STILL conneXXt Nr. 02 English

9 ON THE ROAD TOWARDS AN ELECTRIC SOCIETY Why the world’s growing demand for energy requires new concepts in production, storage and use of renewable energies – and what they might look like. Energy with a future The world is consuming more and more energy. And although Asia has the greatest thirst, Europe is now generat- ing more and more renewables, more and more efficiently. For example, Germany’s energy consumption in 2014 was at the lowest level since the 1990s. But even here the subject of energy is not only sweetness and light. RISING ENERGY DEMAND On a global scale, the demand for primary energy (i. e. energy sources occurring in nature, such as coal, gas, sun and wind) is climbing continuously, by 39 per cent between 1990 and 2008. The strongest growth was in the Middle East, where it jumped by 170 per cent, followed by China with a 146 per cent hike. India occupies rank three, with a 91 per cent increase in internal energy demand. And this thirst for energy is ongoing: the International Energy Agency predicts that by 2040 global energy demand will have climbed by around 37 per cent, the demand for electrical power by 80 per cent. We are on the road towards a global electric society. POWER GENERATION This all raises the question of how power is currently generated. Even if renewable energies are gaining ground, they have by no means taken over the field. Although today no less than 12.5 per cent of Germany’s primary energy consumption is now satisfied by renewables, on the other hand Germany currently uses more coal for power production than the average of the last 20 years. 45 per cent of German power comes from coal-burning power stations. In France the lion’s share, 75 per cent, is sourced from nuclear power plants. Norway is proof that things can be different: the country satisfies 95 per cent of its power demand from hydro-electricity. SCARCE OIL RESERVES? The Scandinavian country is demonstrating its future-credentials, because focusing on renewable energy sources is a prerequisite for our planet. The reason for this is not – as many might think – due to the limited availability of oil, gas and coal. Obviously these finite resources are becoming scarcer and will become more expensive over the medium term. However, estimates of when global oil reserves will be finally consumed are always based on known oil fields – while in fact more and more previously unknown reserves are being discovered. For instance in 2013 the largest oil field discovered in the last 50 years was identified in Australia. With a size of estimated 233 billion barrels it is almost as large as the entire reserves of Saudi Arabia. In 2015 a British oil company also located a new oil field in Great Britain, with an estimated capacity of 50 to 100 billion barrels. TITLE STORY

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