In recent months, one of the most important issues in the energy picture has been to understand that one hundred percent renewable or carbon-free energy is a very different proposal from 24/7.
The big tech giants of knowledge like Google and Microsoft were the first to communicate it. They understood very clearly the disruptions in the United States of buying certificates to cover the total volume of energy powered in a year, regardless of time and place, and how this can destabilize the grid by sending erroneous, even perverse, incentives and market signals.
Arguably, the giants of knowledge were in a better position than the maximum to perceive 24/7 and manage their strength in a more nuanced way. With many energy-intensive operations that can be moved at will, day or night, they may even perform payload movements. .
But outside the doors of this elite organization with a lot of money, it has been attractive to see how the production sector, less technocratic but equally determined, is replaced and evolves, embarking on its own adventure towards greater sustainability.
An example of this is Mercedes, which for several years has been wondering how to become more truly eco-friendly. Patrick Koch, Head of Origination in Germany at Statkraft, evolved the Mercedes concept for Germany with Klaas Bauermann and they are at the spearhead of this transformation.
“Like everyone else, Mercedes is on an adventure and is charting its own path to reach a position it can call sustainable quality,” says Bauermann.
Assisting the car logo in this adventure has involved careful coordination of all electrical resources of other shapes and sizes to create a forged daily intake, hour after hour, painstakingly ensuring that the kilowatt-hour is counted once and only once.
For German factories, there is the solar park near Ingolstadt and twenty-four wind farms that, according to Elke Pußkeiler, mercedes’ head of supply chain, the company needs to grow. You need to see a full deployment of solar panels in your factories and buildings to generate your own green electric power as well. But when wind and sun don’t produce enough energy to meet demand, the company had to find a solution to the variability of its renewable energy sources. To succeed on this, he worked with energy supplier Enovos and Norwegian energy manufacturer and store Statkraft.
Norwegian Hydro takes action when the load exceeds the local renewable source and the time is physically produced and accounted for through a Guarantee of Origin (GoO), which proves the renewable origin of the electricity. This, as well as the synchronization of production and consumption, are independently qualified through the German TÜV (technical inspection association).
“We started with the demands of Mercedes and, increasingly, many of its supply chain suppliers. Tires, gearboxes and all the parts that make up the car, and we started building the variable power contributions.
“Germany’s green baseload and maximum load contracts lay the foundation for supply. We then charge as much wind and solar power as possible, being careful not to exceed demand in a matter of hours. The last component is provided through flexible hydropower in Norway and our green battery which we use to make sure we cover the Mercedes call for every hour. So everything is charged exactly.
Unsurprisingly, there is no nuclear power on Mercedes’ energy maps, which puts total operation on a different basis than Google, which uses nuclear power, or “carbon-free energy,” as the Clean Energy Buyers Association likes to call it, as a flexible baseload.
Germany is less than a thousand kilometers from Norway’s massive hydroelectric power plants and has 11% nuclear power, so hydropower has never been questioned for this component of the task.
Scandinavian hydropower is shipped, in the form of existing direct high voltage (HVDC), through a newly built submarine connection that has just been completed in March this year.
NordLink, the new submarine interconnection between Norway and Germany, is already operational with its 1,400 MW link and undoubtedly plays a very important role for Mercedes.
This poses a problem, electric power is delivered in northern Germany, the passage to the rest of the country is more theoretical and less physical.
Of course, there is a national grid in Germany, but the point of electricity congestion in the north is one of the reasons for the structure of a national interconnection, called Suedlink, between northern and southern Germany. This component of the one-electron adventure is a less satisfied story and is far from over: Suedlink is still under construction, with a dubious future. laying a submarine cable is relatively easy, laying it two meters underground is a more expensive proposition. And none of the people between Schleswig Holstein and Baden-Württemberg need to see more lines of force running through their field, so digging is still the only option, if it’s the most estimated.
Obviously, bringing energy from the north to the south of Germany has its challenges. And while many energy commentators don’t mind this congestion challenge and see the procedure as electrons going in and out of a theoretical giant lake, others are less sure of this. view.
An experienced investor with twenty years of experience and many successful renewable energy projects under his belt, disagrees with the perception of ‘lake’ and says that the access point to electric power is vital. “From a monetary and market point of view, there is a transparent way to do it and also a very transparent bad way. “
“The right way is to start with the interconnection and say how we can get our electrical energy to this point in the cheapest way. The way is to say where the wind is strongest and leave the rest to chance.
“There is naivety among some developers and even investors who expect the grid to be built to meet their needs, and they are deeply disappointed when they themselves have to reduce the energy coming from their much-heralded project. “
It is also conceivable that when the interconnections are all built, monopolistic control disorders remain that prevent the interconnections from being fully utilized.
Solving congestion problems is certain to become a significant challenge in the coming years.
In this eventuality, given the importance of local energy markets, trading with blockchain-enabled systems may be just one solution. After all, a blockchain-enabled energy exchange platform would enable fast, secure, and fluid energy exchanges to solve congestion problems.
It’s too early to say whether the renewable energy industry will continue to grow worldwide or more locally, but you can see any of the trends in the market.
Ultimately, it will depend on what the companies ordering it need to get and are willing to pay. Today, the position seems secondary to top companies. Tomorrow could be another story.