Over the last decade, the process of decarbonisation of the energy system has intensified. Climate change and the need to reduce CO₂ emissions, on the one hand, and the development of clean, renewable and more economical technologies, on the other, have created the necessary conditions to replace traditional combustion sources with wind and photovoltaic energy.

The role of electricity grids is crucial in this process, as they provide the transport of energy to its point of consumption with minimum losses. In addition, in the future, electricity will be used much more in the transport sector, which will increase electricity demand significantly.

This scenario, together with the withdrawal of traditional generation due to decarbonisation, requires a substantial increase in production using more sustainable and cleaner energy resources.

How do electricity grids operate?

Since their inception, most of the production of electricity grids has been based on plants that convert thermal (either coal or gas or nuclear) or mechanical (hydro) energy into electricity, thus facilitating the transport of energy over long distances with few losses.

Large electrical generators connected to turbines are used for the conversion, whose inertia makes the electricity system robust and stable: it prevents blackouts in the event of serious disturbances, such as the disconnection of a generator or an area caused by human or natural causes.

With the aim of moving towards a decarbonised energy system, these types of generators are replaced by renewable sources.

At this point it is necessary to take into account that generation based on renewable sources is of lower power and more distributed characteristics. Instead of electrical machines, power electronic converters are used, which do not provide any inertial properties. In addition, the energy produced is time-variable and cannot be dispatched, thus requiring traditional back-up generators to achieve security of supply.

Towards a surplus of renewable production

All these factors have led to various technical and economic challenges in the field of integrating renewable energies into electricity grids and energy markets.

With the ambitious plans of all governments to decarbonise the energy system, more and more renewable sources will be connected to the electricity grids.

There will come a time, expected from 2030 onwards, when there will be a significant surplus of installed renewable capacity in Spain. It is expected that during the day it will even exceed demand.

There will come a time, expected from 2030 onwards, when there will be a significant surplus of installed renewable capacity in Spain. It is expected that during the day it will even exceed demand.

There will then be hours of excess renewable energy when the system will not allow all producers to generate at full capacity due to the configuration of the energy market, which defines the production mix.

What do we do with the surplus energy?

In those periods with possible excess production, what do we do with that energy? Do we waste it? Do we use it as a reserve? How can we compensate producers who have adjusted their generation or have to stop it?

One of the most obvious solutions is storage; however, it has both technical and economic limits. Although there are different energy storage technologies applied in electricity grids, in general there is very little storage capacity compared to the production capacity needed.

As Red Eléctrica explains, “electrical energy can be easily generated, transported and transformed, but it is difficult to store it in large quantities”. For this reason, electricity grids always make an instantaneous energy balance between production and demand.

Another option is to increase the use of demand management methods and the concept that demand follows production (the opposite of what we have today). Demand can be flexible, however, only within a certain range, so it cannot always provide the solution.

From the above, it is clear that the value of ancillary services in the grid will increase, especially those related to the robustness of the electricity system such as inertia and energy reserves.

If producers are enabled to offer these services, they could earn money not only in terms of energy produced, but also for services provided to the grid. This means that not all renewable plants will have to produce maximum power all the time, it will be sufficient that they are connected to the grid and available to ramp up or down the delivered power when disturbances in the system are detected.

To participate in these new markets for ancillary services, the control system of power electronics converters has to be adapted to the new requirements.

How to integrate renewables in a smart way?

Researchers at IMDEA Energía’s Power Systems Unit are working on the development of new control algorithms for power converters that serve as interfaces for renewable sources and batteries.

In particular, we are investigating a type of control called grid-forming, capable of emulating inertia (providing synthetic inertia) while supporting voltage and frequency control in power grids. These features enable renewable sources to become not only energy producers, but also grid service providers, harnessing excess capacity to strengthen electricity grids.

Our preliminary results are encouraging and demonstrate that in the future it will be possible to achieve the highest levels of reliability in power grids through improvements to the converter control system. However, certain changes in the regulatory framework are also needed, such as those related to grid connection rules and the functioning of energy markets and ancillary services markets.

Much research remains to be done to put the energy transition towards clean and renewable technologies on track. On this path, the main objective remains to ensure continuity and quality of supply for all ever-changing and increasingly demanding electricity demands.

More information: https://theconversation.com/llegara-un-momento-en-que-sobre-energia-renovable-que-haremos-con-el-exceso-201316

IMDEA Energy participated in the City and Science Biennial held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid from 22 to 25 February.

Researchers from the Biotechnological Processes and Thermochemical Processes units have brought their work on sustainable energy closer to children and adults through different workshops and participatory games.

In this way, attendees were able to learn more about the chromatography technique by making their own drawings or about the work of water decontamination using food dyes and absorbent materials.

They were also shown various samples of microalgae under a microscope and carried out small fermentation processes by mixing baker’s yeast, water and sugar to inflate a balloon.

Finally, they were able to play a simple recycling game in which they had to review their knowledge and ‘fit’ the different cards with different products and waste in the corresponding bucket and competed in a Kahoot to test their knowledge of sustainable energy.

The IMDEA Energy Institute held three industrial sessions within the framework of the International Energy and Environment Fair GENERA 2023 on February 21^st, with the participation of prominent speakers from the business, academic and association environments that, together with those from IMDEA Energy, completed the Value chains:

• The Madrid+Circular Hub seed of technologies to valorize waste into products, which addresses an ambitious research program to create and develop a Circular Economy Hub, favoring the culture of cooperation between different agents of the science-technology-business system to generate and share knowledge about new technologies that facilitate the valorization of waste through its incorporation in industrial processes for the production of materials and fuels with a low carbon footprint, some of which require the incorporation of renewable hydrogen. Speakers from the companies Repsol, Ariema and EvoEnzime also participated.
• Sustainable fuels from digestion and fermentation waste integrating thermochemical, catalytic and biotechnological processes, in which it was discussed the integration of different innovative processes for the recovery of waste generated in the anaerobic digestion of different biodegradable materials (digestates) and the production of advanced bioethanol by alcoholic fermentation of non-food biomass (stillages) for its transformation into different types of sustainable fuels (bio-methane, bio-oils, bio-hydrogen and bio-coals) and other products of interest (fatty acids) reducing the volume of waste from biogas and bioethanol production. Speakers from Rey Juan Carlos University, Repsol, and Ingelia also participated.
• Present and future of decarbonization with concentrated solar termal energy in Spain, discussing the role to be played by concentrated solar thermal energy in the decarbonisation objectives in the different industrial sectors. Speakers from Protermosolar, Engie and Plataforma Solar de Almería, CIEMAT also participated.

Attendees exceeded one hundred, filling the room, some having to remain standing. The questions raised by the attendees and the debates provoked make it clear that the technologies covered are a hot topic of interest for specialists and the general public and a subject for further research and development projects.

The International Renewable Energy Conference, SPIREC, co-hosted by a national government and REN21, was held this year in Spain within the framework of Genera, with a technical visit to IMDEA Energy on February 23^rd, in which the solar field of heliostats, the pyrolysis and hydrodeoxygenation pilot plant and the SEIL grid emulation laboratory were shown. The visit was a success considering the interest aroused by the IMDEA Energy facilities and the lines of research, as well as the words and messages of the attendees.

Africa has a unique potential to exploit low cost renewable energy to produce Green hydrogen for domestic and external markets. Green Hydrogen could become indeed the booster of a sustainable development of the continent, enabling African countries to reduce their environmental impact as well as to make them less dependent to fossil fuels which can create geopolitical issues too. African green hydrogen development could be helpful for European hydrogen transition, that’s why it’s important that both EU and AU hydrogen policies and development roadmaps are conceived in a cross-fertilizing way. At this purpose 11 partners from African and European countries are sharing their key-knowhow in Hydrogen Economy and Technologies, to assess how to make EU and AU hydrogen transition smoother and mutual beneficial, promoting a JUST green hydrogen transition that would be sustainable and viable from a technical, social, economic and
environmental point of view.

On 14th February the Kick-off meeting of the project boosted the strong commitment of the Consortium while on 15th February the project started its path with its precious and paramount stakeholders.

The Launching event highlighted the goals of our project also in the second session in the afternoon where all the participants had the opportunity to share their expertise and ideas. Thanks to the precious participation of multidisciplinary experts also from Africa, many similarities on how to promote green hydrogen in EU and AU were highlighted. This important project approach brings to light also the unique strengths and weaknesses of both the two continents. The collaboration in this field is extremely important and our project contributes to improve it.

The event was a real success also thanks to the precious support received from Clean Hydrogen Partnership and Hydrogen Europe.

IMDEA Energy organizes three technical sessions and a visit within the framework of the International Energy and Environment Fair GENERA 2023 that will be held at Ifema in Madrid from February 21st to 23rd. International Renewable Energy Conference, co-hosted by a national government and REN21, SPIREC, is being held this year by Spain within the framework of Genera.

The technical sessions, in which leading companies and entities will participate, will be held on the 21st in room N-107 of the Ifema North Convention Center, with free admission for Genera and Spirec attendees. Sessions will cover:

• 10:30 – 12:00 The Madrid+Circular Hub seed of technologies to valorize waste into products.
• 12:00 – 13:30 Sustainable fuels from digestion and fermentation waste integrating thermochemical, catalytic and biotechnological processes.

• 15:30 – 17:00 Present and future of decarbonization with concentrated solar termal energy in Spain.

Among the activities of SPIREC 2023 there is a program of free visits, including the visit to the IMDEA Energy headquarters on the 23rd, in which those registered will have the opportunity to attend:

• Presentation of the institute.
• Visit to Smart grids simulation laboratory, SEIL.
• Visit to Pyrolysis & HydroDeOxygenation pilot plant.
• Visit to heliostats solar field.

The visit will begin with the collection of attendees at Ifema on the 23rd at 10 am, ending at the same place around 1 pm. Registration is free through this link. It will be open until February 13th or until full capacity is reached.

IMDEA Energy is one of the host institutions of the #Energy4Future programme, coordinated by the Iberdrola Foundation for the incorporation of postdoctoral researchers over two years.

Research projects will be carried out in one of the following thematic areas:

• Photovoltaic energy
• Wind energy
• Energy storage
• Smart grids
• Electric vehicles

The deadline for receipt of applications through the programme’s website is 31 March.

A 10-page report describing the research project (max. 6 pages) and the candidate’s Curriculum Vitae (max. 4 pages) will be required for the submission of applications. In addition, the following will be requested: (a) a copy of the passport or identity card; (b) a copy of the PhD; (c) a copy of the academic transcript translated into English; (d) supporting documentation of research experience (if applicable); (e) a letter of motivation; (f) 2 letters of recommendation; (g) certificate of English (if applicable); h) evidence of residence/activity/employment in the last 3 years prior to the closing date of the call; j) Letter of commitment (if a stay in a centre not part of the E4F network is envisaged); k) documents certifying additional funding (if applicable); l) H2020 Ethical aspects assessment.

More information