Power Plants In Germany Research Articles

Circular business model implementation: Design choices, orchestration strategies, and transition pathways for resource-sharing solutions

Prominent political and societal stakeholders argue that business models (BMs) are pivotal in making a successful transition to a circular economy (CE). However, the existing CE literature has paid little attention to design choices that allow companies to implement circular business models (CBMs) that meet the requirements of their specific situations. Resource sharing (alternatively called asset sharing) is a key practice in making the transition to a CE. The present article, therefore, seeks to gain deeper insights into the CBMs of firms that orchestrate resource-sharing solutions. For this purpose, it uses a qualitative multiple case-study approach and analyzes nine firms that orchestrate virtual power plants in Germany and Switzerland. Specifically, the article explores the design choices with which firms are faced when they implement CBMs, and it examines different implementation strategies that flow from making certain design choices. The article also identifies transition pathways that enable firms to move between different implementation strategies in order to increase economic and environmental gains. The present article can serve as a stimulus for further detailed analyses of other BMs that are important to a CE in the future.

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and Fuel Efficiency of Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Germany

I investigate the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on fuel efficiency of fossil fuel power plants using administrative micro data on power plants in Germany from 2003 to 2012. I find positive efficiency effects in fuel use, leading to a decrease in fuel input of 0.4 percent for an increase in carbon cost of one Euro. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the reduction in fuel use by fossil fuel power plants due to the introduction of the EU ETS translates into reductions in annual carbon emissions within the German electricity sector by around seven million tonnes in 2012. This represents about 2.4 percent of total annual carbon emissions in the German electricity sector and exemplifies the potential magnitude of efficiency improvements as a measure for reducing carbon emissions.

Stranded Asset Risk and Political Uncertainty: The Impact of the Coal Phase-out on the German Coal Industry

We assess the value of stranded coal-fired power plants in Germany due to the critical phase-out by 2038. Within a Monte Carlo simulation, the scenarios under consideration (a slow decommissioning at the end of the technical lifetime in 2061, the highly probable phase-out by 2038, and an accelerated phase-out by 2030) are additionally assigned distributions to display the uncertainty of future developments. The results show an overall stranded asset value of €0.4 billion given the phase-out by 2038 and additional €14.3 billion if the phase-out is brought forward by eight years. This study also depicts the impacts of carbon pricing and the feed-in from renewable energy sources on the merit order and eventually the deterioration in economic conditions for hard coal and lignite power plants. Lastly, we illustrate immediate concerns for share prices of affected companies and contributes to closing the research gap between stranded physical and financial assets.

Critical Analysis of Pumped Storage Power Plants in Germany

Purpose: Anyone who wants to generate substantial amounts of electricity using regenerative systems must store excess energy so that it can be used again for times when it is needed but not generated by the sun and wind. Pumped storage power plants are currently the only way to present this on a larger scale realistically.Design/methodology/approach: The aim was to find out what the current status quo for pumped storage power plants in Germany is. Only current German literature was evaluated. All relevant German political parties were interviewed and all generally refused to take a position. In a longer expert interview with one of the leading professors and experts in this special field, the deeply unsatisfactory situation and development was clearly confirmed.Findings: The findings achieved can only be described as devastating, since the responsible politicians/parties fundamentally avoid the discussion and the environmental associations and ultimately also the electricity suppliers do not build up the necessary political pressure, while the locally affected population legally defends itself by all means to prevent necessary and directly related changes in your own life.Research/practical implications: In the previous form, it does not go on, since no progress has been made. There must be concerted action by all governing parties, all environmental associations and the media to make it clear that many changes are pending in this area in the future. All future and necessary investments and changes must be legally clear and fundamentally secured in advance. Future research must always stand on three legs here: politically/legally, economically/ecologically and most intensively, sociologically about the population and their approval of the changes, which are sometimes serious.Originality/value: There are hardly any relevant publications about it so far, and it seems that all politically responsible people are trying, at least so far, to keep the topic silent.

Reducing CO2 Emissions of a Coal-Fired Power Plant via Accelerated Weathering of Limestone: Carbon Capture Efficiency and Environmental Safety.

Reducing CO2 emissions is a key task of modern society to attenuate climate change and its environmental effects. Accelerated weathering of limestone (AWL) has been proposed as a tool to capture CO2 from effluent gas streams and store it primarily as bicarbonate in the marine environment. We evaluated the performance of the biggest AWL-reactor to date that was installed at a coal-fired power plant in Germany. Depending on the gas flow rate, approximately 55% of the CO2 could be removed from the flue gas. The generated product water was characterized by an up to 5-fold increase in alkalinity, which indicates the successful weathering of limestone and the long-term storage of the captured CO2. A rise of potentially harmful substances in the product water (NO2-, NOx-, NH4+, SO42-, and heavy metals) or in unreacted limestone particles (heavy metals) to levels of environmental concern could not be observed, most likely as a result of a desulfurization of the flue gas before it entered the AWL reactor. At locations where limestone and water availability is high, AWL could be used for a safe and long-term storage of CO2.

Are We Still Overestimating Costs for Wind and Solar?

In this issue of Joule, Steffen et al. tackle a challenging topic to quantify and project costs for operation and maintenance (O&M) of solar and wind power plants in Germany. They note that O&M costs can be 20%–25% of overall costs and find that such costs have decreased, resulting in common overestimates of O&M costs.

The role and costs of large-scale heat pumps in decarbonising existing district heating networks – A case study for the city of Herten in Germany

This paper discusses different decarbonisation scenarios for an existing district heating (DH) network supplied by coal-fired combined heat and power plants in Germany. Integrating higher shares of renewable heat is indispensable in reaching the climate goal and CO2 emission reduction targets. The study analyses the technical and economic aspects of integrating various technologies such as solar thermal, biomass boilers, waste incineration plant and heat pumps into the existing DH network, with the main focus on large-scale heat pumps. The approach consists of two main steps. First, we forecast future heat demand and the potential to extend the DH system by simulating the evolution and energy consumption of the city's building stock. Second, we use a supply dispatch model with hourly resolution to calculate alternative scenarios and sensitivities for the supply mix with a focus on heat pumps.Our results show that, under the current regulatory and economic framework, large-scale heat pumps are not cost competitive with the existing coal-fired CHP units. However, redesigning the regulatory framework and optimising heat pump design and operation could achieve cost parity. The CO2 price induced by the EU emissions trading scheme will most likely not be a sufficient incentive in short and medium term.

Spatial Distribution of Wind Turbines, Photovoltaic Field Systems, Bioenergy, and River Hydro Power Plants in Germany

The expansion of renewable energy technologies, accompanied by an increasingly decentralized supply structure, raises many research questions regarding the structure, dimension, and impacts of the electricity supply network. In this context, information on renewable energy plants, particularly their spatial distribution and key parameters—e.g., installed capacity, total size, and required space—are more and more important for public decision makers and different scientific domains, such as energy system analysis and impact assessment. The dataset described in this paper covers the spatial distribution, installed capacity, and commissioning year of wind turbines, photovoltaic field systems, and bio- and river hydro power plants in Germany. Collected from different online sources and authorities, the data have been thoroughly cross-checked, cleaned, and merged to generate validated and complete datasets. The paper concludes with notes on the practical use of the dataset in an environmental impact monitoring framework and other potential research or policy settings.

Evaluating the enhanced flexibility of lignite-fired power plants: A real options analysis

In this paper the authors develop a decision tool that is based on real options analysis and that supports flexibility investment decisions concerning upgrades of conventional lignite-fired power plants. The value of the power plant is influenced both by technical and economic variables, the latter including subsidies. The four-step approach proposed allows to determine the optimal operation strategy in light of electricity and fuel price developments, to simulate the expected project value, to determine the expected changes of the project value over time, and finally to derive the optimal management (investment/disinvestment) decision. For the case of an existing lignite-fired power plant in Germany, we find that the plant can only be operated profitably without any modifications until the end of its technical lifetime if current government subsidies persist. In the absence of subsidies, however, it is preferable to stop operation immediately. The analysis also shows that profitable investments in a number of flexibility retrofit measures are possible, the ranking of which depends, however, on the costs and benefits related to the retrofitting measures, as well as their implementation time.

Reactor safety research within the Helmholtz Association

Abstract The reactor safety research of the Helmholtz Association is an integral part of the national provident research. It focuses on the safety of nuclear power plants in Germany and abroad as well as on safety aspects of internationally developed innovative reactor concepts. The research in the three involved Helmholtz centers Forschungszentrum Jülich, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology covers important areas of design basis and beyond design basis accidents. A unique combination of code and model development supported by own large-scale experiments ensures the active preservation of the reactor safety competences. The research that is embedded in a strong international co-operation will be continued after the completion of the national phase-out from the use of nuclear energy for electricity production in 2022.

Cogeneration of power and methanol based on a conventional power plant in Germany

Abstract The global increase in electricity production by wind and photovoltaic plants poses challenges for local electricity grids as well as for electricity markets. These renewable energy sources rely heavily on current weather conditions, by that producing electricity in a fluctuating manner. This results in temporary electricity surpluses causing temporarily low or even negative electricity prices. Additionally, a stable operation of the electricity grid must be maintained even locally. To solve these problems, the intelligent coupling of the electricity, gas and heat sectors could be a promising approach. So called “Power-To-X” concepts such as Power-to-Heat (P2H) or Power-to-Fuel (P2F) cover technologies that aim to convert electrical energy into material energy storages, synthetic fuels and energy-intensive chemical raw products. For conventional power plants, the production of methanol is currently the most discussed option in Germany. In this paper a techno-economic analysis of the implementation of a Power-to-Methanol plant (P2MeOH) into a conventional power plant is presented. This study is based on real power generation data of the real hard coal-fired power plant “Westphalia E” in Germany in 2017. It takes into account parameters such as P2MeOH invest costs, costs for carbon dioxide emission as well as electricity, methanol and oxygen market prices. The required mass and energy flows for the techno-economic analysis are calculated by a custom implemented thermodynamic model. This study shows that an additional revenue could be generated under current market situations and that this possible revenue sums up to 5.2 million € per year. In ecological regards, around 150,000 tons CO2 could be saved per year. The calculated P2MeOH invest costs amount to 137.5 million €. Additionally, it could be obtained that by far most costs are caused by the electrolyser. As further technical progress in that field is expected, this could lead to higher economic benefits in the future.

Transformation pathways of phasing out coal-fired power plants in Germany

BackgroundWhile there are plenty of studies investigating the market penetration of new technologies, phase-out processes of a predominant technology are rarely analyzed. The present study explores the case of a declining technology, employing the example of coal-fired power plants in Germany. These plants were promoted by governmental decision-makers as well as by the industry for a long time, but meanwhile, the phase-out or at least a cutback of coal-fired power plants is––not only in Germany––considered to be a key strategy for the transformation towards a sustainable society.MethodsWe investigate potential pathways of the future development of the coal-fired power plant sector in an extended multi-level perspective (MLP) framework that integrates economic, social, political, and technical aspects.ResultsTaking into account the fact that coal is losing its support from several important stakeholders (e.g., governmental decision-makers, utilities) due to, e.g., changes in the prioritization of political goals, changes in the economic framework, in actor constellations, and in public attitudes, coal-fired power plants tend to be pushed into niches or to disappear completely.ConclusionsA reasonable management of the niche technology “coal-fired power plants” could include a protection of space for ensuring a smooth removal of the links between the regime and the technology with respect to, e.g., social and environmental aspects. The phase-out pathways for the coal-fired power plants elaborated on in this paper help to better inform policy-makers to design transformation processes not only for coal-fired power but also for other declining technologies.

The Future of Fossil Fired Power Plants in Germany—A Lifetime Analysis

In many German energy projections, the assumption of power plant lifetimes plays a central role, since it is often used in projections for the existing fleet of power plants or as a criterion for decommissioning in model-based investigations. The result of these analyses is a power plant capacity retirement graph, which is then used to determine the replacement demand. Especially in the context of the German Energy transition (“Energiewende”) the amount and dynamics of replacement play an important role. Against this background, a large number of studies have been evaluated and fleet developments compared. Many studies refer to empirical values for the assumption of lifetimes without specifying them in greater detail. This approach was used to conduct an ex post lifetime analysis—accurate to each number of units—of German power plants that have been decommissioned since 1990. The analysis is conducted with the aid of a power plant database, which has been continuously updated for each individual unit since 1985. In addition to the power plants currently in operation, the database includes also includes power plant units that have been successively decommissioned over the past decades. The ex post analysis presents the first lifetime analysis for decommissioned German plants, which can serve as a basis for future power plant fleet projections. The analyses show that the lifetime of fossil-fired power plants has extended considerably. For example, whereas the real lifetimes of coal-fired power plants were in a range of 30 to 35 years in the 1990s, today they amount to 40 to 45 years on average.

A novel method to optimize electricity generation from wind energy

Abstract We present and discuss a new technique based on information theory to detect in advance favorable periods of wind activity (positive ramps) for electricity generation. In addition this technique could also help in the analysis of plant operation and management protocols design. Real data from wind power plants in Germany is used; this information is freely available in the internet with reliable registers every 15 min. A simple protocol to mix such wind energy production with electricity coming from conventional sources is proposed as a way to test the proposed algorithm. The eight-year period 2010–2017 is analyzed looking for different behaviors in wind activity. The first five years (2010–2014) are employed to calibrate the method, while the remaining three years (2015–2017) are used to test previous calibration without any further variation in the tuning possibilities described below. Thus, the proposed protocol is tried on under different seasonal wind conditions. Both the algorithm and the general protocol could be adjusted to optimize performances according to regional conditions. In addition, this algorithm can also be used in retrospective studies to adjust productivity to operational conditions.

Future security of power supply in Germany-The role of stochastic power plant outages and intermittent generation

Many power plants in Germany and Europe are approaching the end of their technical lifetime. Moreover, the increasing wind and solar power generation reduces the operation times of thermal power plants, making future investments in new generation capacity uncertain under current market conditions. Consequently, the future development of security of power supply is unclear. In this paper, we assess the impact of stochastic fluctuations in power plant availability, renewable generation, and grid load on the future security of supply in Germany. We model variations in power plant availability by application of a combined Mean-reversion Jump-diffusion approach. On the basis of that and using Monte-Carlo methods, we simulate 300 different time series of availability. These profiles are fed into the fundamental power system model REMix, applied to evaluate the appearance of supply shortfalls in hourly resolution. We assess 6 scenarios for the year 2025, differing in renewable generation and demand profiles, as well as grid infrastructure. Geographical focus of the analysis is Germany, but the electricity exchange with its European neighbours is modelled as well. Our results show that the choice of the power plant availability profile can change the loss of load expectation and loss of load hours by up to 50%. However, the influence of load and renewable generation profiles is found to be significantly higher. Assuming that no new conventional power plants are built and existing plants are decommissioned at the end of their empirical lifetime, we identify supply gaps of up to 2.7 GW in Germany.

The European Union Emissions Trading Scheme and Fuel Efficiency of Fossil Fuel Power Plants in Germany

I investigate the impact of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) on fuel efficiency of fossil fuel power plants using administrative micro data on power plants in Germany from 2003 to 2012. I find positive efficiency effects in fuel use, leading to a decrease in fuel input of 0.4 percent for an increase in carbon cost of one Euro. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the reduction in fuel use by fossil fuel power plants due to the introduction of the EU ETS translates into reductions in annual carbon emissions within the German electricity sector by around seven million tonnes in 2012. This represents about 2.4 percent of total annual carbon emissions in the German electricity sector and exemplifies the potential magnitude of efficiency improvements as a measure for reducing carbon emissions.

Economic Analysis of Electricity Storage Based on Heat Pumps and Thermal Storage Units in Large-Scale Thermal Power Plants

In this paper the financial viability of a novel storage concept, referred to as ‘integrated pumped-heat-electricity storage’, is assessed for both a coal-fired and a combined cycle (CC) power plant located in Germany, as well as for a concentrated solar power (CSP) plant located in Spain. The rationale of this concept is to use electricity during times of cheap wholesale market prices, e.g. stemming from a high supply of renewable energies, in order to generate thermal energy via a heat pump, since thermal energy can be stored at comparatively low cost. If the electricity demand rises again, the stored thermal energy is used to power a conventional water-steam cycle, thereby reducing the amount of fossil fuels used or enlarging the operating time of a CSP plant. A mixed integer linear program, considering the day-ahead wholesale market electricity prices and remunerations of offering tertiary control power in Germany, is employed to find an approximation of the optimal schedule for the generation in the power plant as well as for the purchase and the sale of electricity. The financial viability is assessed using net present value (NPV) and real options analysis. Storing electricity to profit from temporal arbitrage is found to be unprofitable, since the (conservatively estimated) costs of thermal storage units are still too high. The largest part of the revenues stems from the remunerations of offering tertiary control power. Therefore, while the utilization of heat pumps, which are estimated to have rather high costs, is not profitable, employing electric heaters without storage units is found to be economically viable for a coal-fired and a CC power plant in Germany. Here, NPV and real options analysis yield the same result, i.e. to invest immediately in such an application. In Spain, offering tertiary control power is presently not remunerated, but only the call-offs of tertiary control energy, which are not considered in the mixed integer linear program. Consequently, employing electric heaters in CSP plants in Spain is found to be not financially viable either.

Evaluating the Enhanced Flexibility of Lignite-Fired Power Plants: A Real Options Analysis

In this paper we develop a decision tool that is based on real options analysis and that supports flexibility investment decisions concerning conventional lignite-fired power plants. The value of the power plant is influenced both by technical and economic variables, the latter including subsidies. The four-step approach proposed allows to determine the optimal operation strategy in light of electricity and fuel price developments, to simulate the project value, to determine the binomial lattice of the expected project value, and finally to infer the optimal management decision (based on the option to choose). For the case of an existing lignite-fired power plant in Germany, we find that the plant can be operated profitably without any modifications until the end of its technical lifetime only if current government subsidies persist. In the absence of subsidies, however, it is preferable to stop operation immediately. The analysis also shows that profitable reinvestments in a number of flexibility retrofit measures are possible, the ranking of which depends, however, on the costs related to the retrofitting measures and their implementation time.

Challenge of retrofitting old decentralised power plants in Germany in terms of power system stability

In order to counter the danger of instabilities caused by old decentralised power plants, the Ordinance on System Stability (Systemstabilitätverordnung, SysStabV) was implemented in Germany in June 2012. This study describes the process including tasks and responsibilities of all relevant stakeholders within the second stage of implementing the SysStabV. In contrast to its first stage, power plant operators have the option to apply for proportional reimbursement as well as for exemption from the obligation of retrofitting measures for their power generation plants. Strangely it has been stated that the actual number of applied exemptions is much lower than the expected one. Furthermore, also the number of confirmed retrofitting is lower than expected. In conclusion, a considerable divergence between the forecast and the actual state data indicates the importance for an on-site inspection at power plants as part of an important follow-up process.

Integrated assessment of a phase-out of coal-fired power plants in Germany

Germany is liable to miss its greenhouse gas reduction target for 2020. Nonetheless, additional political measures such as an early phase-out of coal-fired power plants might make it possible to reach this target. However, this generates several (conflicting) challenges, which arise from the technical, environmental, economic, and social implications.An integrated assessment of phasing out coal-fired power plants was therefore performed by investigating impacts on the German energy system, the economy, and public perception. The latter is explored by analyzing representative data from our latest annual survey of the German public. Economic impacts on the sectoral level are illustrated by an input-output analysis. Furthermore, an energy systems model examines the long-term technical consequences.Our scenario-based analysis shows that phasing out coal in the German electricity sector is not sufficient to fully meet German emission reduction targets. Additionally, the input-output analysis indicates strong sensitivity with the CO2 certificate price, only resulting in an overall economic benefit in the case of a high certificate price. The survey shows that public acceptance of coal for electricity generation is low and decreasing. By combining all the results, a more detailed analysis was performed of the consequences of an early phase-out of coal-fired power plants.