Recap of Prof. Dr. Michael Weinhold's JARA ENERGY Talk
At "JARA ENERGY Talks", a collaborative event series of Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), E.ON Energy Research Center (E.ON ERC), the institute for converter technology and electric drives (ISEA) and Research Campus Flexible Electricity Grids (FEN), Dr. Michael Weinhold, CTO of Siemens Energy Management, talked about "the role of energy storage in future energy systems". The renowned scientist and manager explained, in an astonishing and even for non-experts understandable manner, what challenges transport and distribution networks have to face in the shift to a decentralised power generation in wind and solar energy. Here, he paid special attention to the possible present and future role of energy storage systems.
For Dr. Weinhold, the future are "agile" supply networks, which connect renewable power generation and extremely flexible conventional power plants with flexible loads, smart grid technologies and energy storage of any kind. In terms of network stabilisation, the Siemens manager, sees the lithium-ion battery, at least in a medium term, in advance of largely exhausted pump storage potentials. Yet for large amounts of energy "it is more of an hydrogen case", said Dr. Weinhold.