capital

Transparent Energy Systems began in abackyard in Pune, India in the late 1980s

with the production of small industrial steamboilers. Even then, the company’s boilers weremore energy efficient than any others avail-able in India. “The energy yield was at leastfive percent higher than that of boilers from ri-val firms,” recalls CEO B. G. Kulkarni with pride.

Today, 20 years later, Kulkarni and his teamare involved in the production of major indus-trial systems. Among the solutions they offerare those that convert industrial waste heat,such as that produced by cement plants, intoelectricity. This saves money and helps protectthe environment. Systems from TransparentEnergy Systems generate up to 16 megawatts

While Transparent Energy Systems specializes in

the utilization of waste heat (large image), Powerit

Solutions (below) develops software that helps to

avoid demand peaks, for example at wineries.

Green DwarfsDespite the current economic crisis, Siemens is investing venture capital in agile, innovative companies,many of which work with green technologies.

of power — energy that used to be blown intothe air as unused heat.

“Our solutions meet our customers’ needs— and not just in India,” says Kulkarni. So in2008 he started looking for a partner who un-derstood all aspects of his products and busi-ness model — and reached an agreement withSiemens Venture Capital (SVC) in May 2009.

SVC usually acquires a minority interest incompanies in the early phases of their devel-opment or, as with Transparent, as key strate-gic steps are about to be taken. SVC’s specialadvantage here is that it can draw fromSiemens’ broad range of experience.

“Our connection to Siemens got startedwhen we were invited to participate in

Siemens’ India Innovation Program 2008 com-petition, organized by SVC,” Kulkarni explains.Transparent ended up winning, and almost im-mediately after that it began talking with SVC’srepresentative in India, Rajesh Vakil. Thanks toTransparent’s expansion strategy, the com-pany may soon significantly increase its work-force of 150 contractual employees and 150wage laborers at two sites in India.

“Transparent is an excellent example ofhow we invest venture capital,” says JohannesSchmidt, head of Equity & Project Finance atSiemens Financial Services, of which SVC is apart. “Our global network and expertise enableus to identify extraordinary companies beforeother venture capital firms. And in many cases

78 Preparing for a Fiery FutureTo reach higher efficiencies,to morrow’s coal-fired power plants will have to operate at 700 degrees Celsius. Materials are being developed that can take the heat.

82 Coal’s Cleaner OutlookResearchers are developing tech-nologies for storing the CO2 gen-erated by coal-fired power plantsin underground depots.

106 Let there be Savings! Researchers have studied the life-cycles of lamps from productionto disposal. Result: Efficiency andlife span are the keys to a healthyenvironmental balance sheet.

110 Miracle in the Laundry Room Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte hasdeveloped a dryer that uses onlyhalf the power of conventionalproducts — an energy-efficiencyworld champion.

116 How to Own a Power PlantSince the beginning of 2009,many households have been ableto efficiently produce their ownheat and electricity using com-bined heat and power units.

121 Timely TrainsDetailed life cycle analyses helpengineers design trains that areenvironmentally friendly in theiroperation, production, andrecycling.

Highlights

2025In his special lab, energy-efficiency sleuth

Henry Poiret fine tunes the environmental

balance sheets of new locomotives for a rail-

way company. The trains and the entire pro-

duction hall are represented as holograms.

Poiret is assisted in his work by his avatar

“Virtual Watson.” Here, he presents a new

drive system that produces electricity as

soon as the train brakes, and feeds it back

into the power grid.

66 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 67

The scene is New York Cityin 2025. Henry Poiret, aformer FBI scientist, is aspecialist in environmentalbalance sheets who tracksdown energy wasters of all kinds for his clients. For the very first time, he allows a journalist towatch him at work — andto get an inside glimpse ofhis new lab.

Energy- SavingSleuth

Turn the light off for heaven’s sake!” Theelderly man hurries across the room, past

his secretary, and claps his hands quickly threetimes. The bright ceiling lights go out, and atthe same time the dark-tinted panorama win-dows become transparent, revealing a view ofManhattan. “A few more kilowatt-hours saved,”he says with evident satisfaction. “Welcome tomy office.”

It wasn’t easy getting an appointment withHenry “the Sniffer” Poiret — least of all as ajournalist, because if there’s one thing the 70-year-old former FBI scientist can’t stand, it’spublicity. Poiret prefers to work out of sight,and the prodigious wrongdoers he strives tohunt down — power hogs and energy wasters,gas guzzlers, and climate killers — often re-main elusive as well. In short, anything thatconsumes too much electricity, raw materials,or other resources must go. Poiret is an energy-

Energy Efficiency | Scenario 2025

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 6968 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

efficiency sleuth. In recent years, he has madea name for himself by cracking a number ofspectacular cases. In 2020, for example. With-out him, the city council would surely not havesucceeded in setting up an almost completelyCO2-neutral district.

And many of us remember what happenedlast summer, when the yellow cabs in Manhat-tan finally went green thanks to electric drivetechnology. The old fox had a hand in that too.

At the moment, Poiret is ready to help a Eu-ropean manufacturer of railway systems. U.S.Track, the local New York transit operator,wants to use a new generation of environmen-tally-friendly high-speed trains. So it an-nounced a competition — with the contract tobe awarded to the company whose locomotivecan demonstrate the best energy-efficiencyand most favorable environmental balancesheet throughout its service life. Naturally, theEuropeans don’t want to miss the opportunityto submit a concept, and they believe they canmaximize their chances with Poiret’s assis-tance. The master sleuth has taken time out forour magazine and has even agreed to give usan exclusive look at his new laboratory.

“Bobby, give the lad something to drink andstart up the lab, we’re going down,” the mastersays. His secretary hands me a cup of coffeeand urges me into an elevator at the end of theroom. “I’ve set up a small workroom in thebasement,” says Poiret. “That’s where I alsoshow customers my results from time to time.Mr. Watson is expecting us.” When the elevatordoors open, I am met by a wave of loud factorynoise. We are in the middle of a cavernous as-sembly hall; welding robots are everywhere,working on half-finished trains, and the air hasa metallic taste. “Watson,” calls Poiret, “turn offthat sound track immediately, it’s unbearable.”

The din subsides in seconds. A figure thatseems strangely transparent glides forwardfrom behind a locomotive. “Allow me to intro-duce Virtual Watson,” says Poiret. “You don’thave to extend your hand, he couldn’t shake itanyway. Mr. Watson is an avatar, a hologram,just like the entire hall. An entirely new tech-nology, and not exactly inexpensive.” Poirettakes a sip of coffee.

“The entire locomotive production processcan be simulated down here,” he explains. “Themanufacturer has already transferred the datato me, so I can find out where energy and rawmaterials are wasted, for example, and deter-mine the best ways to save even more.”

Poiret pulls an ultra-thin folding OLED dis-play from his pocket. “But now let’s get to work.We’re not playing a computer game here. Wat-son, explain to our young friend what we’velearned.”

“Very well, sir. We invited the Europeans toour lab, and together we took the simulatedtrains apart literally down to the last screw,while the design stage was still under way. Inthe process we noticed that the designerswanted to use mainly aluminum panels fromChina — flawless in quality, but rather inappro-priate with regard to the train’s environmentalbalance sheet.”

Virtual Watson straightens his perfectly sim-ulated bow tie. “Production of these panels isvery energy-intensive. And in China electricitystill comes to a large extent from coal-firedpower plants — they have become more effi-cient in recent years, but they still haven’t inte-grated a system of CO2 storage. So they emit arelatively large amount of CO2. This is why wehave recommended using aluminum panelsfrom Iceland and Norway. In those countries,the electricity comes entirely from renewablesources such as geothermal energy and hy-dropower. That would considerably improvethe train’s environmental balance sheet.”

Poiret nods in approval and browsesthrough pages on his OLED display. “Of course,we had other suggestions,” reveals the energy-efficiency detective. “Watson, show us thefront drive section.” The avatar strolls over toone of the locomotives and touches the under-body. As if by a magical force, the entire trainbecomes transparent. “The drive system is notonly gearless and ultra-efficient; it also servesas a generator. Whenever the locomotive ismoving downhill or its brakes are applied, it ac-cumulates braking energy. It feeds the powerback into the electrical grid or uses it for its on-board systems — so the train not only con-sumes electrical energy, but also produces it.”

Poiret gestures to Watson to climb aboardone of the trains. The assistant takes a seat inone of the compartments and lights up a vir-tual pipe. “Mr. Watson has just made himselfnice and comfortable atop what is essentially acompost heap: All the seat covers are com-pletely environmentally compatible, andwhat’s more, they will even become valuablefertilizer after they have been used,” explainsPoiret. “In theory, you could even eat them. In-cidentally, the whole train is completely recy-clable and contains no toxic substances what-soever. We succeeded in hunting down all theenvironmental polluters before it was too late.”

Poiret types a combination of keys into hisPDA. Slowly, the production hall disappears,and all that remains is a small white room —and Virtual Watson. “I still have a thing or twoto do here. Unfortunately, my holographicroom uses quite a bit of power,” he admits. “ButI can hardly bear to turn off Mr. Watson.”

Florian Martini

Energy Efficiency | Scenario 2025

Anyone familiar with the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change report (p. 7) can

no longer seriously doubt that climate changeis a reality. It’s clear that burning fossil fuelssuch as gas, coal, and oil is a major cause of thegreenhouse effect. So how can we turn thingsaround? What would happen if we began usingthe most modern and energy-efficient tech-nologies available for cars, power plants andhousehold appliances? If we could start fromscratch — how much energy would a hypo-thetical city with a population of ten millionpeople require? It turns out that a comparisonwith a conventional city in an industrializedcountry leads to some surprising results…

Consider the figures for Germany, for in-stance, which is the sixth-biggest energy con-sumer after the U.S., China, Russia, Japan andIndia. The country currently consumes 14,100petajoules of primary energy per year (1 PJequals 1015J, one quadrillion joules). Germanyhas a population of 82 million, which meansthat a hypothetical city of ten million wouldconsume around 1,715 PJ. The German energymix consists of 33.5% petroleum, 22% naturalgas, 15% hard coal, 11% brown coal, 11%nuclear power and around 7.5% power fromwater, wind, solar, biomass, geothermal andother sources. Converting this primary energyinto usable forms of energy leads to losses dueto energy consumption by power generationfacilities themselves and power transmission.As a result, consum ers wind up with only 1,045PJ of so-called “site energy.” Industry and busi-ness consume 44% of this energy, households26%, and the transportation sector 30%.

In our hypothetical city, residents, authori-ties, and industry have all pledged to practice

energy conservation. Heat is a good place tostart, because 53% of site energy in Germany isused solely to generate heat for offices andhomes, as well as heating up household waterand supplying process heat in industry. Accord-ing to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energie bilan zen— a federation of seven German energy associa -tions — heat accounts for 80% of total energyconsumption in private households.

Heat thus offers huge savings potential thatcan easily be exploited. According to Germany’sFederal Environment Agency, energy consump-tion could be cut by 56% in older buildings alonesimply by renovating, insulating outer walls andbasement ceilings, and installing heat-insulated

windows. Old buildings consume 17–25 litersof oil or cubic meters of gas per square meterof space per year. For comparison, conven-tional new buildings require only ten liters/cubicmeters per year and low-energy houses five toseven. Even more impressively, a so-called“passive house” needs just 1.5 liters of oil or cu-bic meters of gas per square meter per year.

It is therefore not surprising that all the oldbuildings in our hypothetical city have beenrenovated and new buildings have been built inline with low-energy or passive house stan-dards using government funding.

The situation is similar for industrial andcommercial buildings, in which process heat

and space heating account for 67% of energyconsumption. Electricity is also needed for ven-tilation and air conditioning systems. In our ef-ficient city, however, these systems no longerrun at full capacity but are instead regulated inline with requirements. Here, heat and CO2

sensors determine whether rooms are too coldor stuffy, while other sensors register if roomsare occupied and assess how much fresh air isneeded. Such solutions are a specialty ofSiemens’ Building Technologies Division,whose experts search for “energy leaks” ineverything from hospitals and shopping cen-ters to government agencies, schools and uni-versities. As it turns out, energy consumption

Energy requirements and CO2 emissions of ten million people (based on

figures for Germany in 2007). The most effective levers for reducing CO2

emissions by consumers are heat, electricity and energy used for trans-

portation; cutting losses is the key factor in terms of energy generation.

Cities: A Better Energy PictureMany energy-efficient solutions that could substantially reducepower consumption arealready available. A studyof a hypothetical city —the world champion in energy efficiency — pro-vides insight into howsuch solutions could work in practice.

| Urban Energy Analysis

From hard coal21 million tons = 22%(83,000 t / PJ)

From petroleum36 million tons = 37%(63,500 t / PJ)

From natural gas20 million tons = 20.5%(54,000 t / PJ)

Energy-relatedCO2 emissions97 million tons of CO2 per year

Hard coal256 PJ 15%

Brown coal188 PJ 11%

Petroleum576 PJ33,5%

Natural gas377 PJ22%

Nuclearenergy189 PJ 11%Wind/water/

other129 PJ = 7.5%

Primary energy con-sumption 1,715 PJ / a(59 million tons hardcoal equivalent)

Electricity generation mix

Nuclear energy(average eff. = 35%)

Heating oil 1.5%Share19.5%

23.5%

14%

23%

14.5%4%

Hard coal (average efficiencyat German powerplants = 38%)

Brown coal (average eff. = 37.5%)

Water (3.1%), wind (6.4%), solar (0.7%), geothermal (0.1%), biomass (3.5%), waste (0.7%)

Natural gas (average eff. = 49.6%)

Industry + commercial 460 PJ = 44%

Space heating100 PJ

Heating oil 41 PJ = 14%

Natural gas 161 PJ = 54%

Heating 43 PJ = 27%

Mechanical energy 90 PJ = 55% I&C technology 10 PJ = 6%

Lighting 19 PJ = 11,5%

Heating oil 56 PJ = 27%

Natural gas 110 PJ = 53%

District heating 8%

Renewables 12%

Passenger cars (5.6 million)217 PJ = 69%

Kitchen appliances 10 PJ = 16%Freezers/refrigerators 10 PJ = 16%Washing machines, dryer 9 PJ = 15%Hot water 11 PJ = 17%TV, I&C, office 14 PJ = 22%Lighting 6 PJ = 10%Others 2 PJ = 4%

Trucks 44 PJ = 14%Air transportation 32 PJ = 10%Local/long-distance rail 13 PJ = 4%Buses 6 PJ = 2%Ships 3 PJ = 1%

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Process heat198 PJ

Electricity162 PJ

Space heating208 PJ

Electricity 62 PJ

Fuels308 PJ

Electricity 7 PJ

Households270 PJ = 26%

Transportation315 PJ = 30%

Delivered energy use: 1,045 PJ/a

From brown coal20 million tons = 20.5%(106,000 t / PJ)

Losses in power generationand transmission, and energyconsumption in the energysector itself: 670 PJ = 39%

A hypothetical German megacity would require approximately 231 PJ of electrical energy per year (= 64 TWh / a). Given the current German energy mix, this translatesinto power plants with a total output of approximately 11 gigawatts, which in turnrequire some 680 PJ of primary energy and produce 34 million tons of CO2.

District heating 18 PJ = 6%

Renewables 21 PJ = 7%

1 petajoule (PJ) = 0.278 Terawatt-hours (TWh)

Energy Picture of a City of Ten Million Based on Current German Use

Others

Coal 57 PJ = 19%

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2007 7170 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2007

in many buildings can be cut by 20%–40%without a major investment in new technology.

Miserly Motors. Our efficient city has alsoplugged other energy leaks, such as losses fromthe electric motors used in drives, conveyorbelts and pumps. Motors account for nearly 70%of total industrial power consumption. A lot ofenergy can be saved here by using intelligentand more efficient motors. In the past, virtuallyno one knew how much electricity was beingused by which machines in a factory. ButSiemens has developed analysis software thatenables operators to obtain such data. Thesoftware works its way through processes at afactory and finds out how much energy is con-sumed by each machine — and when. Thisprocess reveals hidden potential for optimiza-tion and identifies energy guzzlers.

Of course, waste heat is also harnessed inthe efficient city. Siemens offers a concept herethat is perfect for all sectors where largeamounts of waste heat are produced, such asthe glass, metal, pharmaceutical and cementindustries. The principle is always the same.Waste heat vaporizes a liquid, and the resultinggas is used to drive a turbine, which in turngenerates electricity.

Naturally, all of these measures cost money.And given that local governments generallyoperate on tight budgets, energy savings per-formance contracting can offer an ideal solution.Here, Siemens plans and installs new technologythat guarantees energy savings. Local govern-ment pays for the investment in installmentsfinanced from the energy savings achieved.Such a system doesn’t burden local budgets, andonce the contract expires after around ten years,all savings flow directly to the client. In Berlin,for example, Siemens renovated 11 municipalindoor pools by replacing boilers and installingmore-efficient heat recovery and warm waterprocessing systems. It also converted operationfrom oil to gas. The public swimming pools nowsave 1.63 million euros per year — or one thirdof their previous energy costs. Performancecontracting particularly pays off in old municipalbuildings, where it can often halve energy con-sumption. The concept has also been success-fully implemented in hospitals and universities.

Putting the Brakes on Energy Use. Our en-ergy-efficient city has also addressed the second-biggest energy consumer — transportation,which accounts for 28% of delivered energy. Upuntil recently, 5.6 million passenger cars wereon the road in this hypothetical city, emitting15 million tons of CO2 per year. That was rea-son enough to start using the extensive andmodernized public transit network, especially

since taxes and toll fees had made driv ing vehi-cles with high CO2 emissions expensive. Thenew buses and trains are comfortable, travel atfrequent intervals, and consume 30% less en-

ergy than their predecessors, thanks to light-weight materials and regenerative braking sys-tems. Motorists use hybrid vehicles that storebraking energy in their batteries, which is thentransferred to an electric motor. This reducesfuel consumption by around 20%. It will be pos-sible to save even more energy when electricdrives and electric brakes are integrated directlyinto each vehicle’s wheels. In the meantime, In-ternet-based information and efficient trafficguidance systems are helping to prevent trafficjams and facilitate parking.

Green Energy Production. Our city wouldn’tbe an efficiency champion if it hadn’t also cutpower consumption. Although electricity ac-counts for only 22% of all delivered energy con-sumed in Germany, that’s just half the story. Af-ter all, it first has to be generated in gas, coal ornuclear power plants, whose losses total any-where between 50% and 65%. In other words,40% of all the primary energy consumed in Ger-many is used to produce electricity. That wastoo much for the efficiency champions, whomake better use of primary energy in facilitieslike combined-cycle power plants, which todaycan convert more than 58% of the energy con-tained in gas into electricity. The energy-effi-cient city also exploits associated heat, pushingthe fuel conversion rate to over 80%. Here,process steam and heat are sent via pipes tonearby factories and apartment buildings.

In the town of Irsching, where a 570-mega -watt combined-cycle plant is being built for en-ergy supplier E.ON, Siemens is already demon-strating that efficiency ratings of more than 60%could soon be the norm. Weighing 444 tons,this 13-meter-long gas turbine is as heavy as sixdiesel locomotives — but has 100 times theoutput. In fact, its 375 megawatts could supplythe population of a city like Hamburg. Futureversions of the plant are expected to achievean efficiency of 63% within ten years. The im-plications of this become clear when you con-sider that replacing all coal-fired plants world-wide with the latest combined-cycle plantswould result in over four billion tons less CO2

being released into the atmosphere each year. Renewable energy sources also help reduce

CO2 emissions in our imaginary city. For exam-

ple, solar cells can be found on top of nearlyevery public and private building. Windmills,solar thermal and geothermal plants and bio-mass power plants also provide their share of

electricity, while a large portion of householdwaste is converted into fuel for power plants.

Saving at Home. Residents of the efficientcity also contribute to energy conservation. Al-most half of all electricity consumed in thehousehold is used by refrigerators, freezers,stoves, washing machines and dishwashers.Purchasing new appliances is the best invest-ment here, as the consumption of such deviceshas been cut by 30%–75% since 1990. TheWuppertal Institute for Climate, Environmentand Energy estimates that replacing old house-hold appliances throughout Germany wouldreduce annual electricity consumption by 7.9tera watt-hours (billion kWh) or 28.4 PJ — theequivalent of the annual electricity require-ment of nearly five million people.

Lighting systems in this hypothetical high-efficiency city would be completely revampedas well. Lighting accounts for more than 10% ofelectricity consumption in Germany and nearly19% worldwide. Given the current global en-ergy mix, that corresponds to emissions of twobillion tons of CO2 per year — or the emissionsproduced by 700 million passenger cars. Thepotential for savings here is huge and easy toexploit because energy-saving lamps can reduceconsumption by up to 80% compared to con-ventional light bulbs. So too can LED lamps,which last around 50 times longer than incan-descent light bulbs.

Energy consumption can also be reduced inproduction facilities, which up until now haveoften been equipped with several thousand flu-orescent lamps. State-of-the-art mirror louvre lu-minaires, electronic ballasts and dimmers thatautomatically adjust to natural light can generatelighting-related electricity savings of up to 80%.

Thanks to the combined potential for energyconservation in households, buildings, industry,transportation and power plant technology, anefficient city could reduce its consumption ofprimary energy and its CO2 emissions by 50%.This analysis of a hypothetical city clearlydemonstrates that a variety of solutions alreadyexist for achieving major reductions in energyconsumption. In other words, they don’t have tobe developed — they could be implementedright now. Tim Schröder

Energy Efficiency | Urban Energy Analysis

Replacing old appliances throughout Germany would save enough electricity for 5 million people.

Astronauts working at the InternationalSpace Station (ISS) are treated to a spectac-

ular view as they orbit the earth. With eachrevolution, the earth grows dark, and billions oflights 390 kilometers below join to form ashimmering meshwork that extends acrossland masses like a spider web. This light is, infact, the only visible sign of civilization on ourplanet, at least as seen from space.

The sea of light continually expands as theearth’s population grows. According to the UN,there will be eight billion people living on ourplanet in 2020. As prosperity spreads, thesepeople will seek a higher standard of living,and will thus begin buying more and more elec-trical appliances, cars, and other products, whichin turn will necessitate the construction of newfactories and offices. More than anything else,all of this will require huge amounts of energy.

“Energy is a necessity of life,” says ProfessorPeter Hennicke, former head of the WuppertalInstitute for Climate, Environment, and Energy.“But it can also be a curse if you look at it interms of climate change, resource depletion,and the failure to use and produce it efficientlyand economically.” Unfortunately, we’re still farfrom doing that, according to the InternationalEnergy Agency (IEA), and things won’t get anybetter if current trends hold up. The IEA pre-dicts that global primary energy consumption

will increase by 55 percent between 2005 and2030 if the current environmental policyframework remains unchanged (see p. 27).Consumption would thus rise to 18 billion tonsof oil equivalent (toe) per year, as compared to11.4 billion toe in 2005.

The IEA study says developing countries willbe responsible for 74 percent of this increase inprimary energy consumption — with Chinaand India alone accounting for 45 percent.Moreover, both of these countries will meetmost of their energy needs with coal because,unlike other raw materials, coal remains abun-dant and is currently cheaper than renewableenergy sources. China already has a hugehunger for coal. The country put 174 coal-firedpower plants online in 2006 alone, which aver-ages out to one new plant every two days. Thisis a climate-change nightmare, says Hennicke,especially when you consider the fact that facil-ities built today will remain in operation for thenext 30 years. “In order to contain the associ-ated risks to the climate, we have to exploit themost effective, fastest, and least expensive po-tential solution: energy efficiency.”

China is aware of the problem, and has there-fore included in its 11th Five-Year Plan strictstipulations for reducing environmental pollutionand improving energy efficiency. New techno -logies from Siemens are pointing the way here.

A blanket of illumination as seen from space is a re-

minder of our planet’s hunger for energy, which

is expected to increase by 55 percent by 2030.

By 2020, Earth will be home to eight billion people.

Light at the End of the TunnelThe world’s population isgrowing — as is its thirstfor energy, which is increasingly beingquenched, especially inemerging markets, bystreams of coal. But solutions are in sight.Emissions can be cleanedand CO2 can be sequestered. Efficiencycan stretch supplies andcut pollution. And new, renewable energy technologies are rightaround the corner.

| Trends

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 73

Residents of the town of Irsching in Bavaria,came out in droves in Spring 2007 to wit-

ness the traditional raising of their white andblue maypole. Three weeks later, they ap-peared in droves again — this time out ofconcern for the pole, as an oversized trailer hadshown up carrying a new turbine for the town’spower plant. The residents were worried thatthe turbine, which measured 13 meters inlength, five meters in height, and weighed 444tons, could pose a threat to their belovedmaypole. This was not the case, however; spe-cialists supervising the transport were actuallymore concerned about a bridge at the en-trance to the town, which they renovated as aprecautionary measure prior to the turbine’sarrival.

The world’s largest gas turbine measures 13 me-

ters in length, five meters in height and weighs

444 tons. It was built at Siemens’ gas turbine

plant in Berlin.

UnmatchedEfficiencyThe world’s largest gas turbine, with an output of 375megawatts, entered trial service in December 2007. In combination with a downstream steam turbine, it will help ensure that a new combined cycle power plantachieves a record-breaking efficiency of more than 60 percent when it goes into operation in 2011.

| World’s Largest Gas Turbine

72 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Take, for example, China’s most modernelectrical power plant, the Huaneng Yuhuancoal-fired facility (see p. 77). Since November2007, so-called ultra super-critical steam tur-bine units and generators from Siemens havemade possible an efficiency rating of 45 per-cent at Huaneng Yuhuan. That’s 15 percentagepoints higher than the global average for hard-coal power plants and seven percentage pointsmore than the EU average. This is significant,since one percentage point of higher efficiencytranslates for a mid-sized power plant intoaround 100,000 fewer tons of CO2 per year. “Ifwe use the same technology in future projects,it will make a huge contribution to improvingenergy efficiency and environmental protection

Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) powerplants. IGCC plants transform coal and other fu-els like oil and asphalt into a synthetic gas thatdrives a turbine. From this gas, the CO2 can beseparated relatively easily, leaving only purehydrogen behind. “We’re ready to start con-struction of a major IGCC facility anytime,” saysDr. Christiane Schmid from Siemens Fuel Gasifi-cation Technology GmbH, in Frei berg, Ger-many. “Siemens, after all, has been involved inthe development of optimized IGCC conceptsfor years now.” Spain and the Netherlands, for

cent between now and 2050 through more ef-ficient utilization of energy, with only marginaladditional costs, according to Hennicke.

Operators of an indoor swimming pool in Vi-enna, Austria, are already reaping the benefitsof more efficient energy use. Thanks to a cleverenergy-saving model and building manage-ment system from Siemens, the pool facilitynow produces around 600 tons less greenhousegas per year than in the past. The Siemenssetup not only helps the environment; it’s alsosaving the pool’s operator €200,000 per year on

in China’s electrical power generation indus-try,” says Hu Shihai, Deputy Managing Directorof the China Huaneng Group.

Scientists at Siemens’ Energy unit in Mül-heim an der Ruhr, Germany, are working on so-called 700-degree technology (see p. 78) as ameans of increasing the efficiency of coal-firedpower plants, which remain in great demand.Here, experts are trying to get turbines to with-stand extremely high steam temperatures,since the higher the temperature, the more ef-ficient the system will be. New materials andmanufacturing techniques are being studied inan effort to achieve a temperature of 700 de-grees Celsius and pressure of 350 bars, which isaround 100 degrees and 65 bars more than thenorm in today’s power plants. Only at thosenew high levels can an efficiency rating of 50percent be achieved.

CO2SINK. Development engineers are alsolooking at other concepts for making coal-firedpower plants more climate friendly. One ap-proach involves separating the carbon dioxidecreated by the coal-burning process, and stor-ing it below ground to keep it out of the atmos-phere. This would amount to nearly CO2-freeelectricity production (see p. 82). One promis-ing technique is coal gasification in Integrated

example, already have IGCC power plants withSiemens technology in operation. But beforesuch plants can be built, a number of hurdleswill have to be overcome. The problem is thatthe legal framework for efficient CO2 sequestra-tion still hasn’t been clarified, and locationswhere CO2 might be stored have yet to befound and tested. The world’s most extensivestudy of underground CO2-storage possibilitiesis currently being carried out in the small townof Ketzin near Berlin by scientists from the Ger-man Research Center for Geosciences in Pots-dam (see p. 85), who will depo siting 60,000tons of carbon dioxide in special rock strata700 meters below ground by 2010. CO2SINK,as the EU-sponsored project is known, exam-ines how the gas reacts after being pum pedunderground and will determine whether itcould threaten to find its way back to the surface.

Geologists believe that CO2 can be trappedfor thousands, or perhaps millions, of years,which means climate-friendly coal powerplants may become a reality. “Still, it’s going totake time before such facilities can operateeconomically,” cautions Hennicke. “That’s why,in addition to focusing on producing energymore efficiently, we should be trying to use itmuch more efficiently as well.” A country suchas Japan could reduce CO2 emissions by 70 per-

heating and water costs. Siemens has alreadyimplemented over 1,000 such energy perform-ance contracting projects worldwide. It’s a win-win situation for companies and the environ-ment alike, as the savings potential is huge.According to the IEA, buildings account foraround 40 percent of global energy consump-tion and 21 percent of CO2 emissions.

Also in need of an energy diet are the ap-proximately 30 million servers around theworld that keep the Internet up and running.According to Stanford University, operatingthese computers requires the energy gener-ated by 14 power plants in the 1,000-megawatt class. Cutting down on energy con-sumption here would also produce impressiveresults. “Computer centers could reduce elec-tricity consumption by more than one-third ifthey switched over to more efficient technolo-gies,” says David Murphy, who coordinates“Green IT” projects at Siemens IT Solutions andServices. Such projects will become more andmore important in the face of rising energyprices and growing CO2 emissions.

For all its negative publicity, carbon dioxidehas one positive characteristic: it has led to ahuge innovation boom in the areas of energy ef-ficiency and environmentally-friendly technolo-gies. A per fect example is the state of Cali fornia,whose strict environmental regulations make itan eldorado for companies that produce cleantechnologies, among them Siemens. The solu-tions being developed there, ranging from ex-tremely efficient computer chips to plug-in hy-brid vehicles that “fill up” on sunlight, arepioneering, says Hennicke. “Moreover,” headds, “if the U.S. would even come close to ex-ploiting its potential for renewable energy, wewould see a huge wave of innovation thatwould bring us a lot closer to our goal of pro-viding energy to billions of people in a sustain-able manner.” Florian Martini

“We have to exploit the most effective, and least expensive potential solution: energy efficiency.”

74 percent of the increase in global primary energy consumption will take place in emerging economies.

Energy Efficiency | Trends

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 75

speaking, therefore, less fuel will be burnedand 40,000 tons less carbon dioxide (CO2) peryear will be emitted into the atmosphere thanwould be the case with the Mainz-Wiesbadenplant.

But there was still plenty of work to do afterthe plant was built in 2007, as technicians stillhad to test all systems to ensure that the gaslines were pressure-tight, electrical cables wereproperly secured, and that all valves couldopen and close quickly and reliably. It was like afinal check before a space mission — and the

countdown was under way, with ignitionscheduled for mid-December, 2007.

There’s good reason for Siemens’ decisionto use one giant turbine rather than the twosmaller ones E.ON will put into operation nextdoor. “The price per megawatt (MW) of outputand efficiency correlate with the size of the tur-bine — in other words, the bigger it is, themore economical it will be,” explains WillibaldFischer, who is responsible for development ofthe turbine. “In 1990, the largest gas turbineproduced 150 MW, and, in conjunction with a

Efficiency Record. Siemens’ project managerWolfgang Winter points to one of the walls andexplains that it is the connection to the air in-take unit, which draws in fresh air from theoutside. Equipped with a special housing, fil-ters, and sound absorbers, the unit channels in800 kilograms of air per second when the facil-ity operates at full capacity — an amount thatwould exhaust the air inside the hall in just afew minutes.

But it will be worth the effort because thegas turbine and a downstream steam turbinewill set a new world record in 2011 with an ef-ficiency rating of over 60 percent, two percent-age points higher than the previous titleholder,the Mainz-Wiesbaden power plant. Relatively

The turbine produces enough electricity for the population of a city the size of Hamburg.

75-MW steam turbine, had an efficiency of 52percent. Our gas turbine has an output of 375MW. In combination with a 190-MW steam tur-bine it utilizes more than 60 percent of the en-ergy content of the gas fuel.”

Engineers at Siemens Energy overcame twochallenges while designing the turbine. Theyincreased the amount of air and combustiongases that flow through the turbine each sec-ond, which causes output to rise more than thelosses in the turbine, and they raised the tem-perature of the combustion gases, which in-creases efficiency.

“It’s tricky when you send gas heated to1,200 to 1,500 degrees Celsius across metalturbine blades,” says Fischer. “That’s becausethe highest temperature the blade surfaces areallowed to be exposed to is 950 degrees, atwhich point they begin to glow red. If it getsany hotter, the material begins to lose its stabil-ity and oxidizes.”

Ceramic Coating. Siemens engineers havebeen creative in tackling this problem. Onething they did was lower the heat transfer fromthe combustion gas to the metal by applying aprotective thermal coating consisting of twolayers: a 300-micrometer-thick undercoatingdirectly on the metal and a thin ceramic layeron top of that, which provides heat insulation.The blades are also actively cooled, as they arehollow inside and are exposed to cool airflowsgenerated by the compressor. The blades at thevery front (the hottest part of the turbine) alsohave fine holes, from which air is released thatthen flows across the blades, covering themwith a thin insulating film, like a protectiveshield.

As turbine blades spin, massive centrifugalforces come into play. The end of each blade isexposed to a maximum force of 10,000 timesthe earth’s gravitational pull, which is the

74 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007

Energy Efficiency | World’s Largest Gas Turbine

The world’s largest turbine, which was builtat Siemens’ Energy plant in Berlin, traveled1,500 kilometers to get to Irsching — initiallyby water along the Havel river, various canals,the Rhine, and the Main. It then went down theMain-Danube Canal to Kelheim, where it wasloaded onto a truck for the final 40 kilometers.This odyssey was undertaken because the onlyway to truly test such a large and powerful tur-bine is to put it into operation at a power plant.“It was a nice coincidence that the energy com-pany E.ON was planning to expand the powerstation in Irsching,” says Wolfgang Winter, En-ergy project manager in Irsching.

Siemens built a combined cycle plant at theBavarian facility (Block 5) for E.ON Kraftwerke

GmbH. The plant houses two small gas tur-bines and a steam turbine. Siemens also builtthe plant’s new Block 4, where the giant tur-bine is installed. The new turbine’s output of375 megawatts, which equals that of 17 jumbojet engines, is enough to supply power to thepopulation of a city the size of Hamburg.

“Block 4 is our project at the moment,” saysWinter. Siemens uses the existing infrastruc-ture here, purchases gas from E.ON-Ruhrgas,and sells the electricity it produces at the plant.But that was not that important in 2007, how-ever, as the turbine first needed to be testedover the following 18 months. To this end, theunit was equipped with 3,000 sensors thatmeasure just about everything modern tech-

nology can register — from temperature andpressure to mechanical stress and materialstrain. If a component is defective, or fails,computers linked to the sensors call attentionto the problem immediately. The componentwill then be removed, replaced, or reworked.

Most of the measuring technology is hid-den; the thing that stands out at the facility is asection of 21 office trailers housing the tur-bine’s measurement stations. The trailers looktiny next to the turbine hall, which is 30 metershigh. Despite its massive size, the new facility’smetal facade makes it seem light and moderncompared to the plant’s three old concrete tow-ers from the 1960s and ’70s, each of which is200 meters high.

The world’s largest gas turbine has an output of 375 megawatts — which equals the power of 17 jumbo jet engines. Weighing in at 444 tons, the turbine is carefully positioned.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 77

Yuhuan, China’s most advanced coal-fired power

plant, boasts a record-breaking efficiency of

45 percent — thanks to ultra-supercritical steam

turbines supplied by Siemens (small photo).

power plants over the last 25 years, but the de-sign and performance of those at Yuhuan arereally special,” says Lothar Balling, Vice Presi-dent Steam Power Plants at Siemens. The plantoperator agrees. “We’ve known for a long timethat Siemens supplies the very latest technol-ogy and high-quality systems,” says Fan Xiaxia,Vice President of Huaneng Power InternationalInc. “Huaneng needs this kind of advancedtechnology to help it develop as a company.”

On the other hand, Huaneng is relaxed aboutthe prospect of Yuhuan soon being overtaken inthe efficiency stakes. Indeed, it’s firmly hopedthat the plant will lead the way for China’sother power generators. That’s because en-hanced efficiency, environmental compatibil-ity, and sustainability are a must for China’selectricity industry. “The Chinese administra-tion has categorically said that the country’seconomy can’t be allowed to grow at the ex-pense of the environment,” says Hu Shihai, As-sistant General Manager at China HuanengGroup. “That’s why the 11th Five-Year Plan con-tains very strict targets on the reduction of pol-lution and improvements in energy efficiency.”

Energy Appetite. China needs to overcomehuge challenges if it is to remain on the path ofeconomic growth. According to official statis-tics, the country's energy demand has risen byan average of 5.6 percent every year since thestart of the reform era in the early 1980s, andlast year it leapt by a massive 20 percent.

Back in 2003, China had a total installedgenerating capacity of 400 gigawatts (GW). By2007, that figure had risen to 720 GW, and isnow forecast to top 1,000 GW by 2011. In2006 alone, 174 coal-fired power plants in the500-megawatt class entered service in China— in other words, on average, one every otherday. Driving the country’s growth is not only in-dustry but also private consumption, with mostChinese households now owning a refrigeratorand TV, and many now investing in washingmachines and air conditioning as well. How-ever, per capita electricity consumption is stilllow by international standards and, accordingto a study by the International Energy Agency(IEA), was only around 1,780 kilowatt-hours(kWh) in 2005, substantially less than in Ger-many (7,100 kWh) or the U.S. (13,640 kWh).On the other hand, when this figure is com-pared to economic output, China is anythingbut frugal: for every unit of GDP, the People’sRepublic consumes 3.5 times as much energyas the international average.

As much as 73 percent of the country’s elec-tricity is generated from coal, the only source ofenergy that China possesses in any considerablequantities and which therefore doesn’t have to

be imported at high cost. In 2007, around 1.5billion tons of coal were burned in Chinesepower plants. Any improvements in efficiencywill therefore have a substantial impact on thecountry’s consumption of resources, fuel costs,and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, a rise ofa single percentage point in efficiency bringsfuel costs down by 2.5 percentage points. For amedium-sized power plant that has an installedcapacity of 700 MW and operates for 7,000hours a year, this translates into an annualreduction of 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

“Efficient and environmental power planttechnology has a big role to play in reducingCO2 emissions,” says Balling. “Our aim is to real-ize this potential worldwide.” This approach fitsperfectly with the political strategy of the Peo-ple’s Republic. The country has already sur-passed the U.S. as the world’s largest producerof greenhouse gases and is aware of theresponsibility that goes with this role. Duringinitial negotiations for the follow-up to theKyoto Protocol, China demonstrated that it takesthe threat of global warming very seriously.

Record Efficiency. In June 2006 Beijing pub-lished its own roadmap as to how to reduceemissions of greenhouse gases. The target is toraise energy efficiency 20 percent by 2010,based on 2005 levels. In addition, by buildingmore-efficient coal-fired power plants, the gov-ernment plans to reduce carbon dioxide emis-sions by 200 million tons over the same period.“When you look at the most recent powerplants in China, it’s obvious the country’s al-ready long past the stage of being a developingnation,” says Lutz Kahlbau, who was Presidentof Siemens Power Generation China until mid2009. “In fact, China’s most modern powerplants are among the best anywhere in theworld, with great efficiency and comparativelylow CO2 emissions,” he adds.

Leading the way is the Yuhuan plant. “It’sthe most energy-efficient and environmentallycompatible coal-fired power plant anywhere inChina,” says Hu. “If we use the same technol-ogy for future projects, it will have a huge im-pact on the efficiency and environmental im-pact of China’s power industry.”

Siemens is already targeting new records forfuture power plants. “The next generation ofcoal-fired plants will operate at steam tempera-tures of 700 degrees Celsius and pressures inexcess of 300 bars,” Balling explains. “Thatshould enable us to break the magical barrierof 50 percent efficiency and thus significantlyreduce CO2 emissions compared to today’s lev-els.” With so much potential for progress, 2008won’t be the last big year in China’s calendar.

Bernhard Bartsch

efficiency of power plants in China is 30 per-cent, a figure similar to that of the U.S., andeven in environmentally-progressive Europe it’sonly 38 percent.

Not that there’s anything artificially en-hanced about the performance of the Yuhuanfacility, which is operated by Huaneng PowerInternational Inc. Such efficiency is possiblethanks to the use of so-called ultra-supercriticalsteam turbines from Siemens (see p. 78), whichmake it possible to produce temperatures of 600degrees Celsius and a pressure of 262.5 bars inthe main steam line. By way of comparison, thepressure in a car tire is around 3.3 bars. The gen-erators are also from Siemens. “I’ve seen a lot of

76 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Energy Efficiency

equivalent of each cubic centimeter of such ablade weighing as much as an adult humanbeing.

The blades of the new mega turbine aremade of a nickel alloy. These used to be castand then left to harden. Later, crystallites weremade to grow in the same direction as the cen-trifugal forces. But now the blades on the giantturbine in Irsching contain alloys that havemostly been grown as single crystals throughthe utilization of special cooling processes.They are therefore extremely resistant to break-ing, as there are no longer any grain bound-aries between the crystallites in the alloy thatcan rupture.

Engineers also optimized the shape ofthe blades with the help of 3D simulationprograms, whereby the edges were designedto keep the gap between the blades and theturbine wall as small as possible. As a result,practically all the gas passes across the bladesand is utilized. The blade-wall gap is made evensmaller due to the turbine’s operation in acone. This means that the shaft can be shiftedseveral millimeters during operation until theblades nearly touch the housing — a practiceknown as “hydraulic gap optimization.”

Trial Run. Each off the measures mentionedabove produces only a fractional increase inefficiency or output. But taken together theyadd up to a new record. That everythingworked as planned was revealed by the18-month trial period that began in November2007. The tests were successful beyond expec-tations. After thorough analysis of the testresults, it is now possible to announuce theturbine’s power rating: 375 MW in pure gasoperation, and 570 MW when used as acombined cycle power plant. A release for dis-tribution was issued in August 2009, meaningthat the new mega turbine is on the market.

After successful completion of all tests inAugust of 2009, things are now quiet inIrsching. The turbine will now be overhauledand disassembled, and all of its componentswill be thoroughly examined. If everything isfound to be in order, the unit will be reassem-bled minus its specialized measuring equip-ment.

During the overhaul, engineers will installan additional steam turbine on the shaft at theend of the generator. The turbine will make useof the generator’s 600-degree-Celsius gas togenerate steam in a heat exchanger. Onlythrough this combined cycle process can theenergy in the gas be so effectively exploited asto achieve the record efficiency of 60 percent –a record in terms of eco-friendliness.

Bernhard Gerl

Olympic EfficienciesGenerating capacity has long been regarded as theAchilles heel of China’s boom. But thanks to new technology from Siemens, power generation in thePeople’s Republic is becoming increasingly efficient,environmentally compatible, and sustainable.

For China, 2008 was just the latest in awhole series of big years. With posters for

the summer’s Beijing Olympics plastered acrossbillboards throughout the provinces, the Chi-nese looked upon the Games as a golden op-portunity to not only put on a huge sportingfestival but also to showcase their country’s re-cent achievements. Despite having increasedgross domestic product by a nominal factor of13 over the period since 1990, the People’s Re-public was determined to show the world thatit still has a lot of potential.

The buzzwords of China’s latest wave ofmodernization were “efficiency, environmentalcompatibility, and sustainability” — areas in

which China intends to excel every bit as muchas in summer’s 2008 sporting events in Beijing.The latest demonstration of China’s commit-ment to these goals — a commitment en-dorsed by the entire Beijing administration —is on display in Zhejiang province, south ofShanghai, which is home to China’s most mod-ern power plant.

The Yuhuan coal-fired plant consists of four1,000-megawatt generating units, of whichthe two most recent — Units 3 and 4 — en-tered service in November 2007. The facilityboasts an efficiency of 45 percent, which isvery much a winning performance in this field,even by international standards. The average

| Coal-Fired Power in China

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 79

Energy Efficiency | Steam Turbine Materials

78 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

In a Siemens factory in Mülheim an der Ruhr,

scientists prepare turbine materials for ultra-high

temperatures (left). Gigantic steam turbines will

one day have to withstand over 700 degrees Celsius.

Preparing for a Fiery Future To achieve 50 percent efficiency and cut environmentalimpact, tomorrow‘s coal-fired power plants will use hotter steam. Testing turbine materials at hellish tem-peratures and centrifugal forces is part of the picture.

In a materials lab at Siemens’ Fossil PowerGeneration Division in Mülheim an der Ruhr,

Germany, metals die a slow death. Weightsdrag relentlessly at rods made of new alloys,while material fatigue and corrosion race attime-lapse speeds. Materials specialist HansHanswillemenke indicates a test behind a plexi-glass sheet, where a pencil-thin metal rodclamped at each end glows a dull red. “That willbreak in a few days,” he says. The experimentis relentless — and that’s as it should be. Afterall, it’s better if the metals fail in the lab thanlater, after they’ve been forged to form steamturbine shafts a meter or more in diameter andare enduring enormous centrifugal forces andtemperatures of 700 degrees Celsius.

This metallic martyrdom is helping engi-neers prepare for the coal-fired power station ofthe future, which should be much more efficientand use as little fuel as possible in order to keepatmospheric emissions to a minimum. The needfor action is urgent. On average, the world’scoal-fired power plants consume 480 grams of

That’s equivalent to a service life of more than25 years. “We are confident that we canachieve this goal with 700 degrees,” he says.“However, we still have to prove it.”

There are good practical reasons why de-signers are determined to leap from 600 to 700degrees and 285 to 350 bar pressure. “Above600 degrees, we have to use new materialsanyway; traditional metals just wouldn’t beable to withstand the temperatures,” saysPfitzinger. “And we want to make as much useas possible of these materials, so we’re going togo straight to 700 degrees.” The higher pres-sure is necessary to optimize efficiency. The ob-jective is to increase efficiency by four percent-age points over that achieved at 600 degrees,and to cut coal consumption by six to sevenpercent, thus also reducing CO2 emissions.

Exotic Mix. By new materials, Pfitzingermeans nickel alloys, which are a sophisticatedmix of high-strength metals like nickel andchromium, with only a pinch of iron. Such al-

2015. Such an efficient power plant wouldconsume only 288 grams of coal per kilowatt-hour, and thus produce only 669 grams of CO2.Such a step would have significant conse-quences because each percentage point in im-proved efficiency — if applied to all coal burn-ing power plants — translates into 260 milliontons less CO2 each year .

Ordeal by Fire. To achieve this ambitiousgoal, turbine materials will have to be able tosurvive extraordinary stresses. A glance at anyphysics book reveals the principle behind theheat engine — and that’s exactly what a fossil-fuel-fired power plant is. It turns out that theuseful energy produced by such plants is deter-mined by the difference between the tempera-ture source and the temperature sink. In otherwords, the steam entering the turbine should

be as hot as possible and the steam leaving itas cool as possible. The blades then have themaximum available energy to convert into ro-tational energy, which is fed into the generator.As a result, the steam temperature needs to beincreased from the level currently found in thebest power plants (around 600 degrees Cel-sius) to 700 degrees Celsius — the temperatureto which the metals are being subjected in theMülheim laboratory. Only then will it becomepossible to achieve 50 percent efficiency. “Tem-perature is the key factor,” says Dr. Ernst-Wil-helm Pfitzinger, the project manager in chargeof developing the 700-degree turbine in Mül-heim. But as Werner-Holger Heine, head ofProduct Line Management for Steam Turbines,is only too aware, the situation is complex. Fora steam turbine, customers demand a workinglifetime of at least 200,000 hours, he says.

coal to produce a kilowatt-hour of electricity. Indoing so, they release between 1,000 and1,200 grams of CO2 into the air, or some eightbillion tons a year. One of the most efficientcoal-fired power plants in the world, the BlockWaigaoqiao III in China, for which Siemens de-livered two 1,000-megawatt turbines, burnsonly 320 grams of coal per kilowatt-hour, andthus emits only 761 grams of CO2.

In a project led by Trianel Power-Projektge-sellschaft, Siemens is building a comparablepower plant for a consortium of 27 city utilitieson a site at Lünen in northern Germany. Theplant is scheduled to go into operation by2012. However, with an efficiency of around46 percent, these power plants are not goodenough for Siemens Fossil Power GenerationDivision and the power plant operators. Theiraim is to achieve 50 percent efficiency by

loys are expensive. After processing — apainstaking process — they cost five to tentimes as much as the chromium steel used to-day. That’s not exactly peanuts in a turbine re-quiring some 200 tons of the metal alloys.

To reduce material costs, the turbine neednot be made entirely of nickel alloy, but insteadcan be composed of different alloys dependingon the temperatures different areas are sub-jected to. For example, the inner and outerhousings are to be thermally separated by alayer of cooler steam, so that normal steel willbe adequate for the outside, which will have towithstand a temperature of 550 degrees. In ad-dition, the meter-thick shaft can be forged inseveral pieces, with the nickel alloy only beingemployed in the hottest area.

But even this concept creates new chal-lenges, including how to deal with different

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 8180 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Energy Efficiency | Steam Turbine Materials

Turbines that Dwarf other Engines

You might think that the new Airbus A380

is relatively large. Take its engine, for example,

which has a rotor diameter of almost three me-

ters and is 4.5 meters in length, making it the

biggest in the world. But at Siemens’ steam tur-

bine and generator factory in Mülheim an der

Ruhr, you would scarcely notice the mighty

A380 engines. Housings belonging to steam

turbines twice that size are awaiting assembly

here. Close by is a giant wheel that might look

like the compressor blades of an airplane engine

but is disproportionately larger. Covering 30

square meters, the turbine blade has a diameter

of 6.7 meters. At 320 tons total weight, the

complete rotor is the largest and heaviest in the

world (picture above on this page). The finished

steam-turbine set is destined for power genera-

tion in a European pressurized water reactor

(EPR) that is being built by Areva NP, a company

in which Siemens has a minority share of 34

percent, in Olkiluoto, Finland. The project con-

sortium also includes the Siemens Energy Fossil Division (for conventional plant components). The

complete steam-turbine set tips the scales at over 5,000 tons and boasts a world-record output of

1,600 megawatts. Demands on heat resistance, however, are not as high as in 600-degree or 700-

degree power plants. That’s because at temperatures of no more than 300 degrees Celsius the satu-

rated steam from an EPR is much cooler than the steam in a coal-fired power plant, while, at 70 bar,

the pressure is much lower too. However, the centrifugal force at the 340 kg blades reaches around

1,500 tons at 1,500 rpm. Combined-cycle plants, in which the exhaust heat from a gas turbine

generates steam for several other turbines, are not far behind. Siemens is currently building the

largest combined-cycle power plant in the world in Irsching in Upper Bavaria. With an efficiency of

over 60 percent, it is also the most efficient (p. 73). The steam in the plant’s low-pressure turbine

cools down to under 30 degrees Celsius and in doing so takes up such a large volume that the last

two rows of blades, which are made of titanium, need to have a cross- sectional area of 16 square

meters each (above). That too is a world record for so-called high-speed steam turbine sets, which

turn at the remarkable speed of 3,000 rpm.

heat expansion coefficients. In addition, thenecessary casting, forging, milling, and testingmethods for manufacturing and processing theheat-resistant material have yet to be devel-oped — at least for steam turbine componentsweighing several tons.

The production process used for gas tur-bines, where the use of nickel alloys has longbeen standard, doesn’t help here. “We can’tsimply copy the process,” says Pfitzinger. Gasturbines are delicate in comparison to coal tur-bines and can be built using completely differ-ent techniques. What’s more, although at over1,400 degrees their temperatures are veryhigh, their pressures are comparatively low, ataround 20 bar.

To jump from 600 to 700 degrees is nosmall achievement. In fact, no individual man-

The first 700-degree power plant will cost around€1 billion, but will cut CO2 emissions significantly.

Twice as big as an Airbus A380 turbine, the

steam-turbine rotor being manufactured in

Siemens’ Mülheim an der Ruhr factory is the

biggest and heaviest in the world.

1,200

1,000

800

600

400

200

0

500

400

300

200

100

0

1,115 g CO2/kWh

480 g coal/kWh

Global average

EU-wide average

Technologyavailable

today

880 g CO2/kWh

379 g coal/kWh727 g CO2/kWh

313 g coal/kWh 669 g CO2/kWh

288 g coal/kWh

Specific CO2 emissions [g CO2/kWh]* Specific coal consumption [g coal/kWh]*

Mean data for coal-fired power plants

(source: VGB)

related to a median calorific value of 25 MJ/kg

Lünen coal-fired plant

*

**

Net efficiency: 30 % 38 % 50 %

Steam powerplant with

700 °C tech -nology (2014)

The problem of naming such power plantswill certainly be easier than developing theirtechnologies. Because water converts directlyinto steam at pressures of over 221 bar, design-ers characterized modern power plants as“over-critical” in line with this physical phenom-enon. That not only sounds unnecessarilythreatening; it also requires some mental acro-batics in terms of finding names.

At temperatures from 600 to 620 degreesCelsius engineers refer to “ultra-supercritical.”For the 700-degree class, there is no designa-tion yet — let alone for anything beyond that.But Heine isn’t interested in the next namecombination of “hyper,” “ultra” or “super.” “Atpresent, plants with temperatures of 760 oreven 800 degrees are in the realm of fantasy,“he says. Bernd Müller

ufacturer could handle this task alone — whichis why producers, plant manufacturers, and en-ergy suppliers have formed a number of con-sortia, within which they are developing the700-degree technology. These include:

COMTES700. A “Component Test Facility fora 700°C Power Plant” is supported by the Euro-pean Union. The European Association of Po-wer and Heat Generators (VGB Power Tech) iscoordinating a dozen international projectpartners, including Siemens. From 2005 until2009, the 30-year-old F Block at the E.ON coal-fired Scholven power plant in Gelsenkirchen,Germany was in operation using components

NRWPP700. The “North Rhine-Westphalia700°C Power Plant” is a pre-engineering studyby ten European energy suppliers, in which no-thing is being built or tested. Instead, the focusis on technical design concepts for the boiler,pipe work, and other components of a 500-me-gawatt power plant. The feasibility of theirtransfer to commercial coal and lignite-firedplants of the 1,000-megawatt-class is alsobeing evaluated.

50plus. Based on the results of preliminaryprojects, E.ON wants to put the first "real" 700-degree power plant into operation in Wilhelms-haven in 2014. To achieve at least 50 percent

also developing a process for the separation ofCO2 downstream from conventional powerplants. In the future, it will be possible to fit ex-isting and new power plants with this technol-ogy. The development of more efficient coal-fired power plants could thus become anexciting race between different concepts. Inany event, Siemens will be part of it.

And what does the future hold in store?“That depends not only on technological devel-opments, but also on political decisions andlegislation,” says Balling. “That’s because thedevelopment and realization of innovative CO2

concepts need support.”

that could one day be used in a 700-degree po-wer plant. These included a test boiler, mainsteam lines, and other components operated attemperatures of 700 degrees Celsius, includinga nickel alloy turbine valve made by Siemens.The old turbine was not affected by any of this.

efficiency, E.ON plans to preheat the combus-tion air and use seawater, which cools more ef-fectively, for cooling — hence the location ofthe plant in a coastal city. Construction of the500-megawatt block is expected to start in2010.

CO2 Emissions in Coal-Fired Power Plants

As efficiency increases, coal consumption drops and carbon dioxide emissions decline.

After passing through the test section, thesteam cooled to 520 degrees Celsius to avoidpotential damage. Says Siemens turbine expertDr. Holger Kirchner, “The inspection of the val-ve was very positive.” The results of the test willbe analyzed by 2011.

But 700-degree power plants are not yet aneconomical proposition. Today, a power plantin the 600-degree Celsius/800-megawatt classcosts over €1,700 per kilowatt. 50plus will cost€1 billion, which will drive costs up to €2,000per installed kilowatt. 50plus has thereforebeen essentially designed as a demonstrationplant for future series-produced power sta-tions. "When things get uneconomical, cus-tomers are no longer interested," says Heine.But considering the increasing costs of raw ma-terials and CO2 levies, savings will be possibledue to the plant’s improved efficiency, even al-lowing for the 10 to 15 percent higher costs ofa series-produced 700-degree power plant.

Competing Concepts. The new 700° technol-ogy will compete with other technologies, suchas IGCC power plants, in which coal and otherfuels, such as oil and asphalt, are convertedinto syngas and fed into a gas and steam-tur-bine power plant (Pictures of the Future, Spring2007, p.91). “Today, with modern gas turbines,we achieve efficiency levels of up to 46 per-cent,” says Lothar Balling, head of the SteamPower Plants and Emerging Plant Solutions unitat Siemens’ Fossil Power Generation Division inErlangen. “By 2020 improvements will enableefficiencies of up to 51 percent without CO2

separation with our H-class gas turbines.” Several IGCC plants are already in operation,

including coal gasification plants in refineries,which produce hydrogen-rich syngas for chem-ical processes. Economically speaking, the IGCCpower plants that Siemens is developing forpower generation purposes are still at a disad-vantage compared with conventional coal-firedpower plants. IGCC can, however, become real-ly competitive if CO2 is made to play an eco-nomic role, for example through the introduc-tion of a CO2 tax or use of the gas in old oilfields to further improve their yield. The tech-nology of CO2 separation from syngas down-stream of a gasification unit already exists andis used in the petrochemicals industry. Thistechnology allows CO2 emissions to be reducedby over 85 percent to under 100 grams perkilowatt-hour. Together with E.ON, Siemens is

46 %**

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 83

Energy Efficiency | CO2 Separation

82 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Siemens scientists at the company’s test plant

in Freiberg, Germany (below), are developing coal

gasifiers (right) and investigating how different

types of coal behave during the gasification process.

Coal is currently experiencing a real boom.That’s because the Earth's population and

its hunger for energy are growing fast, andmany countries have their own substantial re-serves of coal. This makes them independentof other sources of energy, in particular petro-leum and natural gas. The drawback to this de-velopment is evident, however, as CO2 emis-sions per kilowatt-hour of electricity generatedat coal-fired power stations are almost twice ashigh as those from natural gas-fired combinedcycle plants. Still, the world economy cannotdo without coal. More than 41 percent of theworld's electricity is generated today at coal-fired power stations; in China, that figure isover 80 percent. In 2006 alone, 174 coal-firedpower stations in the 500-megawatt class wenton line in China. According to estimates bySiemens, the share of worldwide electricitygeneration accounted for by coal will decreasefrom 41 percent to 32 percent between nowand 2030 as a result of the sharply expandinguse of renewable energy sources. Neverthe-

With the oxyfuel concept, coal or naturalgas is burned with pure oxygen rather thanwith air, as is the case in conventional steampower plants. This prevents large amounts ofnitrogen, which makes up three quarters of thevolume of atmospheric air, from being need-lessly added to the process and then formingnitrogen oxides during combustion. The fluegas thus produced is composed mostly of car-bon dioxide and water vapor, whereby the CO2

is separated through condensation.

Proven IGCC technology. Siemens has beenfocusing on the first two methods — i.e. preand post-combustion capture. “There are bigdifferences in the current stage of technologi-cal development of the three methods,” saysDr. Christiane Schmid from the Business Devel-opment department at Siemens Fuel Gasifica-tion Technology GmbH in Freiberg, which ispart of Siemens’ Fossil Power Generation Divi-

situation remains unclear for our customers,since it’s difficult to project just how expensiveIGCC with CO2 separation will actually be.” Onaccount of all these uncertainties, it will proba-bly be several years before the first IGCC powerstation with a CO2 separation unit is built.

The key components of IGCC plants are thegasifier and the gas turbine, according toSchuld. Both of these components are part ofthe Siemens portfolio, whereby gasifier tech-nology was added in mid-2006, when Siemensacquired what is today known as Siemens FuelGasification Technology GmbH in Freiberg nearDresden. Up until 1990, that organization waspart of the Deutsches Brennstoffinstitut (Ger-man Fuel Institute). Freiberg is located in what

is therefore particularly high from customers inthese countries.”

The extent of this competitive edge becomeseven clearer when we look at the service life ofan IGCC power station. “If a customer decideson a gasification plant, it means they’ve incor-porated into their calculations the associatedoperating costs over a 20 to 25-year period,”says Schuld. “However, a fixed-price deliverycontract for coal can only be secured nowadaysfor a limited number of years. So, where thecoal will later come from, what type it will be,and what it will cost are things no one can pre-dict in advance. However, with our technologythe customer remains on the safe side through-out the entire plant lifespan, because he can

The first IGCC coal-fired power plants with integratedCO2 separation are due to enter service in 2012.

Capturing Carbon DioxideCoal will remain a cornerstone of the energy supply all over the world for a long time tocome. New technologies are expected to free power station flue gases of the greenhousegas carbon dioxide — thus making a vital contribution to environmental protection.

less, the absolute amount of electricity gener-ated with coal during this period will actuallyincrease from 8,300 terawatt-hours (TWh) to-day to 10,500 TWh.

That makes it even more essential for powerplant construction companies and energy utili-ties to design and operate coal-fired power sta-tions as cleanly as possible. A tremendous ef-fort has been undertaken worldwide for someyears now to introduce carbon capture andstorage (CCS) technology. Depending on thetype of power plant, there are three distinctmethods for separating CO2 when burning coalto generate electricity:

coal gasification in IGCC plants (IGCC standsfor Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle)with separation before combustion (pre-com-bustion capture);

separation of CO2 from flue gas downstreamfrom a conventional steam power plant (post-combustion capture);

and the oxyfuel process for steam powerplants.

sion (see box on p. 84 for more information onIGCC). “IGCC technology is the only methodthat’s been sufficiently tested, and there are al-ready plenty of practical examples from the gasprocessing industry of CO2 separation fromsynthesis gas.” As early as the 1990s, IGCCpower stations were built in Puertollano, Spain,and Buggenum, the Netherlands, for whichSiemens supplied the power plant componentsand managed the integration of the facilities.“These plants all demonstrate the feasibility ofthe IGCC concept,” explains Schmid, a processtechnology expert. “However, in those daysCO2 separation wasn't even on the agenda."

The reasons for the current lack of anylarge-scale low-CO2 power plants in operationare many and varied. Guido Schuld, managingdirector of Siemens Fuel Gasification Technolo-gy GmbH, explains: “There are no firm legal orpolitical structures in place, especially with re-gard to the storage of CO2. In addition, the cost

used to be the German Democratic Republic,whose government authorized the develop-ment of the so-called dry feeding system in the1970s in order to be able to utilize lignite fromthe Lusatia region. Although the authoritiesdidn’t know this at the time, it turns out thatthe technique offers major competitive advan-tages. That’s because the process enables al-most any type of coal to be used for gasifica-tion.

Alternatively, coal can be injected into agasifier in a watery emulsion, which means thecrushed fuel first has to be mixed with water.“This technology is suitable for expensive an-thracite and hard coal, but not at all for ligniteor other types of coal with low calorific values,for example,” Schuld explains. “But it’s preciselythese low-grade types of coal that are availablein large quantities in emerging markets such asChina and India, as well as in America and Aus-tralia. Demand for Siemens gasifier technology

use a wide range of the coal available in theworld and purchase it as needed in accordancewith prevailing prices.”

Retrofitting for CO2 scrubbing. Whereas pre-combustion capture in IGCC plants is outstand-ingly suited to new facilities, the third technicalapproach — post-combustion capture — canalso be used in existing power stations. In thisprocess, CO2 is removed from the flue gases af-ter combustion. “This CO2 scrubbing is the onlyretrofit option over the medium term for sepa-rating CO2 in existing power stations,” says Dr.Rüdiger Schneider, section manager for powerplant chemical processes in the Fossil PowerGeneration Division.

In this case, approximately 90 percent ofthe CO2 in the flue gas binds at low tempera-tures to a special CO2 cleansing agent in an ab-sorber, and is thus removed. “We then feed theCO2-laden detergent into a desorber and free it

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 85

| CO2 Sequestration In Ketzin, Germany, scientists plan to pump

90,000 tons of CO2 into the earth. Geologists have

drilled holes 700 meters into the rock and installed

numerous measuring probes.

Testing EternalIncarcerationEmissions from coal-fired power plants must becomecleaner — which means removing their carbon dioxidecontent. The best place to store this greenhouse gaspermanently is deep underground. That’s exactly whatis happening at a test facility near Potsdam, Germany.

It’s raining in Ketzin. A drill tower rises up to-ward the dark clouds; a few gas tanks and a

plain shack stand in a green meadow in themiddle of the Havelland district, a half-hourwest of Potsdam. Professor Frank Schilling fromthe research facility GeoForschungsZentrumPotsdam (GFZ) points down into a mud-filledhole from which a pipe as wide as a man pro-trudes. A tangle of cables can be seen inside it.“Here’s where we measure the spread of car-bon dioxide underground,” says Schilling, whois a mineralogist. At the other end of the mead-ow, a second hole plunges down, this one alsofilled with a mass of cables, and 100 metersaway there is a third hole. At the latter, pipesfrom a tank run into the damp soil. Seven hun-dred meters under Schilling’s feet, these pipeswill pump up to four tons of carbon dioxide perhour into the sandstone at high pressure, thusdisplacing salt water from pores in the rock.

The GFZ project near Ketzin, population4,000, is called CO2SINK. Since June 2008, upto 30,000 tons of CO2 per year have beenpumped into the earth. Considering its three-year life span, the project is expected to se-quester about 90,000 tons of CO2 — roughly asmuch as the 150,000 residents of Potsdam willexhale during the same period. But that’s noth-ing compared to the more than 10 billion tonsof this greenhouse gas that are expelled intothe atmosphere each year through power plantsmokestacks. And the problem will grow moreacute, judging from the forecasts of the Inter-national Energy Agency (IEA) and Siemens,which indicate that fossil fuels will account forone third of the increase in power productionover the next 20 years (see p. 59). In fact, coaldemand is expected not to decrease, but to riseby 27 percent. China, for example, put 174coal-fired power plants in the 500-megawattclass into operation in 2006 alone, which cor-responds to the commissioning of one plantevery two days (see p. 28).

Underground Disposal. In view of these de-velopments, CO2SINK could, in spite of its mod-est scope, provide important answers to basicunresolved questions regarding CO2 sequestra-tion and therefore contribute significantly toenvironmental protection. If the measurementsin Ketzin confirm the models, which predict thatthe gas can be securely confined undergroundin porous rock for thousands if not millions ofyears, the project would send an important sig-nal worldwide. It would prove that CO2 fromcoal-fired power plants, refineries, cement fac-tories, and steel mills can be pumped into theearth and stored there. And if the gas isn’t emit-ted into the air, it can’t harm the climate. More-over, there is an abundance of room under-

Pilot Plant Captures Carbon Dioxide

In September 2009, Siemens and E.ON launched a pilot carbon dioxide (CO2) capture facility. Lo-

cated at the Staudinger coal-fired power plant near Hanau, Germany, the facility removes around

90 percent of the CO2 from a part of the flue gases emitted by the plant. Thanks to a special scrub-

bing process from Siemens, the separation process consumes relatively little energy and does not

negatively impact the environment. This is due to the fact that experts at Siemens Energy chose a

detergent that lowers energy consumption, and optimized many process parameters. The result is

a CO2 scrubbing process that costs only 9.2 percentage points in terms of efficiency, which means

it consumes far less energy than previous procedures, whose efficiency costs total more than ten

percentage points.

The detergent used is also very stable, which means that it hardly reacts with trace substances in

the flue gas. As a result, it is almost fully retained in the cycle — that is, it does not escape with

the residual gas, as is the case with many other detergent substances. The pilot facility is testing

the technology under real-life power plant conditions. Among the factors being examined are the

detergent’s long-term chemical stability and the effectiveness of the process. In addition, the re-

searchers aim to further reduce energy consumption.

84 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Energy Efficiency | CO2 Separation

IGCC with CO2 Separation

In the IGCC process, the conversion of coal into power can be combined with upstream CO2 sepa-

ration. First, the coal is converted into a combustible raw gas in a gasifier under pressure and at

high temperatures of 1,400 to 1,800 degrees Celsius. The gas, whose primary constituents are car-

bon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H2), is then coarsely cleaned, after which the carbon monoxide

is converted into CO2 and H2 in a shift reactor with the help of water vapor. Next, sulfur com-

pounds and CO2 are separated out with the help of a chemical or physical scrubbing process. The

CO2 is then compressed and transported to a storage site. Separation rates of up to 95 percent are

projected for this technique. All the remaining hydrogen is burned in the gas turbine, which is at-

tached to an electrical generator. Siemens now has over 400,000 operating hours’ worth of experi-

ence in the combustion of hydrogen-rich fuel gases at various commercial power plants. The hot

flue gases, especially atmospheric nitrogen and water vapor, are also used for steam generation. In

a manner similar to what occurs in a conventional combined cycle power station, the steam drives

a steam turbine and a second electricity generator.

of the greenhouse gas by raising the tempera-ture, after which the regenerated detergent isfed back into the absorber,” Schneider explains.“After that, the cycle begins anew.”

For the past three years, Schneider and histeam have been working extensively in a labo-ratory at Frankfurt Höchst Industrial Park onCO2 detergents that bind CO2 particularly welland release it again when temperatures areraised. “We can conduct good analyses of allthe individual aspects of CO2 scrubbing in ourlab,” says Schneider. “As a result, our newchemical CO2 scrubbing technique loses lessdetergent into the flue gas and also requiresless energy than previous methods.”

Heading for Large-Scale Applications. Inorder to make fossil fuel-fired power plantsmore climate-friendly as quickly as possible,energy supplier E.ON joined forces withSiemens to put a pilot facility for CO2 separa-tion into operation at the Staudinger coal-firedplant near Hanau in September 2009 (see box).“The challenge is to maintain a high level of ef-ficiency and avoid negative environmental in-fluences, which might arise from traces ofharmful detergent emissions in the scrubbedflue gases,” Schneider explains. “Our objectiveis to develop the new CO2 separation process tothe point where it’s ready for large-scale com-mercial applications by 2020.”

Thanks to oxyfuel and pre and post-com-bustion capture, technologies will be availablewithin the next decade that will allow us toburn coal without having to have a guilty envi-ronmental conscience. Ulrike Zechbauer

Raw gas:

CO, H2, etc.

CO+H2O CO2+H2

Air

Coal

Airseparation

Gasification COShift Cleaning CO2

separation

CO2

compression

Elec

tric

ity

CO2 to store

Sulfur

O2

N2

Combined cyclepower plant

A CO2 testing laboratory in Frankfurt. Here, Siemens

experts investigate CO2 separation from flue gas.

The CO2 is bound to an absorber (right) by a special

scrubbing agent and thus removed.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2007 87

Prof. Reinhard Hüttl,52, is the scientific director of the Geo-Forschungs-Zentrum inPotsdam, the GermanResearch Center for Geo-sciences. A geo scientist,Hüttl formerly worked as an environmental expert in the Council ofAdvisers of the GermanFederal Government.

Interview conducted in Spring, 2007.

Sequestration: A KeyTransitional Technology

Is underground sequestration of carbondioxide the solution to the climate-change problem?Hüttl: We have to look at things realistically.Even if CO2SINK works as planned, the processchain of removal, transport, injection, andmonitoring involves a great deal of effort andis still very expensive. Also, coal-fired powerplants with CO2 removal lose a considerableamount of efficiency, which must be compen-sated for with more fuel or new technologiesto increase efficiency. So CO2 sequestration isa transitional technology. But we can’t do with-out it if we want to act responsibly, becausemost of our power will continue to come from

amount naturally generated in the same periodby bacteria through degradation processes inthe soil in the area above the CO2 reservoir inKetzin.

Ideal CO2 reservoirs exist wherever gases orliquids have long accumulated underground.That basically means all petroleum and naturalgas deposits, which have manifestly beensealed for millions of years. Some oil and gasproducers already pump CO2 back into such de-posits in order to raise the yield through in-creased pressure. There are three industrial-scale showpiece projects in Canada, Algeria,and Norway. StatoilHydro of Norway, for in-stance, has the most experience here. Since1996 it has pumped ten million tons of CO2

down to a depth of 1,000 meters beneath theNorth Sea. The CO2 is an impurity that is ex-tracted with the natural gas. But it would costStatoilHydro dearly to vent it, as Norway leviesa tax of $50 on each ton of CO2.

Toward Affordable Sequestration. The IPCCreport calculates the cost of CO2 capture bylow-CO2 power plants and its transportationand sequestration to be 20 to 70 dollars perton. That’s worth the price in Norway, but incountries without a CO2 tax other marketmechanisms must come into play. In Europe,the certificates in the emissions trading systemprovided for by the Kyoto Protocol currentlycost less than 15 dollars — not enough to cre-ate an incentive. But in the event of a state sub-sidy or a CO2 tax of two to three U.S. cents perkilowatt-hour, the technology would pay for it-self, although the cost of electricity would in-crease by 20 percent.

Siemens is helping to fund the CO2SINKproject and participating as an observer. “CO2

sequestration won’t be one of our core areas ofexpertise,” says Günther Haupt of Siemens’Fossil Power Generation division. But since theconstruction of coal-fired power plants is animportant part of Siemens’ business and de-pends on a solution to the CO2 problem, thecompany will be involved.

Siemens will also play an active role in caseswhere hardware does not yet exist, as in theAdecos project, which is developing an oxyfuelpower plant with CO2 removal with supportfrom the German government. Here, Siemensis designing compressors for the CO2 that willforce it underground as a gas — but with thedensity of a liquid. These compressors have applications in multiple fields, since they alsocompress CO2 from pre- and post-combustionprocesses. “So far, CO2 compressors of this kindhaven’t been customized for large powerplants,” says Haupt.

Bernd Müller

fossil fuels in the foreseeable future. Our proj-ect is therefore an important building block fora more environmentally compatible method ofenergy production for the coming decades.The process is already of interest for increasingyields during petroleum and natural gas ex-traction.

Will the Ketzin project come to an end af-ter 60,000 tons of CO2 have been stored?Hüttl: I don’t think so. In Ketzin we can stilllearn a lot about CO2 sequestration and theshort, medium, and long-term behavior of CO2

underground. The Ketzin test site is ideal formore experiments, for instance for storing theworld’s first CO2 from a coal-fired power plantand for the underground sequestration of CO2

separated from biomass during gas produc-tion. We also have plans for other projects inGermany and abroad.

How has the public responded to the project?Hüttl: Many people, especially in Germany,are skeptical of new industrial-scale technolo-gies. But in Ketzin there used to be an under-ground natural gas storage reservoir at thesame spot and people are used to that idea, sowe haven’t had a problem with acceptance ofthis project. And of course CO2 isn’t poisonousor radioactive. If it does escape at some point,which we don’t expect, we’ll see that with ourmonitoring system and, if necessary, we’ll beable to just blow it away in the air.

Interview conducted by Bernd Müller.

| Interview Hüttl

86 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

Energy Efficiency | CO2 Sequestration

ground for carbon dioxide. The capacity for CO2

sequestration in Germany alone is estimated at30 billion tons. That’s enough for about a hun-dred years at the current rate of CO2 emissionsfrom German coal-fired power plants — about350 million tons. The Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC) of the U.N., a scien-tific intergovernmental body, which won theNobel Prize in 2007, estimates global seques-tration capacity to be up to 900 billion tons inoil and gas deposits and at least 1,000, possiblyeven 10,000 billion tons in saline aquifers,which are sandstone deposits saturated withsalt water, like those found in Ketzin. These po-tential sequestration sites around the world arealso often found near large CO2 producers,where liquefied CO2 can be easily transportedin pipes to storage depots. This is the case notonly in Brandenburg, but also in the U.S. stateof Illinois, where a prototype CO2-free powerplant is being tested in the Future-Gen project.The dream of a coal-fired power plant with a di-rect exhaust line into the subterranean rockcould become a reality in many places aroundthe world if policymakers quickly lay thegroundwork and research efforts are intensi-fied.

Studies show that CO2 remains under-ground for an extremely long time. It will dis-solve there in saline aquifers, much as it dis-solves in mineral water when pumped by a CO2

carbonator, and will then be retained in thepores of the sandstone. Over time, more andmore of it will precipitate as a mineral com-pound and thus be kept out of the atmosphereforever. It is known that after thousands ofyears calcium carbonate is produced, as well asother carbonates such as magnesite andsiderite. Verifying the underlying models andfurnishing proof of whether and how CO2 canbe reliably sequestrated over the long term areamong the central aims of the CO2SINK project.

Underground Laboratory. One essential taskof CO2SINK is therefore to monitor the three-di-mensional propagation of CO2 in rock and drawconclusions applicable to commercial CO2 se-questration at other locations. No other projectanywhere is going to such great lengths togather measurements in this respect:

In the project’s two measuring pipes, whichare 50 and 100 meters away from the pipe car-rying the gas, chains of electrodes measureelectrical resistance in the rock. This array ofelectrodes is supplemented by electrodes atthe surface. Concentrated salt water in the po-res of the sandstone conducts the electricalcurrent very well. When the water is displacedby CO2 , conductivity decreases and resistanceincreases. Thanks to this geoelectric tomogra-

phy, the gas can be monitored in great detail inthree dimensions as it spreads.

The project team is also carrying out experi-ments modeled on medical ultrasound. Here,intense sound waves are transmitted into theground from the surface between the boreho-les and reflected back. Since sound has a lowervelocity in pores filled with CO2 than in thosefilled with salt water, the spread of the gas canbe monitored this way as well.

Optical sensors measure temperature chan-ges underground through the scattering ofphotons and thereby show the flow of CO2 be-low the surface. In the area of the reservoiraround the bores there are narrow tubes with asemi-permeable membrane through whichCO2 can pass. High-purity argon forces the CO2

upward through capillary tubes to the surface,where its concentration is measured.

Whatever the results of the measurements,one thing is certain, says Frank Schilling: “Prac-

tically nothing travels upward through therock.” The reason for this is the cap layer ofgypsum and clay that lies like a bowl over theapproximately nine-square-kilometer dome ofsandstone and completely seals it. It served thesame purpose over the past forty years, whenpower companies used a sandstone layer hereat a depth of between 250 and 400 meters tostore natural gas. This repository was signifi-cantly larger than the planned CO2 reservoir.

What would happen if the CO2 managed toescape to the surface? Since the gas is heavierthan air, critics fear that it could collect in poolswhere it would suffocate all life. But there’s norisk of this in Ketzin, says Schilling. Even if itwere to escape, the CO2 would be literally gonewith the wind.

We breathe it in small quantities all thetime, and drink it in sparkling mineral waterand soft drinks. Besides, the quantity of CO2

stored in two years will merely be equal to the

Sequestration under a cap layer

Sequestration in porous strata

Increasingly effective sequestration

Sequestration in water-bearing strata

Sequestration in mineral aggregates

100 %

Percentage of stored CO2

Period of time following CO2 sequestration (years)

0

50 %

1 10 100 1000 10,000

Impermeable cap layer

Reservoir

CO2 monitoring

CO2

CO2

800 m

700 m

Power plant

How Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Works

In Ketzin, CO2 is pumped

through a pipe into a saline

sandstone aquifer that functions

as a reservoir. A second pipe is

used for the transmission of

shock waves, which are detected

by geophones. In addition, the

pipes are outfitted with other

sensors that are designed to

detect the electrical conductivity

and temperature in the aquifer.

This enables detailed monitoring

of the spread of carbon dioxide

far below the surface.

Seismic source

Vibration measurement devices (geophones)

Geophones and other sensors

Seismic source

Shock waves

Sour

ce:

Geo

Fors

chun

gsZe

ntru

m P

otsd

am

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 89

New Life for Old PlantsWorldwide, there are hundreds of fossil fuel-fired power plants that could, if modern-ized, improve their efficiency by 10 or even 15 percent. Such upgrades would reduceCO2 emissions accordingly, which would be a major contribution to climate protection.The biggest potential lies in North America as well as parts of Europe and Asia.

pace of modernization. “In Europe, powercompanies have to convert a lot of oldercombined-cycle power plants from base- topeak-load operation,” says Hendricks, who isresponsible for so-called lifetime managementand thus for power plant upgrades.

The reason for the conversions is that Eu-rope is ramping up use of land-based and off-shore wind farms. When winds are strong,these farms generate lots of electricity, whichmeans conventional plants can scale back out-put. But when winds die down, the latter haveto be able to reach peak load rapidly to com-pensate for load fluctuations. The ability to re-act rapidly not only secures a power companyhigh prices on the power market; an upgradedpower plant also reaches its operating pointmore quickly, which cuts CO2 emissions.

Siemens is a specialist in upgrading steam

turbines, a job that primarily involves replacingthe rotor and the inner casing. The latest inturbine blade technology and enlarged flowareas boost the efficiency and performance ofthe turbine. In addition, the use of new sealsin high- and intermediate-pressure turbinesreduces clearance losses, which likewise in-creases efficiency. These measures lengthenthe service life of the turbine, allowing it toremain in operation for an additional 15 to 20years. As a rule, Siemens also renews the con-trol system for the turbine set or the powerplant as a whole (Pictures of the Future, Spring2009, p. 27). According to Dr. Norbert Henkel,responsible at Siemens for the modernizationof fossil-fuel and nuclear power plants, it costsbetween €20 million and €60 million to com-prehensively upgrade a steam turbine systemfor a medium-sized power plant. “By modern-

Upgrading and new control systems (bottom right)

can boost a steam turbine’s efficiency substantially.

At EnBW’s cogeneration plant in Alt bach, Germany,

Siemens improved output by 11 MW.

izing the turbine, we can tease an extra 30 to40 megawatts out of the plant. As a result, theinitial capital expenditure is amortized withinjust a few years,” he explains.

Power generator Energie Baden-Württem-berg (EnBW), for example, has investedaround €30 million on upgrading its cogenera-tion plant in Altbach, near Stuttgart, a meas-ure that will keep it in action for the next 30years. Siemens renewed the plant’s controlsystems and upgraded its steam turbine, re-placing the blades and seals, which has made

According to Dr. Oliver Geden, an expert forEU climate policy at the German Institute

for International and Security Affairs in Berlin,effective climate protection begins when“many people consume in an environmentallysustainable way, without having to think twiceabout what they’re doing.” For this to happen,says Geden, it will take huge structuralchanges in how we generate and consumeelectricity, including expanded use of renew-able energy, and more efficient conventionalpower plants.

Significant progress has already been madein the construction of new power plants. Overthe period from 1992 to the present, the effi-ciency of the latest coal-fired power plants inthe industrialized West has risen from 42 to 47percent. This amounts to a huge advance in cli -mate protection. For instance, for a 700-mega -watt (MW) generating unit, an increase in effi-ciency of five percentage points translates intoa reduction in annual CO2 emissions of around500,000 metric tons. This is particularly impor-tant for China, where, according to the Inter-national Energy Agency, one new coal-firedpower plant with an efficiency of over 44 per-cent enters commercial service ev e ry month.

88 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

When it comes to upgrading existing powerplants, however, there is still massive un-tapped potential, both in economic and envi-ronmental terms. The average efficiency of Eu-rope’s coal-fired power plants is a mere 37 to38 percent. Only about one in 10 plants topsthe 40 percent mark. That’s hardly surprising,given that steam turbines in Europe are, onaverage, almost 29 years old. Gas turbines, onthe other hand, are usually of a more recentvintage, with an average age of just under 12years. Nevertheless, the German Associationof Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) esti-mates that around one-quarter of Germany’spower plants will need to be modernized inthe immediate future.

As Ralf Hendricks from Siemens Energyexplains, the increasing exploitation of alter-native energy sources is also accelerating the

Energy Efficiency | Power Plant Upgrades

it more efficient and boosted its output by 11MW. The entire outer casing could be retained.With around 4,000 operating hours at full loadper year, the plant has benefitted from the up-grade with a reduction in its annual CO2 emis-sions of 50,000 metric tons. As a result, theplant is now classified as one of EnBW’s“green” facilities and may, if required, rack upadditional operating hours.

North America’s power plants are even old-er than Europe’s, with an average of 34 yearsfor steam turbines in the U.S. and Canada, and17 years for gas turbines. Siemens is involvedin a number of major upgrades in this area.Some of these cover more than just the tur-bines, with the company currently contractedto renew the complete control system for anumber of plants, including a coal-fired facilityin Carneys Point, New Jersey, a combined-cy-cle plant in Redding, California, and combined-cycle installations in Syracuse and Beaver-Falls,New York, all of which are being fitted withthe SPPA-T3000 web-based instrumentationand control system. This system integrates thepower plant and turbine control functions in acommon, easy-to-use platform. For the opera-tors of Carneys Point, for example, this willprovide greater flexibility to tailor operation ofthe individual generating units to actual de-mand, along with greater reliability and re-duced maintenance costs.

onward, when CO2 emission certificates in thissector will all be auctioned.

Power companies will therefore have to payfor a percentage of their CO2 emissionsthrough the purchase of emission certificates.An exception, however, has been made formany Central and Eastern European countries,giving them until 2020 to catch up. During this time, the most efficient power plants willset the benchmark there too. Power plantsmeeting this standard will receive emissionpermits free of charge. Emissions trading willthus ensure that old power plants become in-creasingly unprofitable. And once the last inef-ficient plant has been decommissioned, eachelectricity consumer will have become a littlebit easier on the environment — without eventhinking about it.

Katrin Nikolaus

Boosting Output by 100 MW. In contrast tofossil-fired power plants, many of which werecommissioned over the last few decades, mostof the world’s nuclear plants date from the1970s and 1980s. “The conventional compo-nents of these plants, including the turbines,all need upgrading at around the same time,”Henkel explains. Whereas most of the nuclearfacilities in Germany have been almost com-pletely updated over the past 10 to 15 years,many of the plants in France, the U.S., andJapan are still in need of modernization. In

2008, Siemens was awarded the Asian PowerAward for its upgrading of the Sendai nuclearpower plant in Japan. Following moderniza-tion of the control systems and the three tur-bines, the output of the plant rose by 40.5 MWto 942 MW. At present, in a contract awarded

by Florida Power and Light (FPL), Siemens isoverhauling the generator and renewing ahigh-pressure turbine and two low-pressureturbines at the St. Lucie nuclear plant in Flori-da. This will increase the output of each of thetwo reactors by 100 MW. In addition, Siemensis installing new high-pressure turbines andmodernizing the generator at FPL’s TurkeyPoint nuclear plant, which will boost its outputby around 100 MW. With the exception ofFrance, which generates the lion’s share of itspower using nuclear plants, the energy mix inEurope still includes a major share of coal. Thisapplies particularly to Central European coun-tries, including Poland, which meets over 90percent of its power needs from coal.

At the same time, these countries have theleast-efficient power plants. In Europe, thereare over 500 steam turbine plants that are old-

er than 25 years and in urgent need of mod-ernization. This figure includes all the agingplants in Central Europe and is unrivaled any-where else in the world. In India, for example,where industrialization came much later, thereare fewer than 50 plants of a similar vintage.China, on the other hand, still has a lot of coal-fired power plants rated at efficiency levels ofbetween 26 and 30 percent. To cover the rap-idly-growing demand for electricity from in-dustry and households, China is currentlybuilding a raft of new power plants, 60 per-cent of which are ultramodern facilities.According to the IEA, China has been ableto radically reduce construction costs for suchplants, which feature extremely heat-resistantsteam turbines, by building a large number ofthem at the same time and thus exploiting theeffects of standardization. China, which tendsto close unprofitable power plants rather thanupgrade them, has been decommissioningaround 50 GW of older fossil generating capac-ity since 1997 — a process that is due to becompleted by 2010.

Rewarding Efficiency. Back in Europe, pow-er companies in the western member statesare rapidly upgrading their facilities. In thissector, climate protection is still largely a cor-porate affair. Unlike its stance on the automo-bile industry, the European Union is preparedto let market forces, rather than regulation,bring about power plant modernization. Thatsaid, climate expert Geden foresees a majorupheaval in the power plant market from 2013

In Europe, there are over 500 steam turbine plants thatnow require modernization — in India, less than 50.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 91

The heat from a coking plant can power a steam turbinethat generates enough electricity for 30,000 households.

heating, for example, or for generating elec-tricity. A typical CDQ facility from Siemenswith a capacity of one million tons of coke peryear consists of three cooling chambers — twoin full operation and one on “hot stand-by.”The latter is only charged with about ten per-cent of its actual quenching capacity and isready in case a problem occurs. Quenching isthus possible at all times, including possiblemaintenance periods.

With CDQ, hot coke is cooled to 180 de-grees Celsius, even as 1,000 degree coke is fedinto the cooling chambers from above. A circu-lating gas flows in at the bottom of the coolingchamber and absorbs the heat. The gas, nowat about 800 degrees Celsius, is channeledwith air back into the waste heat water boiler.Here, more than 500 kilograms of high pres-sure and high temperature steam can be pro-duced per ton of coke. Connecting a steamturbine yields 15 to 17 megawatts of generat-ing capacity. That’s equivalent to the powerproduced by five large wind turbines and ade-

reduce costs and improve environmental pro-tection. With Selective Waste Gas Recirculationtechnologies, for example, waste gas pro-duced during sintering can be recirculated. Ina sintering plant the ore is baked on a sinterstrand, which is similar to a furnace grate. Inthis way, the fine ore is prepared for the blastfurnace. Here, the ore is ignited on the sinterstrand, and wind boxes suction off the waste

operated by the world’s fourth biggest steelproducer, Posco of South Korea.

Siemens VAI has also developed an energymanagement system that focuses on a steelplant’s total energy use with a view to cuttingits energy consumption, costs, and emissions.This involves taking into account the completeproduction process — from raw materials tofinal steel products. Organized to be modular,

quate for the requirements of about 30,000four-person households. What’s more, as thecoke in the CDQ process is drier than wet-

quenched coke, less reducing agent is con-sumed later in the blast furnace.

Modernization not only saves millions inoperating costs — leading to rapid amortiza-tion — but environmentally-friendly CDQ alsoreduces dust and gas emissions to almost zero.With conventional wet quenching, about 500grams of dust are emitted into the atmosphereper ton of coke — frequently much more.Many CDQ systems from Siemens VAI havebeen operating reliably for years — for exam-ple, at an ArcelorMittal plant in Kraków,Poland, since 2000. Siemens is currently tak-ing part in a project run by SAIL, India’s biggeststeel producer, which is building a facility thatis scheduled to open in 2011.

Sintering plants are another area in whichSiemens VAI offers innovative solutions that

least 16 percent and thus high enough forcombustion. After that, the waste gas mixtureflows into a recirculation hood installed above

the sinter strand, from where it is blown backonto the sinter strand — at the most homoge-neous possible temperature and pressure. Thismeasure lowers a sintering plant’s CO2 emis-sions by up to ten percent; the entire volumeof waste gas — which includes sulphur diox-ide, various nitrogen oxides and dust — is re-duced by 40 percent. Taken together, thesesteps reduce fuel requirements and thus costs.Each ton of sinter requires up to ten percentless coke and about 20 percent less ignitiongas. An investment in CDQ is thus usuallyamortized in under two years.

To date, this technology has been used atthree locations worldwide: a plant operated byAustrian steel producer Voestalpine (in opera-tion since 2005); a sinter plant operated byDragon Steel in Taiwan; and two sinter plants

gases from below. “The ore burns from the topdown, like in a tobacco pipe,” says Andre Ful-gencio, Product Manager for sintering plantsat Siemens VAI in Linz, Austria.

To allow some of the gas to be recirculatedinto the process, it is first fed into a chamber.Here it is mixed with waste gases from the sin-ter cooler, to ensure the oxygen content is at

the system can be tailored to the customer’sspecific needs, and can even be integratedinto existing automation technology at veryold facilities. “In the ideal scenario all you needto do is transfer and configure the software,”says Franz Hartl, who is responsible for tech -nical marketing of automation solutions atSiemens VAI in Linz.

System-wide Savings. As steel mills use avery large number of processes, it is often alsonecessary to install additional measurementsystems, for example to determine levels intanks. Key values in terms of energy consump-tion and distribution can then be recordedevery few seconds. Thanks to Siemens’ energyprediction and optimization module, the energyneeded for an order can even be predicted onthe basis of production planning, enabling op-erators to purchase fuels at attractive prices.“Steel producers who use the prediction func-tion are superbly equipped for negotiatingprices with their energy suppliers,” says Hartl.

The high degree of transparency of Siemens’mill overview processes enables operatorsto predict and prevent costly load peaks byinitiating load shedding — in other words, byreducing energy consumption. This can beachieved by shutting off energy-consumingequipment like furnaces when they are notneeded. “Flaring” losses — the burning off ofsurplus gas, which later must be replaced byenergy purchased at a high price — are mini-mized. In most cases the savings amount toabout three percent of total energy, which is alot of money and emissions. Given energy sav-ings of only one percent at an annual produc-tion volume of five million tons of steel, CO2

emissions can be reduced by around 100,000tons per year. Here, an investment in Siemens’energy-saving solutions can pay for itself veryquickly. In fact, depending on the plant, itsdegree of automation and annual tonnage,the investment can pay off after just a fewmonths. Stephanie Lackerschmid

Efficiency Catches FireThe economic crisis is presenting steelmakers with a major challenge. Although mostproducers can’t afford costly new plants, they still have to make their productionprocesses more efficient in order to reduce costs and emissions. Siemens VAI offersinnovative modernization solutions that cut costs and protect the environment.

Efficient Siemens solutions, such as those for

blast furnaces (large image) and electric arc

furnaces for melting scrap (right), can radically

reduce operating costs and emissions.

mills consume 20 percent of the energy re-quired by industry and are responsible for 30percent of industrial CO2 emissions. Energyconsumption alone accounts for about onethird of a steel mill’s operating costs. Thismakes it possible to use energy-efficient tech-nologies to fight both the economic and theclimate crisis. “Environmental protection andcost savings are not mutually exclusive,” saysOlaus Ritamaki, General Manager at SiemensVAI in Oulu, Finland. “In contrast, energy-effi-cient technologies reduce operating costs andease the strain on the environment.

Red Hot Results. Among the biggest sourcesof flue gas emissions in integrated steel millsare coking and sintering plants. While somenewer facilities use the Corex or Finex process-

es developed by Siemens and can thus dis-pense with coking and sintering, many steel-works still use the traditional blast furnacemethod, in which pig iron is produced fromiron ore using coke and sinter.

To make coke, coal is heated in a coke ovento 1,000 degrees Celsius in the absence of air.Afterwards, the hot coke must be quenched.For the conventional wet quenching process,water is used. Enormous white clouds ofsteam are released, dust emissions and waste-water harm the environment, and the energyemployed dissipates into the atmosphere. Thiscan be prevented with the help of the cokedry-quenching process (CDQ) offered bySiemens VAI. With CDQ, the heat from the red-hot coke is used to produce steam, which inturn is available for further processes, such as

The economic crisis has hit the steel marketespecially hard. After several very success-

ful years — driven by the boom in emergingmarkets — demand collapsed dramatically. Inthe Fall of 2008 the German steel industry, forexample, recorded the sharpest decline in or-ders since the end of World War II. Accordingto the German Federal Statistical Office, rawsteel production in Germany in the first half of2009 alone was down 43.5 percent from thelevel posted in the first half of 2008. In theU.S. during the same period, the World SteelAssociation reports, production fell by morethan 51 percent.

In addition, energy-intensive industries inparticular are facing increasingly strict envi-ronmental regulations. According to the Inter-national Energy Agency (IEA), iron and steel

Energy Efficiency | Steel Plants

90 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 93

that can significantly speed up the transport ofmining products: trolley trucks. Such vehiclesfunction like streetcars — sporting antler-likepantographs that can be raised and lowered atthe press of a button. This means that the driv-er can link the truck to overhead conductors(catenaries), which are generally installed onsteep slopes. “This is where conventionaltrucks, despite their 3,000 plus hp, can only ad-vance at a snail’s pace,” says Köllner. The cate-naries can provide the drive systems with al-most 6,000 hp. This means that the truck’sspeed can almost double, and the mine opera-tors can reduce the number of expensive me-chanical giants they need to have on site.

The environment benefits from trolley tech-nology too. There are no local emissions, sincethe diesel engine switches itself off automati-cally when contact is made with the overheadline. What’s more, the braking energy that is re-leased when a truck rolls downhill is fed backinto the network via a second pair of conduc-tors. Thanks to all these benefits, the technolo-gy quickly pays for itself, says Köllner. “After nomore than three years, a mine operator can re-

cover the costs of buying the trolley trucks andthe costs associated with the installation of theoverhead lines.”

Speed is king not just in terms of transporta-tion but also loading performance. That’s whymonster excavators are also used in mines,alongside the giant trucks. These excavatorsare massive steel systems that resemble thebow of a ship and sit atop caterpillar tracks.Their grab arms look like electricity pylons andtheir shovels are as big as mobile homes. Withjust one scoop, they can move around 120tons. It takes just four shovelfuls to fill the load

that can be modulated. The converters featureparticularly long-lasting circuit componentsthat have proven their capability in rail technol-ogy. “Like mining vehicles, trains experienceextreme conditions,” says Köllner. They have tobe able to run at minus 40 degrees Celsius andin blistering heat. In addition, the converters’air coolers must be extraordinarily dependable,even where air pressure is low.

Digital assistants. Sophisticated control sys-tems are also vital when it comes to keepingmaintenance and repair times short. For exam-

compartment of a giant truck. “The processbarely takes two minutes,” says Köllner.

Such excavators are also powered bySiemens three-phase drives. At present, thereare more than 150 such excavators in opera-tion worldwide. “We use four motors with dif-ferent outputs,” says Köllner. “The most power-ful, at 2,600 hp, lifts and lowers the excavatorarm, while another moves the shovel. A third

ensures that the excavator can turn and afourth drives the caterpillar tracks.” Unlike thetrucks, the excavators remain in the same placefor long periods and don’t require a diesel gen-erator.

Be it trucks or excavators, converters are atthe heart of all three-phase current drives.These converters, which are located in outsizedsteel cabinets, convert current from the dieselgenerator or cable into three-phase current

ple, thanks to these systems, the machines’functionality can be monitored from a controlcenter (see Pictures of the Future, Spring 2005,p. 51). “Our regional set-up and local partnerscan also offer rapid assistance if need be,” saysChristian Dirscherl, who develops full-servicesolutions for mine operators at Siemens’ Indus-try Sector in Erlangen, Germany. In fact, serviceis due to be expanded even further. “In the fu-

ture, we want to equip excavators and truckswith sensors that will enable obstacles to bedetected reliably, even in very dusty condi-tions,” says Dirscherl. As is the case with roadtraffic, new assistance systems will increasesafety and make the driver’s job easier. Oneday, the giant trucks may even be able to setoff on their hunt for raw materials without driv-ers. “But that really is still a pipe dream,” saysDirscherl. Andrea Hoferichter

interrupted and re-engaged to generate a rota-tional movement. This limits the revolutionsper minute that a motor of this type can attain.And it requires more parts that need to bemaintained regularly. “Our alternating currentmotors can deliver up to seven percent moreperformance from the same amount of energy,and downtimes for maintenance and repairwork are rare,” says Köllner. “Generally, just onetechnology check a year is all that’s needed.”

Giant Trucks, Zero Emissions. AC drives alsoform the basis for a development from Siemens

Here’s a dump truck that puts others toshame. Next to it, a man looks like a

mouse. Its tires measure four meters in diame-ter. All in all, it’s as tall as a three-story buildingand as wide as a two-lane highway. Such su-persized trucks are hard at work around theworld in the copper mines of the Andes, in thediamond mines of Zambia, and in the bitumi-nous sand pits of Canada. In their load com-partments, each the size of a swimming pool,

Monster DrivesAt open pit mines all over the world, mechanical mon-sters are hard at work. They dig for bituminous sand, forexample, or transport tons of copper ore. By equippingthe giant excavators and trucks with state-of-the-art, ultra-efficient electrical drive systems, Siemens helps its customers to save energy, time, and money.

Excavators can lift up to 120 tons per scoop.

Trucks move up to 400 tons per trip. Catenaries

(right) make transport quicker and more

economical, while reducing emissions.

Energy Efficiency | Mining Electrification

92 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

shares responsibility for marketing, are helpingto ensure that this is the case. The motors,which are positioned on the rear wheels, canaccelerate the dump trucks to 60 kilometersper hour as well as brake them. This is no meanfeat, since the trucks weigh around 200 tonseach — about the same as 130 mid-range cars.Once the trucks are fully loaded, the drivesneed to move up to 600 tons through sand,mud, and deep holes, as well as over steephills.

Electricity, not Diesel. A 3,000 hp diesel en-gine generates the current. So why doesn’t itjust propel the truck too? “The reason is simple.It’s just not worth putting the engine and gearsof a car onto the slopes of a mine. A gearboxpowerful enough to handle the workload re-quired of these trucks would be enormous, andwould also need a lot of maintenance,” saysKöllner, explaining the drawbacks of purelymechanical propulsion.

Not only do the trucks dispense with gear-boxes. Thanks to their electric drive systems,they also do without clutches and brake disksin normal operation. Electrical resistors areused to brake the vehicles, and speed can besteplessly adjusted via three-phase current fre-quency. “Such trucks are essentially driven likea car with an automatic gearbox,” says Köllner,who is an engineer and has actually driven oneof the behemoths.

For over 30 years now, Siemens has beenusing three-phase current drives for mining ve-hicles. “The rotating electric field can be trans-formed directly into mechanical rotation,” saysKöllner. Some manufacturers, on the otherhand, still prefer DC drive systems. In such mo-tors, however, the current has to be constantly

they haul raw materials to collecting points,sorting plants, and washing plants.

These trucks may be massive, but they’renot mass-produced. After all, they cost up to €2million each. “It is crucial that these machinesbe used as efficiently as possible and experi-ence an absolute minimum of down time,” saysWalter Köllner from Siemens Energy & Automa-tion in Atlanta, Georgia. The trucks’ three-phase current drive systems, which Köllner also

Thanks to catenaries and three-phase current drives,giant trucks can achieve outputs of up to 6,000 hp.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 95

Another measure involves the provision ofheat and hot water using biomass, which cancover all requirements in the summer andserve as a supplementary energy source in thewinter. Installation costs for such a systemwould total approximately $3.5 million, whileenergy savings would add up to almost$500,000 per year, with an associated CO2 re-duction of around 7,000 tons p.a.

After conducting a detailed analysis of theproposals, the Denver International Airport op-erating company will decide which measures itwill implement, and at which times.

The fact is that airports need to take steps toincrease their energy efficiency, since theircomplex infrastructures make them major en-ergy consumers. After all, thousands of air-ports around the world are used by billions ofpassengers and airport employees every year.In addition, studies conducted by the AirportsCouncil International (ACI), the InternationalAir Transport Association (IATA), and the Interna-

mass/biogas, geothermal sources, and fuelcells. “Here, decisions have to be made basedon individual circumstances,” says Karl. Den-ver’s airport covers almost 140 square kilome-ters, for example, making it by far the largest inthe U.S. in terms of area; so it makes sense toconsider the use of biomass/biogas and windenergy.” The Siemens study thus proposes suchmeasures as well.

The third area focuses on solutions in thefields of power generation, alternative energy,baggage and freight logistics, IT services, andbuilding technologies. The goal here is to man-age the many energy-hungry systems in usewith the help of intelligent IT solutions alignedwith airport processes, and to regularly moni-tor and compare energy consumption over

How to Exploit Savings Potential. SiemensBuilding Technologies is also active as an en-ergy manager in Germany, at Münster/Osna -brück Airport and also at Stuttgart Airport. Herein the Southern German Airport, BT is responsi-ble for efficient energy management on thebasis of values calculated from the countingpulses of roughly 500 water meters and 400heat and cooling meters. The set-points as wellas the controller settings from the automationand field level are also documented andprocessed by the airport’s energy managementsystem. In addition to monthly, quarterly, andyearly reports, hourly values also play a key rolein assessing the efficiency of the systems. Theprogram for analyzing the energy data com-pares current values with the building’s numer-ical model. Energy savings of up to 40 percentcan thus be achieved.

These examples illustrate how major energysavings can be achieved through smart mod-ernization and optimization. At the same time,more pleasant temperatures and lighting plusbetter air quality make the time spent at airportsmore comfortable.

In new buildings, the energy required forheating and air conditioning can be reduced byup to 40 percent just through architecturalmeas ures and new insulation and ventilationconcepts.

CO2 emissions can be reduced by 70 percentor even more if alternative energy sources,such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric are usedto generate the required energy, if geothermalenergy, biomass and biogas, and cogenerationare used, if equipment is replaced with devicesthat use little energy, and if this equipment isoperated only on an as needed basis.

“A lot can be achieved if you look at an air-port and its complex infrastructure from a ho-listic perspective,” says Karl. Siemens can serveas a single source for all the required servicesand solutions needed by airport authorities fromits various Groups. This brings the green, i.e.CO2-free, airport almost within reach, which isthe stated goal of Airports Council Interna-tional (ACI), an international association of air-port operators with 567 members operating inmore than 1,650 airports in 176 countries.

“If the political and public environment de-manded it, CO2-neutral airports could alreadybe in operation today. Even the CO2-free air-port does not have to remain a vision if we takeadvantage of all the opportunities available tous,” says Karl. Gitta Rohling

tional Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) showthat passenger volumes are rising at a consis-tent average rate of between 3.5 and 5.8 per-cent per year.

IT Solution for Energy-Hungry Systems.“Our energy-saving measures are implementedin three areas,” says Karl. The first area involvesfinding out which devices can be turned off ormodernized, as old machines are often the big -gest energy wasters. It therefore makes senseat any airport to use energy-saving lamps thatoperate in accordance with ambient light con-ditions and utilization requirements. “In manycases you’re dealing with just one main switchfor all the lights,” says Karl. “But if you optimizelighting systems to function in line with ambi-ent light conditions and the utilization of spe-cific areas, you can cut costs substantially.”

The second area addresses the use of re-newable energy sources such as wind, bio-

time. In order that the Airport Denver is able tofinance these energy-saving solutions, Siemensoffers beside its comprehensive expertise alsoan energy performance contracting. With thisform of financing, the vendor contractuallyguarantees the savings, decides which meas-ures will be implemented, and finances them.In return, the saved energy costs are paid to thevendor until its expenses for financing, plan-ning, and monitoring are paid in full.

With energy performance contracting, thecustomer doesn’t have to spend any of its ownmoney, but benefits from the savings once theinvestment has been paid off.

Two other Airports in the U.S. are alreadyusing the advantages of this contracting. Whilethe Airport Detroit has been reduced its totalenergy-costs about 23 percent per year, theAirport Seattle has lowed its energy-consump-tion about four percent and its natural gas loadabout eight percent.

Flight from Carbon DioxideRising energy prices, growing environmental awareness, and increasingly stringentlegal requirements are forcing airports to sustainably reduce their energy consumption.Solutions from Siemens demonstrate the kinds of energy savings that are possible ifcomplex airport infrastructures are looked at holistically. Siemens already serves as anenergy manager at many airports in the U.S. and Germany.

Siemens is developing measures to save energy

for Denver Airport (below). Thanks to Siemens

technologies, Stuttgart Airport (right) has already

cut its energy bill by around 40 percent.

into account the impact the proposed meas-ures would have on the environment, operat-ing capacity, and passenger comfort.

The study produced a total of 26 proposals,the most effective of which involve measuresthat would address heating, cooling, ventila-tion, lighting, and baggage transport systems,which together account for more than 80 per-cent of total energy consumption. “Naturally,airports are looking to achieve extensive sav-ings in terms of not only costs but also energyconsumption and carbon dioxide emissions —and to do so as simply as possible and at a lowlevel of investment,” says Uwe Karl, head of Air-port Solutions at BT. There are also more ex-pensive measures, such as the use of alterna-tive energy generation systems that wouldimmediately result in a high CO2 reduction butwould pay for themselves only after a long pe-riod. To help the airport operator with its deci-sions, the study lists the cost of each individual

measure, as well as the associated energy re-duction and its amortization period.

A good example of how to achieve a majoreffect at relatively low cost is offered by sys-tems that control terminal ventilation in linewith utilization. The installation of these sys-tems, which employ CO2 sensors and intelligentventilation control units, would cost $215,000— but would lead to annual energy-cost sav-ings of $425,000. Such an investment wouldthus pays for itself after only six months. An-other relatively simple way to save energy is toinstall energy-saving lamps and LED lightingsystems. Lights in the passenger terminal atDenver International are left on 18 hours perday; those in the parking garages and on therunways and apron burn even longer. Use ofenergy-efficient lighting systems could reduceelectricity consumption by more than 11 mil-lion kWh per year, which, given the U.S. energymix, corresponds to around 10,000 tons of CO2.

Denver International Airport is a majestic fa-cility. The roof of its passenger terminal is

adorned with 34 pinnacles made of translucentTeflon as a tribute to the nearby Rocky Moun-tains. With 51 million passengers in 2008, theairport is one of the world’s busiest. Its com-plex infrastructure also makes it a huge con-sumer of energy, as it required 216 million kilo-watt-hours (kWh) of electricity in 2007, ormore than four kWh per passenger.

In early 2008, the airport’s operating com-pany therefore asked Siemens’ Building Tech-nologies (BT) division to draw up concepts de-signed to cut airport energy use. In mid-2009BT released a study offering optimization pro-posals aimed at reducing the airport’s overallnatural gas demand by ten percent and kWhconsumption by 12 percent. For its study, BTexamined the terminal, waiting halls, and of-fice and equipment buildings. Along with en-ergy-saving considerations, the study also took

Energy Efficiency | Airports

94 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Energy-saving lamps alone would save Denver International more than 11 million kWh per year.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 97

Natureis theirModelState-of-the-art technologyis making it possible to reduce energy consump-tion in buildings by up to30 percent. Four buildings— in New York, Malmö,Madrid, and Sydney —demonstrate what can beachieved for people andthe environment when sensors, special materials,energy supply systems, andinformation technology interact in an optimal manner.

Free-climber Alain Robert scaled the

NY Times Building as a protest against climate

change — yet the building uses 30 percent less

energy than its neighbors.

Back in June, 2008 Alain Robert climbed thefacade of the new headquarters of the

New York Times Company to call attention tothe problem of global warming. Ironically, thebuilding on which he chose to unfurl a bannerwith a message about climate protection wasdesigned precisely to address that issue.

In fact, the 52-story building in Manhattanscaled by Robert, who is also known as “Spider-man,” offers an impressive example of howmodern technology can be employed to con-serve energy and cut CO2 emissions withoutsacrificing comfort. The New York Times Build-ing (NYTB), which opened in November 2007,uses up to 30 percent less energy than conven-tional office high-rises. Designed by star archi-tect Renzo Piano, the building has an unusualultra-clear glass facade that allows neighborsto not only look into the interior, but also all theway through to the other side. The design al-lows passersby to look right through the lobbyand into a garden featuring birch trees andmoss. It’s like an oasis in the middle of Manhat-tan, one that symbolizes a key principle behindthe building — to conserve energy with thehelp of, and in harmony with, nature.

Glass skyscrapers normally waste a lot ofenergy because they collect heat like a green-house and then use air conditioning to keepthemselves cool. But the NYTB is different. Ithas a second facade made of ceramic rods thatextends from the ground floor to the roof andkeeps out direct light. A shading system is pro-grammed to use the position of the sun and in-puts from an extensive sensor network to raiseand lower shades, either blocking extremelight to reduce glare or allowing light to enter

at times of less direct sunlight. The shading sys-tem works in tandem with a first-of-its-kindlighting system that maximizes use of naturallight so that electric lighting is used only as asupplement. Each of the more than 18,000electrical ballasts in the lighting system con-tains a computer chip that allows it to be con-trolled individually.

The Times Company is also able to use free-air cooling, meaning that on a cool morning,air from the outside can be brought into thebuilding. Everyone knows it makes sense to airout your home in the morning on hot summerdays — but it takes high-tech systems toachieve the same practical results in a buildingas big as the NYTB. The task is enormouslycomplex. Interior temperature, outside temper-ature, the building’s configuration, the angle ofthe sun, and the electrical and heat output ofthe in-house gas-fired combined-heat-andpower generation systems are just a small sam-ple of the many variables that have to be moni-tored to ensure efficient use of energy in sucha skyscraper. No building superintendent couldever make decisions on the basis of so much in-formation. But in The New York Times Buildingthese decisions are made by a building man-agement system from Siemens that automati-cally monitors and controls the air condition-ing, water cooling, heating, fire alarm, andgeneration systems.

The building management system seam-lessly integrates equipment from other manu-facturers, which can then be operated bymeans of a centralized control interface. Build-ing technicians are provided with real time in-formation via an extensive network of hun-

| Efficient Buildings

96 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

Groundswell of Support forMore Efficient Buildings

A lmost 40 percent of the world’s energy is used by

buildings. According to the German Energy Agency

(DENA), potential savings of 30 percent are possible for

heat and 15 percent for electric power. A study by the

German Federal Environment Agency has even calculated

that by thoroughly renovating and insulating walls and

cellar ceilings in old buildings, and installing double

glazed windows, savings of 56 percent could be made in

terms of heating energy (see Pictures of the Future,

Spring 2007, p. 86).

The global market for heating, ventilation, and air

conditioning products is estimated at around €80 billion,

according to the German Federal Ministry for the Environ-

ment, Nature Conservation and Reactor Safety and the

German Institute for Economic Research (DIW); it is also

growing at five percent per year. Future improvements

here will come from optimizing existing technologies,

such as new types of coolants, and better control and

process technology, using sensors and other technolo-

gies. Demand for efficient building systems is growing,

primarily as a result of stricter legal requirements and en-

ergy efficiency campaigns. Of China’s 40 billion square

meters of residential and usable floor space, some 16 bil-

lion is accounted for by residential buildings within cities.

By 2010, the government plans to invest around $400 bil-

lion in energy efficiency improvements for buildings. Im-

provements will be documented in an effort to ensure

that only energy-efficient construction plans are ap-

proved. This is an important step, since China’s expendi-

tures for new construction are expected to increase by

9.2 percent a year until 2010 according to the latest fore-

cast by Freedonia. “Thanks to the introduction of energy

use standards for new buildings, we have already saved

five million tons of coal between January and October

2007 alone,” says Xie-Zhen Hua, Deputy Director of the

National Development and Reform Commission.

In the U.S., energy efficiency is growing in impor-

tance, particularly in public buildings, even though a

study by McGraw Hill Construction in 2007 revealed that

the proportion of “green buildings” in the U.S. is still only

0.3 percent of residential

real estate. The annual in-

creases of 20 to 30 per-

cent are, however, signifi-

cant. By the end of 2007,

4,100 buildings and facto-

ries had acquired the “En-

ergy Star” label for energy

efficiency, 1,400 of them

in 2007 alone. In Califor-

nia, the Building Regula-

tions Committee passed

the “California Green Building Standards Code” at the end

of July 2008. It contains guidelines aimed at pushing

building energy consumption 15 percent below the val-

ues that are being achieved by current binding energy ef-

ficiency standards. The directive is set to become manda-

tory for residential buildings in 2010.

Europe has various initiatives, such as the “20-20-20

by 2020” motto. This means that by 2020, greenhouse

gas emissions are to be reduced by 20 percent compared

to 1990, the proportion of renewable energies increased

to 20 percent and energy efficiency increased by 20 per-

cent. Another European initiative is the voluntary Green-

Building program, which has been in place since 2005. Its

aim is to improve the energy efficiency of non-residential

buildings, such as offices, schools or industrial premises,

by helping property owners modernize their buildings.

In the context of energy-saving contracting, such in-

vestments can pay for themselves out of contractually-

agreed savings within a defined period. According to the

Berlin Energy Agency, energy costs and carbon dioxide

emissions can be cut by an average of up to 30 percent in

this way.

“Across Germany, efficiency contracting will cut en-

ergy costs by some €800 million and carbon dioxide

emissions by 4.5 million tons each year,” says Michael

Geißler, Executive Manager of the Berlin Energy Agency.

By 2010, the agency anticipates the market volume for

contracting to reach €4 billion a year. Contracting

providers such as Siemens can exploit significant growth

potential here, since only around ten percent of the mar-

ket is being tapped.

Sylvia Trage

Energy Efficiency | Facts and Forecasts

1990 1995 2000 2005

Space heating

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16 Exajoules

Domestic appliances

Hot water

Lighting

Cooking

1990 20050

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

58

16

17

45

53

21

16

55

Percent

Sour

ce: S

tudy

: “W

orld

wid

e Tr

ends

in E

ner

gy U

se a

nd

Effic

ien

cy”,

IEA

(20

08)

IEA 19: Association of 19 industrialized nations incl. Germany, France, UK, U.S. and Japan.

Sour

ce: G

erm

any

Ener

gy A

gen

cy

Without insulation With insulation

Roof12,120 kWh/year

Windows4,700kWh/year

Ground/cellar1,764 kWh/year

Walls10,100

kWh/year

Roof3,000 kWh/year

Windows2,520kWh/year

Ground/cellar714 kWh/year

Walls2,900 kWh/year

Other60%

Buildings40%

Residential buildings65%

Non-residentialbuildings

35%

Other process heat15%

Space heat46%

Hot water10%

Ventilation, airconditioning 23%

Lighting6%

Sour

ce: S

iem

ens

AG

Household Energy Consumption in 19 Industrialized Nations

Energy Consumption in Non-Residential Buildings

Heating Losses for a Typical Home with and without Insulation

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 99

made them appealing in 2005. Back then, theowners of the Turning Torso may not have real-ized they would become pioneers in lightingsystems for buildings.

Minimizing Resource Consumption. Thefact that impressive aesthetics and energy effi-ciency needn’t be mutually exclusive is alsodemonstrated by the 30 The Bond office com-plex in Sydney — the first building in Australiato receive five stars from the Australian Build-ing Greenhouse Rating Scheme (ABGR). Thisstringent certification system was introducedby the government of New South Wales to en-courage building owners to use state-of-the-arttechnology to minimize resource consumption.The highest rating is issued to buildings thatoperate with a carbon footprint that falls belowa set benchmark. Greenhouse gas emissions at30 The Bond, which was completed in 2004,are around 30 percent lower than in similarbuildings. Those who visit it generally don’t re-alize at first that they’re in an office building, asthere is a café located in an eight-story atriumwhose huge size helps to cool the structure.The back wall is made entirely of sandstone,and the roof features a small garden right inthe middle of the Australian metropolis.

Depending on the weather, the garden iswatered by a timed, drip irrigation system atnight, so the upper floors take longer to heatup in the morning. Sixty percent of all worksta-tions have a clear view outside, making thebuilding a part of its natural surroundings.

As with similar buildings in New York andMadrid, intelligent building management tech-nologies from Siemens integrate various systemsat 30 The Bond, including those for heating, air

conditioning, energy and water supply, fireprotection, and lighting. Several of the energyconservation strategies are also similar. Syd-ney’s 30 The Bond is divided into 80 zones thatcan be controlled individually, with only thoseparts of the building that are actually in use be-ing illuminated, cooled, and ventilated. Thereare also CO2 sensors for measuring air qualityin the conference rooms. The system channelsfresh air into a room only if people are present.

Completely new for Australia at the time the30 The Bond building opened was the methodused for cooling it. Instead of passing cold airdirectly into the office space, the system pumpschilled water through passive chilled beams (orradiators) mounted in ceilings. Chilled beamscool the space below by acting as a heat sink fornaturally-rising warm air. Once cooled, the airdrops back to the floor where the cycle beginsagain.

Says Lynden Clark, who was responsible forengineering the Siemens solution at 30 TheBond: “When it comes to such ambitious proj-ects Siemens is an enabler helping customersto achieve their individual goals, whereby wedecide on a case-by-case basis which technolo-gies are most suitable for a given situation.”

It’s no coincidence that in many cases thesolutions are based on the same principle asthat applied in New York, Madrid, and Sydney,which calls for more extensively exploiting thesurroundings of the buildings, the natural heator cold, and the light of the sun. After all, na-ture opens up all kinds of opportunities for liv-ing and working in harmony with it in modernhigh-tech buildings — and intelligent buildingtechnology makes it possible to seize these op-portunities. Andreas Kleinschmidt

A garden in the NY Times Building (left) boosts moti-

vation while networked sensors cut power consump-

tion. Malmö`s Turning Torso (below) and Sydney’s

30 The Bond (right) also save lots of energy.

Energy Efficiency | Efficient Buildings

98 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

dreds of sensors, including those for monitor-ing temperature, which are distributedthroughout the building. While all functionscan be regulated from a central control room,this usually isn’t necessary because all it takesis a few commands to get the systems to auto-matically adjust themselves to conditions onany day. Whether it’s a hot, humid work day, ora cold and dry holiday when only a few officesare being used — the goal is always to save en-ergy by ensuring that as few systems as possi-ble are in operation, without diminishing com-fort in any way.

building management system from Siemens —will in the future help ensure that the most de-manding tenant requirements are met whileusing as little energy as possible.

All relevant information — from lightingand air conditioning to heating systems, for ex-ample — will be available on control panels lo-cated throughout the building, thus helping toensure smooth operations. Stability will also bemaintained in the event of a failure of individ-ual systems or in case the central control roomitself is damaged. If a fire breaks out, for exam-ple, ventilation dampers would still automati-

port heat down to the lower floors. Instead ofheating the ground floor at the same time thatthe air conditioning is running in the top floor,the building automatically regulates itself toensure energy efficiency.

The intelligent control panels are also veryefficient, consuming around 15 percent lessenergy than conventional units, says MargaritaIzquierdo of Siemens Building Technologies,who is responsible for Energy & EnvironmentalSolutions. Izquierdo helped her Siemens col-leagues on the Torre de Cristal project to opti-mize energy efficiency in all areas. “The Torrede Cristal is truly avant-garde for Spain,” saysIzquierdo. “Solutions for energy efficiency inbuildings are in many respects still in their in-fancy here, which is why I’m convinced thisproject will serve as a model in many ways.”

LED Lighthouse. Another energy-savingbuilding is the 190-meter Turning Torso inMalmö, Sweden, which was completed in2005. The building’s ambitious architecturalstyle led the New York Museum of Modern Artto induct it into its Hall of Fame of the world’s25 most fascinating skyscrapers. Light is one ofits design key elements, with LEDs used toflood the corridors in symmetrical white light.

“Other solutions like fluorescent lights wouldhave created unattractive shadows,” says JørnBrinkmann, who coordinated the installation ofsome 16,000 LEDs for Siemens’ Osram sub-sidiary in what was the first mass architecturalapplication of such technology. When the Turn-ing Torso was built, LEDs consumed about asmuch energy as fluorescent tubes — but todaythey use around a third less energy for the sameoutput. But it was their long service life that

If part of the building is not in use, the building manage-ment system will shut down its light and ventilation.

“Nobody benefits from cooling an empty of-fice in the evening,” says Gary Marciniak, Ac-count Executive at Siemens Building Technolo-gies. “That’s obvious,” he adds. “But other factorsare less apparent. For example, sometimes it’smore efficient to have one of two water pumpsoperating at full capacity, while at other timesthe greatest efficiency is achieved by lettingthem both run.” The system itself recognizesand automatically exploits such situations inorder to maximize resource conservation.

Crystal Tower. Similar technologies are beingused in the Torre de Cristal skyscraper inMadrid’s Fuencarral-El Pardo district, one ofSpain’s prime locations. The second tallestbuilding in the country, the Torre de Cristal hasbenefited from a Siemens fire protection sys-tem. In addition, “Desigo” — an integrated

cally close throughout the building to preventsmoke from spreading. The control panels willalso use information from sensors to regulateair flows and thus the temperature of individ-ual sectors of the building. If part of the build-ing is not in use, its light and ventilation sys-tems will be shut down.

Individual control units will be networkedand will constantly exchange information onconditions in their sectors, thus providing a realtime overview of all building conditions andprocesses. Automated control procedures canthen be used to make continual adjustments toenable optimal energy utilization. If, for exam-ple, the system finds that the upper floors arewarmer than the lower ones, it will cool thingsoff by automatically sending cold water to theupper floors through high-pressure pipes.Warmer water from the top floors can trans-

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 101

When Buildings Come to LifeSensors are set to givebuildings a spectrum of information — and scientists at Siemens areworking on combiningmany of their functions on a single chip.

100 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

At Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich,Germany, when physicist Rainer Strzoda

enters his work area and wants to find out ifthe climate control system is working properly,all he needs to do is take a look at a smalldevice on the wall. Today, the prototype laser-optic sensor developed by Siemens scientistsreads 400 ppm CO2.

“That’s a good value when you consider thatour atmosphere currently contains 380 ppmCO2,” says Strzoda. “This means the roomcontains only a little more carbon dioxide thanthe outside environment.” As the day pro-gresses, and Strzoda and his colleagues workon their inventions and discuss their results,the CO2 reading slowly climbs to around600–700 ppm — solely because the scientistsare breathing.

Strzoda and his colleagues actually have itgood. The air in most of the world’s offices andconference rooms has a CO2 content in excessof 1,000 ppm, the level at which people beginto feel uncomfortable and become tired andunfocused. Most buildings still don’t have CO2

sensors — but this will soon change, accordingto Dr. Maximilian Fleischer, who heads Str-zoda’s research group. His team has producedmany sensor-related inventions that have re-

Energy Efficiency | Intelligent Sensors

sulted in new products from Siemens. Witharound 160 patents to his name, Fleischer isone of Siemens’ most productive inventors (seePictures of the Future, Fall 2004, p. 81, and Fall2006, p. 58).

Sensors for measuring light and tempera-ture are widely used today. Gas sensors —micro electrical-mechanical systems (MEMS)made of silicon chips and an oxidizing layer —are a relatively new development, however.These laser-optic sensors are still in the earlystages of their development, and it will besome time before they hit the market.

In contrast, the gallium oxide sensor —Fleischer’s career breakthrough invention —has been measuring the CO content of exhaustgas in thousands of small firing systems foryears, thereby making it possible to optimizetheir energy output and emissions.

In a completely different area of develop-ment, a new sensor from Siemens’ researchlabs that measures alcohol content in a per-son’s breath may soon go into production, andSweden has announced that it plans to be-come the first country to combine it with a ve-hicle immobilizer to prevent intoxicated peoplefrom driving. This technology, which has beenlicensed from Siemens, can also be used in

trains, streetcars, and in connection with po-tentially dangerous machinery.

Big Savings from Tiny Sensors. Until now,sensors were rarely used in buildings becausethey were too expensive and too difficult to in-stall and maintain. But recent advances in de-veloping silicon-based sensor chips equippedwith their own power source and radio modulehave caught the attention of building opera-

As soon as wireless-capable sensor chipscan be produced cheaply, it will become feasi-ble to link thousands of them in a finely woveninfrastructure in buildings. “We will eventuallybe able to use sensors to imitate nature,” pre-dicts Ahmed. Just as our senses and nervesconstantly supply our brains with informationthat allows us to make decisions, processors inbuilding management systems will be used toreceive and process data from thousands of

Gas Detectives. In their labs, Fleischer and histeam are already developing sensors that canmonitor air quality in buildings. “To accomplishthis, we need a chip that can measure at leastfour parameters: temperature, humidity, gaseslike CO2, and odors,” says Fleischer. To this end,he and his coworkers are studying detector ma-terials to determine which reacts best with thegases to be detected. In a cathode sputteringfacility characterized by a mysterious blue-

Kerstin Wiesner (left) tests the sensitivity of

gas sensors, one of many sensor types being

studied by Maximilian Fleischer (right).

Bottom: Tempering metal films.

Sensors were long considered too expensive for

building systems. Research, however, is making them

smaller, cheaper, and more flexible — such as

Siemens’ CO2 measurement sensor (bottom left).

tors. That’s because such sensors can yield bigsavings. Intechno Consulting estimates thatthe global annual market for gas sensor sys-tems will be roughly € 2.9 billion in 2010.

Sensors play a key role in all scenarios in-volving the future of building system technolo-gies. “Houses will no longer be empty shells;they will be intelligent systems that communi-cate with their occupants,” says Dr. OsmanAhmed, who heads an innovation team atSiemens Building Technology in Buffalo Grove,Illinois.

sensors, and then issue appropriate commandsto a variety of subsystems.

Combined with user information, buildingmanagement systems will be able to performmany new services. Building users will be ableto inform such systems about when they willbe arriving, which security mechanisms have tobe used, and which rooms to ventilate. A vari-ety of sensors will ensure that managementsystems always know when a toilet is in needof repair, where a corrosive substance has beenreleased, or where people have gathered.

Office buildings will become intelligent systems thatcommunicate with their users.

Energy Efficiency | Intelligent Sensors

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 103102 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

glowing plasma, the researchers are producingsensor surfaces only a few millionths of a me-ter thick. And next door, in a related experi-ment, a small device that uses a type of screenprinting technique to detect gases is beingstudied. Which procedure is more suitable forgas detection depends on the materials inquestion. The researchers place the desiredcombinations of the tiny oxidation surfacesthey produce side-by-side on field effect tran-sistors (FETs) in a chip. Examples include a bar-ium titanate-copper oxide-mixed oxide combi-nation for detecting CO2, and a gallium oxidewith finely distributed platinum for detectingodors.

The substances being investigated in Flei -scher’s lab don’t dock directly on a chip’s sur-face, but flow as if through a tunnel between amolecular capturing layer and the actual FETstructure, causing a change in electrical resis -tance that the chip can read and convert intosignals. If the chip is equipped with a radiomodule, it can wirelessly send the data to abuilding management system’s control units.

Although Ahmed’s vision of tomorrow’sbuildings may still seem like a stretch, initialsteps in that direction have already been taken.“Comfort demands are increasing,” says An-dreas Haas of Siemens Building Technologies inSwitzerland. He believes trends in buildingtechnologies will parallel those in cars, forwhich sophisticated climate control systemsare now standard.

However, building operators are most inter-ested in the savings potential that sensor sys-tems offer. After all, sensor cost a lot less thanrenovating a building and, when combinedwith state-of-the-art optimized building au-tomation, can produce even greater savings.Haas estimates that precise room climate sen-sors, and air quality and presence sensors canreduce the energy used for heating, ventila-tion, air conditioning, and lighting by 30 per-cent compared to a building with conventionalautomation technology.

Comfort is also affected by odors. “Roomsare often aired out only because they smell un-pleasant,” says Fleischer. This needn’t be thecase, since ambient air can be cleaned usingozone, which bonds to odor-producing mole-cules and neutralizes them by splitting them.This is why Siemens researchers are developinggas sensors that can recognize typical roomodors. The researchers have used 18 differentgases, such as ethane, propene, and acetone toproduce model odors. Hexanal, for example, isused for tests of sensors designed to detectodors in carpets. The scientists are also work-ing on developing long-lasting odor sensors.“This kind of sensor needs to function for at

least ten years if it’s going to attract interest onthe market,” says Fleischer. If such a sensor re-ports a bad odor in the air to the control sys-tem, the latter will issue a command to releaseozone. The subsequent concentration of ozonecan in turn be monitored by another type of

This requirement also applies to fire alarms,of course, most of which still react optically tothe presence of smoke. “But that might be toolate for people near the source of a fire whohave already inhaled a toxic gas,” says Fleischer.This is why building operators are interested inacquiring devices that detect the specific gasestypically associated with flames. Such deviceswould be activated long before enough smokecould be produced to set off a conventionalalarm. Such detectors — especially if combinedwith sensors for automated climate control —are at the top of building operators’ wish lists.

Universal Experts. Siemens engineers arealso working on non-chip sensors such as laser-optic devices that can remotely determine

toxins, with chemical sensors you have toknow in advance which harmful substance youwant to test for.

More importantly, living sensors could beused in green buildings that save energy by set-ting up as many closed cycles as possible, forwater and air, for example. “Highly sensitiveearly warning systems are critical here,” saysFleischer. Looking further ahead, Ahmed adds,“One day we’re going to have buildings thatdon’t require any energy from outside. We’regoing to need a lot of intelligent products toget there, and multifunctional sensors are animportant piece of this puzzle.” Whatever thefuture has in store, Siemens scientists have al-ready done a lot to take us a step closer to thisvision. Katrin Nikolaus

measure water quality. “We mount these cellson chips, expose them to toxins, and then ob-serve the types of reactions that result,” she ex-plains. At present she’s examining how theskeletal muscle cells of rats react to variouswaste water samples. Such living sensors offertremendous advantages over chemical-basedsensors because, while living cells react to all

Indoor climate sensors and optimized automation can significantly lower a building’s energy consumption.

sensor in order to prevent negative side effects,such as respiratory tract irritation.

One of the main challenges in the develop-ment of gas sensors is the question of cross-sensitivities. That’s because, if false alarms areto be avoided, the detecting material on a chipmust respond only to the substance beingsearched for.

where most of a gas in a room is concentrated.Just down the hall from the laser-optic sensorlab, doctoral student Rebekka Kubisch is work-ing with petri dishes full of a red fluid. Thedishes are being used to grow cell cultures for“living” sensors that can do things such as

Doctoral student Rebekka Kubisch measures the acidification, impedance, and respiration rate of cell

sensors (left) at Siemens Corporate Technology in Munich. A new universal detector (right). Unlike

chemical sensors, cell culture sensors react to a spectrum of toxins.

Light-EmittingDevelopments Cutting energy consumption, banishing pollutants, and boosting lamp service life — that’s the mission of Osram’s lamp developers. Just around the corner:Bright, white LEDs with a service life of 90,000 hours.

| Lighting

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are as small asmotes of dust — but they’re giants when it

comes to environmental friendliness. Not onlydo white LEDs require only one-fifth the powerused by traditional light bulbs; but they lastabout 50 times longer. What’s more, unlikeconventional energy-saving lamps, they aremercury-free. In fact, the white LED successstory has been in the making for years (Picturesof the Future, Spring 2007, p. 34).

Offering 1,000 lumens, which is brighterthan a 50-watt halogen lamp, the star in the

Another important factor when it comes toproducing efficient LEDs involves the yellowand orange-red colorants that are applied tothe original light source in layers in order totransform the LED chips’ blue light into white.Osram researcher Dr. Martin Zachau is an ex-pert in this field. He and his team use colorantgrain size to control the dispersion propertiesof the particles, which allows them to varyemitted light. Efficiency is optimized via chemi-cal composition. The stability of the phosphoris increased by means of a protective coating.

LED firmament is undoubtedly “Ostar Lighting.”With its efficiency of about 70 lumens per watt,it literally relegates incandescent bulbs (15lm/W) to the shadows. The lamp contains sixhigh-efficiency LED chips, each measuring onesquare millimeter. “With Ostar, we have createda very large illuminated area,” says projectleader Dr. Steffen Köhler from Osram OptoSemiconductors in Regensburg, Germany, asubsidiary of Osram, a Siemens company. Incontrast to the trend toward miniaturization inthe electronics industry, LEDs for general light-ing should be as big as possible, so that theycan supply large amounts of light.

Achieving this goal is anything but an easymatter, though. It’s important to bear in mindthat LEDs are a combination of differentlydoped semiconductor crystals. In other words,dopant atoms have been introduced to thecrystal lattices, which have to be pure and reg-ularly structured at the atomic level. The largerthe crystals are, however, the higher is theprobability that impurities and irregularitieswill occur. And the greater the number of im-purities, the less efficient the conversion ofelectrical energy into light. Nevertheless, Köh-ler is confident that even more efficient andbigger chips can be produced. “We know that2,000 lumens is a feasible goal,“ he says.

Nevertheless, LEDs still do not accurately re-produce natural colors. That’s because, unlikesunlight or light from incandescent bulbs, theyproduce only blue and yellow wavelengths.With this in mind, Zachau’s team has come upwith a new system that will transform parts ofthe blue LED light not only into yellow, but alsointo green and red light. “As a result, the LEDspectrum will be complete — like sunlight —and colors will be superbly reproduced,”Zachau explains.

To accelerate phosphor development, Dr.Ute Liepold of Siemens Corporate Technologyin Munich relies on combinatorial chemistry(Pictures of the Future, Spring 2003, p. 26). Tothat end, Liepold uses a perforated metal sheetabout the size of a postcard. The sheet holds asmany as 96 crucibles containing mixtures ofpowders, which create new phosphors whenheated in an oven. A computer-controlled ma-nipulator is then used to weigh out the startingmaterials and position the pans on a samplecarrier. The advantage of this method is thatseveral hundred samples can be produced in asingle day. “But organizing and evaluating allthe data is quite a challenge,” says Liepold. Theobjective of the screenings is to test as manycompositions as possible in the shortest periodof time.

Long-lasting luminosity. The Dulux EL

LongLife (above) is a compact fluorescent

lamp with a rated life of 15,000 hours. Below:

Materials for LEDs being tested in a fluores-

cent light library. Bottom: The Ostar Lighting

white LED shines brighter than a 50-watt

halogen lamp.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 105

The desired efficiency increases can be at-tained through extensive refinements, such aslimiting tolerances during production in orderto minimize a lamp’s environmental impact.Soon, for example, it should be possible to filllamps with precisely the amount of gas neededto make them light up most efficiently. Imple-mentation of many such measures can raise

the luminous efficiency of today’s commonlighting systems by around 20 percent.

When Less is More. Osram’s developers canalso use such life cycle analyses to identifythose parts of the production process where re-sources can be conserved, and future wastethus prevented. For instance, Kroban’s studiesshow that in some cases, energy consumptioncan be reduced by using less material. The Os-ram T5 fluorescent tube, for example, which isabout as thin as a finger, performed much bet-ter in terms of energy efficiency than the com-

monly used T8 tube, which is as thick as abroomstick. The “leaner” model actually con-sumes around 40 percent less energy while de-livering the same level of brightness.

Osram and the Energy Research Center inMunich began assembling data on the energyconsumption of lamps 20 years ago. Sincethen, Osram has continually updated its fig-

ures. According to this data, by simply switch-ing to modern lighting solutions, around 900billion kilowatt-hours would be saved, or one-third of the electricity currently being used forlighting.

Given today’s energy mix for electricityproduction, that would be equivalent to a 450-million-ton reduction in carbon dioxide emis-sions each year. “You’d have to plant 450,000square kilometers of forest — an area aboutthe size of Sweden — to achieve the same ef-fect,” says Merz, who adds that it thereforemakes sense to ban incandescent light bulbs.

104 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Energy Efficiency | Lighting | Lamps

Malgorzata Kroban spent months travelingto manufacturing workshops and pro-

duction halls every day. The young engineervisited Osram glass manufacturing centers,where glass cylinders and tubes are made froma large number of materials melted together ingiant hot furnaces.

Kroban witnessed lamp bodies being coatedwith phosphor, filled with gases, fitted withelectronic circuits and stuck to plastic parts.She spoke with factory managers, researchers,and developers, and sifted through numerousdatabases. Her objective — which was also the

Fluorescent lamp manufacturing. Most of the

energy consumed during a lamp’s life cycle results

from operation, while production (small images)

requires a relatively small proportion of energy.

Let there be Savings!Researchers who have studied the life cycles of variouslamps from Osram, a Siemens subsidiary, have found that their environmental balance sheet from productionto disposal is almost exclusively determined by their efficiency and life span.

topic of her doctoral dissertation at the Bran-denburg University of Technology in Cottbus,Germany — was to put together a comprehensiveenvironmental balance sheet for fluorescentlamps and various other Osram lighting systems.

“This dissertation marked the first time thatthe entire lamp life cycle had been closely ex-amined — everything from quarry operationsand extraction of the materials for the glass torecycling and disposal facilities,” says ChristianMerz, a sustainability expert at Osram. It wasthus at once a premiere and a complex detec-tive assignment. Every detail had to be identi-

fied and recorded. Where do raw materialscome from, and how are they extracted, trans-ported, prepared, and processed? What exactlyoccurs during the manufacturing process, andwhich machines and tools are needed? Howmuch material and energy is used, and whichenergy sources are involved? How much elec-tricity do the lamps consume when operating;how long do they last? And finally, which sub-stances are recyclable, and can therefore be re-used when the lamp reaches the end of itsservice life?

The results of Kroban’s extensive investiga-tion made one thing very clear: “The environ-mental balance sheet for lamps is largely deter-mined by their energy consumption duringoperation,” she says. As Kroban discovered,only one to two percent of total lamp energyconsumption is attributable to lamp produc-tion. “That’s why efficiency during operation isthe most effective lever for making lamps moreenvironmentally friendly,” says Merz. “So, if wecan raise lamp luminous efficiency even justone or two percent, we’ll achieve more than ifwe covered up all our smokestacks and nolonger released production-related carbondioxide into the atmosphere.”

Mercury-Free Lamps. A small amount ofmercury, which turns into a gas at a lamp’s op-erating temperature, is usually added in xenonautomobile headlights. Thanks to their largersize, mercury atoms are more easily hit by elec-trons in the plasma of these gas-dischargelamps. Because they emit light that is close tothe visible spectrum, the loss occurring duringconversion into white light is very low. Mercuryalso serves as a chemical and thermal buffer,preventing unwanted oxidation processes andhelping to dissipate heat. But mercury is alsopoisonous and can accumulate in the environ-ment. An EU regulation therefore specifies thatit should be avoided whenever possible in theautomotive sector, which is why researchersare looking for alternatives.

Three years ago, Osram launched the “Xe-narc Hg-free lamp,” which replaces mercurywith zinc iodide, a harmless gas. “The product’sdevelopment was difficult,” says Christian Wit-tig, head of Marketing for Xenarc Systems. “Wehad to adapt the entire electronic and opticalenvironment to the new technology.” For ex-ample, the higher currents in this xenon lampsubject the components and electronics togreater stress, so Osram had to use thickerelectrodes and thi cker fused quartz glass. “Pro-duction is a bit more complicated, but it’s a stepforward for the environment,” says Wittig.Automakers including Audi, Ford, and Toyotause the new lamps.

Glowing Prospects. Osram compact fluores-cent lamps still use mercury, but less than threemilligrams per lamp. “It’s nearly impossible todispense such a small amount of this materialin drop form,” says Dr. Ralf Criens, an Osramenvironmental expert. “So the mercury is fixedwith iron powder, which lets us put the rightamount into each lamp.” Long service life isparticularly critical for environmental reasons.Ultimately, longer service life means fewer re-placed lamps — and less mercury. That’s whyOsram researchers developed the very long-lasting compact fluorescent Dulux EL LongLifelamp, which can burn for 15,000 hours.

“Service life is a key factor when working onconcepts for new lamps, as is the need to thinkin terms of systems,” says Criens. He foreseesperennial favorites like white LEDs, which pro-vide up to 90,000 hours of light, dispensingwith the need for a base — a development thatis expected to soon usher in new kinds of floorlamps, table lamps, and other applications us-ing LEDs as fixed components at competitiveprices. As a result, many customers could soonbe glowing with pleasure at the sight of theirbright, environmentally-friendly and long-last-ing lamps. Andrea Hoferichter

An energy-saving lamp lasts 15 times longer than a light bulb — and saves one megawatt-hour of electricity.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 107

| UN Certificates By trading in their old incandescent bulb for a

modern energy-saving light source, the Radheyshyam

family will save about €55 on electricity over ten

years and help preserve the environment.

India’s New LightIn India, Osram is offering free energy-saving lamps in exchange for energy-hungry incandescent bulbs. In doing so, it has become the first lighting manufacturer to participate in the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism.

ing to protect the environment.” A maximum oftwo bulbs will be exchanged in each house-hold, so that better-off Indians will have no ad-vantage over poorer ones. Osram is collectingthe old bulbs and recycling them in an environ-mentally compatible manner. “Our methodologyis designed to ensure that the old bulbs aren’tused any more,” says Bronger. In addition, spe-cially developed measuring instruments will beinstalled in 200 households to record averagedaily use of the lamps for the UN. The data willbe documented in regular reports. The GermanTechnical Supervision Association (TÜV) willverify the details, which will be sent to the UN.

Ideal for Emerging Markets. The top part ofeach lamp is manufactured in Germany, whilethe bottom part, with its complex electronics,is made in Italy. The lamps are assembled in In-dia. Ultimately, the international division ofwork makes no difference in the product. TheDulux EL Longlife, one of Osram’s most innova-tive lamps, is ideal for use in emerging markets.

The Radheyshyam family, from the Indiancity of Visakhapatnam, has no extravagant

designer lamp shade. Even so, it has a speciallamp that is so innovative that you won’t find iteverywhere in Europe yet. It’s Osram’s Dulux ELLonglife energy-saving lamp. Together withpartner RWE, Osram started offering 700,000of these lamps to India’s households in April2008 as part of the United Nations’ ”Clean De-velopment Mechanism” (CDM). In comparisonwith conventional incandescent bulbs the newlamps consume 80 percent less electricity.

“The idea is to reduce carbon dioxide emis-sions in developing and emerging markets sub-stantially with the most modern lighting tech-nology — for the benefit of everyone,” saysProject Manager Boris Bronger, of Osram. Thisis a win-win situation. On the one hand, partic-ipating households benefit. They get thenewest technology almost as a gift — the Rad-heyshyam family paid no more for the energy-saving lamp than for a conventional bulb, butthanks to the lamp’s reduced power consump-tion, it saves them cash every month.

On the other hand, power supplies are im-proved because there are fewer demand peaks,which in turn reduces power failures in thesomewhat unstable Indian power supply net-work. In addition, the project will help the envi-ronment. Specifically, the new lamps will cutCO2 emissions by around 800,000 tons overten years as compared with use of their con-ventional counterparts. And Osram itself willreceive emission certificates from the UN,which it can resell freely to refinance the proj-ect. Osram is confident, despite the high initialinvestment of the project, that a new businessmodel can be created in this way.

The pilot region for the exchange of bulbswas the Federal State of Andhra Pradesh on In-dia’s east coast. “The response to the informa-tion events that Osram mounted in coopera-tion with the local power supply company wasvery positive,” says Bronger. “Residents arehappy that they are not only saving power andmoney with the new technology but also help-

How Much CO2 Does a Lamp Save?

The UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was enshrined in the Kyoto Protocol. Its calcula-

tions are based on how much greenhouse gas a region would produce if everything were to continue

as it has up to now. How much of this could be avoided using energy-saving lamps is then calculated.

The savings actually realized must be verified by independent organizations accredited by the UN — for

example by Germany’s TÜV. This is a complex process. Osram submitted its methodology in 2004, and

it was approved in 2007. Since April 2008, Osram has been the first lighting manufacturer anywhere

to replace incandescent bulbs with energy-saving lamps in accordance with this concept. The first port

of call is India, but future plans include other countries, principally in Africa and Asia. To calculate the

amount of CO2 saved, a random survey of Dulux EL Longlife lamps’ lifelong electricity use is conducted.

Osram experts estimate that the lamp will save roughly one megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity dur-

ing its service life. In India, because of the large number of coal-fired power plants, CO2 emissions per

MWh vary according to region between 0.85 and 1.0 tons (the global average of all power plants is

0.575 tons). In countries such as Brazil, which rely heavily on hydro-electric power, the CO2-saving ef-

fect would be considerably less — which is why not all countries are suitable for such CDM projects.

For each ton of CO2 saved, Osram receives an emission certificate from the UN. Since these certificates

can be traded freely, the price they can command is variable. Schwarzfischer / Lackerschmid

It can be switched on and off countless times,and can handle power failures. What’s more, itsmercury content is extremely low, which is anadvantage for the environment. For all thecomplicated organization involved in the cam-paign, the Radheyshyams do not have to con-cern themselves with the process. While watch-ing the new energy-saving lamp beingin stalled, the father merely has to sign a form,which he also marks with a cross to indicatewhich lamp was replaced. In the next ten years,he’s unlikely to have to buy a new lamp, andwill save money in the bargain. Given that akilowatt-hour of electricity costs around 5.5euro cents in India and that a single lamp willsave up to a megawatt-hour over ten years, thefamily’s electricity bill will be cut by €55. “Forthe lamp itself the users pay a small symbolicamount, so they get the feeling that they haveinvested in progress,” says Bronger. The Rad-heyshyams pay 25 euro-cents for the Dulux ELLonglife. Even in India, that’s a bargain.

Daniel Schwarzfischer

106 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Energy Efficiency | Lamps

Kroban’s dissertation serves as a valuablefoundation for further environmental balancesheets being drawn up by Osram for new prod-ucts. “Our goal is to market only those productsthat are more environmentally friendly thantheir predecessors,” says Merz. With this inmind, the company is producing an environ-mental balance sheet for light-emitting diodes.These pinhead-sized lamps can already com-pete with fluorescent lamps in terms of effi-ciency, and use of new materials should signifi-cantly increase their luminous efficiency.

At the same time, a lamp developed on thebasis of environmental criteria is worthless ifno one buys it. “That’s why we always have to

determine how appealing a lamp is to con-sumers,” Merz explains. Such a study could ne-cessitate altering lamp shapes to conform withconsumer tastes, even if a different designwould offer a technologically superior solution.It’s also important that the lamps have a dim-mer function and can be easily integrated intoexisting lighting systems.

Of course, they should also emit pleasant,natural-looking light. After all, environmen-tally-sound lighting should create a relaxing ef-fect. But there’s no time to relax for Osram’slamp developer. They’re already busy workingon the next generation of innovative lightingsystems. Andrea Hoferichter

The DULUX EL’s Energy Consumption and CO2

Emissions are more than 80% Lower than those ofLight Bulbs over a 15,000-Hour Life Span

15 x 60 W light bulbs (1,000 h each)

Production0.18 kg CO2/lamp x 15 = 2.7 kg CO2

Use39.78 kg CO2/lamp x 15 =596.7 kg CO2

Total: 599.4 kg CO2

Production0.33 kg CO2/lamp x 7.5 = 2.5 kg CO2

Use55.7 kg CO2/lamp x 7.5 =417.7 kg CO2

Total: 420.2 kg CO2

Production0.87 kg CO2/lamp x 1= 0.87 kg CO2

Use109.4 kg CO2/lamp x 1 =109.4 kg CO2

Total: 110.3 kg CO2

7.5 x 42 W HALOGEN ENERGY SAVER (2,000 h each)

1 x 11 W DULUX EL LONGLIFE

(15,000 h)

599.4 kg CO2

9,723 MJof primary energy used

6,817 MJ

1,789 MJ

420.2 kg CO2110.3 kg CO2

-2,906 MJ -7,934 MJ

-30% CO2

-81% CO2

Source: OSRAM

“That’s a good idea — and we’ve already gotthe lamps in stock to replace them with,” hesays.

Comparing Life Spans. For the sake of com-parison, Osram scientists have examined theenergy consumption and life spans of varioustypes of lamps. Among the light sources com-pared were a 75-watt incandescent bulb and a15-watt Osram Dulux EL Longlife energy-sav-ing lamp, both of which have practically thesame brightness. What the researchers foundwas a huge difference in energy consumption.Not only is this due to the fact that the energy-saving lamp can convert more electricity intolight than heat; it’s also because the energy-saving lamp can operate for 15,000 hours, or15 times longer than the incandescent bulb.The collective energy consumption of 15 lightbulbs is therefore five times higher than that ofa single energy-saving lamp that burns for ex-actly the same amount of time.

Conversely, an energy-saving lamp saves atotal of one megawatt-hour of electricity dur-ing the same operating life span, which corre-sponds to half-a-ton less in carbon dioxideemissions than a conventional bulb. “That’smore than a tree can absorb during the sameperiod,” says Merz. The modest energy con-sumption of fluorescent lamps also savesmoney. Although they cost around €10 morethan a conventional light bulb, fluorescentlamps pay for themselves after about 800hours of operation — and save their owners€250 over their entire life span.

Moreover, because they are long lasting, en-ergy-saving lamps — seen in a life-cycle con-text — consume less energy during produc-tion. That’s because even though theproduction of one lamp requires five times theenergy used for a conventional bulb, a total of15 bulbs would have to be produced to achievea similar total luminous output.

Energy-saving lamps do pose one environ-mental problem, though: They contain mer-cury. “Without mercury, their luminous effi-ciency would be two-thirds lower,” says Merz,explaining why Osram still needs to use thetoxic heavy metal. Still, the lamps hold onlyone tenth the mercury that fluorescent lightshad around 30 years ago. “That’s less mercurythan a coal-fired power plant releases when itproduces the electricity used by a conventionallight bulb during its lifetime,” Merz reports.

Nevertheless, over the long term, mercurywill have to be eliminated from the lamps. In fact,there is already a fluorescent car headlight on themarket known as “Xenarc Hg free” that employsa potassium-iodine compound that producessufficient lighting power without any mercury.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 109108 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Energy Efficiency | Interview Pachauri

Dr. Rajendra K. Pachauri,68, is the Chairman of theUnited Nations Intergov-ernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).Represented by Dr. Pachauriand former U.S. Vice Presi-dent Al Gore, the IPCC wasawarded the Nobel PeacePrize for the year 2007.Since 1981, Dr. Pachaurihas been Director-Generalof The Energy & ResourcesInstitute (TERI), a global organization focused onenvironmental sustainabil-ity. Pachauri holds PhDs inIndustrial Engineering andEconomics. He has been amember of the EconomicAdvisory Council to thePrime Minister of India, theAdvisory Board on Energy,which reported directly tothe Prime Minister, and aSenior Advisor to the Administrator of the UnitedNations Development Program.Interview conducted inSpring, 2009

Reflecting on the Simple Things

What are the most significant environmen-tal threats faced by India?Pachauri: We are confronted by a range ofenvironmental threats, from soil degradationand water and air pollution to deforestationand loss of biodiversity. All of these are beingaffected by climate change on an increasingscale. This set of impacts will affect every seg-ment of our economy and of our population.

What is India doing about these threats?Pachauri: We have very strong legislation, a strong NGO movement, and a very activepress. So it is not easy to pollute without at-tracting a lot of attention. But unfortunately,when coordinated action is required, we have

work with our government on a set of policiesthat contribute to energy-efficient solutions.

What technologies should be emphasized?Pachauri: Renewable energy technologieshave enormous potential in this country. InDelhi, my institute is working with a group ofinvestors to develop a large-scale solar-thermalgeneration facility. We are talking about 3,000to 5,000 MW. This is the kind of thing whereSiemens can do a great deal. My institute hasalso launched a program called “Lighting a Billion Lives” — in which Siemens is involvedthrough its Osram subsidiary. Here, we are trying to address the problem of the 1.6 billionpeople worldwide who have no access to elec-

not been very successful. And to be quite hon-est, some of our enforcement mechanisms areweak, and not as effective as they should be.

Many countries want to cut their CO2

emissions below 1990 levels. Should In-dia be working along these lines as well?Pachauri: As far as CO2 is concerned, Indiadoes not have any goals. And legitimately,there can’t be any at this point because our percapita emissions are about 1.1 tons per personper year, compared to over 20 for the U.S. De-veloped countries are the big polluters and theones who have caused the problem. If they don’tmove, I don’t think there is any basis at all for a developing country like India, where 400 mil-lion people do not have access to electricity, toreduce its emissions. It would be unethical andtotally inequitable. It is up to the developedcountries to make the first move. The empha-sis in India is on reducing local pollution.

Nevertheless, energy efficiency is in India’s best interest…Pachauri: Certainly. We have a serious prob-lem of energy shortages. And if we can use en-ergy more efficiently, then more of it becomesavailable for others to use.

Are there ways in which a company likeSiemens can help?Pachauri: Being a technology leader, Siemenscan certainly make a major difference. One ofthe most important things such companies cando is to work with partners to ensure that tech-nologies are customized for Indian conditionsin such a way that they can be applied on alarge scale. The corporate sector should also

tricity. To help them we have developed a solarlantern and solar-powered village charging sta-tion where people can drop off their lamps forcharging during the day.

Where will India be in 20 years? Pachauri: I would like to see much greater useof renewable energy in this country becausewe have wind, solar, and biomass in abundance.I would also like to see much more R&D with aview to using agricultural residues on a largescale, perhaps converting these to liquid fuels.For instance, my institute is engaged in a large-scale project for growing jatropha for biodiesel.This plant grows under degraded land conditions,requires little moisture, and does not in any wayaffect food prices or displace food production.So my vision is to see India move rapidly towardlarge-scale exploitation of renewable energysources, while ensuring that these resourcesare accessible to the poorest of the poor.

What policies are needed to accomplishthis?Pachauri: We will need fiscal incentives anddisincentives. For instance, we have done astudy for the Ministry of Finance on taxation ofautomobiles, and to an extent the governmenthas implemented its recommendations. Wenow have differential taxes on small cars asopposed to big cars. In the area of energy-effi-cient buildings, my institute has been in thelead. In fact, one of our buildings, which is amajor training complex, uses no power fromthe grid at all. A network of tunnels beneaththe building ensures a constant temperature,and a solar chimney allows hot air from thesouth-side rooms to escape. We need a shift in

direction in this country that has to translateinto incentives and disincentives and, most im-portant, much greater public awareness. Forinstance, it should be clear to people thatthere is an economic benefit to them whenthey build an energy-efficient building. So Ithink we need to reorient our fiscal instru-ments such that they carry us to a state of en-vironmental sustainability.

What’s the role of the Internet in this?Pachauri: Fortunately, the government isworking to make the Internet accessible tomore and more people in India. But there aremany associated problems. For instance, in ru-ral areas with no electricity, how can you run a

computer? So we need a package of solutionsthat provide electricity, which is a preconditionfor the Internet. And this is again an areawhere a company like Siemens can get in-volved to come up with renewable energytechnologies that can be used on a decentral-ized, distributed basis, thus making it possibleto access the benefits of the Internet.

What can individuals do to help the environment?Pachauri: One area where I think many con-sumers can make a difference is by simply eat-ing less meat. The meat cycle is very intensivein terms of energy consumption. The Food &Agriculture Organization did a study on this.They found that the entire livestock cycle ac-counts for 18% of all greenhouse gases pro-duced on this planet. So I’ve been telling peo-ple to eat less meat. This goes hand in handwith other lifestyle changes. We need to startreflecting on the simple things — things likeusing lights at home. When I step out of my of-fice, as a matter of habit, I switch off thelights, even if it’s for five minutes. We shouldalso encourage people to walk and use bicy-cles more.

What recommendations would you givethe Obama Administration?Pachauri: All I would ask President Obama todo is to live up to the promises he has made. Itis not going to be easy. But if he just does whathe has stated, I think the U.S. will be prettymuch on its way to bringing about improve-ments at the global level and certainly for itsown citizens.

Arthur F. Pease

| Off-Grid Solutions

New Sources of HopeSiemens is testing new technologies that will help developing economies and their poorest citizens.

Engineers at Siemens Corporate Technol-ogy’s (CT) Renewable Energy Innovation

Center in Bangalore, India are developing whatamounts to a portable power plant. Already op-erating so efficiently that it meets U.S. emis-sion requirements, the plant needs about 35 kgof coconut shells per hour to generate enoughelectricity for a typical Indian village of 50 to100 families. “Our partial oxidation combustionprocess produces a hydrogen and carbonmonoxide gas that is fed into a reciprocatinginternal combustion engine that generates25 to 300 kW of electricity,” explains PeeushKumar, who is responsible for energy systemsdevelopment at CT India. “What is unique aboutour solution is that, thanks to new electrostaticprecipitator technology now being developedin Munich, it will require very little cooling wa-ter. What’s more, it produces carbon ash thatcan be converted into activated charcoal for lo-cal water purification and can even become asignificant source of revenue if sold externally.

A Corkscrew that Purifies Waste Water. Ifthere’s one thing that no one can do without, itis clean, safe water. Here, Siemens is develop-ing solutions that will transform the lives ofpeople rich and poor. In Bangalore, for in-stance, Siemens researchers are developing asewage treatment system that can already re-move 95% of organic substances and up to

99% of nutrients such as nitrogen and phos-phates from effluent without any outsidepower source. “Most sewage treatment facili-ties have very high energy requirements be-cause they rely on powerful aerators to supportthe bacteria that metabolize organic matter,”explains Senior Research Engineer Dr. AnalChavan. “But with our unique system, specially-adapted microorganisms produce the oxygenthemselves.” Shaped something like acorkscrew, the treatment system can be pow-ered by the force of effluent as it cascadesdownward, thus turning the corkscrew and ex-posing the water to its surface area, which iscolonized with bacteria.

Adds Dr. Zubin Varghese, department headfor smart innovations at Siemens CorporateTechnology India, “the same technology — butwith different organisms — can be adapted totreating water contaminated with chemical orpetroleum wastes.”

CT India is now working with Siemens WaterTechnologies to identify a village for a pilot fa-cility for the new treatment technology. “This isa perfect example of a technology that can bescaled up to any desired size, trucked into a vil-lage, and can, with only minimal additionaltreatment — possibly based on the activatedcharcoal from our coconut gasification system— turn sewage water into potable water.”

Arthur F. Pease

Siemens researchers in Bangalore have developed a self-powered algae-based sewage treatment system and

a mobile power plant that runs on coconut shells. The plant’s ash can be used for water purification.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 111110 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Energy Efficiency | Appliances

The number-one manufacturer of home ap-pliances in Western Europe, Bosch und

Siemens Hausgeräte GmbH (BSH) of Munich,Germany is committed to minimizing the envi-ronmental impact of its products. “Before wedevelop any new household appliance, we al-ways conduct a thorough analysis of its poten-tial impact,” says Dr. Arno Ruminy of the BSHEnvironmental Protection department. In fact,a strict internal guideline stipulates that all

At the heart of Siemens’ new dryer is an innovative

heat pump (right). Designed to be the most efficient

dryer on the market (center), blueTherm passed

endurance tests (left) with flying colors.

Once considered to be power gluttons, dryers are becom-ing much more conservative in their energy demand. Forinstance, Siemens’ new blueTherm heat-pump dryer con-sumes 40 percent less energy than is permitted within Europe’s top Energy Efficiency Class A — a new record. A visit to the developers at BSH Bosch und Siemens Haus-geräte in Berlin reveals how they achieved this success.

washing machines, refrigerators, and dryersmust have a minimal impact on the environ-ment in all phases of their life cycles. Before thedevelopment process even begins, each prod-uct idea is carefully examined in order to iden-tify the most environmentally-compatible andrecycle-friendly materials, determine the areaswhere material savings can be achieved, andproduce a design that allows the easy replace-ment of used parts. “Every new device must be

better than its predecessor in terms of environ-mental protection,” says Ruminy.

By designing energy efficient appliances,BSH is also meeting the needs of its customers.That’s because appliances still account foraround 40 percent of total energy consump-tion in private households — despite the effi-ciency gains achieved with refrigerators andsuch over the last ten years. Life cycle studiescarried out by BSH environmental experts alsoshow that such appliances mainly impact theenvironment through electricity and water con-sumption when they’re being used. “Transportand recycling play only a minor role, and re-source consumption in production accounts foronly a small percentage of the total resourcesused. In contrast, operation is responsible formore than 90 percent of the overall environ-mental impact of most appliances,” says Ru-miny. In the case of dryers, this figure is as highas 97 percent. “Making things more efficienthere will benefit the environment and saveconsumers money,” Ruminy says.

Heat Pump Strategy. Back in August 2006,BSH engineer Kai Nitschmann was given theassignment to develop a clothes dryerequipped with heat-pump technology thatwould outperform all other dryers on the mar-

ket in terms of energy efficiency. The first thingNitschmann and his colleagues did was to de-fine target values. “We were looking to achieveenergy consumption of 2.1 kilowatt-hours forseven kilograms of laundry, which was justslightly above the world record at that time,”Nitschmann recalls.

His development team at BSH’s Berlin plantstarted out by disassembling all types of dryers,counting their nuts and bolts, and weighingtheir plastic parts. They also measured the dry-ers’ energy consumption and loudness. Theiranalysis resulted in the conclusion that the onlyway to achieve their ambitious energy effi-ciency goals was to use a heat pump — a tech-nology that had never before been used in adryer. “A heat pump prevents the energy con-tained in the vapor and hot air from escapingfrom the dryer,” says Nitschmann.

The results of the team’s efforts are pre-served in a glass case in Nitschmann’s office.There are, for example, copper arteries throughwhich a coolant flows. Circulation is main-tained by a powerful electric motor whose out-put is four times that of the motor that turnsthe dryer drum. A compressor pumps the con-densed and thus heated coolant into the cop-per pipes, which repeatedly twist through twoaluminum frames. The first of these frames is a

Miracle in the Laundry Room

heating unit in which the coolant transfers theheat it contains to the circulating air. Thisheated air then flows into the dryer drum,where it absorbs moisture.

A second aluminum frame works as acooler. When hot, humid air returns from thedrum, it comes into contact with this frame,which has been cooled down by the cooledcoolant. Moisture condenses as the air cools,and the heat obtained from the air is thentransferred back into the coolant. “The energyin the hot dryer air and in the vapor is tem-porarily stored in the coolant and then used for

heating purposes,” Nitschmann explains. Ruminy points out that the coolant, which is

known as R407c, conducts heat very effec-tively, which significantly reduces energy con-sumption. Unfortunately, however, it is also agreenhouse gas, which is why BSH commis-sioned the Institute for Applied Ecology inFreiburg, Germany to determine whether theheat pump approach made sense. As Ruminyexplains, the institute established that “the

lower energy consumption by far offsets thegreenhouse gas potential involved.” TheFreiburg experts did, however, emphasize theimportance of effective recycling. Specifically,steps would have to be taken to ensure that thedryer’s coolant, like that of a refrigerator,would be disposed of properly and not releasedinto the environment at the end of the ma-chine’s service life.

Meanwhile, developers in Berlin were facedwith the challenge of incorporating heat-pumptechnology into a dryer for the first time, sinceup until that point they had been used only in

refrigerators, air conditioners and heatingunits. “If it hadn’t been for our Spanish col-leagues’ experience with air conditioners, wewouldn’t have succeeded so quickly,” saysNitschmann. The team in Berlin also had to in-tegrate a second new technology for optimiz-ing efficiency: an innovative lint cleaner for thecondenser.

“Tiny pieces of lint in the wash can eventu-ally clog condenser frames — and that nega-

More than 90 percent of the environmental impact ofhousehold appliances results from their operation.

Global Market for Environmental Technologies: One Trillion Euros

Absolute growth of annual market volume 2005–2020 (in billions of euros) CAGR 2005–2020

Key technologies

Sour

ce: R

olan

d Be

rger

Energy efficiency 5% Measuring and control technology, electric motors

Sustainable water management 6% Decentralized water treatment

Energy generation 7% Renewable energy sources, clean power generation

Sustainable mobility 5% Alternative drive systems, clean engines

Natural resource & material efficiency 8% Biofuels, bioplastics

Closed systems, waste, recycling 3% Automated material separation processes

450

290

190

170

90

20

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 113

The Energy-Efficiency Pay Off

| Facts and Forecasts

The purpose of energy-efficient products is to help de-

couple economic growth from energy consumption.

Whereas the global market volume for energy-efficient

products and solutions totaled €450 billion in 2005, that

figure could rise to approximately €900 billion by 2020,

according to an analysis conducted by the Roland Berger

consulting firm. The effects of the current economic crisis

were not taken into account in the study, but various new

stimulus programs that focus on the application of energy-

efficient solutions make the future look bright for the sec-

tor. Among growth drivers here are energy-saving motors.

According to the German Copper Institute, use of a high-

efficiency motor to drive a cooling water pump at full ca-

pacity for 8,000 hours a year can reduce energy costs by

€405 if such a motor replaces a 30 kW standard motor.

Given procurement costs of €1,650 for the high-efficiency

motor and €1,300 for the standard motor, the amortiza-

tion period for the additional cost of the energy-saving

motor is only 9.5 months.

In combination with frequency converters, for exam-

ple, energy-saving motors can help reduce the amount of

electricity needed by pumping systems, which according

to the EU Commission, account for four percent of global

electricity consumption. An important market for this sec-

tor is India, where business with pumps and compressors

for use in the construction industry, infrastructure proj-

ects, agriculture, and the processing industry is booming.

According to the Indian Pump Manufacturers Association

(IPMA), the sector’s market volume increased at an annual

rate of 12–15 percent between 2003 and 2006, when it

totaled approximately €1.8 billion.

The U.S. is another major market that offers great po-

tential for energy-efficient products. An American Solar

Energy Society (ASES) study found that market volume for

energy-efficient household appliances, lamps, computer

equipment, and buildings (including windows and doors)

was $160 billion in 2006 and will nearly double by 2030.

Developments here are driven mainly by energy-efficient

buildings, but energy-saving lamps — from high-pressure

gas-discharge lamps to LEDs — are also in demand.

Measures to boost energy efficiency in buildings and

households also pay off in Germany, where, for example,

insulation of a basement ceiling in a one-family house

costs approximately €2,000 and reduces heating costs by

€150 a year. Combined with a subsidy from the govern-

ment’s building renovation program, this investment will

pay for itself in around ten years — or even sooner if oil

and gas prices increase. A high-efficiency refrigerator

(A++) is about €50 more expensive than a less efficient

device, but will save its user €11 a year. Investment in en-

ergy-saving lamps also pays off, as their higher procure-

ment costs compared to conventional incandescent light

bulbs are amortized after as little as 240 hours of opera-

tion — which is why the EU plans to ban the use of light

bulbs soon. Some 3.7 billion incandescent light bulbs are

now being used in Europe, compared to only around 500

million energy-saving lamps. Sylvia Trage

Amortization Periods of Energy-Efficient Solutions

Amortization period for additional costs (through energy savings)

Sour

ce: O

wn

res

earc

h

Energy-saving lamp vs. incandescent lamp of the same brightness

Conversion from incandescent to LED traffic lights

Speed-controlled energy-saving motor vs. conventional motor

A++ refrigerator vs. an appliance in a lower efficiency class

Energy-efficiency-based building renovation through technical measures

Energy-efficient solutions for rail vehicles

Optimization of control system at combined cycle power plant** (p. 88)

800 hours of operation

About 5 years

0.5–2 years

4–5 years

5–10 years

2–3 years

About 1 year

* Based on a family of 4 using a dryer 229 times per year. **Based on 50 starts per year and €80 per megawatt

112 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Energy Efficiency | Appliances

tively affects heat transfer,” says Nitschmann.The team rejected the conventional solution ofremoving lint with a filter. “The user wouldthen have to clean, wash, and dry severalfilters — it’s simply too much effort,” saysNitschmann.

In addition, tests conducted at BSH labsshowed the energy efficiency of a so-called A-Dryer falls to the level of a less efficient C or D-Dryer if the filters aren’t regularly cleaned. En-gineers therefore came up with a completelynew solution: a type of shower for the con-denser. Here, the condensate is pumped into acontainer on top of the dryer and then pumpedout again four times per drying cycle, rushingover the condenser like a waterfall, and thuswashing away the lint. “Energy consumptionhere is consistently low over the dryer’s entire

Condensate washes away lint, which reduces energy consumption, and eliminates the need for a filter.

Sour

ce: B

SH

Distribution of Impact over Appliance Life Cycle

Production

(Consumption of raw materials, energy, and water)

Distribution

(Energy consumption for merchandise transport)

Use

(Consumption of water, energy, and chemicals)

* Depending on product and use

Disposal

(Consumption of raw materials,energy, and water)

Raw materials

(Non-ferrous metals, steel, plastics, glass, other)

90-95%*

of appliance’s total

environmental

impact

< 0.5%

< 0.5%

4–9%

service life — and the customer doesn’t have todo anything,” says Nitschmann.

While all these technical questions were be-ing addressed and prototypes were being im-proved under various test conditions in thelabs, Nitschmann began considering whichproduction lines could accommodate the newdryers, which tools and machines should beused, and whether suppliers would be able toprovide enough compressors in time to meetpre-series production.

Despite these pressures, everything wentaccording to plan. The pre-series machines

were put to work drying one wash load afteranother in the huge testing hall at the BSHplant. In the end, each one handled about2,000 washes. “These endurance tests ensurethat our appliances will operate error-free forten to 15 years,” says Nitschmann.

Champion Energy Saver. The result of all thisdevelopment work was launched in September2008 in the form of a dryer known asblueTherm. The appliance uses only half asmuch electricity as a conventional EfficiencyClass B condenser dryer, and 40 percent lessenergy than the permitted limit for a Class Amachine, which itself appeared unattainablejust a few years ago. “In other words, we reallyare the energy-saving world champion,” saysNitschmann.

That’s not all. Freiburg’s Institute for AppliedEcology also found that the heat-pump dryer’soverall environmental impact is only aroundhalf that of a conventional air-vented dryer.“The dryer is in some cases even more econom-ical than a clothesline,” says Carl-Otto Gensch,who managed the institute’s study. “Contraryto popular belief, you don’t necessarily con-serve energy by hanging up the wash to dry.For instance, if you do so in a heated room,you’ll use more energy than the heat-pumpdryer consumes.”

Although at around €1,000, blueTherm ismore expensive than a conventional dryer, theinvestment pays off. According to the institute,blueTherm consumes 1.9 kilowatt-hours perload, or 10 percent less than was originallyplanned. A normal air-vented dryer needs 4.1kilowatt-hours for one load — so assumingaverage use and German electricity prices,blueTherm will cost €18 per year, while aconventional air-vented dryer will cost approxi-mately €50.

And operating costs are expected to be re-duced even further in the future. “We’re contin-ually working to enhance efficiency,”Nitschmann reports. “There’s definitely poten-tial for improvement.” For example, use of al-ternative coolants and improved drive motorsfor the cooling cycle could save a few kilowatt-hours. Consumers, in any case, need no furtherconvincing. BSH marketing experts had ex-pected to sell 10,000 units in blueTherm’s firstthree months on the market — but the com-pany ended up selling 50,000 instead.

Ute Kehse

BlueTherm dryer compared to efficiency class “B” dryer* (p. 110) About 3.9 years

World record: The blueTherm dryer uses only half asmuch electricity as a conventional dryer.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008 115

window shutters and lighting. By mid-2008, alarge-scale study provided more numbers forhundreds of different scenarios and about adozen locations — figures for one-room officesand for suites in Zurich, London, Vienna andMarseille, for example.

The EMPA contributed its expertise in build-ing modeling. “In practical applications, the ex-pense of installation and operation must be aslow as possible,” says Thomas Frank, a SeniorScientist in the Building Technologies depart-ment. In this regard, one issue that still has tobe resolved is how simple the models can bewhile still achieving satisfactory operation ofthe control system. “Probably about a dozenparameters will be needed,” Frank estimates.“All of that can theoretically be calculated fromthe blueprint of the architect. What we stilldon’t have are standardized interfaces between

the architects’ CAD programs and the buildingmanagement software.”

Weather Data Via the Internet. Since early2008, MeteoSchweiz has been using a weathermodel with a spatial resolution of 2.2 kilo -meters. Based on ground-level grid squares withthis edge length, 60 layers of the atmosphereare defined, and MeteoSchweiz’s computer cal-culates the future weather for each cell. Thismakes local forecasts much more precise thanpreviously, when the model had a grid resolu-tion of seven kilometers. “The objective ofsaving energy is worth almost any amount ofeffort,” says Dr. Philippe Steiner, who overseesthe development of models at MeteoSchweiz.The organization’s meteorologists provide infor-mation on 24 weather parameters, each ofwhich can predict conditions for three days onan hour-by-hour basis. The data includes tem-peratures and information on wind speed andsolar radiation. In the future, it will be transmit-ted directly into buildings via the Internet.

“Processing the data to generate forecastsinvolves a huge amount of mathematical calcu-lation,” says Professor Manfred Morari, head ofthe Automatic Control Laboratory of the ETHZurich. “As it plans the next control command,OptiControl has to take into account the factthat more, as yet unknown information will be

added in the form of new weather forecasts.”For each additional step of advanced planning,the number of possibilities increases by a factorof ten to 100. The trick is to get a simple micro-processor to perform these complex calcula-tions. “OptiControl makes no sense if you needa supercomputer for it,” says Morari. “The issueof what the market will accept is essential.” Thisunderstanding of the customer’s needs is con-tributed by Siemens, with its worldwide pres-ence and many years of experience.

The OptiControl project will end in 2010,and its first products aren’t expected to appearbefore then. “Ultimately, the software could runon a small automation station on the wall,” pre-dicts Tödtli. “No special PC will be required andthe hardware for building control won’t be ex-pensive either.” As this scenario approaches re-ality, field tests are taking place at Siemens BT’slaboratory in Zug. There, entire rooms are beingset up to analyze the effects of a huge climatecontrol system that generates artificial environ-mental conditions. The scientists can thusmeasure how well a building control system re-acts to fluctuating outside temperatures andhow precisely it can adjust the required roomclimate. OptiControl will also have to demon-strate its potential in that setting. “More thananything else, a good cost-benefit ratio is im-portant,” says Tödtli. Christian Buck

There are some ideas that take a long timeto mature. A good example is the concept

of using our increasingly accurate weatherforecasts to optimize a range of building func-tions. Heating, for example, could be automati-cally increased when a cold front is on the wayand reduced as soon as warmer temperaturesare predicted. This would ensure a comfortableroom climate and save on energy.

But today’s building automation systemsusually measure only current ambient values such as the outside temperature andincident solar radiation to control heating, air-conditioning systems and window blinds. Atmost, a smart building manager might occa-sionally adjust these systems as appropriatedepending on the forecast and personal experi-ence. But today’s systems are not set up to per-form such adjustments automatically. That isexpected to change in a few years.

To facilitate this change, Swiss researchersintend to combine modern weather forecastswith innovations in building technology andcontrol engineering in a project called “Opti-Control.” One member of the project is theSiemens Building Technologies Division(Siemens BT) in Zug, near Zurich. “The objec-tive is maximum comfort with minimal energy

Energy Efficiency | Predictive Building Management

114 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2008

basic outlines of the project and contributed itsknowledge of the market for control engineer-ing in buildings.

Self-Sufficient Alpine Hut. A first impressionof OptiControl is provided by the Monte-RosaAlpine Hut of the Swiss Alps Club (SAC), whichopened in the Fall of 2009. The hut is a jointproject of ETH Zurich and SAC, with supportcoming from numerous sponsors and partners.The hut’s automation system was supplied bySiemens. Since the hut is located at an altitudeof 2,883 meters, it must be largely self-suffi-cient. Power will be supplied by a photovoltaicsystem supported when necessary by a com-bined heat and power unit operated with lique-fied petroleum gas.

OptiControl helps to manage the building.“For instance,” explains Tödtli, “when the bat-tery and the wastewater tank are half full andsunshine is predicted in the near future, thecontrol system might initiate the wastewaterpurification process, which consumes electric-ity.” This way, the system prevents solar energyfrom remaining unused due to prematurecharging of the battery. On the other hand, ifbad weather is forecast, the purificationprocess will be stopped, because otherwise

Forecasts that Come HomeRegional weather forecasts are becoming increasingly detailed. Researchers in Switzerland hope to use this data to automatically optimize energy use in buildingswhile keeping costs to a minimum. Siemens engineers are providing practical help.

costs,” says Dr. Jürg Tödtli, manager of the Eu-ropean research activities for heating, ventila-tion and climate-control products at SiemensBT. “Of course, before the project ends, we won’tknow how beneficial weather forecasts are, but Isee a major opportunity here.”

Since May 2007, about a dozen researchersand five institutions have been involved inOptiControl. In addition to Siemens, the latterinclude the Swiss Federal Office for Meteorol-ogy and Climatology (MeteoSchweiz) in Zurich,the Research Institute for Materials Science andTechnology (EMPA) in Dübendorf, and two in-stitutes of the Swiss Federal Institute of Tech-nology (ETH) Zurich: the Automatic ControlLaboratory and the Systems Ecology Group ofthe Institute for Integrative Biology.

The project also includes three Siemens em-ployees. In addition, Siemens BT developed the

there would be a risk of using up the power re-serve in the battery and having to switch to theprecious liquefied petroleum gas.

In addition to such “rule-based” processes,OptiControl offers “model-based predictivecontrol,” in which it uses a model for the ther-mal behavior of the building. In this case, theautomatic control mechanism must be fed withdata such as the heat transfer coefficient of thewalls and the heat storage capacity. In combi-nation with the weather forecast, prior usersettings, and measurements for the tempera-ture inside and outside, the control system canthen calculate the optimal profile for the tem-perature of the heating water, for example.Functions of this sort are not possible withoutpowerful electronics. “I wrote the first essay onthe use of weather forecasts for building au-tomation over 20 years ago,” recalls Tödtli. “But

only now are there processors that haveenough power and are cheap enough; ourmethod demands a lot of memory and compu-tational capacity.” Every 15 minutes, the Opti-Control mechanism adjusts the system. To dothis, it uses not only the implemented rules andmodels, as well as sensor readings, but also theweather forecast for the next three days.

“Unfortunately, no one knows the exactcost-benefit ratio of all of this,” says ProjectManager Dr. Dimitrios Gyalistras from the Sys-tems Ecology Group at ETH Zurich. It is there-fore not really known at this point how muchenergy can be saved with predictive controlsystems in the medium to long term. Re-searchers hope to establish more clarity in thisregard. An initial simulation indicated a poten-tial of 15 percent in a typical office room withintegrated control of heating, air-conditioning,

Weather predictions and building automation

will be tested in a pilot facility at 2,883 meters.

Researcher Dr. Jürg Tödtli (photo below) and

partners are key players in the project.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007 117

gine alone produces five kilowatts of heat. Anauxiliary burner can add between 10 and 30kilowatts, depending on its size.

As a special feature, the microCHP devicecan also operate independently of the grid. Inthis case, it disconnects itself from the grid andproduces up to one kilowatt of emergencypower for specially vetted emergency powergroups such as refrigerators, freezers, andemergency lighting. “That is a key differentiat-ing feature of our device,” says Wolfgang Hu-ber, who is responsible for development atSiemens BT.

Huge European Market. Even if its advan-tages aren’t obvious at first glance, the mi-croCHP device is a significant innovation. PaulGelderloos, manager of technical innovation atRemeha B.V., is certain that “the device is oneof the most promising successors in the con-densing boiler area,” he says. Georges VanPuyenbroeck adds that, “It offers simple accessto alternative energy; installers know aboutboilers, only the electrical generation is new.”

He sees great potential for the new product.“According to our market data, seven millionwall-mounted boilers are sold in Europe everyyear,” he says. Product manager Markus Hergerestimates that in its the first three years on themarket, between 50,000 and 100,000 mi-croCHP devices could be sold — and that saleswill continue to grow after that. This dependson how energy suppliers respond and on politi-cal decisions.

In countries where sales operations areabout to be launched — the Netherlands, thenEngland and Germany — there are so-calledelectricity buyback laws, which promote mi-croCHP devices. “Other countries are not yet asadvanced,” laments Herger.

After about four years of development,Siemens’ development partners began testingthe new microCHP devices in about 400 house-holds in Great Britain, the Netherlands, andGermany. Experience has shown that theadded cost of a microCHP device can be amor-tized within five years — but its price can be es-tablished only after the partners bring the de-vice to market.

Siemens launched the production of thecontrol technology in September 2009. Re-meha B.V. plans to enter the Dutch market inspring 2010. And specialists are already work-ing on developing the next generation of mi-croCHP devices. These will be even smaller,lighter, and more powerful than their predeces-sors, and will be fired by a variety of primaryenergy sources, such as oil or various gaseousfuels from biomass.

Gitta Rohling

How to Own a Power PlantInnovative heating systems not only provide warmth but also satisfy two thirds of the electricity demand of an average four-person household.

Energy Efficiency | Combined Heat & Power Systems

116 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

Demand for resource-saving heat genera-tion systems is growing. One driver of this

development is the fact that well-insulatednew buildings and renovated older structureshave lower heating demand. In addition, en-ergy prices as well as insecurity on the part ofconsumers regarding the reliability of gas andoil supplies are also prompting researchers anddevelopers to consider new heating methods.

One such method is the simultaneous gen-eration of heat and electricity by so-called CHP(combined heat and power) systems. These areamong the most efficient methods of energygeneration, because the fuel they use is trans-formed into electrical energy as well as heat —usually in the form of steam and hot water.More than 90 percent of the energy containedin fuel can be utilized by these systems, com-pared with only about 38 percent for electricalgeneration by a conventional power plant. Thishigh thermodynamic efficiency can make amajor contribution to operating economy aswell as environmental protection. Simultane-ously, emissions of carbon dioxide and nitro-gen oxides are reduced.

Until now, CHP technology has been limitedto large installations. Although the idea of ap-plying it to single and multi-family homes is

new; many manufacturers are already excitedabout exploiting this potential. Siemens Build-ing Technologies (BT), for instance, has devel-oped the electronics for a gas-fired micro heatand power cogeneration device (microCHP).“We see a clear line of development toward theuse of personal small power plants in single-family homes in place of oil or gas-fired boil-ers,” says Georges Van Puyenbroeck, director ofsales and marketing at BT’s OEM Boiler &Burner Equipment. With this goal in mind, BTspecialists are working together with manufac-turers of condensing boilers, including Viess-mann, Vaillant, Remeha B.V., and the BaxiGroup.

How to Generate a Kilowatt. Until now, con-densing boilers have produced only heat, butno electricity. MicroCHP devices, on the otherhand, can do both. They work as follows: A gas-fired Stirling engine is integrated into a wall-mounted boiler. The temperature difference

between the cold water and the heat providedis used to generate electricity. Current imple-mentations permit the generation of a maxi-mum of one kilowatt of electrical energy, ofwhich about 900 watts can be used directly inthe home or fed back into the energy supplier’sgrid. The device itself uses 100 watts.

For consumers, this means that they have attheir disposal their very own miniature cogen-eration power plant, which provides not onlyheat but also two thirds of an average four-per-son household’s electricity requirements. Theremaining electricity is provided by the powergrid to which the microCHP device is normallyconnected. Operation with liquefied petroleumgas (LPG) is also possible after appropriatereadjustment of the device.

Siemens electronics control the heat outputto keep the Stirling engine within its permissi-ble operating range and provide the desiredtemperatures for home heating and hot waterat the proper times. In addition, the electronicsmonitor the feeding of surplus electricity backinto the power utility’s grid.

Control technology from Siemens ensuresthat the device, which operates in parallel tothe power grid, is able to switch on and off atthe proper times. The burner for the Stirling en-

Stirling engine

Burner

Cold water

Generator

Households will soon be able

to generate their own heat

and electricity using a mini

CHP device (left and above).

Scientists are now fine

tuning the technology.

| Energy Storage

Piggybanks for PowerWhether at base or peak load, high-performance energy storage devices guarantee optimal power supplies in vehicles.

If electrical energy is to be optimally used, itneeds to be temporarily stored. And that’s

the case whether we’re talking about cars,buses, streetcars, subway systems or powerdistribution networks. In road vehicles, elec-tronic components are taking over more andmore functions, partly as driver assistance sys-tems, and partly to save energy — particularlyin hybrid vehicles that combine an electric mo-tor with a combustion engine. The electric mo-tor serves either a fully fledged second drive (ina full hybrid), as an auxiliary drive to provide aboost when starting and passing (in a mild hy-

Chemical or Electrostatic Storage?

Accumulators such as lead-acid, nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries have a service life of

between three and ten years, on average. They function on electrochemical principles. Charging the

battery converts electrical energy into chemical energy. When an electrical device is connected, chemi-

cal energy is converted back into electrical energy. Energy stores such as double layer capacitors, in

contrast, store energy electrostatically. They last almost indefinitely and exhibit high power densities.

However, their energy densities are low. For this reason, their primary use is to cover peak loads such

as engine starts or acceleration in hybrid applications.

Battery type Energy density Wh/kg Power density W/kg Service life in cycles / years

Lead-acid battery 30 – 50 150 – 300 300 –1,000 / 3 – 5

Nickel-metal hydride battery 60 – 80 200 – 300 >1,000 / >5

Lithium-ion battery 90 – 150 500 – >2,000 >2,000 / 5 – 10

Supercaps (double layer capac.) 3 – 5 2,000 – 10,000 1,000,000 / unlimited

brid), or as an assistant when the vehicle has tostop and restart frequently (in the start-stophybrid). In the future, full electric vehicles willbe an important addition to this list. Here, theelectric motor will play a major role in makingzero-emission mobility possible (p. 60).

To meet the needs of a growing number offunctions, vehicles needs a high-performanceenergy storage device. Batteries, however,are heavy and their energy density is low. Onekilogram of diesel contains 10,000 watt-hours(Wh), while a lead-acid accumulator managesjust 30 to 50 Wh/kg. Batteries’ power density is

0.1 s

Comparison of Battery Systems

0.01

10Power density in watts per kilogram (W/kg)

100 1,000 10,000

0.1

1

10

100

1,000

Energy density in watt-hours per kilogram (Wh/kg)

10,000 s 1,000 s100 s

10 s

1 s

Double layer capacitors

Electrolytic capacitors

Pb NiCd

NiMH

Li-ionBatteries

Pictures of the Future | Special Edition on Green Technologies 119

Velaro will have to prove itself from day onein Russia, where it will immediately be put

into operation on the Moscow-St. Petersburgline during the grueling north Eurasian winterat the end of 2009. The train will thereforehave to face frost, ice storms, and heavysnows. But that shouldn’t be a problem sincethe Sapsan (Russian for “peregrine falcon” asthe Velaro is known in the country) seems tohave been tailor-made for such a climate. AsRussia’s first-ever high-speed train, the Velarowas given a winter-proof design consisting ofsteel, plastic, special lubricants, and numeroussafety features. The train was also thoroughlytested in a wind and weather tunnel to prepareit for temperatures that can get as low as minus50 degrees Celsius. Engineers at the Rail Tec Ar-senal (RTA) testing facility in Vienna actuallydeep-froze the train in order to verify the per-formance of all systems under bone-chillingconditions before sending it out into the realRussian winter.

The latest addition to the Velaro series ofhigh-speed trains built by Siemens’ Mobility Di-vision is the Russian Sapsan. The sleek red-white-and-blue train is based on the Deutsche

Bahn railroad company’s ICE 3 model, althoughthe two are only similar on the surface — ex-cept for the color, of course. There are notabledifferences on the inside, however, as the Sap-san required several important changes, mostof which will never be noticed by passengers.For one thing, the Sapsan is 33 centimeterswider than the German national railway com-pany’s ICE 3, which also makes it bigger in gen-eral. One reason for this is that the track gaugeon Russian rail lines is 85 millimeters widerthan in Germany.

Hundreds of Sensors. In addition, the Russ-ian Velaro takes in air from the top rather thanthe bottom, since air intake from below couldcause problems when tracks are snowed over.To ensure that passengers remain comfortableinside even when it’s freezing outside, the Sap-san is equipped with 800 sensors that monitorinterior temperature, air pressure and circula-tion, and humidity. Passengers are kept warmby enhanced thermal insulation. The latter wasachieved by minimizing the number of thermalbridges, which are components whose designallows heat to flow to the outside. The train’s

insulation is also twice as thick as the Germanmodel’s.

Russia is now the third country, after Spainand China, to choose the Velaro from Siemensas its high-speed train. The train can beadapted to where it’s being used. In Spain, forexample, the Velaro has been fitted with a spe-cial air conditioning system, since passengersthere sometimes have to be protected fromoutside temperatures as high as 50 degreesCelsius. The rail grid in Spain also delivers volt-age at 25 kilovolts rather than the 15 kilovoltsprovided in Germany. One thing all the Velaroshave in common, however, is an underfloor de-sign that has motors, brakes, and transformersmounted beneath the rail coaches. Every othercoach is equipped with motorized running gearand bogies. By contrast, the ICE trains of thefirst and second generations (the Velaro's pred-ecessors) were pulled by a driving unit similarto a locomotive.

The advantage offered by underfloor tech-nology is that it provides 20 percent more spacefor passengers, since the area directly behind thetrain operator can be used as well. The under -floor arrangement also directly transfers motor

The Russian version of Siemens’ Velaro train, the

Sapsan, will enter service at the end of 2009. The

train has pas sed a gamut of tests, including simulated

snow storms and -40 degree Celsius temperatures.

118 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2007

low too, reaching a maximum of 300 W/kg. Foran electric car to accelerate as rapidly as a 90kW gasoline-engine vehicle, it would need a300-kilogram lead-acid battery in the trunk.

That’s why most of today’s hybrid vehiclesemploy nickel-metal hydride batteries with acapacity of 60 to 80 Wh/kg. Lithium-ion orlithium-polymer batteries are even more pow-erful, with 90 to 150 Wh/kg. Alongside storagecapacity, the service life of an accumulator isalso limited. A lead-acid battery is good for amaximum of around 1,000 charge-dischargecycles. Nickel-metal hydride or lithium-ion bat-teries last considerably longer.

Extremely high power density. In general,accumulators must be charged slowly to avoiddamage. But vehicles, in particular, are associ-ated with many applications that need a fastcharging capability — for example, when brak-ing energy is harnessed in cars or streetcars.With this in mind, Siemens is promoting theuse of double layer capacitors, or so-calledsupercaps — devices that store electrical en-ergy by separating the charges as soon as avoltage is applied.

Supercaps offer capacitances of 300 to10,000 farads. Charge separation takes placeat the boundary layer between a solid bodyand a liquid. High capacitances are achieved byensuring that the charges are separated by adistance of only atomic dimensions, and by theuse of porous graphite electrodes with a largespecific surface area.

Supercaps have low energy densities —three to five Wh/kg — but extremely highpower densities of 2,000 to 10,000 W/kg. Theycan be charged within a few seconds, and at amillion or so charge-discharge cycles, theirservice life is extremely long. This is due to thefact that the charge separation processes oc-curring within them are purely physical in na-

ture. They can take up and release large quanti-ties of energy extremely quickly.

This makes it possible to use an electric mo-tor in a hybrid vehicle, streetcar, or locomotiveas a generator that recovers braking energy.This regenerated energy is stored in supercapsand re-used when the vehicle acceleratesagain. The resulting advantage is fuel and en-ergy savings of between five and 25 percent,depending on the driving cycle. The capacitorpacks can either be carried in the vehicle itselfor permanently built into segments of subwaylines.

Such a setup has already been tested in sev-eral subway systems — for example, in Madrid,Cologne, Dresden, Bochum and Beijing. Super-caps could also be used in energy distributionapplications, as power supply networks areconstantly subject to load variations to whichheavy turbines cannot react quickly enough.Power utilities could use flexible energy storessuch as supercaps to balance out load peaksand troughs.

“In ten years, vehicles with these new stor-age systems might be as commonplace as to-day’s vehicles with their trusty lead-acid batter-ies,” says Dr. Manfred Waidhas, project head forElectrochemical Energy Storage at SiemensCorporate Technology. Mild or start-stop hybridvehicles can get by with the limited energydensity of the supercaps. Bernhard Gerl

Double layer capacitors called supercaps (below) are

being used in streetcars such as the Combino Plus

(bottom). The devices release stored braking energy

quickly when the vehicle accelerates.

High- Speed Success StoryThe Velaro high-speedtrain is a true model ofsuccess. It’s comfortable,fast and, above all, eco-nomical, as it consumesmuch less energy than acar or plane. The trainnow operates in Chinaand Spain, and will soonhit the rails in Russia. TheVelaro’s underfloor drivesystem can be adjusted inline with where it’s beingused. This means it canbe fitted with systems foraccommodating extremeheat or cold as well asmountainous routes withsteep inclines.

| Rail TransportEnergy Efficiency

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 121

| Rail Systems

The assembly hall is filled with locomotives,some of them missing their roofs, others

without control cabins. And some are evenmounted on temporary platforms that makethem appear to be floating on air. Martin Leitel,who is responsible for making life cycle assess-ments of locomotives for Siemens Mobility inAllach, Germany, points to a yellow locomotivewithout a roof. “That one’s going to Australia,”he says, a country where rail service operatorsrecently started making energy conservation a

At a Siemens locomotive factory in Allach,

Germany, engineers use life cycle assessments

that can help with the selection of the most

environmentally compatible designs.

Timely Trains Today’s locomotives should consume as little energy as possible — not just when they are in operation, but also during production and eventual recycling.Life cycle assessments can help with selection of themost environmentally-compatible designs.

higher priority. In fact, the model will be thefirst electric locomotive on the island continentto be equipped with an energy recovery sys-tem. The system collects braking energy gener-ated on downhill stretches by trains full of coalthat are traveling from the interior of the coun-try to the coast. It then feeds the energy intothe grid for use by empty trains going uphill.

Another locomotive, Leitel explains, is for aEuropean leasing company. It’s equipped witha transformer that achieves optimal efficiency

because it was built using more copper than isusual, which also makes it heavier than similarunits. In order to compensate for the trans-former’s additional weight, other parts of thelocomotive must be lighter, which is why itsroof is made of aluminum. Naturally, all of thisresults in higher energy consumption duringmanufacturing. But, as Leitel points out, afteronly a few years of operation, the transformer’shigh efficiency and the aluminum’s lightweight counterbalance these energy costs.

Energy Efficiency | Rail Transport

120 Pictures of the Future | Special Edition on Green Technologies

power to the wheels and distributes the powermore efficiently throughout the entire train. Thismakes the Velaro the world’s only high-speedtrain that can handle inclines of up to four per-cent, which is what it will face along the moun-tainous 650-kilometer high-speed route fromBarcelona to Madrid, the biggest cities in Spain.The new route will cut travel time between thetwo metropolises from six hours to only abouttwo and a half hours. The Velaro’s drive systemalso offers the advantages of a distributed struc-ture and uniform power transfer, which signifi-cantly reduce component wear and tear as com-pared to conventional traction unit concepts.

Top speed of 404 km/h. The Velaro is indis-putably the fastest multiple-unit train in theworld. When it is delivered to the customerfrom the Siemens plant in Krefeld, it’s readyto travel at a top speed of 404 kilometers perhour. Its normal cruising speed with passengersand luggage is up to 350 km/h, although thespeed is of course continually adjusted to theimmediate surroundings. Because of Russia’s 3-kilovolt catenaries, the Sapsan will initiallytravel at approximately 250 km/h. But even atthat speed, the train will cut travel time for theapproximately 650 km from Moscow to St. Pe-tersburg on the Baltic Sea by 45 minutes. Still,Russian Railways plans to expand its high-speed network so as to allow the Sapsan toreach higher speeds.

High-speed rail links between major citiesoffer a real alternative to plane and car travel in

many countries. While a trip on the new cross-border high-speed line between the centers ofFrankfurt and Paris takes a little more than twohours longer than a plane flight, passengersare spared the long trip from city centers to air-ports, not to mention the time spent for check-in and waiting.

High-speed trains are also superior in termsof energy consumption, as a plane flying fromFrankfurt to Paris produces around 83 kilo-grams of carbon dioxide per person, while theVelaro generates just under 10 kilograms — or90 percent less. Basically, the Velaro consumes

the equivalent of 0.33 liters of gasoline perseat per 100 kilometers, which makes it farmore economical not only than a plane butalso than a car. It’s therefore not surprising thatthe Velaro is an integral part of Siemens’ envi-ronmental portfolio.

Worldwide Success Story. It therefore makessense that high-speed trains are becomingmore and more popular. Among other things,their use is being reconsidered in the UnitedStates. The California High-Speed Rail Author-ity, for example, has determined that a link be-tween Los Angeles and San Francisco could re-duce carbon dioxide emissions by 58,000 tons,

an amount equivalent to the savings that couldbe achieved by shutting down a major coal-fired power plant.

Europe already has an extensive high-speedrail network that is 6,000 kilometers long. Inview of the benefits offered by high-speed railtechnology, the head of Siemens Public Transit,Ansgar Brockmeyer, is convinced that an addi-tional 8,000 kilometers of high-speed track willbe added to the network by 2025. “Worldwide,rail traffic volume is growing at an annual rateof three percent, and we expect to see growthrates as high as seven percent in Asia and Eu-rope,” says Brockmeyer. “That makes this busi-ness sector extremely interesting for us.”

China opted for the Velaro some time ago,opening its first route — between Beijing andthe Olympics site in Tianjin — in time for the2008 Summer Olympics. The Chinese Velaro,which is also 33 centimeters wider than theWestern European train, can accommodate600 passengers. Plans call for a Beijing-Shang-hai high-speed line to go into operation in2010 with 100 new Velaro trains. With 16coaches each, these trains will be 400 meterslong, hold 1,060 passengers, and have a topspeed of 350 km/h.

The Velaro’s design, comfort, and technicalfeatures have apparently convinced a lot of railoperators, since the train came out on top infive of eight calls for tenders in the past fewyears. Germany’s Deutsche Bahn has also se-lected the Velaro to succeed the ICE 3. Thecompany has ordered 15 new trains that willbegin operating when the 2011 winter sched-ule goes into effect.

These Velaros will be equipped with thestate-of-the-art European Train Control System(ETCS), which represents a milestone in cross-

border train travel. Thanks to the ETCS, trainswill no longer have to slow down at nationalborders in coming years. Instead, they will beable to speed through without interruptionfrom northern Europe to the Mediterraneancoast.

Up until now, Europe has had more than 20different rail signaling and security systems —but the ETCS will change that. The system willenable the new German Velaro to travel acrossborders not only to Paris, but to cities in Bel-gium as well, thereby eliminating practically allremaining obstacles to the consolidation of theEuropean high-speed rail network.

Tim Schröder

The Velaro consumes the equivalent of 0.33 liters of ga so -line per seat per 100 kilometers — much less than a car.

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 123

will, but cautions that “the locomotive marketis price-sensitive, so the sales price is still oftendecisive.”

Nevertheless, customers are well aware ofthe fact that the purchase price of a locomotiveis only around 15 percent of the cost of power-ing it throughout its service life. “So a ten per-cent higher list price for a locomotive still paysoff for the customer if energy efficiency is twopercentage points better than the competi-tion’s,” Leitel points out.

Recyclable Subway. This argument is familiarto Dr. Walter Struckl, who works at SiemensMobility in Vienna, where subway trains, rail-way cars, and trams are built. The market forthese products is also extremely price sensitive,and energy-saving innovations here have to

pay for themselves within two to three years.Struckl opens a copy of his doctoral disserta-tion from Vienna Technical University. In thiswork, Struckl calculated down to the last detailthe energy balance of the Oslo subway system— probably the most efficient subway in theworld in terms of resource conservation. WhenStruckl joined Siemens in 2003, it still wasn’tpossible to market the environmental aspectsof a product, but today LCAs are a normal partof the tendering process. Life cycle costs haveto do with costs, but life cycle assessments ad-dress environmental concerns. People tend toconfuse the two, says Struckl — but they’re notcontradictory, given that greater energy effi-ciency usually has a rapid and positive effect onlife cycle costs.

With regard to the Oslo subway system, atotal of 84 percent of its materials can be recy-

cled; the rest are burned and the resulting en-ergy is exploited. There isn’t much left to im-prove here because the rail cars are held to-gether with hook-and-loop fasteners ratherthan glue, for example, which makes it easy todisassemble them.

The LCA, however, can still be improved. Ex-perts estimate that an additional 30 percent inenergy savings could be achieved in actual op-eration and that the associated costs would berecouped in one year, says Struckl — eventhough the system already consumes around

one-third less energy than its predecessor,mostly thanks to more efficient heating andmore effective insulation.

Mobility in Context. Struckl warns againstgeneralizations, explaining there is no suchthing as a “good” or “bad” LCA. Absolute num-bers, such as those for CO2 emissions, don’t re-veal much in and of themselves. Instead, eachapplication scenario must be carefully studiedin context in order to develop optimal meas-ures. Subway trains such as those in Oslo, forexample, produce only 827 metric tons of CO2

during a 30-year service life — a low figure dueto the fact that 99 percent of Norway’s electric-ity is generated with hydro power. On the otherhand, the same trains would emit 47,900 met-ric tons of CO2 equivalent if operated in theCzech Republic because most of that country’s

electricity comes from coal-fired power plants.But unlike Oslo’s trains, Prague’s run mostly un-derground and its winters are warmer, mean-ing that its trains can get by with less heatingand that an investment in improved insulationwouldn’t really pay off anyway. What would

pay dividends, says Stuckl, would be a more ef-ficient drive unit like the Syntegra bogie withits permanently excited gearless electric mo-tors, which Siemens is testing as a prototype(see Pictures of the Future, Fall 2007, p. 70).

Struckl’s goal is to turn the focus away from

the LCA of individual assemblies and towardthe overall mobility system. Siemens offers de-vices that store braking energy either on trainsthemselves or as stationary units on tracks. Thecompany also supplies efficient technologiesfor producing electricity at power plants andtransporting it to tracks, as well as traffic man-agement systems that intelligently network railand road transport. Siemens’ Complete Mobil-ity concept attracted lots of interest at the In-notrans fair in September 2008 in Berlin. Thesedays, companies in Norway receive a cashbonus for every kilowatt-hour of energy saved;and other countries plan to introduce emissiontrading systems for the transportation sector.“When transport companies also begin to bearthe cost of carbon dioxide emissions, many ofthem will quickly become interested in our in-novations,” predicts Struckl. Bernd Müller

A ten percent higher purchase price pays off for customersif energy efficiency is two percentage points higher.

122 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Energy Efficiency | Rail Systems

Such conflicts are a part of Leitel’s routine.In addition to conducting life cycle assessments(LCAs), his job at the Allach locomotive factorynear Munich is to ensure coordination withcustomers when drawing up custom-tailoredtechnical specifications for their locomotives.Combining these two goals has proved to be agood idea. “Customers simply want a good lo-comotive that meets the highest environmen-tal standards,” he says. What’s more, life cycleanalyses are often a prerequisite for taking partin tendering processes.

Quick LCAs. Munich has been a locomotiveproduction site since 1841 — at one time underthe name Krauss-Maffei, whose logo still adornsthe front of the factory hall that Siemens tookover in 1999. But much has changed over the

years. While steam locomotives churned outenormous amounts of soot and carbon dioxide,their modern counterparts are subject to strictenvironmental regulations. And it’s not just theemissions caused by operation of these powerfullocomotives that need to be low; environmen-tal impact throughout their entire life cycles must

also be kept to a minimum. This begins with themanufacturing process and continues all theway through the product’s life to disposal, whichwill soon become the legal responsibility of themanufacturer. As a result, developers must nowplan to recycle as many components as possible.

To ensure that the associated analyses —also known as material balances — remain ac-curate, Leitel relies on an extensive databasecontaining thousands of parts numbers and in-formation on the materials used in each com-ponent. This database reveals, for example,that the left door of a locomotive control cabinweighs 87.1 kilograms, including 68.1 kilos ofaluminum, 6.6 kilos of glass, and 4.2 kilos ofelastomers, with the remaining weight ac-counted for by other materials, including steeland insulation elements.

Just a few mouse clicks is all it takes to eval-uate specific assemblies or material classes anddetermine their proportion of total weight. An-other database lists the primary energy con-sumption and carbon dioxide emissions associ-ated with each material, as well as regional

differences. For example, an aluminum panelmade in Iceland, a country that uses a lot of re-newable energy, has a much lower CO2 valuethan one from China, where most electricity isgenerated in coal-fired power plants.

The material analysis does not extend downto the last bolt; this would require too much ef-

fort and expense. “We make a general estimateof the energy consumption and emissions ofsmall components,” Leitel explains. The analy-sis ultimately produces charts that show whereenergy consumption is highest. With freighttrains it’s clearly locomotive operation itself.

Over a service life of roughly 30 years, a loco-motive in Europe emits between 200,000 and400,000 metric tons of CO2, depending on thetype of use. Locomotive production results inonly about 250 metric tons of CO2 emissions,however. And the recycling phase generatessavings of 100 metric tons of CO2 because over95 percent of the materials in a modern loco-motive are recyclable. These materials — forthe most part metals and coolants — arereused, which obviates the CO2 emissions thatwould have been produced if the materials hadbeen manufactured from scratch.

Materials Review. Leitel believes that the ma-terial analysis process can be improved. “We’rereviewing the entire range of materials now inuse,” he says. The idea is to use batteries that

don’t contain heavy metals, as well as coolantsmade of biodegradable materials — and togenerally ensure that new designs have morerecyclable parts by avoiding use of compositesas much as possible. “The ideal would be toloosen a few bolts and have the whole locomo-tive break apart into sets of unmixed materi-als,” Leitel explains.

Not every trend is as good as it sounds,however. Although lightweight constructionwith plastics and composites reduces operatingenergy consumption, it also poses recyclingproblems, which means that it is not necessar-ily good for the environment. A locomotivealso shouldn’t be too light because it has to pulla train 20 to 30 times its own weight. Whenasked if all the environmental effort that is nowbeing implemented will ultimately pay off inthe form of orders, Leitel says he’s certain it

A database lists the primary energy consumption and car-bon dioxide emissions associated with different materials.

To maximize the environmental compatibility of trains, workers in Allach install, among other things, highly energy-efficient LED signal lights. Siemens locomotives are designed to be efficient — for instance by returning braking energy to the grid that is generated when traveling downhill.

tem to control traffic lights on the basis of traf-fic volumes, with a view to smoothing trafficflow and to preventing gridlock.

Holistic Approach. “Vienna is pioneering aholistic mobility strategy. And the city is nowputting our complete mobility concept intopractice,” says Grundmann. The goal of thecomplete mobility approach is to network dif-ferent transport systems with one another aseffectively as possible.

“The realization of this complete mobilityconcept involves close cooperation withSiemens IT Solutions and Services,” Grund-mann explains. The fruits of this collaborationinclude a control system for public transportcalled “PTnova” that was developed withWiener Linien and is now running as a pilotproject.

PTnova controls all sales-related processessuch as ticketing, customer management andthe administration of season tickets. It alsoautomates the entire data flow. Any mobile orstatic ticket machines, ticket printers, andpoint-of-sale systems can be connected to PT-nova. “The use of enhanced information andcommunications technology can make mobil-ity chains more efficient and public transportmore attractive,” says Grundmann.

PTnova’s capabilities are exactly in line withthe recommendations of transport expertsfrom MRC McLean Hazel. Their study proposesthe use of so-called personalized smart mediafor the city. This smart card-based applicationwould combine ticketing not only with accessto leisure activities — for example, entry tomuseums, libraries, and swimming pools —but also with special incentives such as bonusschemes for saved CO2 emissions. As a result,it would help to attract more customers topublic transport. Nikola Wohllaib

In Brief

Multiple studies have confirmed that we

face climate change brought about by green-

house gases such as CO2. To ensure the ef-

fects remain manageable, the earth’s temper-

ature must not rise by more than two degrees

Celsius. One way to accomplish this is

through energy-efficient solutions that can

rapidly and substantially reduce power con-

sumption in advanced economies. A study of

a hypothetical city provides insight into how

such solutions could work in practice. (p. 68)

China’s dramatic economic growth is

primarily fuelled by coal. In 2006 alone, 176

coal-fired power plants went on line — an av-

erage of one every two days. Thanks to

new technologies from Siemens, however,

power generation using coal is becoming

increasingly efficient and sustainable — as

shown by the Yuhuan plant, which achieves a

world-record efficiency of 45 percent (p. 76)

Siemens is developing 700-degree Celsius

technology in order to further boost the effi-

ciency of coal-fired power plants and thus cut

CO2 emissions. This higher steam tempera-

ture is expected to make it possible to achieve

50 percent efficiency. (p. 78)

Experts worldwide are working on concepts

for generating power from coal without

releasing CO2 into the atmosphere. Siemens

is investing in the IGCC process, which re-

moves CO2 before combustion, and flue-gas

purification methods that separate CO2 after-

wards. Scientists based in Potsdam are study-

ing how carbon dioxide can be sequestered

underground and what happens to it there.

(pp. 82, 85)

For power plants, efficiency is absolutely

vital. Largely due to the economic crisis, many

operators are avoiding major new capital ex-

penditures and are modernizing existing

plants instead. Thanks to smart upgrades,

fossil-fuel power plants can increase their effi-

ciency by between 10 and 15 percent. (p. 88)

At many open-pit mines, mechanical mon-

sters excavate and transport ore. Siemens is

equipping these behemoths with electric drive

systems that can move loads of up to 600 tons.

The motors are supported by current collectors

that draw power from overhead lines as if they

were streetcars, making these mining giants

fast and efficient. (p. 92)

In an interview, Rajendra K. Pachauri, Nobel

Peace Prize Laureate and Chairman of the Inter-

governmental Panel on Climate Change, says

he hopes India will make comprehensive use of

renewable energies and provide the poorest of

its citizens with access to these energy source.

Siemens is developing such kinds of regionally

customized solutions, including mobile water

treatment systems and small power plants that

generate electricity from coconuts. (p. 84)

Osram has studied the life cycles of various

lamps from production to disposal. The result:

The life cycle assessment is largely determined

by energy consumption during their operation,

with only a small fraction of consumption at-

tributable to lamp production.The key to mak-

ing lamps more environmentally friendly is thus

making them more energy-efficient. (p. 103)

Energy-efficient products are helping to

decouple growth and energy consumption.

Two examples illustrate this point. Modern

locomotives built in the most environmentally

possible way, in accordance with eco-balances,

and the blueTherm tumble drier that consumes

half as much as conventional dryers. (pp. 110,

113, 121)

LINKS:

Siemens Energy Sector

www.siemens.com/energy

Siemens Mobility Sector

www.siemens.com/mobility

Siemens Building Technologies

www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com

EU-Project CO2 SINK:

www.co2sink.com

Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ)

www.gfz-potsdam.de

EPEA Internationale Umweltforschung

www.epea.com

Intergovernmental Panel On Climate

Change (IPCC)

www.ipcc.ch

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009 125

Traffic control centers, low-floor streetcars

(pictured left) and many other measures have

helped turn the Austrian capital into a role model

for holistic mobility concepts.

A Model of Mobility Even a city like Vienna, which boasts an excellent public transportation system, can gain added attractiveness through the use of the latest mobility concepts.

According to “Megacity Challenges,” a studySiemens commissioned from UK transport

consultants MRC McLean Hazel in 2007, thecentral problem facing cities with ten millionor more inhabitants is how to ensure mobility.In a follow-up analysis — “Vienna: A CompleteMobility Study” — the same company has nowshown that the study’s conclusions also applyto smaller cities such as Vienna, with its 2.5million inhabitants. Transport experts fromMRC McLean Hazel confirm that Vienna is onethe world’s most attractive places to live and a

model city for modern mobility. As a key trans-port and logistics hub at the heart of Europe,Vienna is currently reaping the rewards of along-term strategy that embraces all modes oftransport. What’s more, the city plans to ex-pand its public transport infrastructure whileassigning a low priority to automobile traffic inthe city center and promoting the interests ofcyclists, and pedestrians .

“The study shows how successful Viennahas been in implementing an efficient trans-port strategy that could serve as a model forcities everywhere,” says Dr. Hans-Jörg Grund-mann, CEO of the Siemens Mobility Division,in reference to Vienna’s “Transport Master Plan2003,” which covers the period until 2020.

The Greater Vienna area has 227 kilometersof streetcar tracks, one of the largest streetcarnetworks in the world. The mass transit net-work run by transport operator Wiener Linienis over 960 kilometers in length, including 116subway, streetcar, and bus lines with 4,559stops, from which any location in the city canbe reached within 15 minutes on foot.

On weekdays, public transport accounts forup to 35 percent of total traffic, one of thehighest mass transit quotients in the world.Wiener Linien plans to increase this share to40 percent by 2013 with capital expendituresof €1.8 billion, some of which will be used toextend existing subway lines and build newstreetcar lines in outlying districts.

Summer 2009 saw the launch of an over -arching transport management system thatbenefits 200,000 commuters each day. Thesystem provides route planning and calculatestravel times in real time across all modes oftransport. It is supported with a host of trafficdata, most of which is gathered and processedby sensor systems from Siemens. “We’ve alreadyprovided a lot of a products and solutions in-volved in the implementation of Vienna’stransport master plan,” says Grundmann.These solutions include 44 high-speed trainsfor intercity connections and 40 subway trainsas well as the associated control, signaling,and safety technology; 300 ultra-low-floorstreetcars, which Siemens is delivering to thecity’s transport operator at the rate of 15 to 20per year; and, last but not least, a Siemens sys-

Energy Efficiency | Vienna

124 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2009

Lots of Light for Little Power

Outfitting traffic lights with light-emitting diodes

(LEDs) can help cities slash their power costs. These

tiny 10-watt light sources consume between 80 and

90 percent less electricity than the lamps in conven-

tional stoplights. What’s more, to ensure safety, con-

ventional lamps have to be replaced every six to 12

months, whereas LEDs are genuine long-burners.

“They run for around 100,000 hours, which means

they only have to be changed every ten years,” ex-

plains Dr. Christoph Roth, product manager for signal

generators at the Traffic Solutions Business Unit of the Siemens Mobility Division. When replacing

conventional bulbs with LEDs, it makes sense to renew the control unit and convert the light to 40-

volt LED circuitry. “That means you can use signal light units with only six or seven watts,” says Roth,

who estimates that the upgrading of traffic lights at 700 intersections can save a city €1.2 million a

year. For Germany as a whole and its 80,000 or so traffic lights, the reduction in power consumption

alone would bring savings of €140 million. Fitted with conventional lamps, Germany’s traffic lights

would consume 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours a year. Refitting with LEDs has cut that figure to 175 mil-

lion kWh — which corresponds to a reduction in generating capacity from 180 to 24 megawatts.

“Municipalities can recoup the costs of replacing conventional lamps with LEDs within two to four

years,” Roth explains. “There are very few towns and cities in Germany that haven’t already converted

in part to LEDs, and it’s a trend we’re also seeing worldwide.” In Europe, for example, Vienna (pic-

tured above) and Budapest have already fully converted. In Germany, Freiburg, Memmingen, and

Mannheim have all taken advantage of a customized financing solution provided by Siemens Finance

& Leasing, a subsidiary of Siemens Financial Services. “Our financing model has terms of between

four to 15 years, with the repayment schedule calculated on the basis of potential savings, which

makes it very flexible compared to standard municipal loans,” explains Jörg Dethlefsen, a member of

the executive management at Finance & Leasing. Freiburg, for example, has converted 53 traffic

lights to LEDs, a move that has brought it annual savings of €155,000 since 2006. These savings will

finance the repayments over the 15-year term of the loan and then flow into city coffers. “Assuming

the potential savings have been properly calculated, our financing solution won’t pose any financial

risk for the city in question. What’s more, it gives municipalities the scope to invest in other areas,”

Dethlefsen adds. Nikola Wohllaib

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008 127

Shrinking our Footprints

Pictures of the Future | Sustainable Infrastructures for London

126 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Fall 2008

Cities play a crucial role in the fight againstclimate change. They already account for

over half the world’s population, and six out ofevery ten people on earth will be living in citiesby 2025. Cities and their residents are also re-sponsible for approximately 80 percent of thegreenhouse gases emitted worldwide, a dispro-portionately large amount. Big cities are veryaware of this problem, as a study entitled“Megacity Challenges” showed (see Pictures ofthe Future, Spring 2007, p. 14). But when bigcities must choose between environmental pro-tection and economic growth, the environmentoften loses out.

But economic viability and environmentalprotection don’t have to be at odds. Researcherstaking part in the “Sustainable Urban Infrastruc-ture” project, which was carried out with sup-port from Siemens, have for the first time deter-mined the potential and costs of technologiesfor preventing greenhouse gases in cities. UsingLondon as an example, management consult-

London plans to cut its greenhouse gas

emissions by up to 60 percent by 2025.

A Siemens-McKinsey study shows how it

can meet its objective.

ants McKinsey & Company analyzed more than200 technological abatement levers that wouldreduce the city’s CO2 emissions by almost 44percent by 2025 relative to the 1990 figure ofabout 45 million metric tons, in addition to cut-ting water consumption and improving wastedisposal. Many of the levers they identified alsomake good sense in economic terms. For exam-ple, nearly 70 percent of the potential annualsavings of almost 20 million metric tons of CO2

identified for London can be achieved with thehelp of technologies that pay for themselves,largely by reducing energy costs. Over their life-times, in other words, they result in no addi-tional costs, but actually help to save money.

Ambitious Aims. The British metropolis has itswork cut out for it. By 2025, London intends toreduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 60 per-cent relative to the Kyoto base year of 1990 —an ambitious but, as the study shows, feasibleobjective.

Technologies alone could cut London’s CO2

emissions by 44 percent by 2025 relative to1990 levels. This would enable it to meet its Ky-oto objective (a reduction of 12 percent by2012). For comparison, the EU’s target is a re-duction of 20 percent by 2020, and the nationaltarget of the British government is a reduction of30 percent by 2025. T

The city’s 60 percent target could be broughtwithin reach by means of new regulations,changes in the public’s behavior (fuel-savingdriving, use of public transit, and lowering ther-mostats) and future technological innovations.

Effectively applying all the analyzed abate-ment levers by 2025 would require an additionalinvestment of about €41 billion, less than onepercent of London’s economic output. Thisroughly matches the results of the 2006 reportby Sir Nicholas Stern, which put the costs ofstemming the greenhouse effect at up to onepercent of global gross domestic product peryear. On the other hand, accepting an

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Values per year (2005 or most recentavailable before)

CO2 emissions —transportkg CO2/person

CO2 emissions — buildingskg CO2/person

LondonNew York CityStockholmRomeTokyo

CO2 emissions —industrykg CO2/person

Air pollution kg particulate matter(PM10)/person

Domestic waste kg/person

Water m3/person

5,000

1,000

2.5

200

750

2,500

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Comparative Emission Targets

Mt CO2 Reduction*

1990 2005 2012Kyoto

2020EU

2025UK

2025 London

2025After

identifiedabatement

levers* compared with 1990 levels

45.1 47.0

39.5 36.1 31.6

-12.5 % -20.0 % -30.0 %

25.4

-43.7 %

18.0

-60.0 %

Greenhouse Gas Abatement Cost Curve for London 2025from Decision-Makers’ Perspective

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2000

1800

1600

1400

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0

-200

Abatement costs€/t CO2

2 4 6 8 10 12

14 16 18

Diesel engine efficiency package

Gasoline engine efficiency package

Lighting in privatehouseholds

Domesticappliances

Gas engine in combined heatand power systems

Horizontal axis shows the CO2 savings potential in millions of metric tons per year, and the vertical axis shows the costper metric ton of CO2 emissions avoided. Values below zero are negative costs, i.e. savings.

BiofuelsNewly builthomes with ex-tremely high en-ergy efficiency

Replacing coal with gas Double glazing

Exterior wall insulation Nuclearpower

Wind power facilities offshore

Heat recovery

Floor insulation Wind power facilities onshore

Roof Insulation Lighting (commercial) Heat fromexisting

power plants

PotentialMt CO2

Optimization ofbuilding automa-tion systems

Comparative Environmental Footprints

unchecked rise in temperatures could cost fiveto ten percent of global economic output, ac-cording to the former chief economist of theWorld Bank.

Results of the “Sustainable Urban Infra-structure” Study:

The greatest potential for savings lies in Lon-don’s buildings. They are responsible for abouttwo thirds of total CO2 emissions in the city. Percapita, that represents 4.3 metric tons (t) of CO2

per year, a high value compared to other cities.The corresponding figure in Tokyo is 2.9 metrictons of CO2 per year; in Stockholm it’s only 2.6.By 2025 about ten million metric tons of Lon-don’s CO2 could be eliminated through better in-sulation of Victorian buildings, more energy-effi-cient lighting and modern building automationsystems. And almost 90 percent of that reduc-tion would pay for itself thanks to the resultingenergy savings.

Greenhouse gas emissions in transport couldbe reduced by 25 percent by 2025 — a reduc-tion of 3 million metric tons of CO2 per year.Here, higher-efficiency cars are the most impor-tant abatement lever. They could help to elimi-nate more than 1.2 million metric tons of CO2.And it would be possible to eliminate another400,000 metric tons of CO2 in local public trans-port by using hybrid buses, for example, whichconsume 30 percent less fuel than conventionaldiesel buses.

When it comes to power generation, Londoncould eliminate another 6.2 million metric tonsof CO2. At the local level, various combined heatand power plants offer the greatest potential:2.1 million metric tons of CO2 savings per year.An additional 3.7 million metric tons could beachieved at the national level if plant operators

were to rely on renewable energies and gas in-stead of coal for the generation of electricity, forinstance.

London’s water supply network is roughly 150years old and loses over 30 percent of the waterfed into its 4,800 kilometers of lines. This meansenough water to fill 350 Olympic-size swimmingpools seeps into the ground every day. So foreach liter of water not consumed, almost 1.5liters less must be pumped into the system. By2025, about 65 million cubic meters of watercould be saved annually — some 13 percent oftotal consumption — through economically rea-sonable measures like dual-flush toilets or moreefficient washing machines and dishwashers.

About 64 percent of London’s municipalwaste is currently disposed of in landfills — alarge amount compared to cities such as Tokyoand Stockholm. Given the high and rising landfillfees and taxes in Great Britain, there are eco-nomically attractive alternatives to garbage dis-posal in landfills. Raw materials can be recycled,

and modern technologies can be applied to do-mestic waste for the purpose of creating newenergy sources, whether by converting it intobiogas or through direct combustion. The en-ergy thus extracted can be used to supply thou-sands of households with electricity and heat.

People Made a Difference. The study alsoshows that urban initiatives should not be lim-ited to CO2 reductions. It’s equally important toachieve greater consumer acceptance of energy-saving technologies. About 75 percent of thepotential reduction in CO2 levels could be real-ized by individuals and businesses in London ifthey opted for more efficient technologies suchas energy-saving lamps and more economicalcars. Changes in regulations, taxes and subsi-dies, better financing opportunities, and educa-tion campaigns can help to change consumers’attitudes and encourage them to make deci-sions that are not only economically efficientbut also environmentally sound. Petra Zacek

Where London Can Save the Most CO2Mt CO2

2005

Costs < 0 €/t CO2 (=cost savings)

Costs > 0 €/t CO2

47.0

Change to2025

1.8

2025

45.2

Buildings Transport Decentralizedpower and heat

generation

Centralpower gen-

eration

2025 afterabatement

levers

Decrease due to identified abatement levers

10.6 3.0 2.5 3.7 25.4

9.2

1.41.2

1.8

1.1

1.4

2.7

1.0

Condensing boilers

Abatement levers that also make economic sense (13.4 Mt of CO2 savings)

Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009 129

Paths to a Better PlanetEffective steps to cut emissions in urban areas can have profound effects on the envi-ronment. A new study based on the city of Munich shows how a major metropolitanarea could make itself virtually carbon-free within a few decades. Most of the technol-ogy that’s needed is already available — and putting it to work would save money.

How can a modern city, despite populationgrowth, reduce carbon emissions without hav-ing to compromise on living standards or risk-ing a slowdown in economic growth? This isthe question that has occupied researchersfrom Germany’s Wuppertal Institute for Cli-mate, Environment and Energy with the sup-port of Siemens. Their study “Munich — Pathstoward a Carbon-free Future” presents a de-tailed look at what the city can do to minimizeits environmental footprint between now and2058. The study concludes that it is possible totransform a city like Munich into a practicallycarbon-free area. This, it says, will require closecooperation between municipal authorities,energy companies, and the population, alongwith a clear commitment to efficient technolo-gies, ranging from energy-saving refrigeratorsto power plants, as well as a general willing-ness to invest in greater use of renewable en-

ergy sources such as wind, solar power, bio-mass, and geothermal energy.

Cutting CO2 by 80 to 90 Percent. The studysketches two alternative scenarios for Munich.The so-called “target scenario” adopts the veryoptimistic view that the vision of a carbon-freefuture can be more or less achieved over the50-year span under consideration in the study.

Another scenario — the so-called bridgescenario — is somewhat more conservativeand assumes, for example, that increased effi-ciency in power generation will be offset byrises in demand and that individual transporta-tion will remain similar to its present-day form.Nevertheless, the results are impressive in bothcases. The optimistic target scenario predictsthat through the implementation of compre-hensive efficiency measures the average CO2

emissions per inhabitant can be curbed by

around 90 percent to 750 kilograms per an-num by the middle of the century.

The more conservative bridge scenario, onthe other hand, results in a average CO2 reduc-tion of almost 80 percent to approximately 1.3metric tons. In comparison, on the basis of theIPCC World Climate Report of 2007, the Euro-pean Union’s environmental ministers came upwith a target of reducing greenhouse gas emis-sions worldwide by over 50 percent andthereby to an average figure of less than twometric tons per capita. Both of the Munich sce-narios undercut this target substantially.

The Munich study analyzes in detail whichmeasures will achieve the greatest reduction inCO2 emissions and whether they are economi-cal. Almost half of Munich’s CO2 emissions arethe result of energy used to heat the city’shomes and buildings. Improving the insulationof roofs, facades, and basements would thus

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Munich’s Energy Requirements in 2008

CO2 emissions from energy sector

8.2m t CO2

per annum

Losses resulting from power generation andtransmission as well as energy consumptionin the energy sector: 11.4 TWh = 30%

Total energy requirements: 29.0 TWh per annum

From coal2.4m t

From naturalgas

3.2m t

From crudeoil

2.6m t

Primary energy40.4 TWh per annum

Coal7.4 TWh

Space heating and process heat7.5 TWh

Electricity 4.3 TWh

Space heating 9.5 TWh

Electricity 2.5 TWh

Electricity 0.3 TWh

Naturalgas

15.8 TWh

Crude oil9.7 TWh

Renewables 1.0 TWh

Trade + Industry 11.8 TWh

Households12.0 TWh

Transportation5.3 TWh Fuel 5.0 TWh

Figures rounded, 1 TWh = 3.6 PJ

= 122,700 t hard coal equivalent

Nuclear power 6.5 TWh

Cities are attractive places to live. Theypromise work, a vibrant cultural life, and a

host of leisure activities. All of which is verytrue of Munich, Bavaria’s capital. From here, it’sonly a short hop to go climbing or skiing in theAlps, to reach crystal-clear lakes, or to drive toItaly and the Mediterranean. Little wonderthen that Munich is one of the few cities in Ger-many that is set to grow in the comingdecades. Although an exception in Germany,the city is, however, very much in line with thetrend toward ever-larger metropolitan areas.

In the world’s newly industrializing and de-veloping countries people flock to cities insearch of work and education and in hope of abetter life. And last year a watershed wasreached. In 2008, for the first time ever, half ofthe world’s population lived in cities. By 2050this figure is forecast to grow to 70 percent.This will result in huge urban sprawls that con-sume resources and pollute environments.

Although metropolitan areas cover only onepercent of the earth’s surface, they are respon-sible for 75 percent of the world’s energy con-sumption and 80 percent of greenhouse gases,not least carbon dioxide (CO2). As such, theyare storing up trouble for themselves, since ex-perts expect cities to be seriously affected byclimate change. Shanghai, for example, is likelyto suffer from storms and heavy rains, and Ger-many’s Federal Environment Agency predictsthat by the end of the century Munich will seea significant increase in the number of hot daysand “tropical” nights each year.

Is there any good news about cities? Well,yes. The very fact that they are not only thebiggest culprits in climate change, but thatthey are so concentrated offers a good oppor-tunity to tackle the problems they cause, sincethe key levers for climate protection have theirbiggest impact here. The major metropolitanareas of the world are thus in a unique positionto lead the way to more environmentally-friendly modes of living and doing business.

128 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Pictures of the Future | Study of a Carbon-Free Munich

yield significant savings. It is therefore crucialnot to scrimp in this area. In fact, the study as-sumes that the refurbishment of existing hous-ing in Munich will conform to the PassiveHouse standard and that all future housing willalso conform to this standard. This includes theuse of not only the best insulation and vac-uum-insulated windows but also ventilationsystems that recover residual heat from thehouses’ exhaust air before it is blown outside.

Based on the above steps, the study findsthat it should be possible to reduce heating re-quirements for existing buildings from the cur-rent figure of around 200 kilowatt-hours persquare meter per annum (kWh/m2a) to be-tween 25 and 35 kWh/m2, while new housingwill require only between 10 to 20 kWh/m2a.

At the same time, new buildings are to befitted with solar power systems, so that most ofthem will be able to cover their remaining en-ergy requirements autonomously and evenfeed excess energy into the grid. In order to en-sure that the energy efficiency of most build-ings is raised to the requisite level over the next50 years, the rate at which such refurbishmentis being carried out must increase from the cur-rent figure of 0.5 percent to 2.0 percent per an-num. This means that four times as manyhomeowners must implement such energy im-provements than is currently the case.

The idea of improving the energy efficiencyof a city like Munich on a more or less wholesalebasis over 50 years sounds like a major chal-lenge. Yet such efforts are worthwhile. Althoughit is more expensive to build according to thePassive House standard than to implement the

Energy Conservation Act of 2007, the additionalcosts involved in such refurbishment and theconstruction of new housing would amount toaround €13 billion for the entire city of Munich.That would mean extra costs of approximately€200 a year per inhabitant — around one thirdof an average annual gas bill. By 2058, how-ever, this additional investment would be offsetby energy savings of between €1.6 and €2.6billion per year, which translates into an annualsum of between €1,200 to €2,000 per inhabi-tant. The refurbishment of existing and con-struction of new housing in line with the PassiveHouse standard would result in energy savingsof more than €30 billion by 2058. Moreover,this scenario also applies to other areas, sincethe study comes to the conclusion that meas-ures designed to enhance efficiency generallypay for themselves over their lifetime.

Home Power. Of course, insulation is by nomeans the end of the story. More has to bedone if CO2 emissions are to be cut to almostzero. Greenhouse gas emissions can also be re-duced by the use of combined heat and power(CHP) systems. Such heating systems are par-ticularly efficient, since they utilize around ninetenths of the energy contained in their primaryfuel. Both Munich scenarios also assume thatthe use of district heating will rise from the cur-rent figure of 20 percent to 60 percent. This isnot an unrealistic proposition. In Copenhagen,for example, around 70 percent of all house-holds are heated this way.

Other measures designed to reduce CO2

emissions include the use of economical elec-

Sources of Munich’s Energy Mix

0

Reference(2008)

Target(2058)

Bridge(2058)

TWh per annum

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9Total:8.03

Total:5.28

Total:7.44

Coal-fired power plant with CCS

Solar-thermal electricity generation

Wind power on-/offshore

Biomass

Geothermal

Hydroelectric

Photovoltaic

Decentralized CHP

Centralized CHP

0.16

0.79

1.18

0.37

0.68

0.38

0.28

1.44

2.75

LPT electricity

LPT biofuel

LPT fuel (fossil)

MIT electricity

MIT biofuel

MIT fuel (fossil)

TWh per annum

0Reference

(2008)Target(2058)

Bridge(2058)

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

Total:4.32

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Power generation:Accounts for 40.3 % of CO2

emissions in Munich (2008)

40.3 %

Public transport: Accounts for 12.6 % of CO2

emissions in Munich (2008)

12.6 %

Munich’s Transport Energy Mix

MIT: Motorized Individual TransportLPT: Local Public Transport

CCS: Carbon Capture & Storage

-54%

-32%

Total:1.99

Total:2.92

Pictures of the Future | Special Edition on Green Technologies 131

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that the cost of refurbishing existing structuresand building new ones in line with the PassiveHouse standard would be offset by savings inenergy that would have been consumed forheating. The savings would be sufficient to fundthe creation of a carbon-free district heatingdistribution system powered by geothermal en-ergy. In other words, investment in a carbon-freesupply of heating would not only reduce emis-sions substantially but would also save the dis-trict an average of €4 to €6.5 million per annum.

It must be remembered that private individ-uals and the business sector also have a role toplay in boosting energy efficiency, since inmany cases it is they who must choose be-tween traditional technology and a more effi-cient but often, at the outset, more expensivealternative. This applies equally to the con-struction of housing, electric appliances, andindustrial motors. Yet the study emphasizesthat this often involves merely a change in be-havior, not a compromise in the quality of life.Frequently it is high costs that prevent a whole-sale shift in attitudes and the widespread useof low-energy technology. And frequently thisis because consumers fail to appreciate the po-tential savings in energy costs over a full prod-uct lifetime. However, experience clearly showsthat people’s behavior can be nudged in theright direction by the use of appropriate finan-cial assistance and incentives combined withtargeted information campaigns. The studytherefore concludes that greater energy effi-ciency is chiefly interesting when it makessound financial sense. And that is almost al-ways the case. Tim Schröder

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CO2 Emissions Per Capita

Annual CO2 per capita (in kg)

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

Reference(2008)

Target(2058)

Bridge(2058)

6,549

-89% -80%

750

1,300

CO2 Emissions by Sector

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Thousands of metric tons CO2 p.a.

0

1,000

2,000

3,000

4,000

5,000

6,000

7,000

8,000

Target(2058)

Bridge(2058)

Reference(2008)

-87% -79%

Passenger transport

Commercial transport

Power and heat from CHP (coal)

Power and heat from CHP (natural gas)

Heat from CHP (natural gas)

Power from CHP (natural gas)

Power generation (coal with CCS)

Direct heat generation (heating oil)

Direct heat generation (natural gas)

Percentage of CO2

emissions in Munich (2008) resulting from heating of buildings: 46.5 %

46.5 %

20 %20 %

60 %

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

22 %

Total:17.0

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Building Heating bySource

TWh per annum

Reference(2008)

Target/Bridge(2058)

1 %

77 %

District heating

Decentralized CHP

Direct supply ofheat

-79%

Total:3.5

CHP: Combined heat and power

130 Reprinted (with updates) from Pictures of the Future | Spring 2009

Pictures of the Future | Study of a Carbon-Free Munich

tric appliances and lighting as well as renew-able and low-carbon energy sources such asphotovoltaic systems, solar collectors, and ge-othermal systems. The study assumes thatelectricity will be increasingly generated on adecentralized basis — for example, by CHPplants for individual areas of the city or evenmicro CHP units for individual buildings, whichsupply not only heat but also electricity for resi-dents (see p. 116).

According to the study, if all the opportuni-ties to save electricity were rigorously exploited— from stoplights to tumble driers — thepower consumption of a city like Munich couldbe largely satisfied by renewable sources. Thestudy assumes that the city will continue to ob-tain electricity from larger power plants in theregion as well as further afield in Germany andabroad. Such power could be generated essen-tially by large offshore and onshore wind farmsin northern Europe or by solar-thermal powerplants in southern Europe or northern Africaand then transported to the cities of centralEurope via low-loss HVDC transmission lines.Some of this power could also be generated inlow-carbon power plants equipped with tech-nology for carbon capture and storage.

Plugging Cars into the Picture. One of themost striking changes investigated by the studyis the massive shift to electric cars. It is likelythat by the middle of the century most car tripsin the Munich area will be made in electric ve-hicles. For longer trips, people will probably stilluse hybrid or highly efficient diesel or gasolinecars. The large number of electric vehicles in

Munich will also help to buffer fluctuating loadsfrom photovoltaic and wind sources, whose out-put of electricity differs according to the weatherand the time of day. When power is plentiful(and therefore cheap), electric car batteries willserve as an intermediate storage system. Attimes of high demand (and peak rates), theywill feed some of their power back into the grid.

At the same time, better town planning canhelp reduce the amount of traffic in Munich andtherefore reduce its CO2 emissions. Both scenar-ios are based on reduced travel requirements.Instead of building shopping malls on green fieldsites, the study favors urban neighborhoods inwhich homes, workplaces, and stores are closeto one another. That way, many more trips canbe completed on foot or by bicycle. The authorsalso advocate making public transit more com-fortable in order to encourage its increased use.

In addition to analyzing Munich as a whole,the study presents a detailed plan of how toimprove energy efficiency in an actual districton the periphery that contains both old and newhousing. The authors conclude that it would bepossible to create a low-carbon neighborhoodwithin a 30-year period. Moreover, they say

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