New frontiers in sustainable energy production and storage

Abstract

Evidently, one of the most effective ways to reduce CO2 emissions consists in the deployment of renewable energies, with the advantage of securing and expanding the energy supplies of a given country. The main problem that arises is due to the intermittent temporary character of many renewable resources like solar and wind. For this reason, it has been recently concluded that in case of high integration of renewables into the distribution grid (more than about 30% of the electricity mix), the implementation of energy storage systems together with smart grids is necessary. Therefore, renewable energies for large scale power production in country would usually require the availability of a sufficiently large energy storage capacity. Unfortunately, current technologies can only provide energy storage to a very limited extent, and large R&D efforts will be needed to find adequate solutions. Due to these reasons, the European 2050 Energy Roadmap, should contemplate parallel development programmes for energy storage technologies (batteries, power-to-gas, hydrogen, etc.), and the upgrading of distribution networks, including smart grid technologies. With respect to renewable energies, we would like to point out that, in addition to their sustainability with respect to the environment, we will also consider in this Conference their economic sustainability, or price of the generated electricity, since we are immersed in a globally competitive economy. Another main topic of this Conference deals with advanced materials for key enabling technologies for a sustainable development, as contemplated in the Horizon 2020 Program. Among the multiple examples of materials that are essential for the improvement of energy generation and efficiency, we will centre our interest in topics including solar cells, fuel cells, energy storage and electric vehicles.