Thread by @TennantReed

Attending #cop26 side event "Actions for Clean Energy, Clean Materials & Energy Efficiency to Advance Ambitions & Solutions" with @IEEEorg , ICSE, E5. Moderated by @cleannrgcouncil 's @FreeAnna1 !

Hybrid physical/virtual panel starts with familiar pandemic-era "can you hear me" rigmarole as everyone gets IT hassles solved.
"So nobody can see this yet?" asks Anna; Producer assures they can't. Oops!

Anna Freeman: amidst narrative that's sometimes about what we can't do, let's talk about what we *can* do to get to net zero.
Despite what you hear about our government, Australia's renewables sector has achieved a lot in recent years. Can do a lot if given the chance.

AF: beyond electricity there are hard to abate sectors and we'll discuss.
Also scaling up skills.
CEC a member of International Council for Sustainable Energy, formed 2 decades ago by US and EU equivalents. Today's panel is by them with IEEE.

Speakers:
Kolya Kouser - chair of E5
Dr Tariq Dirani for IEEE
Prof Thomas Bruc at TU Munich
Tanya Peacock of Bloom Energy
Tom Jensen, Freya Battery
Bruno Meyer of IEEE

Q: Why are you/org at COP this year?
Kolya: to lay out paths to stay below 1.5C
Tariq: IEEE promotes technology for humanity. Engineers and orgs have critical role in delivering net zero. Want to show how to deliver.

Thomas: my group for decades has focussed on carbon neutral and negative solutions for biofuels and biomaterials. Looking for solutions to capture and eliminate carbon from atmosphere.

Bruno Meyer: COP brings together so many stakeholders of all sizes. Mitigation is a key IEEE objective.
Tom Jensen: to reach goals we need to halve emissions by 2030. Decarbonised batteries made with RE are key.

TJ: I'm here to urge quick action. Can roll out large volumes of batteries to accelerate and we're ready to help.

AF: theme 1: need to get to zero in just 3 decades. What does NZ look like, what key changes will we have made by 2050?
TJ: I'm Norwegian, we have 100% RE electricity now, plus largest penetration of EVs. In a way we're a preview of the future, with institutionalised knowledge.

TJ: all transport solutions need to be non emitting, meaning batteries and fuel cell solutions. But also need to deploy batteries into wider energy systems. Renewables need batteries, but batteries need to be decarbonised themselves.

TJ: Lithium ion batteries have scaled up and we need to do more of what we've done better and faster - repeat repeat and continuously improve solutions, supply chains and decarbonisation.
Decarb world is where RE is dominant solution, and all vehicles electric in some way.

AF: We have the tech, need to deploy and improve as we go.
Bruno: will give optimistic view but also realism. RE growth has been fantastic. 2 kinds of RE: classic (hydro, biomass) and intermittent (solar, wind). Latter is challenge for quality of supply.

BM: Most grid operators have met challenge so far, but going further needs special tech for security. Grid is fundamental, we'll meet the challenge but some new developments and efforts are needed.

Kolya: at 2019 event Macron told us "we'll fail while running out of time." Meaning we need to use the time we have to find what is missing in 1.5C equation. That is carbon negativity, which requires new materials for a scalable safe carbon sink.

K: E5 working on carbon fibre scalable solutions. Missing pieces of the supply chain to meet this. IPCC shows we need carbon sinks to stay below 1.5.

AF: Australia has doubled RE power in last 5 years. Took a lot of planning and more to come to integrate more RE. What are the integration challenges and how are different regions managing them? What solutions needed for very high RE levels?

BM: 2 main streams for high intermittent RE:
Favour interconnection between grids. eg Spain had high wind development, leading to interconnection with France to export excess wind (backed by EU).

BM: Connect the grid internally. eg Germany had strong wind growth in north, but loads in the south. Had difficulties - people don't like new power lines. But needed for success.
AF: social license is very important for transmission buildout.

Tariq: Scotland has made legal commitment to net zero by 2045. Staged approach to hit 75% 2030, 90% 2040. $2b for transition to net zero; 20 year housing efficiency vision; transport infrastructure.
By 2018 GHG fell 31%; RE biggest power source by 2015; by 2020, 97.4% RE gen.

Tariq: 2018: 6% of heat demand from renewable sources.
Govt offering carrots and sticks, and energy businesses are participating.
AF: how is RE being firmed?
T: Offshore platforms are much of the wind.

Tom Jensen: Firming will be fundamental. Batteries often thought of as about transport. But we need to get to high intermittent renewables in larger economies, needing transmission and storage of different sorts. Electric vehicles an important resource for intelligent grid.

TJ: current estimate is we need 20TWh annual battery supply, half to transport and half to energy system. We know how to do this; prices have come down 90% and can reduce another 50% with substantially improved performance.

AF: is cost not an impediment for storage deployment right now?
TJ: inflection point. Costs declining, despite temporary fixable bottlenecks. Storage is going to be available, question is how fast we can deploy and scale up supply chains. If all come together we can get it done.

AF: electrification has a massive role. Is it being embraced? Where?

Tariq: Scotland is a small country where it is easier to do things, esp given relationship of govt, business, academia. Homes account for 16% of emissions; program underway to support use of heat pumps and biomass boilers. Expensive, but govt supporting it to happen

Tariq: Building Strategy to drive 64k heat pumps installs over next few years.
Transport initiatives: subsidies to move drivers from diesel to electric, eliminating ICE by 2030

Bruno: reaching mitigation needs change to more electricity usage. Need higher share in primary energy. EU Green Pact aims at transport electrification, and industry. Industry electrifying fast in EU - Germany, France, elsewhere. EVs are going fast. Impressed at rate of change.

AF: what about public support and quality of life?
TJ: people are cautious about change. But lessons from Norway: 90% of vehicle sales are electric in some way, 2/3 fully battery electric. We had significant incentives and started journey long ago. Installed chargers all over.

TJ: Now used to charging cars at night, just like we got used to charging mobile phones. Was a headache, now part of life.
Now electrifying all buses, ferries. Starting to look at domestic aviation - more models announced all the time. Can fully electrify much of society.

TJ: our massive flexible hydropower base is rare. But we can explore how to use vehicle charging and discharging to support any grid.

AF: what about built environment?
TJ: can’t subsidize our way out, need incentives to get down cost curve and up performance curve. But it’s happening at impressive pace. Hard to envisage pace of change. Govts tightening regulation to drive positive feedbacks.

AF: energy efficiency should not be the forgotten cousin - important no-regrets measure.
Thomas Bruc: distinguish primary energy and secondary uses eg chemicals; efficiency in latter is less well defined. We’re behind on commodities and building materials

TB: we have efficient alternative materials: eg CO2 absorbing algae made into carbon fiber as a carbon sink. More development assessment and scaling needed. Speed and consolidation to go beyond state of art and lift efficiency.

TB: hydrogen: just to decarb mobility sector in Germany needs 380GW. Current primary production is 300GW. So need much more efficiency. No one solution - be open to mix depending on locality. Norway is very favourable - large country with good wind and small pop.

TB: much harder in Germany.
AF: what about industry embracing energy efficiency? Or are they prioritizing other steps?
TB: energy intensive industry favour efficiency due to energy cost. Germany has high energy cost. Also legislators have clamped down on energy expenditure.

TB: regulation drives focus on taking energy out of industrial processes.

Tariq: look at ICT and telecoms . Massive industries and big emissions. Big shift over 10 years from reducing absolute consumption to increasing utilisation efficiency.

Tariq: involves software / AI for more efficient networks and base stations. AT&T aims for net zero by 2035; Vodafone 100%RE by 2022. Achieved by replacing energy hungry equipment and upgrading intelligence of systems management.

Tariq: 5G has a smaller CO2 footprint and links Internet of things. Energy utilisation improving as a result.

AF: what about harder to abate sectors? Renewable H2 considered an option. What advances are we seeing in H2, NH3, bioenergy, clean molecule fuels?

Bruno: reminder : H2 is the most common element in the universe but there is none naturally on Earth. Need to produce it. It takes energy to make it.
Green H2 is via renewable electrolysis. EU has much activity, big H2 projects. But also different possibilities.

Bruno: not all options are right. 1kWh generated takes an EV 7km, or 2km for an H2 FCV. H2 is great, needs development, but not the right solution to everything.

AF: what about even harder activities? Where won’t electrification and H2 work, and what will?

Thomas Bruc: prioritisation for H2. Not answer for personal mobility, might be for chemicals and aviation. Long distance flight will need liquid energy carriers for many decades, Power to Liquids is one solution but not only one. Consider production of H2

TB: need iridium for electrolysis membranes, but world production is only 8kt/yr, real bottleneck.
Algae not answer in Germany, but rapidly expanding in Australia and Southern Europe. Can take atmospheric CO2, make fuels and make materials eg carbon fibre from glycerol waste

TB: carbon fibre completely stable in geological timeframes. My group developed the algae cultivation part and Kolya’s the usage side. CF gives option for new lightweight materials that are carbon negative for built environment, auto and aviation.

TB: fly a plane with zero carbon fuel and CF frame, you’re reducing carbon.
Many applications for CF

[Kolya displays several slides on carbon fiber and artificial stone quite rapidly]
We have options to produce materials through focussed sunlight, not just electricity.
Algae farms need not compete with food production. Large algae farms in Australia produce beta carotene.

Kolya: Will make structural elements from Granite for multiple residential and industrial applications.
Can make structural batteries too.
AF: need to get world as excited about algae as you!

AF: what about skills? What will we need to effect the shift to net zero?
Tariq: need right kind of engineers. Today: siloed. Royal Academy of Engineering has started Engineering Zero to help accreditation bodies ensure young engineers understand sustainability in full.

AF: what's one thing to be optimistic about?
Kolya: throw everything into the mix and work out what solution can fit each part of the challenge.
Tariq: the commitment by finance towards $100b; commitment by youth to demand net zero.

TB: True circular economy where we use resources as efficiently as possible under social equality and industry thriving through innovation.

Bruno: lots of new solutions being developed and proposed. My pledge is to ensure that the sharing of technology continues and young people want to become engineers and scientists.

AF: let's hope clean materials take over the world, because we need them!
/ends

[heroic job by Anna steering a vibrant discussion despite technical difficulties and one or two gasbags!]