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EUROPEAN COMMISSION
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Energy Scientific and Technological Indicators and References
STUDY
EUR 21611
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EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References
Study coordinated by Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research FhG-ISI
Directorate-General for Research 2005 Sustainable Energy Systems EUR 21611
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Table of Contents
Page
Preface .............................................................................................................................................................................................7 Methodology .............................................................................................................................................................................9 Fuel cells and hydrogen technologies .................................................................................................. 11
Fuel cells .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 11 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 13 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 14 Hydrogen ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 20 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 22 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 22
Renewable energy sources ................................................................................................................................ 27

Photovoltaics ................................................................................................................................................................................ 27 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 27 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 27 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 29 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 30 Wind energy................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 35 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 37 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 38 Solar-thermal concentrating technologies............................................................................................................. 41 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 42 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 43 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 44
Ocean energy ............................................................................................................................................................................... 47 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 47 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 48 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 49 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 50 Geothermal energy................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 51 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 52 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 54 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 55 Biomass-based technologies ........................................................................................................................................... 57 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 57 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 58 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 59 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 60 Recommendations .......................................................................................................................................................................... 63
Power storage technologies and integration of distributed generation of energy.......................................................................................................... 65

Power storage techniques ................................................................................................................................................. 65 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 65 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 66 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 67 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 69 Integration of distributed generation of energy.................................................................................................. 74 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 74 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 74 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 75 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 76
Use of fossil fuels in power and heat generation, including carbon dioxide capture and storage .......................................................................... 79
Use of fossil fuels in power and heat generation .............................................................................................. 79 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 79 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 79 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 80 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 81 Carbon dioxide capture and storage .......................................................................................................................... 85 Technologies ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 85 Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks ......................................................................................................................... 86 Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks ........................................................................................... 87 Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress ....................................................................................................... 88
Generic cross-cutting and horizontal technologies ............................................................ 91

General .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 91 Innovative biotechnologies ................................................................................................................................................ 91 Introduction........................................................................................................................................................................................ 91 Indicators for the evaluation of innovative biotechnologies .......................................................................................... 91 Hydrogen ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 94 Ethanol ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 94 Acetone with butanol and ethanol (ABE)............................................................................................................................... 96 Photosynthesis ................................................................................................................................................................................. 97 Material sciences Nanotechnology.......................................................................................................................... 98 Indicators for the evaluation of nanotechnology ................................................................................................................ 98 Nanoparticles ................................................................................................................................................................................. 100 Nanocomposites ........................................................................................................................................................................... 103 Superconducting materials ...................................................................................................................................................... 105
Preface
Energy research is facing tremendous challenges to enhance knowledge and develop new technologies for cleaner and more efcient energy production, transport, conversion and nal use. Therefore, measuring the best state of the art of given technologies against a set of relevant parameters, identifying ambitious but realistic objectives to be attained over various time lines, and assessing the progress made over time are major issues for programme managers, researchers or decision-makers. The present study, which builds upon preliminary work undertaken within the Commission services1, intends: to better dene the present state of the art of key energy technologies in seven areas; to characterise the major bottlenecks to be overcome or the main challenges to be addressed by each technology in its future development over various time periods (short, medium and long term). This work is part of a wider effort to pave the way towards the establishment of a commonly agreed, validated and updated system of energy scientic and technological indicators and references (ESTIR). Consequently, an important feature of the study has been the active involvement of representatives from research and industry who have been invited to discuss, comment and validate the draft results of the study, before it is nalised. This quantitative method, based on quantiable and veriable indicators, can in certain cases be complemented by a more qualitative one, in order to preserve the possibility of disruptive breakthroughs emerging from any sharp discontinuity in scientic and technological progress, or from the unexpected combination of cross-cutting and transdisciplinary approaches. It is expected that the work undertaken throughout this ESTIR study will be continued on a broader basis so as to complement, rene and adapt those indicators to take into account changes and progress made by energy research and industry. It will also provide the best support for user needs in programme and project design, monitoring and assessment.
http://www.cordis.lu/eesd/src/indicators.htm
Methodology
A common methodology2 was applied to all seven sections in order to establish a consistent, welljustied analysis and to produce a report which is coherent in terms of structure and content. More specically, the following tasks have been performed in each section: a review of the previous test analysis carried out by the Commission on energy technology indicators; a screening of the technologies with respect to their R&D relevance; the description of technological and socio-economic bottlenecks through relevant parameters, and the identication of critical indicators for the characterisation of measures to further R&D progress so as to overcome the main bottlenecks. Identication of the critical and relevant sub-technologies was the rst step to be performed in an effort to pinpoint the most relevant bottlenecks and indicators for the further improvement of a specic technological sector. In a second step, the state of the art of the different technologies and the critical indicators for further progress were identied. Technologies that are already mature and show limited R&Ddriven potential for further progress have been deemed of little relevance, unless specic socioeconomic R&D issues could have a critical impact on their future deployment. In a third step, the main bottlenecks were selected. The costs per kWh of energy production turned out to be the most critical aggregated bottleneck for the majority of technologies considered within the ESTIR project. (Some very immature technologies investigated in the section crosscutting technologies constitute an exception to this rule.) Simultaneously, critical parameters were identied which best characterise the corresponding bottleneck. In a last step, indicators to future progress and specic improvement measures were assessed. Therefore, relevant indicators inuencing future progress in overcoming the barriers have been identied. However, very frequently the indicators are only of a qualitative nature, e.g. in a case where the introduction of a different material will change the characteristic properties of a technology or process, resulting in signicant progress. In such cases, the qualitative measures for further improvements are listed.
A more complete description can be found at http://www.eu.fraunhofer.de/estir/
Abbreviations of fuel cell types:

PEMFC MCFC SOFC DMFC AFC PAFC Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Alkaline Fuel Cell Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell
Fuel cells and hydrogen technologies

Fuel cells
Technologies
The demand for R&D is on the one hand determined by the technical particularities of single fuel cell types and on the other guided by application-oriented requirements. Each fuel cell type has special characteristics, making it suitable for different applications and fuels. In the following only the most promising fuel cell types are analysed in the context of the most obvious application eld. Thus target values given in the course of this document will refer to this application eld. Target values for the PEMFC e.g. are dened for passenger transport using pure hydrogen, although it is also suitable for stationary or portable applications. MCFC and SOFC are analysed in the context of stationary applications using natural gas, DMFC in the portable application eld with methanol as fuel and AFC using pure hydrogen in the smaller-scale application eld (e.g. back-up power, auxiliary power or fork-lift vehicles). The fuel cell type PAFC was not examined as interest in PAFC technology is currently declining, on both the producer and user sides. The main reason for this development is that the necessary cost reduction and technological improvement for commercialisation even with further research and development activity is not feasible (according to the former PAFC producer UTC [USA] and the project coordinator of a PAFC demonstration project in Nrnberg, Germany [1997-2003]). Table 1 shows the state of the art of different fuel cell technologies. All types are currently being tested in various demonstration projects. Parallel to the demonstrations further R&D is being carried out. Simultaneously, portable devices with DMFC and PEMFC as well as stationary devices with MCFC and SOFC recently entered the niche/ prestige 3 market as prototypes . AFC devices have been used for aerospace and submarine applications for several years. Current research activity aims to bring the price of this technology down to earth as an inexpensive durable fuel cell for everyday applications.
Table 1 - State of the art of different fuel cell types

MCFC SOFC Technology PEMFC DMFC AFC Commercial MCFC SOFC PEMFC DMFC AFC Demonstration MCFC SOFC PEMFC DMFC AFC R&D
Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks

The main bottleneck for fuel cell technologies is the high cost. All fuel cell types are currently a long way off from the required target cost for market introduction. At present, fuel cells are only attractive for niche applications or prestige projects. Early markets like 4C (computer, camcorders, cellular phones, cordless tools) and other portable applications accept higher costs, due to the specic benets of fuel cells. The transport sector is a high barrier market for fuel cells, and they will enter this market at a later time. However, the fuel cell cost, that the market will accept are inter alia highly dependent on changes in oil prices. See Figure 1 for market-accepted fuel cell costs and estimated market introduction time for different application elds. Fuel cell costs will be reduced in two principal ways. First, by production in large quantities, as such an economy of scale has the potential to reduce fuel cell costs by around 40 to 70%. The second way is by technological improvements to the cells. This additional cost reduction potential is estimated to be around 20 to 50%. The overall cost reduction potential is therefore 60 to over 90%.
3
DMFC: e.g. A50 by Smart Fuel Cell GmbH; PEMFC: e.g. Nexa RM by Ballard Power System AG; SOFC: e.g. HXS 1000 Premiere by Sulzer Hexis; MCFC: e.g. Hot Module, by MTU.
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The current lifetime of the fuel cell is also seen as a bottleneck to the introduction of fuel cell types MCFC, SOFC planar design4, DMFC and AFC. The current lifetime is well below that of comparable conventional systems. The main reasons for this limitation in lifetime are degradation and corrosion processes in the cell. Lifetime directly correlates with the power density of the cells. The highest technically feasible power density of a plant results in a lower lifetime (with currently available materials). Therefore the target is to nd new low-cost and efcient materials and the optimum design for each specic application eld. The lifetime of PEMFC for passenger cars and SOFC tubular design is already sufcient. The efciency of DMFC is quite low compared to other fuel cell types and is seen as a bottleneck. In contrast, the efciency of MCFC, SOFC, PEMFC and AFC systems is considered to be sufcient. Current plants are usually not designed towards maximum efciency (it is technically feasible to achieve 55 to 60% el. efciency). The aim is rather to nd the optimal trade-off between efciency, cost, lifetime and size for each specic application eld. However, all fuel cell types have a potential for further cost reduction and efciency increase by a better integration and adaptation of ancillary components like compressors, fans, etc., which are usually not specically designed for the fuel cells requirements. The absence of common codes and standards as well as a limited public acceptance have been identied as the main socio-economic bottlenecks for both fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. Indicators for the absence of codes and standards can be elds of low or missing coverage. The total number of demonstration projects in the European Union indirectly reects the level of public acceptance. The socio-economic bottlenecks are addressed in the hydrogen section (see Table 14).
Figure 1 Market-accepted fuel cell cost and estimated market introduction time for different application elds.
Source: FhG-ISI, according to manufacturer estimations
12
For SOFC two different concepts exist, the planar and the tubular design, each with different properties and research emphasis. They are therefore considered separately in this report.
Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks

Table 2 gives an overview of the quantitative parameters describing the main bottlenecks for the introduction of fuel cells. State of the art and target values are given. For comparison reasons efciency is also listed, although it does not represent a critical bottleneck for MCFC, SOFC, PEMFC and AFC. The same is true for lifetime, which is not a bottleneck for SOFC with a tubular design.
Table 2 Quantitative parameters for characterisation of critical bottlenecks

Parameters MCFC (stationary) source [1,2,3] Investment cost (250 kW system) Lifetime (operation) Efciency (system) Investment cost (system) Lifetime (operation) Efciency (system)
5
Unit /kW h % /kW h % /kW h % /kW h % /kW h % /kW h %
2004
Target
Target year
8,500 21,560 47 16,000-20,000 2,000-5,000 40-45
1,500 40,000 50 1,500 40,000 50
2007 2009 2007 2015 2015 2010
SOFC (planar design, stationary) source [4]
SOFC (tubular design, stationary) source [5] Investment cost (100 kW system) Lifetime (operation) Efciency (system) > 10,000 20,000-70,000 45 1,500 40,000-80,000 45-55 2015 2015 2015
PEMFC (mobile, passenger car) source [6] Investment cost (system) Lifetime (operation) Efciency (system) DMFC (portable) source [4, 7,8] Investment cost Lifetime (operation) Efciency (system) 10,000-100,000 < 1,000 20 -30 3,000-5,000 1,000-5,000 30-35 2007 2007 2007 2,000 > 8000 45 200 > 8000 45 2010 -
AFC (smaller scale applications) source [9] Investment cost (system) Lifetime (operation) Efciency (system) 11,000-15,000 2000 60 < 1,000 60 -
[1] MTU 2004a [2] MTU 2004b [3] Michelin 2004
[4] FZ-Jlich 2004 [5] Siemens Westinghaus [6] Ned-Stack 2005
[7] Motorola Laboratories 2002 [8] SRA 2005 [9] Asrtis Energi Inc 2005
Rough estimate as no prototypes exist.
13
Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress

In order to coordinate R&D activities it is necessary to know which specic measures will contribute to improve the bottleneck. In Tables 3 to 8 these measures are listed and critical indicators to further progress are given, wherever possible. Measures and indicators are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters. The tables also indicate where research has to take place by technology components. The list does not contain every possible improvement measure and indicator, but only the most important and most promising ones. The information is mainly based on interviews with technology providers or research institutes. Information from current studies and websites is also included.
Table 3 Critical indicators to further progress MCFC, industrial applications

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Serial production (MTU 2004b) Comments Cost reduction will mainly be achieved by automated high volume production. The current plant is ve times bigger than a comparable CHP; this reduces the number of possible users due to space problems (Michelin 2004).
System
Investment cost
Simplication of stack design and fuel preparation (reduction of material and size) (Michelin 2004)
System
Investment cost Lifetime
Adaptation to other fuels/ increase of fuel exibility e.g. to synthesis gases from the thermal gasication of residues (MTU 2004b) Reduction of temperature and increase of area-related power density 2004 Operating Temperature [C] Area related power density [W/cell] 650 700 target 620630 800 target year 2007 2007 A reduced operating temperature can considerably increase the current lifetime. On the other hand, lower temperatures result in lower efciency, due to reduced reactions. An important development target is therefore to activate the electro-chemical reactions in the cell in order to get the desired power at lower temperatures.
System
Stack
Lifetime
Reduction of bipolar plate corrosion, and carbonate depletion/ degradation, increase of mechanical stability and catalyst activity, prevention of catalyst toxication (MTU 2004a/b)
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Table 4 Critical indicators to further progress SOFC, planar design, stationary applications
Technology component Stack Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Development of new electrolyte materials with good conductibility at lower temperatures and reduction of electrode thickness 2004 T [C] Anode thickness [m] Cathode thickness [m] 800 10 target 600-700 5-10 target year 2010 2015 Comments The reduction of temperature for SOFC is desirable as high temperatures imply restrictions with respect to plant design and materials. Lower temperatures however reduce the conductibility of the currently used electrolyte (Siemens Westinghaus 2004). Recently the reduction of operating temperatures from 950 to 800 C for SOFC with a planar design has been achieved by scientists from the Forschungszentrum Jlich, Germany. However further reduction is still feasible and desirable (FZ Jlich 2004a/b). One possible way to further improve system properties and lower the operating temperature is by using thinner electrolyte lms. System Investment cost Optimisation of component and system design (FZ Jlich 2004b) Basic research is necessary for system development. So far research is limited to system components (FZ Jlich 2004b). The start-up and cooling down time for high temperature fuel cells ranges from 1 to 10 hours for small and large systems respectively (slow heating up and cooling down is needed to avoid cracking of brittle components); this requirement is problematic for many applications. For the same reason the number of thermal cycles between room and operating temperatures is limited to typically 20-100 cycles for the life of a fuel cell, depending on the fuel cell type and application. This again is a bottleneck for certain applications due to the fact that the fuel cell has to be kept at the operation temperature even when power is not needed.
50
25
2015
(FZ Jlich 2004/2005)
System
Lifetime
Increase of number of thermal cycles and reduction of start-up and cooling down time (Large stationary applications, 250 kW) 2004 Number of thermal cycles* [times] Start-up and cooling down time [h] 50 target target year 50
6-8
3-4
< 2010
*without noticeable degradation (FZ-Jlich 2005)
15
Technology component Stack
Parameters of bottlenecks Lifetime/ reliability
Critical indicators to further progress Improve redox-stability of the anodes and adopt gasket materials to uctuating temperatures (FZ Jlich 2004b)
Comments If the oxygen or fuel gas supply is cut due to maintenance work or disturbances, the fuel cell will be considerably damaged and its lifetime is reduced. The nickel at the anodes oxidises and gaskets fail due to the uctuating temperatures (thermal cycling). This is the major bottleneck of SOFC with planar design (FZ Jlich 2004b).
Lifetime
Develop material which do not react at their interfaces (FZ Jlich 2004b)
Table 5 Critical indicators to further progress SOFC, tubular design, stationary applications
Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Develop an optimal design of the plant (balance of plant) (Siemens Westinghaus 2004) Comments Peripheral components like fans and compressors contribute considerably to the overall cost and also consume energy. The cost for those components will not go down as they are already commercial. Therefore the target is to develop an optimised design which needs smaller and less peripheral components (Siemens Westinghaus 2004). The reduction of temperature for SOFC is desirable as high temperatures imply restrictions with respect to plant design and materials. Lower temperatures however reduce the conductibility of the currently used electrolyte (Siemens Westinghaus 2004).
System
Investment cost
Development of new electrolyte materials with good conductibility at lower temperatures 2004 T [C] 9001,000 target 800 target year 2015
(Siemens Westinghaus 2004) Investment cost Improvement of cell geometry (at, compact tubes) promises a higher power density (High power density cells: HDP-cells). 2004 Power density [mW/cm] 200 target 400 target year 2015
(Siemens Westinghaus 2004) Dependent on the application the number of thermal cycles can be a bottleneck for SOFC (tubular design). For stationary industrial applications 100 thermal cycles are currently possible without signicant degradation. This is considered to be sufcient. For other applications, however (e.g. on-board power supply), this issue needs to be improved. The start-up and cooling down time is strongly dependent on the plant size. For large plant as for stationary industrial applications the start-up and cooling down time is 12 to 24 hours, which is sufcient for this application eld. For smaller applications (e.g. on-board power supply) the time is shorter but can still be a bottleneck (Siemens Westinghaus 2005).
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Table 6 - Critical indicators to further progress PEMFC, transport applications

Technology component GDL Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of GDL cost and thickness 2004 GDL cost [/m] GDL thickness [m] Membrane Investment cost 200 500 target <5 250 target year 2010 2008 Comments The gas diffusion layer (GDL) is currently the most expensive part of the stack, followed by the MEA and the bipolar plates.
(NedStack 2005) Reduction of membrane cost and thickness 2004 Membrane cost [/m] Membrane thickness [m] Bipolar plates Investment cost target target year
200 - 250 ? 25 12 2006
(NedStack 2005) Reduction of bipolar plates cost 2004 Bipolar plates cost [/m] 200 target <5 target year 2010
MEA
Investment cost
(NedStack 2005) Increase of the activity of the catalyst and reduction of platinum content of MEA 2004 Share of active platinum at total platinum content [%] Platinum content [mg/ cm] (NedStack 2005) 25-40 target 95 target year 2010
0.45
0.225
2008
In current fuel cells more than half of the platinum is inactive. The major goal is therefore to increase catalyst activity. This will result in higher power density and a reduced overall platinum content. However the reduction of platinum is not seen as a dominant research topic as platinum will be recycled and reused.
Stack
Investment cost
Improvement of system power density 2004 System power density [kW/ m] (NedStack 2005) 8 target 10-12 target year 2007
A higher system power density will be achieved by an optimised system design and a reduced amount of materials used. System power density can be increased with higher temperatures or higher pressure. An increase in temperature and pressure, however, would demote currently applied materials quicker, resulting in a reduced lifetime. Therefore the optimal trade-off between temperature, pressure, power density, size and lifetime has to be found and new materials have to be developed.
17
Technology component Fabricating process
Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost
Critical indicators to further progress Development of low-cost, high-volume manufacturing processes especially for bipolar plates and membranes (Proton Motor 2004, US DOE 2003)/
Comments
PEMFC are also suitable for residential stationary applications. In this context the integrated reforming of natural gas and system-stability is a major research topic.
Table 7 Critical indicators to further progress DMFC, portable applications

Technology component MEA Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of platinum content of the MEA 2004 Platinum content [mg/ cm/cell] (FZ Jlich 2004b) MEA Lifetime Development of stable membranes and stable, corrosion-free catalysts 2004 Degradation of power density [%/ 1000h] MEA Efciency > 10 target 2-10 target year 2007 8 target 2 target year 2010 Comments
(FZ-Jlich, 2004b) Development of new membrane materials with reduced methanol and water diffusion and remaining high proton conductibility, e.g. composite membranes 2004 Methanol cross-over [%] 10-30 target <5 target year 2010
(FZ-Jlich 2004b)
In order to improve DMFC, research on new membranes which allow only a low permeation of methanol is the most important task. Currently-used membranes need to absorb water in order to keep its optimal proton conductibility. As methanol and water are chemically quite similar, the membranes in the DMFC also absorb methanol, which permeates through the membrane and leads to a reduced FC voltage and blocks the cathodic catalyst, which reduces the maximal possible amperage. Furthermore it causes fuel losses and requires a costly treatment of exhaust gas, where methanol is regained and or burnt catalytically (FZ-Jlich 2004a).
18
System
Efciency
Reduction of specic volume and weight e.g. by better integrating peripheral components into the system and by developing an optimal design. 2004 Volumetric 10-100 system power density [W/l] 10-100 Gravimetric system power density [W/kg] (FZ Jlich 2004b) target target year
100-200 2007
100-200 2007
System
Efciency
Improvement of water management, development of a closed water circuit (FZ Jlich 2004b).
A self-sustaining system operation requires a closed water circuit. Water on the cathode side needs to be led back to the anode side. So far this has not been achieved. Furthermore, water on the cathode side blocks oxygen transport and leads to reduced efciency.
Table 8 Critical indicators to further progress AFC, smaller scale applications

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Serial production (MTU 2004b) Comments Cost reduction will mainly be achieved by automated high volume production. Material costs are already very low (300 /kW).
Hydrogen
Technologies
Annual production and use of hydrogen is 600 billion Nm, mainly for industrial purposes (ammonia/ methanol synthesis, oil renement). In the rst part of the 20th century all gas supplies were based on town gas, a coal gas containing more than 50% hydrogen, and so several technologies for hydrogen production and handling are known and well developed. However, an energy economy using hydrogen as a main energy carrier in all parts of daily life is quite challenging. The requirements for energy efciency, cost, safety and environmental concerns are high and new solutions have to be found. Hydrogen applications in the mobile and portable sector, for example, require efcient, lightweight and compact storage systems allowing reasonable coverage. In the long term the target is to produce hydrogen from renewable energy sources. The renewable potential for hydrogen production from biomass or renewable electricity, however, is limited in the short and mid term. Therefore the properties of innovative renewable hydrogen production technologies 6 such as solar thermo-chemical hydrogen production , biophotolysis or fermentation need to be investigated. With respect to carbon emissions, CO2 capture and storage in the context of fossil hydrogen production will probably play an important role. From the technological point of view pre-combustion carbon sequestration in the context of fossil hydrogen production is well known
This technology is also feasible in the context of nuclear power plants.
19
and well developed as it is a standard step in the production process . Table 9 shows a selection of hydrogen technologies in commercial, demonstration and R&D states. The focus in this study is limited to the technologies typed in bold.
Table 9 State of the art of different hydrogen technologies

Production Fossil hydrogen production Water electrolysis (alkaline) Biomass gasication* Thermo-chemical hydrogen production High temperature electrolysis Biophotolysis** Fermentation** Photo-electrolysis NGSA electrolysis Conditioning Distribution Storage Liquefaction Compression Pipeline Liquid road transport High pressure storage (700 bar) Liquid hydrogen storage Metal hydrides (for mobile applications) Commercial Demonstration R&D Carbon nanostructures** Complex hydrides
10 8 9
* **
considered in the biomass section considered in the section cross-cutting technologies

Thermo-chemical hydrogen production is a two-stage process based on metal oxides that separate oxygen from water molecules and bond them reversibly in a metal grid. In the rst step, steam with a temperature of 600 to 800C is passed over the metal oxides. Oxygen is
If hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, whether through reforming, partial oxidation or gasication, the result is a syngas which contains H2 and CO as main components. Shifting the CO present in the gas to CO2 results in a ow consisting mainly of hydrogen and carbon dioxide. For hydrogen production this ow is split between a hydrogen ow and a ow consisting mainly of CO2. Before the CO2 can be compressed, transported and stored it needs to be dried and other components need to be separated out. The methods depend on the types of processes for CH4, N2 (in particular in air-blown partial oxidation and gasication processes) and other components, for example CO and H2. However these steps are independent from hydrogen production and are addressed in the section Carbon dioxide capture and sequestration. It is unclear if photo-electrolysis will exceed the efciency of an integrated system of PV and electrolysis. The capital and maintenance cost might remain higher as electricity is more easily collected than gases which require additional cover and sealing of the device. Basic research is required in order to explore the viability of the solution (SRA 2005). NGSA (natural gas assisted steam electrolysis) promises overall efciencies of up to 80% by using the oxygen at the anode-side directly for partial oxidation of natural gas. This technology is still at laboratory stage and needs basic research (SKH2 2004). Complex hydrides (e.g. LiBH4 or Al(BH4)3) represent a very interesting and challenging new hydrogen storage material. Volumetric and gravimetric storage density promise to exceed that of gaseous, liquid or metal hydride storage systems. However, very little is known about the stability, the sorption kinetics and the reversibility, and basic research is needed to understand the interaction of hydrogen in solid-state materials and identify suitable materials for hydrogen storage (SRA 2005, Zttel 2004).
10
20
bonded and hydrogen released. In a second step oxygen is released from the metal oxides at temperatures of 1200 to 1300C. The high temperatures can be provided by concentrated solar radiation (EU project Hydrosol) or by nuclear reactors. The main bottleneck of the technology at this stage is the high cost for hydrogen production and the long-term durability of the metal oxide coating. High temperature electrolysis is in the stage of basic research. By making use of an external source of heat such as concentrated solar or nuclear reactors, it is possible to increase the electrical efciency far beyond that of conventional electrolysis. Besides high cost, the major bottleneck of the technology is the short lifetime due to degradation processes. For gaseous hydrogen storage, accredited 700 bar tank concepts are available (e.g. from Quantum Technology, California). The tanks consist of resin-drained carbon bres on a steel, aluminium or plastic vessel (liner). The bottleneck of this technology is its very high cost. More than 80% of the tank system costs are currently related to the material cost of the tank, while manufacturing has only a minor effect on the total cost. Carbon bres, the main and most expensive material of the tank, are currently fabricated in Japan, predominantly for high-prot niche markets (e.g. golf). The interest for mass production with lower prot margins seems to be low in Japan and in Europe very little is known about their material properties, fabricating processes or composite structure design. This leads to restricted availability of the material and high cost. Therefore R&D is especially needed for material research on carbon bres (Opel 2004). The main bottleneck for liquid hydrogen storage is also cost. Hydrogen is stored in stainless steel tanks with super insulation (double walls, vacuum, aluminium foil). The applied materials are quite cheap compared to pressure storage tanks. The cost driver for liquid hydrogen storages is the fabrication process, which is normally manual. Currently the fabrication process is approximately 60% of the total cost. An automated process for the application of the insulation, for example, could reduce costs considerably. Another bottleneck of the technology is boil-off. A tank concept can either be optimised towards a long autonomy (the time where no boil-off occurs) or towards a low (but constant) boil-off (Opel 2004, Linde Gas AG 2004). Hydrogen storage in metal hydrides (e.g. LaNiH6, Mg2NiH4, TiFeH2) is a well-developed technology with many advantages compared to gaseous and liquid hydrogen storage (high volumetric density, no losses, no safety risks). The bottlenecks of the technology are high cost and weight, especially in the context of transport applications. Parameters describing these bottlenecks are material cost and gravimetric density. The main research activity is therefore aimed at the exploration of new lightweight and cheap materials with similar properties (HERA 2004). The absence of common codes and standards as well as a limited public acceptance are identied as the main socio-economic bottlenecks for both fuel cell and hydrogen technologies. Indicators for the bottleneck absence of codes and standards can be elds of low or missing coverage. The total number of demonstration projects in the European Union indirectly reects the level of public acceptance (see Table 14).
21

Table 10 lists the parameters that can describe the identied bottlenecks in quantitative terms. Table 10 Parameters for characterisation of critical bottleneck at various time-horizons
Parameters of bottleneck unit 2004 12-18 < 330 target < 10 33,000 target year 2030 2010
Thermo-chemical hydrogen production source [1] Hydrogen production cost c/kWh Long-term durability (operational hours during sunshine only) High temperature electrolysis, source [2] 11 Hydrogen production cost Investment cost Lifetime
11
c/kWh /kW h
100 1,000
400 40,000
> 2015 > 2013
Gaseous hydrogen storage (700 bar), source [3, 4] Investment cost (tank system, 5kg H2 storage) Material cost Liquid hydrogen storage, source [3, 4] Investment cost (tank system, 5 kg H2 storage) Boil-off Autonomy Metal hydrides, source [5, 6, 7] Investment cost (tank system, 5 kg H2 storage) Material cost (alloy) Gravimetric density * political target [1] DLR 2005 [2] EDF 2005 [3] Opel 2004 [4] Linde Gas AG 2004 [5] Zttel 2004 [6] HERA 2004 /kg %/d d /kgH2 mass %
20-200
12
1,000* < 8* 1,000* 0.07* > 14* 1,000* 200* 6-13*
2015 > 2015 2015 2015 -
10,00050,000 0.7
13
2-3 > 1,000 1.5-2
[7] SKH2 2005

In this paragraph the specic research measures to overcome the identied bottlenecks are listed and critical indicators to further progress are given, wherever possible. Measures and indicators are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters. The tables also indicate at which technology component research activity has to take place. The list does not contain all improvement measures and indicators, but only the most important and most promising ones. The information is mainly based on interviews with technology providers or research institutes. Information from current studies and websites are also included.
11
Due to the early stage of development neither complete system costs nor hydrogen production costs can be estimated. Costs are strongly dependent on material quality. 20 /kg refers to standard carbon bres, whereas current maximum consolidated carbon bres cost around 200 /kg. After 2 or 3 days autonomy.
12
22
13
Table 11 Critical indicators to further progress Thermo-chemical hydrogen production

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Hydrogen cost Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of investment cost 2005 Investment 700 14 cost [/kWth] 15 estimated (DLR 2005) System Hydrogen cost Reduction of operating temperature 2005 Temperature [C] (DLR 2005) 1,2001,300 target 1,0001,100 target year 2006 target 450 target year 2030 Comments Investment is dominated by the solar eld (50%) and receiver reactor and process engineering (25%). Approximately 55% of the indicated cost reduction can be achieved by upscaling and mass production. Temperature can be reduced by Development of new metal oxide compositions that release oxygen at lower temperatures / enhancement of existing compositions Enhancement of coating procedures Lower temperatures allow the use of cheaper materials and reduce thermal losses. Receiverreactor Hydrogen cost Optimisation of receiver-reactor design. Indicator is the system efciency: 2005 Efciency (solar radiation to hydrogen) [%] (DLR 2005) 40 target 45 target year 2010 Optimisation of receiverreactor design can be achieved by Usage of suitable optical components, e.g. secondary concentrators Optimisation of process strategy (gas supply, recovery of excess heat, temperature management) Improvement of radiation absorber/converter unit Metal oxide-and coating system Long term durability Improve long-term durability of metal oxide coating 2005 < 500 Number of thermochemical cycles [times] (DLR 2005) target target year The long-term durability of metal oxide coatings can be increased by Development of improved metal-oxide and coating systems Optimisation of operating schemes (e.g. optimised operating temperature) Optimisation of mass ows, receiver geometry and radiation proles
50,000 2010
14 15
Net power for reactions (in the receiver). Estimation: plant capacity: 70 MW solar hydrogen production, 2 Mio kg/a.
23
Table 12 Critical indicators to further progress High temperature electrolysis

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of operating temperature 2005 Temperature [C] 850 target target year 700 > 2008 (laboratory) > 2013 (prototype) (EDF 2005) Comments In principle the same research topics as for SOFC (planar design) can be applied. However due to the early stage of development information about, e.g. current investment cost, number of thermal cycles, start-up and cooling down time are not available.
System
Investment cost
Increase of electrical efciency (Electricity to hydrogen) 2005 Efciency [%] 90 target 100 target year 2008 (laboratory) 2013 (prototype) (EDF 2005)
System
Investment cost
Increase of power density 2005 Power density [mA/ cm] (EDF 2005) 300 target 1,0002,000 target year 2008 (lab.) 2013 (protot.)
Electrodes
Investment cost
Reduction of electrolyte thickness without degradation of lifetime 2005 Electrolyte thickness [m] (EDF 2005) 50-200 target 10 target year > 2008 (laboratory) > 2013 (prototype)
The idea is to have a metalsupported cell (anode/ electrolyte/ cathode) instead of an electrolyte-supported cell (1st generation cells) or anode-supported cells (2nd generation cells). This makes possible thin electrolytes for high performance and low quantities of expensive ceramic materials and nickel because all three layers of the cell (anode/ electrolyte/ cathode) are applied as layers on a cheaper metal support. However, for this to work, lower working temperatures are needed to prevent degradation caused by corrosion of the metal (EDF 2005).
System
Investment cost
Apply cheaper materials and steels
24
Investment cost
Scale-up: Increase the size of the electrolysis cells and stack 2005 Cell size [cm] 25 target 2500 target year > 2008 (laboratory) > 2013 (prototype) Stack power 0.1 [NmH2/h] 7000 > 2010 (laboratory) > 2015 (prototype) (EDF 2005)
Electrodes
Lifetime
Prevent degradation processes at the electrodes 2005 Electrode degradation [%/1000h] (EDF 2005) > 10 target < 0.1 target year > 2010 (laboratory) > 2015 (prototype)
Table 13 Critical indicators to further progress Hydrogen storage systems

Technology component Carbon Fibres Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress Comments
High pressure storage Development of low-cost, strong and light carbon bre materials and bre reinforced composites in Europe (Opel 2004) Development of automated fabrication processes. The development and research of carbon bres can bring about lower material cost and improved properties.
Liquid hydrogen storage Manufacturing Investment cost
Insulation
Boil-off
Development of novel insulation and tank concepts (e.g. insulation with liquid air or nitrogen). Explore the properties of cheap lightweight metals (Zttel 2004, HERA 2004).
Metal hydrides Materials Cost/ gravimetric density
25
Table 14 Critical indicators to further progress Codes and standards/Public acceptance

Parameters of bottlenecks Absence of codes and standards Critical indicators to further progress Fields of low or missing coverage of common codes and standards HySociety Safety of hydrogen onboard storage systems Hydrogen fuelled ICengines Siting of and permission for hydrogen refuelling stations Small portable applications US DOE Hydrogen specic piping design, installation, training and certication Hydrogen storage tank for portable and stationary service. Standard independent of adsorbent. New standard for vehicular transport of high pressure hydrogen to pressures of 700 bars Ensure public safety, health and general welfare through proper selection of materials for hydrogen service. Ensure safety by dening testing methods to determine the quality of the fuel independent of production technique. Dene methods to quantify hydrogen mass ow rate to determine appliance efciency Review and modify existing piping standards and underground storage (HySociety 2004, US DOE 2003, SKH2 2005) Public acceptance Number of demonstration projects in EU-15 Total number of hydrogen and fuel cell demonstration projects Resulting projects with fuel cells (source: HyWays 2005) 255 179 SKH2 Hydrogen generation, handling and usage Hydrogen refuelling stations H2 refuelling coupling Fuel cells
26
Other renewable energy sources

Photovoltaics
Technologies
Photovoltaic systems are composed by PV modules (with PV cells as the main component) and system components such as inverters, batteries and mounting structures, which depend on the particular application. The demand for R&D is on the one hand determined by the technical particularities of the single PV cell types and on the other hand guided by application-oriented requirements, in particular grid-connected or stand-alone applications. In the following the most promising cell technologies are analysed in the context of grid-connected applications, which is considered to be the most relevant application in EU countries. An overview of different PV cell and system technologies is given in Table 1. PV cells based on new materials such as dye-sensitised solar cells (DSC) and organic solar cells, which are most probably not relevant for short- or medium-term applications, are covered in more detail in the section cross-cutting technologies.
Table 1 State of the art of different PV cell/system technologies

Cell technology monocrystalline Si polycrystalline Si gallium-arsenide
16
monocrystalline Si polycrystalline Si thin lm crystalline Si thin lm amorphous Si
thin lm amorphous Si thin lm CIS

17
thin lm CdTe (organic cells) (polymer cells)
System technology
off-grid professional consumer products
off-grid residential grid-connected decentral grid-connected central
Commercial
Demonstration
R&D
Note: There are also commercial applications for thin lm amorphous, CIS and CdTe solar cells, but they represent a small share in the market.

The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of the different cell technologies can be grouped into the following main classes: High electricity generation costs: costs of PV-generated electricity are ve to ten times higher than the costs for conventional bulk power generation (see Figure 1 of the target development of the (levelled) electricity costs for PV (assuming average module costs). Important factors which contribute to high electricity costs from PV are, across all technologies, the PV module costs with the main component being the cell material costs (and, mainly for thin lm cells, also other cost components such as cell production and the cost of module production), the availability of cell material (mainly for bulk crystalline silicon), and the efciency of PV cell technology. For thinlm amorphous silicon solar cells the loss in initial cell efciency is also a bottleneck for future applications for target development. Toxicity: for technologies like CdTe, III-V and CIS solar cells the toxicity of the substances composing the solar cells could impede their large-scale deployment. Also manufacturing
16
Generally there is also the term multicrystalline silicon used for this cell type in order to distinguish this cell type from the poly-crystalline silicon feedstock to the solar (and the electronics) industry. CIS: copper-indium-diselenide solar cell. There are variants of this cell type, for example the copperindium/gallium-selenide/sulphide solar cell (CIGS).
17
27
processes using toxic substances pose a problem, such as cyanides and other toxic substances used in the CIGS manufacturing process. Also tin (Sn) and lead (Pb) present a problem due to their toxicity. Feedstock availability: limited availability of silicon feedstock could be a strong bottleneck for further implementation of crystalline silicon solar cells in the future. Availability of other resources: scarcity of resources like silver (for contacts) and indium (for CIS/CIGS) could complicate large-scale implementation. Difcult system integration: in the built environment it is often difcult to integrate PV systems due to poor interchangeability between PV elements and conventional building elements (power roofs, power facades, combination of solar heating and photovoltaic). This bottleneck is difcult to quantify, however balance-of-system (BOS) costs for mounting can be considered a proxy for this bottleneck.
The major technical and economic bottleneck for system technologies are related to the: Balance of system components. The main parameters describing this bottleneck are cost (BOS cost), lifetime and reliability. All three are mainly an issue for inverters, as well as integration in the built environment. The efciency of solar cells is crucial not only for module manufacturing costs per watt-peak but also for lower system costs (because area-related BOS-costs are reduced) and allows for efcient use of scarce or expensive space, which may become an issue in densely populated regions. BOS costs are also strongly inuenced by whether electricity storage is required (stand-alone application) or not (grid-connected application).
Figure 1 Price development of grid-connected PV-generated electricity versus utility price of electricity. Calculations based on a turnkey price of a PV system (subsidies excluded) of 13 / Wp in 1990 and 8 /Wp in 2000 and on 1-sun insolation of 900 h/year in Germany and 1800 h/year in southern Europe. Assumed is an annual price decrease of a PV system of 5% during 2000-2040, identical as the price decrease observed during 1990-2000
Sources: PV TRAC (2004), Hoffmann (2004)
28
In the following, the main bottlenecks high electricity generation costs of PV technology and balance of system components for system technologies will be analysed more in detail with respect to the parameters characterising the bottleneck as well as indicators for the further progress.

The following table gives an overview of the quantitative parameters describing the main bottlenecks for the introduction of PV technology. As stated in the previous chapter, the main bottleneck for cell technology is the high electricity generation cost. The bottleneck can be described in quantitative terms by the main parameter (levelled) of electricity generation cost and the related parameters of investment cost for the modules, and cell efciency. For bulk crystalline silicon the availability of the cell material is added, and for amorphous silicon the decrease in cell efciency over time is also considered. Values for these parameters are given for each technology for the state of the art as well as for different time horizons. In the context of system technology the main bottleneck balance of system components is described in quantitative terms by the parameters of reliability, cost, lifetime and integration in the built environment.

Parameters characterising the bottleneck electricity generation cost Monocrystalline solar cells (wafer) Electricity generation cost 1) Module efciency Module lifetime Availability of cell material: Weight of feed material (incl. sawing loss) Share all c-Si PV cells in world production Multi-crystalline solar cells (wafer) Electricity generation cost 1) Module efciency Module lifetime Availability of cell material: Weight of feed material (incl sawing losses) Share all c-Si PV cells in world production EFG silicon Cell efciency (production) Availability of cell material: Weight of feed material Share all c-Si PV cells in world production III-V technology (gallium arsenide cells) Electricity generation cost Module efciency Thin lm: crystalline Si Electricity generation cost 1) Module efciency Availability of cell material: Weight of feed material cent/kWh % g/Wp 20-50 10 << 1 12 << 1 14 << 1 > 10-20 3) 15 << 1 cent/kWh % g/Wp 6-7 95 5) 40-200 25 25 27 2.7-3 <1 > 80 3) 30 cent/kWh % year g/Wp % cent/kWh % year g/Wp % % 20-50 17 25 14 95 5) 20-50 15 25 14 95 5) 12.514.5 17 4) 35 12
4)
unit
2004
5 years
10 years
> 15 years
35 12
4)
11
10-20 2) 20 3) 10 > 80 3)
11
10-20 2), 3) < 20 10 > 80 3) 19 4)
29
Parameters characterising the bottleneck electricity generation cost Thin lm: amorphous Si Electricity generation cost Module efciency Loss in initial cell efciency 7) Thin lm: CdTe Electricity generation cost Module efciency Thin lm: CIS Electricity generation cost Module efciency Balance of system components Cost of inverters Reliability of inverters: mean time to failure Lifetime inverters Integration in built environment
unit
2004
5 years 10-12 10-12 4) 500 0.5

4)
10 years 10 -
> 15 years > 10-20 3) 10 3) -13 6) 10 > 10-20 3) 15 4) > 10-20 3) 15 4) 200 20 20 0.3
cent/kWh % % cent/kWh % cent/kWh % /kWp years years /kWp
20-50 8 10-25 20-50 7 20-50 10 800 5 2-10 0.6
Sources: PVNET (2004), PV TRAC (2004), DTI (2001), Ecofys (2002)
Notes for Table 2 1) Electricity production cost: grid-connected costs (i.e. excluding costs for batteries). Costs are provided for a sunny (1800 h/year full sunshine hours) and a large volume purchase (> 500 kWp system) at the lower end of the range, and for a cloudy location (900 h/year full sunshine hours) and a small volume purchase (2 kWp system) at the high end of the cost range. The cost degression assumed is 4%/year which was the historically observed degression for 1995-2004. 2) Source: Hoffmann (2004) 3) Source: Werner (2005) 4) Target from EPIA Roadmap (EPIA (2004)) 5) Overall market share of single crystalline, multi crystalline and ribbon silicon technologies in 2003 (Werner [2004 c]) 6) Source: Goetzberger (2004) 7) Triple junction amorphous solar cells stabilise after three months at around 10% losses. Single junction devices may lose 25% and more.

In order to coordinate R&D activities it is necessary to know which measures will contribute to improve the identied bottleneck. In this paragraph these measures are listed and critical indicators to further progress are given, wherever possible. Measures and indicators are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters. The table also indicates at which technology component research activity has to take place. The list does not contain all possible improvement measures and indicators, but only the most important and most promising ones. The information is mainly based on interviews with technology providers or research institutes. Information from current studies and websites are also included. Currently costs of electricity generation from PV are dominated by the costs of PV modules. Costs of PV modules, as well as opportunities for cost reduction or improvement of characteristics by future R&D, are strongly correlated with the type of cell technology used. Module costs are critically inuenced by the availability of the feedstock material as well as the cell efciencies.
30
Table 3 Most critical bottlenecks and indicators to further progress Crystalline silicon wafer technology
Technology component Wafer production Parameters of bottlenecks module cost Measures and critical indicators to further progress Further development of alternative silicon production process like EFG (ribbon technology)18 2003 Silicon consumption [t/MWp] (Source: EPIA 2004) Wafer module cost Critical indicators for smaller wafer thickness: - need for improved wire saw technique using thinner wires [EPIA (2004)] - development of metallisation and interconnection techniques in order to be able to handle more fragile (thinner) cells [Novem (2000)] Development of wafer thickness 2004 Wafer thickness [m] (source: EPIA 2004) Cells efciency Higher cell efciencies by improvements in [DTI (2001)]: - process control - front contact shadowing (mono-c) - hydrogen passivation (multi-c-Si) - back surface modication - need for light trapping and surface passivation [Novem (2000)] Module electricity production cost Decrease of production costs by [Novem (2000)]: - increase of plant size (e.g. from typical 10 MWp/year to typical 50 MWp/year) - process integration, e.g. sealing and framing - develop alternatives for batch-type production processes like soldering and wet chemical cleaning Higher efciency results in lower electricity generation costs (/kWh) and occupation of less space. 300 2010 180 2020 100 Thick layers result in poor use of material. 14 2005 12 2010 10 Comments Loss of material during production process, especially due to cutting of ingots with wire saws.
Table 4 Most critical bottlenecks and indicators to further progress III-V technology
Technology component Concentrator Parameters of bottlenecks Costs concentrator systems Measures and critical indicators to further progress Development of low-cost solar cells for use in mid-range concentrations (200-500 suns) Comments Costs of optical and tracking systems are relatively high. Unavailability of low-cost solar cells for use in mid-range concentrations (200500 suns). Higher throughput results into lower electricity generation costs (/kWh).
Cell
Layer growth
High growth in throughput needed to apply III-V materials in non-concentrating systems
18
Although the idea of edge-dened lm-fed growth (EFG) technology dates from the 1980s, EFG solar cells did not enter production. This has changed in recent years however: RWE Schott Solar GmbH produces several MW of solar cells based on EFG technology once developed at Mobil Solar. Another producer of the ribbon technology for large-scale cell manufacturing is Evergreen Solar. The French company Solarforce plans to start production of thin 150 m wafers using an innovative crystalline silicon ribbon technology in 2005 (see http://www.photon-magazine.com/news/news_2004-06_eu_feat_Solarforce. htm). Solar cell efciency from this process is currently 14-15%.
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Table 5 Most critical bottlenecks and indicators to further progress Thin lm technology
Technology component Cell Parameters of bottlenecks Efciency / production process Measures and critical indicators to further progress For thin lm crystalline Si technologies in general [Werner (2005)]: grain boundary passivation nano-crystalline lms: growth of lms with 110 texture light trapping increase of deposition/crystallisation speed single crystalline lms: module fabrication For high stabilised efciencies of a-Si research is needed regarding [Novem (2000)]: material structure on atomic and nano scales nature and control of defects in pure and alloyed materials, especially behaviour and role of H, and doping and carrier mobility In case of tandem structures research is needed for [Novem (2000)]: optimal thickness and doping proles of the different layers to maximise the current and minimise the light-induced degradation (Stbler-Wronski effect) For increasing CIS efciency research is needed on contact enhancement [DTI (2001)] development of wide band gap materials such as CuInS2 [Klenk (2000)] increase of electrical homogeneity [Werner (2005)] decrease of shunting [Werner (2005)] homogeneous Na supply from glass substrate module stability theoretical understanding of grain boundaries in CIGS For increasing CdTe efciency research is needed on contact enhancement [DTI (2001)], point defects (deep-level impurities) grain boundary passivation [Novem (2000)] Comments Efciency is still low compared to crystalline silicon.
CdTe, CIS CIS Cell (a-Si / c-Si)
Toxicity Scarcity of indium Module cost High-throughput deposition process (c-Si). Research required on new deposition techniques like hot-wire chemical vapour deposition and cascade arc deposition [Novem (2000)] Optimisation of light trapping to allow for thinner layer Standardisation of production equipment; more use of demonstrated manufacturing technologies from other industries Optimisation of production process Currently expensive components like In, Ga and Se are used. Long deposition time for c-Si layer.
Cell (a-Si / c-Si) Cell (a-Si / c-Si) Cell (CIS)
Module cost Costs of production equipment Cost of production process
32
Balance of system (BOS) components Inverter reliability and lifetime is a key issue for the annual electricity output from a PV system, in particular for thin-lm PV systems with proportionally higher shares of BOS. Costs of accumulators form a substantial part of the overall costs of a stand-alone PV system (up to 30%).
Table 6 Most critical bottlenecks and indicators to further progress Balance of system components
Technology component Inverter Inverter Parameters of bottlenecks Reliability Lifetime Measures and critical indicators to further progress Increase of reliability due to standardisation and optimised inverter design Increase of lifetime by optimised inverter design (based on thermal analysis) Inverter lifetime is 5 - 10 years. Increase of lifetime might result into substantial increase of costs. Costs of accumulator can account for 30% of total system costs of a stand-alone PV system. Battery lifetime is 3 - 10 years. Difcult to improve lead-acid battery. Increase of lifetime might result into substantial increase of costs. Comments
Accumulator
Costs
Reduction of investment costs of accumulator (per kWh capacity): 2000 Investment cost [/ kWh capacity] 80-120 2005 65-100
Accumulator
Lifetime
(source: EUREC [2002], PVNET [2004]) Development of new battery types and new energy storage systems with longer lifetime
Mounting structure
Integration in built environment
Interchangeability between standard building materials and PV elements
33
Wind energy
Technologies
Wind energy is a secondary form of solar energy. Wind turbines transform the kinetic energy of air currents into mechanical energy, which can be used in many ways to generate electricity, for example, in irrigation, drainage or other applications. The current standard application is the conversion of wind energy into electricity, mainly in parallel operation to central grids. Other applications e.g. in isolated grids, remote power supplies, for water pumping or desalination are within the scope of technical appliances as well. Wind energy technologies are in the stage of commercial applications for about 20 years. The following technologies will be considered in this section: Horizontal axis wind energy converters (HAWT) Medium- to large-sized turbines (0.2MW 5 MW) Onshore and offshore applications
Table 1 State of the art of different wind turbine sizes

Small turbines < 10 kW Flexible systems Onshore HAWT 3 5 MW Offshore HAWT 0.5 2.0 MW Multi MW wind turbines are tested onshore for offshore projects to come. Urban turbines Wind potential Predictability Forecast methods Advanced O&M methods There is also a market for small wind turbines in the range of ~50 5000 W. These are mainly used as battery chargers or for remote applications. Advanced transmission system integration Grid competitiveness New materials New turbine concepts
Onshore HAWT 0.2 2.5 MW ~ 40 GW installed capacity online worldwide. Growth rate (1999 2003): ~ 26% [EWEA] Technology
Commercial
Demonstration
R&D

The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of this technology can be grouped into the following main classes: Size: Wind capture is proportional to wind speed and rotor area (P ~ A). The present technology is limited in size. On the one hand limitations of infrastructure (transport) and hoisting capacities limit the size of large wind turbine types. On the other the strength properties of materials, e.g. glass-bre reinforced plastic (GRP) are reaching their limits. The weight of gearless multipole generators is comparably high and the price/availability of materials for permanent magnet generators limits the use of this technology. Energy cost: Depending on the wind regime at different turbine sites, investment and O&M cost of wind-generated electricity is competitive with nuclear and coal power plants. These gures improve substantially if externalities are considered as well so that wind energy can even compete with power plants red with natural gas. The main parameters inuencing the cost of wind power are investment cost, long-term O&M cost and interest rates. The maintenance
35
and service of a huge number of large wind turbines will be a challenge, especially for offshore applications. New service and maintenance concepts have to be developed. Technology risk: Due to the continuous up-scaling of turbine models there is a lack of long-term operational experiences. The reliability of main components (blades, gearboxes, generators) has to be improved. With current technology it cannot be guaranteed that the turbines will reach their projected lifetime. Gear box and drive train transmissions in particular need better understanding and improved simulation and design tools. Dispatchability: wind energy as is is not despatchable. The power duration characteristics vary with regional wind regimes. Integration into the structure of present supply systems requires improvement of tools for short- and medium-term prognoses of wind power, which are in demonstration phase at present. In future a partial remote control (P, cos phi) of wind turbines / wind farms by grid operators will be implemented in order to improve grid compatibility and to support and stabilise the grid in case of faults. Grid: The transmission capacities of electrical grids are limited or insufcient in order to transport energy from remote areas to the load centres. Grid access is partially restricted. Public acceptance: impacts of wind energy on society are related to noise, visual disturbance of landscape, land use, bird life, electromagnetic interference and the life cycle of energy consumption. The cost of electricity produced by wind turbines depends on many frame conditions and assumptions. Figure 1 shows the future development of wind turbine economics until 2010 for different scenarios. Initial costs for medium-sized turbines at a medium quality wind site is 5 to 6 cent/kWh. Depending on the assumptions of future growth rates, learning rates and the corresponding times for each doubling of installed capacity, the electricity costs are expected to decrease to values of 4 to 5.5 cent/kWh by 2010 (Morthorst 2004).
Figure 1 Using experience curve to illustrate the future of wind energy economics until 2010 (P.E. Morthorst 2004)
36

The main parameters characterising the bottlenecks given in previous section are summarised in Table 4.
Table 2 Main parameters of physical indicators and their limits (onshore installations)
Physical dimensions Rated power Hub height Rotor diameter Blade length Max. chord Blade mass Blade mass/diameter Unit MW m m m m t kg/m Achieved 5 125 126 61.5 4.6 17.7 141 Barriers, assuming extrapolation of present technologies ~ 10 12 n.a. 155 175 76 86 25 35 170 190
Table 3 Overview of achieved installation and production rate by countries

country DE ES DK NL AT GR IT UK PT SE FR IR NO BE FI Total Capacity [MW] 16.394 8.263 3.118 1.096 606 465 1.265 889 522 455 399 339 169 97 80 34157 Production [TWh] 25.90 19.00 7.30 2.50 1.20 0.85 Min.70 Capacity factor [%] 18% 26% 27% 26% 23% 21% Avg. 20% Source: Langenbach, 2005
Table 4 Quantitative parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks

Parameters Cost (onshore systems) Investment costs /kW Electricity costs cent/kWh if doubling time = 10 yrs if doubling time = 5 yrs (Morthorst, 2004) O&M cost cent/kWh Lifetime Cost (offshore systems) Investment costs /kW 2,000 900 1,200 56 810 1,080 730 970 4.4 5.6 3.9 5.2 1-2 10 20 15 - 20 target 650 880 Present 5 years 5 10 years > 15 years
37
Parameters Electricity costs cent/kWh O&M cost cent/kWh Lifetime [years] Dispatchability Annual capacity factor [%] Power duration of interconnected systems (hours per year) at 75% load at 50% load at 25% load
Present 58 n.a. 10 20 15 35
5 years -
5 10 years 34 20 -
> 15 years -
500 h 1,000 h 2,500 h

The critical indicators for further progress is shown below. Most important for the progress of wind turbines are the reduction of the rotor mass by deployment of new innovative materials and the decline in cost of the individual components.
Table 5 Critical indicators to further progress Wind energy technology

Technology component Rotor blades Parameters of bottlenecks Rotor mass vs. diameter or rotor area Physical properties of materials: mass tensile strength fatigue stiffness Availability and price of new materials, e.g. biomaterials, compound materials Reliability, MTBF, long-term endurance (These apply also to other components) Critical indicators to further progress mass/diameter (kg/m) price/m swept area (/m) A better understanding of how loads affect the turbine and thereby the possibility of designing turbines closer to the physical limits of materials, resulting in a lower weight. This applies also to other components mentioned below. Better and new materials can reduce the weight of the rotor which is always a compromise between strength/stiffness and dampening properties. (BTM, 2000). Comments Present material (GRP) and rotor design is reaching limits regarding strength of material. The present solution of manufacturing compound rotors is a compromise between physical barriers and cost effectiveness. For the blades, it becomes crucial and even more difcult to keep their weight down at the same time as maintaining stiffness and dampening properties. There is a gap between use of glass/epoxy and carbon bre/ epoxy. Carbon bre (CRP) is still too expensive, even when its improved strength is taken into account. A greater focus on smart solutions, where the use of carbon bre or another strong bre in a mixed composite with glass, is a great challenge (Madsen, 2004).
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Technology component Drive train Hub, shaft, bearings, platform
Parameters of bottlenecks Present design and weight of drive train. Material: steel, cast steel Mass, weight, price
Critical indicators to further progress mass/power (kg/MW) mass/torque (kg/Nm) The drive train torque load is one of the key design factors of wind turbines. Optimisation of drive train direct drive by use of multi pole synchronous generators or traditional drive train gearbox couplings and asynchronous generator. Control of blades and control of rotor speed enables the designer to reduce torque peaks in the transmission. Lower component prices become available. Lower loads on rotor and transmission leaves room for weight reduction of support structure: machine frame, tower, foundation. (BTM, 2000).
Comments The reliability of drive-trains for a traditional WTG concept (with speed increasing gear and a fastrunning generator) needs to be improved. There are too many problems with the gear transmission, whether it is hidden forces from short transients in the electric grid or a combination of insufcient lubrication, wrong principles of use of roller bearings. There is a need for a better understanding of that and subsequent improved calculation tools for the gear design (Madsen, 2004). Availability and price of light weight materials with excellent physical properties, e.g. compounds to manufacture components.
Generator
Mass of generator Availability of cost effective materials for permanent magnet generators (PMG) Voltage level
Mass/power (kg/MW)
Efforts to bring the physical dimension/weight of a multi poled generators down, to make them competitive to the traditional drivetrain with mechanical gears. Material for magnets to the PMG solution seems to be a barrier, not only price wise, but also the supply of magnets seems to be problem if it becomes widely used (Madsen, 2004). A critical indicator is the level of penetration in the electricity system, without harming the system as a whole. Improved focus on grid compatibility is the answer to this challenge. This challenge is increasing along with increased penetration in some EU member states (Madsen, 2004). At present O&M cost is increasing with lifetime. The average O&M cost in the project lifetime cannot be foreseen. The target is to keep the total O&M cost between 0.561.12 cent /kWh*) as an average value over the entire lifetime of 20 years (BTM, 2002). *) avg. conv. rate (2001): 1 USD = 1.116 EUR (www.oanda.com)
Grid integration
Capability of grid for access of RES, Cost of grid extension, Power prediction
Capacity/short circuit power (MW/MVA)
O&M
Intelligent systems Accessibility of offshore sites, Condition oriented service
Long-term (life time) average cost for O&M (/kWh)
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Technology component Total system
Parameters of bottlenecks Price of electricity for project lifetime. Lifetime Mean time between failures (MTBF)
Critical indicators to further progress /kWh This depends on: turbine price (/kW) additional cost for grid, civil works, approvals, etc. (/kW) interest (%) for capital land rent (/kW, /kWh, /unit) O&M cost (/kW, /kWh) Insurance (/kW, /kWh) Electricity supply (/kW, /kWh) taxes (/kW, /kWh) etc.
Comments The long-term electricity price of WE projects includes all improvements of subsystems mentioned above. However, this depends on various technical and nancial parameters (price, interest, wind resources, etc.) which can vary widely for different regions and points of time. Many materials of components e.g. steel, copper, etc. are linked to trends in the world market and may affect forecasts signicantly. For wind power the most critical indicator(s) are cost/unit of electricity and lifetime. A cost per unit of, say 3-3.5 cent/kWh, along with maintaining a 20 years lifetime for all major component in a wind turbine could be a relevant target for the technical development (Madsen, 2004).
Offshore applications Wind turbines for offshore applications have to be adapted to a harsh maritime environment. Concerning design, many of the barriers mentioned for onshore turbines (weight, cost) can be applied directly to the design properties and challenges of offshore turbines. However, compared with onshore turbines this is a partial redesign of the turbines, not only due to the corrosive atmosphere but also for the different loads and forces to which they are exposed. Physical limits [CA-OWEE]: distance >> 5 km from shore water depth: up to 40m North Sea: large tidal range, water depth Baltic Sea: ice and ice oes Mediterranean: sea bed slope, water depth
Table 6 Critical indicators to further progress Offshore wind turbines

Technology component Turbine Parameters of bottlenecks Mass price Critical indicators to further progress /kWh /kW /m Comments Technology bottlenecks are related to onshore technology, e.g. mass of components, price. Special measures (lters, air pressure) have to be met in order to protect sensitive parts of the turbine (e.g. generator, transformer, power electronics, etc.) from corrosion. All problems mentioned before are related to weight reduction, the desire for low-weight gearboxes, results in under-dimensioned gears and problems from this. For future offshore plants in deeper water it will be crucial to reduce the top weight, to avoid severe dynamic problems for the support structure, which may be 100 to 130m tall (100m hub- height + 30m water depth).
Support structure, foundation
Type of support structure and foundation depends on water depth, wave height, ice drift, slope of seabed etc.
Price per unit and technical specications. E.g. min/max/optimal water depth, max. slope
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Service, O&M
Costly service + maintenance Reliability of components -> Horns Rev, DK
/kWh MTBF Max. wave height for service boats, Max. wind speed for service helicopters. Km MVA /MVA
Service and O&M of offshore turbines will be difcult to handle. Landing on offshore turbines by service boat or helicopter is dependent on wave height and wind speed. Improved equipment for access to offshore foundation platforms and equipment which is less affected by waves is needed (Madsen, 2004). A critical indicator is the level of penetration in an electricity system, without harming the system as a whole. Improved focus on grid compatibility is the answer. The problem/challenge is increasing along with increased penetration in some EU member states.
Grid
Distance, capacity and installation cost to onshore connection point. Remote control features for transmission system operator (TSO) for integration into grid system. Impacts to marine habitats (ora and fauna), risk of collision with sea trafc, reduction of shing area. Restricted time for installation process due to wave, tide, general weather conditions and availability of specialised support vessels).
Environment
Area (km) per installed capacity (Km/MW)
installation
Solar-thermal concentrating technologies

Technologies
The following technologies will be considered in this section: Solar thermal trough systems Solar thermal tower systems Dish-Stirling systems
Table 7 State of the art of solar thermal technologies

Trough system Technology Trough system Tower system Dish-Stirling Commercial Demonstration Trough system Tower system Dish-Stirling R&D
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The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of this technology cluster can be grouped into the following three main classes: Energy costs: Levelled electricity costs (LEC) are still a factor of three to four higher than those of conventional technologies and represent the main barrier for a faster market penetration. The main parameters inuencing the costs of electricity for solar power plants are the investment costs of the plant, and operation and maintenance (O&M) costs as well as the plants overall efciency. Risk level (technology, scheduling, nances, politics, exchange rate): The level of risk will determine whether or not a project can be nanced and at which internal rate of return. A number of the risks relevant to the market development cannot primarily be overcome by means of R&D measures, e.g. political risks in developing countries. Therefore risks as a group of bottlenecks to technological development will only play a minor role in this analysis. Dispatchability: one of the main benets of CSP technologies is that they can be dispatched by using solar storage or by hybridisation with conventional fuels. Targeted dispatchability should be based on storage concepts (avoiding hybridisation with conventional plants). The development of improved storage concepts still represents a relevant bottleneck.
The cost of electricity produced by solar thermal technologies represents the major bottleneck to further progress. Signicant cost reduction potentials for all technologies exist (in particular due to economies of scale and further R&D) and can be exploited as shown for parabolic troughs and for solar tower systems in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Cost of solar thermal electricity generation possible cost reduction due to market development and R&D (Sargent & Lundy 2003, ECOSTAR 2004)
Cost reduction potentials have their origin in a number of different technological and nancial opportunities. The most promising options are: increase of power plant size (up-scaling) economies of scale automated mass production of components
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increase of operating hours by hybridisation with conventional power plants with special focus on the integrated solar combined-cycle system (only if solar share can be sufciently increased) or the application of storage technological improvements of the individual components of each power plants technology development of multiple plants at the same location in a solar power plant environment development of innovative nancial models and funds adequate for nancing capital intensive projects with high risk levels creation of competition in the manufacturing of key components, such as receivers and reectors etc. (Not all of these options for cost reduction are multiplicative.)

The main parameters characterising the bottlenecks given in previous section are summarised in Table 8. State of the art and estimated values at different time horizons are given. For future values the potentials for volume production, plant scale-up and intensive R&D are included. For tower systems, gures represent US molten salt technology.
Table 8 Main parameters for the characterisation of critical bottlenecks

Parameters Cost (Trough systems) Electricity costs Investment costs O&M cost Efciency (solar to electricity) Cost (Tower systems) Electricity costs Investment costs O&M cost Efciency (solar to electricity) Risk Equity IRR Dept Interest Rate Dispatchability Peak-Capacity Factor Peak-Period Duration Preferred Technology Annual Capacity Factor % h % 95 3 fossil 30 95 3 fossil 30 90 6 thermal 40 90 6 thermal 50 % % 18 9.5 15 8 15 8 15 8 cent/kWh /kW cent/kWh % 18-24 3,500-5,000 3 8 14-16 3,000-3,500 2 14 8-9 2,600 0.5 17 4-5 2,200 0.25 19 cent/kWh /kW cent/kWh % 16 3,500 2 14 12 2,900 1.5 15.5 8-9 2,400 1.3 17 5-6 1,500-1,800 1.1 17 unit present 5 years 10 years >15 years
Source: Sargent & Lundy 2003, ECOSTAR 2004
See page 58 for more detailed information on the various critical parameters of solar thermal electricity.
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Solar troughs The critical indicators for further progress will be shown in the following. Most importantly for the progress of solar trough systems is the decline in cost of the individual components. The total medium-term cost reduction potential is estimated to be more than 50% and improvements on the receiver tube contribute the largest share to the total cost reduction potential. Table 9 summarises all major technical and economic bottlenecks as well as the critical indicators to further progress on the different time horizons (short term, medium term, long term) for solar trough systems.
Table 9 Critical indicators to further progress Solar trough technology

Technology component Mirrors Parameters of bottlenecks High electricity costs due to high investment costs and low reectivity Critical indicators to further progress Fresnel collector types with standardised components low iron glass back-silvered mirrors dust repellent mirrors Targeted reectivity: 93% Present invest cost [/m2] 43 5y 43 10 y 28 > 15 y 18 Comments Fresnel collectors will be signicantly less efcient than curved mirrors because of lower optical precision.
(IEA 2004) (Sargent & Lundy 2003), (ECOSTAR 2004) Heat transfer medium High overall costs of organic heat transfer medium and thermodynamic disadvantages of an intermediate heat transfer system Low overall efciency Heat transfer by the direct vaporisation of water (FVS 2004) 5-10 y
Receiver tube
Increase of absorber temperatures from 400-450C to 550-600C through improved engineering of the vacuum tube the development of innovative highly efcient absorber materials, enhancing selective coatings Present abs. temp. [C] 425 5y 450 10 y 500 > 15 y 550
Very high temperatures increase the risk of thermal losses and lower absorber pipe durability.
Process control
High O&M costs (Table 5-8)
Automation of process control 5 y
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Technology component Storage
Parameters of bottlenecks Limited dispatchability (Table 5-8)
Critical indicators to further progress Development of improved storage concepts based on: phase-change materials in cascade design concrete-oil-iron storage system 5-10 y Present Invest 40 cost [/kWh] (Tamme 2004) 5y 25 10 y 15 > 15 y 10
Comments
Solar power cycle optimisation Structure
Limited dispatchability, high costs of electricity High investment costs of structure Limited quality of direct normal insulation (DNI) data High nancial and technological risk
Detailed ISCCS design integration assessment to analyse performance parameters 10-15 y Advanced concepts for innovative structures (multilayer plastics) 5-10 y Generation of high resolution DNI maps by the use of higher resolution satellite data 5 y Development of a fund to act as guarantee for future projects 5 y
Resource assessment
Economic parameter
Central receiver systems (CRS): The critical indicators for further progress will be shown in the following. Most importantly for the progress of central receiver systems (CRS) is the cost decline of the individual components. Generally the following main variants of CRS exist: CRS using molten salt as heat transfer medium CRS using saturated steam as heat transfer medium CRS using atmospheric air as heat transfer medium CRS using pressurised air as heat transfer medium in combination with a solar hybrid gas turbine Table 10 summarises all major technical and economic bottlenecks as well as the critical indicators to further progress on the different time horizons (short term, medium term, long term) for central receiver systems.
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Table 10 Critical indicators to further progress Solar tower systems

Technology component Heliostats Parameters of bottlenecks High investment costs Critical indicators to further progress Development of low cost and highly automated production techniques to reduce costs by a factor of four (FVS 2004) Development of large area heliostats with about 200 m2 surface megahelio Development of autonomous and ganged heliostats Time horizon: 5-10 y Receiver Limited efciency and high maintenance Development of smaller and better optimised receivers (FVS 2004) Improved hot spots management Different types of receivers exist (air, steam, molten salt) (see comments) Time horizon: 5-15 y Molten salt receivers: increase of homogeneity of solar insulation and uid ow; maximisation of working uid temperature Steam receivers: better working uid ow management and absorption instabilities management Comments
Storage
Limited dispatchability (Table 5-8)
Development of improved storage concepts based on: 1-tank thermocline molten salt storage and room temperature ionic liquids (RTIL) phase-change materials in cascade design Technological developments to directly feed the solar process heat into gas turbines to use the high temperature heat (FVS 2004) Efciency improvements in the steam cycle provide the largest contribution to overall cost reduction (FVS 2004) Time horizon: 10 y
Gas turbine
Limited process efciency
Table 11 Critical indicators to further progress Dish-Stirling systems

Technology component System integration Parameters of bottlenecks Limited dispatchability Critical indicators to further progress Development of solar-fossil or solarbiomass hybrid plants Time horizon: 10-15 y Mass production Hybridisation Start mass production Limited dispatchability Create manufacturing chain Develop gas-red systems Comments
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Ocean energy
Technologies
General Covering two-thirds of the surface of our planet, oceans represent a theoretical energy resource that exceeds the global primary energy consumption by three orders of magnitude. However, most of this energy resource is not accessible by todays technology. Apart from offshore wind energy, which is addressed separately, energy technologies are under development which use tidal and marine currents, the energy of waves, the temperature gradient between surface and deep sea, potential energy from tides (tidal barrages) and the salinity gradient between fresh water from rivers and seawater. Finally, marine biomass fuels are being considered as ocean energy farms, similar to ocean food farms (aquaculture), producing methane as a fuel. None of these ocean energy technologies have achieved a commercial phase yet. The most important ocean energy power plant the only one at industrial scale in Europe is the 240 MW tidal power plant at the river La Rance near St Malo at the French Atlantic coast, built in 1966. From the available ocean energy resources, only a few have been studied with respect to their technical and economic potential. The following technologies will be considered in this section: Tidal barrages Wave energy conversion technologies Tidal/marine current energy converters Salinity energy Temperature gradient Tidal energy is included because it is still the most important technology in the sector but has very limited potential for future exploitation. Salinity energy is the only technology considered which still requires fundamental material science research. The membranes currently available are too expensive and not reliable. Therefore salinity power is not yet in the demonstration phase. However, there are some R&D activities going on in Europe, partially with EC funds. Technologies that use thermal gradients are unlikely to become feasible in Europe. The only applicable approach is to use shoreline ocean thermal electric (OTEC systems), where water is heated onshore and the sea is used as a cool heatsink. There are currently no investigations made for such projects in Europe. Marine biomass is also not a relevant issue for Europe. Currently aquatic plants such as seaweed only contribute to about 3% of the total aquaculture sector in Europe which in itself is small since it represents less than 5% of the global production volumes. Although the systems and projects listed in Table 12 have demonstrated their feasibility, none of them has yet achieved the full scale for commercialisation in the current demonstration projects.
Table 12 State of the art of different ocean energy technologies

Current turbines (SEAFLOW, Blue Concept, Kobold) Wave energy technologies (Limpet, Pelamis, Tapchan, AWS, Wavedragon) Salinity energy (Saltkratf, PRO) Various wave energy and current turbine concepts
Technology
Tidal barrage*
Commercial
Demonstration
R&D
* Comment: Tidal barrages are currently the only relevant technology in operation at a commercial scale. However, energy costs are not yet competitive on a free market.
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The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of this technology can be grouped into the following main classes: Marine environment constraints: The installation and operation of any structure in a marine environment, whether at the coast, near shore or offshore, is always strongly inuenced by wind and waves, currents and tides. In particular sites, where various energy technologies have a high potential, sea conditions are typically difcult. This affects the use of boats and barges, shipping of the structures, operation of heavy devices, accessibility for maintenance personnel etc. For many of these problems, special safety procedures are required to overcome the difculties, but in any case, strong winds will make access to any structure temporarily impossible. Another important aspect is the reliability of the structure itself, which has to cope with extreme load conditions. Availability of resource data: None of the resources for ocean energy technologies are very well known. A number of studies estimate or calculate the overall technical resources, but for the application of a particular technology at a particular site, these rather rough data are often not good enough. Typically, the spatial and temporal resolution of available data is not high enough to calculate site-specic economic feasibility. For marine currents and waves, the methodologies to generate resource data are not yet well developed. In particular for waves, a number of different denitions exist to calculate energy content. Most available resource data have not been generated for the purpose of energy use. This leads to an economic and to some extent technical risk for any project. Mobilisation and grid connection cost: The costs for any grid connection to an offshore energy system are signicantly higher than for onshore technologies. This is a particular problem for the relatively small pilot or demonstration test systems. This leads to the situation that most pilot systems are not equipped with a grid connection, causing problems with reliable operation and demonstration. Once the technology has achieved a status where multi-megawatt installations are justiable, these costs will reduce to being a minor share only. Connecting very large schemes to the grid on land is likely to require strengthening of the grid, including extra power lines to congested areas with high demand. The mobilisation costs for any heavy equipment, such as barges, cranes etc, are almost the same for one pilot plant as they would be for a whole farm. A special problem for oating devices is managing a reliable cable connection in moving water, and to the structure relative to the seabed. Licensing and environmental constraints: Even the limited operation of a larger pilot system will normally require planning and building permission. This in itself is a complicated administrative procedure when the responsible authorities are not clear. In addition, the scope of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) is not clear at all. Even if effects on aquatic life are expected, their relevance is often not clear and measures to overcome or avoid these effects can be hard to prove or even understand. In the worst case, the local effect on the environment is unacceptable. For tidal barrage projects this is the main obstacle. Energy cost: As in many other renewable energy systems, high investment costs leading to high capital costs plus the O&M costs lead to an electricity cost higher than market prices. This is not different in ocean energy technologies. A particular uncertainty results from the lack of experience in operating such technology over many years. A factor causing higher investment compared to onshore technologies as e.g. in the case of wind energy is the requirement for reduced maintenance. This leads to other designs and higher lifetime requirements for the components. Reduced availability of cranes etc, requires compensation measures such as cranes on board, and smaller and so more easily replaceable units, etc.
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Dispatchability: Ocean energies fall into three different categories of dispatchability. Wave energy has a random nature like wind, the main generator for waves, and is therefore not dispatchable. Short-term prediction should be possible in the future. The second category is technologies which use tides, such as tidal barrages and marine currents at most sites. These systems operate intermittently in correlation with local tidal regimes and typically show a few hours of continuous operation with varying power output followed by one or more hours without operation. The last category are systems with an almost constant output and consequently very high dispatchability such as salinity power, OTEC systems, etc. Reliability of operation: Due to the technological status of most systems, the load factors for commercial operation have not yet been achieved. Again, the only exception is the La Rance tidal power plant which has operated reliably over 40 years. Demonstrators and pilot systems typically do not operate continuously due to special test operations, variations of operating conditions, high maintenance and monitoring requirements and nally a high amount of unintended breaks of operation due to malfunctions, damage from storms etc. This aspect is critical since only a proven technology with satisfying operational periods will attract the necessary investment for a commercial exploitation.

Unit Cost OWC/IPS Electricity generation costs Investment cost Annual output Cost current turbines Electricity generation costs Dispatchability: Load factors Tidal barrage OWCs Current turbine % % % 20-30 20-35 25-35 cent /kWh /kW kWh/kW cent /kWh Present 10-40 1,680-3,000 4,000 30 5 years 15 10 years 6-14 1,600 5,000 6 >15 years -
See page 59 for more detailed information on the various critical parameters of ocean energy technologies.
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Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress Table 14 Critical indicators to further progress Ocean energy
Technology component Generic Parameters of bottlenecks Marine environment specic design Critical indicators to further progress Reliable overall and detailed design Improvement of technologies for corrosion protection Development of design and operational standards for unmanned marine structures Availability, accuracy, spatial resolution, duration of monitoring period Comments
Resource data
Improvement of resource assessment methods for more detailed knowledge of the resource data relevant for energy use
Mobilisation and grid connection cost Licensing and environmental constraints
Development of low-cost grid connection especially for cable laying and xing or other measures against disruption Implementation of harmonised planning permission and EIA procedures Improvement of EIA methodologies e.g. reaction of marine mammals to structures and noise and required compensatory measures Improvements in engineering know-how through experimental and theoretical work Technical optimisation and cost reduction of the energy conversion systems Development of low-cost installation methods, such as drilling or ramming for stationary devices, mooring of oating devices etc Generation of eld experiment data through longer-term operation of several years Careful material selection and coating Improved understanding of hydrodynamics for mathematical and physical modelling Low-cost mooring and grid connection using exible cables and connectors Development of improved components with lower cost and higher efciency and reliability such as air turbines, electrical equipment, hydraulic equipment, ancillary mechanical equipment, large size bearings and seals Improved design and construction methods
Energy cost
Reliability of operation Wave energy Marine environment Resource data
Mobilisation and grid connection cost Energy cost
Reliability of operation
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Move on from successful demonstrated shoreline or small near-shore scale oating devices to full-scale offshore demonstrators with longer periods of operation
Current turbines
Marine environment Resource data
Improvement of sealing and monitoring of submerged components Improved understanding of hydrodynamics for mathematical and physical modelling in particular for turbulence and proles in the ow Development of more cost-effective installation methods Improved design and construction methods Development of improved membranes with lower cost and higher permeability System design with minimum civil engineering requirements Development of adapted turbine technology for power take-off
Energy cost
Salinity
Membrane
Energy cost
Geothermal energy
Technologies
General remark: Geothermal technologies are characterised by a broad spectrum of technologies and applications and most technologies actually applied in geothermal projects are selected on a case-by-case basis. Moreover quantitative specications as, for example, drilling costs, resource exploration risks, and power plant efciencies are highly dependent on the actual geothermal generation site and can therefore hardly be generalised. Geothermal technologies for energy generation include as main technological streamlines geothermal heat pumps for the use of surface heat (only heat generation), hydrothermal geothermal applications (electricity and heat generation) and enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) such as hot dry rock and hot fracture rock (HDR/HFR) technologies, which deal with low permeability, uiddecient resources and are able to generate electricity and heat. Low-temperature applications for heat production based on geothermal heat pumps can be considered as technologically matured and in the short and medium term these technologies will be supported mainly by market incentive programmes. Furthermore, high enthalpy resources do not require major research and development efforts in the short and long term. The most important geothermal pilot plant at the European Union level is the HFR research project at Soultz-Sous-Forets, located on the western edge of the Rhine Graben. This project started in 1987 and is coordinated by a European Economic Interest Group called GEIE Exploitation Minire de la Chaleur (heat mining). The pilot plant will use three boreholes (one injection, two production wells) of 5000 metres depth each, drilled from the same platform. It is expected that by the end of 2005 this plant will be able to produce around 50 MW of thermal power at temperatures above 180C. From these temperatures, up to 6 MW electricity will be produced. The net output of the plant is estimated to be in the order of 4.5 MWe. [1] Two main stages are considered for the development of the pilot plant. The rst stage between 2001 and 2004 consisted of accessing the resource by drilling into hot granite horizons at around 5000m and creating a heat exchanger by injection of uid under high pressure (stimulation). The second stage, between 2004 and 2007, will focus on the installation of a power plant on the surface and the characterisation and monitoring of the underground heat exchanger in the middle and long term.
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According to GEIE, it is expected that the industrial development of the HDR/HFR technology will continue with an industrial prototype which could produce around 25 MW of electricity using a multi-well approach with various injection (3) and production (6) wells. Moreover, in the long term, multiple production plants could be constructed in order to improve the economics of HDR/HFR. Besides the Soultz-Sous project, several other projects are being developed at member state level. Table 15 shows the state of the art of different geothermal technologies.
Table 15 State of the art of different geothermal technologies

Geothermal heat pumps Technology high-enthalpy and hydro-geothermal applications for electricity generation Commercial Enhanced geothermal systems HDR/HFR Enhanced geothermal systems HDR/HFR
Demonstration
R&D

The most critical R&D relevant bottlenecks are seen for four cross-cutting technological and socioeconomic streamlines with special relevance for HDR/HFR and hydrothermal technologies for the production of electricity and heat: Exploration: obtain basic geological data for imaging and modelling of geothermal reservoirs Exploitation: drilling costs and improved stimulation technologies Energy conversion: thermodynamic conversion at low temperatures Appropriate nancing and support schemes
The following matrix shows the relevance of the different cross-cutting technologies for each of the main areas of application:
Table 16 Cross-cutting technologies for geothermal energy production

Application Technology Exploration Drilling & stimulation Energy conversion Support schemes Geothermal heat pumps (low temperature heat) Hydrothermal applications Enhanced geothermal systems HDR/HFR
Exploration and geothermal reservoir identication Important bottlenecks for geothermal power production concern the development of more accurate and cost-effective methods for identifying, mapping and exploring geothermal reservoirs. Finding geothermal resources (as well as the basic geologic data) with specic characteristics such as minimum geothermal gradient, specic rock properties, number and spacing of fractures, ow impedance, water loss and minimum thermal drawdown rate, depends on several engineering parameters and therefore is far from an easy task. Exploration and reservoir identication represents an important risk for future geothermal energy development. Figure 3 shows the risks estimated for different phases of the construction of a geothermal power plant.
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Figure 3 Risks estimated for different phases of the construction of a geothermal power plant
Drilling and stimulation costs The cost of drilling for exploration and production purposes can be a considerably large part of the overall geothermal plant costs and therefore an important technical and economic bottleneck for geothermal energy production. Drilling research has focused on means to reduce the costs of drilling through hard rock in hightemperature, corrosive environments, by developing longer-lasting bits and better systems for faster and thereby less expensive drilling. In addition, advanced systems to transmit and gather information faster and in real time between the bit and the surface are also being investigated. In some member states (e.g. Germanys Gro Schnebeck), new stimulation techniques are currently being investigated and tested in order to increase the productivity of each wellhead of this project. However, it is important to remark that stimulation technologies depend exclusively on the geological horizon in question, and generalisations cannot be made. Energy extraction and conversion With regard to energy extraction and conversion from geothermal sources, improving casing and tubing materials to resist corrosion and high temperatures and to prevent scaling as well as increasing power plant efciency and performance, are considered to be important technical bottlenecks in order to obtain lower delivered electricity costs in the middle and longer term. Furthermore, with regard to HDR/HFR systems, geothermal pumps are still a problem due to the fact that they currently operate satisfactorily at a maximum of 300m depth, whereas these systems require pumps operation between 500-600m depth as well as at 200C and able to deliver 80 l/s geothermal ow. Geothermal power plants operate at relatively low temperatures compared to other power plants and therefore at low electric efciencies of about 8-12%. CHP applications typically increase signicantly the performance of geothermal power plants. Research efforts should concentrate on new designs of water- and air-cooled condensers as well as improved thermodynamic cycles that extract more energy. Some accomplishments include the improvement of heat exchanger linings that protect low-cost heat exchanger materials from corrosion and scaling as well as the use of ORC and Kalina cycles (binary cycles). ORC processes have been demonstrated to have 30% higher efciency than the
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conventional cycles (at same temperatures). With regard to the Kalina cycle, these processes are currently at a demonstration stage in various member states and their future success will depend on the results obtained in the short and middle term. In addition, equipment cost and O&M costs for geothermal plants are considered to be important economic bottlenecks for geothermal energy development and should also be reduced in the middle and long term with increased automation.
Appropriate nancing and support schemes

For most geothermal applications the existing support schemes and nancial incentive mechanisms are not adequate. Geothermal heat pumps might be more efciently supported by means of building regulations rather than by investment incentives and for hydrothermal applications and enhanced geothermal systems the exploration risk coverage (exploration wells) should be incorporated into nancial support mechanisms.

Quantitative gures characterising the individual bottlenecks for geothermal technologies cannot be given due to the wide spectrum of these values depending on the very site-specic conditions of each individual project. Therefore quantitative values are shown for the most general parameters (electricity and heat generation costs, plant efciencies, water mass ow rate). See below for more detailed information on the various critical parameters of geothermal technologies.

Parameters Cost Electricity generation costs Unit Present 5 years 10 years >15 years
HDR/HFR 19
Heat generation costs HDR/HFR Investment cost Electric efciency Water mass ow rate circulated through the doublet/triplet
cent/kWh cent/kWh /kWe % kg/s
20-30 3-8 6,000-18,000 8-12 30
10-15 2-5 3,000 10-14 50-100
19
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We would like to mention here that high enthalpy resources allow for electricity production costs of 5-8 cent/kWh at present and are targeted to reach 3-5 cent/kWh for the next ten years. These lower cost gures correspond to already commercially available technologies, which should not be confused with EGS technologies mainly dealt with in this document.

Table 18 Critical indicators to further progress Geothermal technologies
Technology component Exploration Parameters of bottlenecks Exploration and geothermal reservoir identication Critical indicators to further progress Exploration and resource denition Develop and demonstrate techniques for combining geophysical (e.g. microgravity, selfpotential, MT, CSAMT, seismic), geochemical (e.g. noble gases, chloride distribution, etc.) data and remote sensing techniques with traditional reservoir engineering data to develop more robust reservoir models and expand exploration capabilities. Rapid resource evaluation via airborne EM and gravity component analysis. Satellite observations for imaging geothermal reservoirs. 3D magneto telluric data and imaging systems for geothermal resource exploration. Improve numerical reservoir modelling techniques (e.g. incorporation of uid chemistry, non-conservative tracers). Publish case studies to demonstrate the efcacy of reservoir modelling. Optimised drilling controls and improve reservoir denition with the help of high-temperature instrumentation reducing number of drillings and costs. Silicon-on-insulator technology for geothermal instruments has been demonstrated and tested in some countries and projects. Test SOI equipment and benchmark improvements with industry. Develop improved materials and techniques for controlling lost circulation, which is the biggest problem in geothermal drilling. Interpretation data from hydraulics, seismic, tracers and forward modelling needs to be encouraged to get better description of the reservoir and its sustainability. If penetration rates and bit life could be doubled from their current levels, well costs could be reduced by about 15%. Improvements of ORC and Kalina processes Encourage R&D of binary or even trilateralvapour cycles Comments
Drilling and stimulation
Drilling costs and stimulation techniques for increased productivity and reduction of costs
Use
Energy extraction and conversion Low efciency of thermodynamic energy converters for low temperatureinput at surface
Use
High O&M costs
Increased automation of power production Standardising technology for scale inhibition and corrosion prevention
55
Support schemes
Industrial base development Start-up stage
Various tasks and areas of this industry remain uncompetitive; therefore the establishment of project quotas per year (number of projects [including pilot projects]/year) should be encouraged. Support schemes in the form of investment support for new projects could be allocated for up-front investments such as exploration wells in order to stimulate the development of HFR.
56
Biomass-based technologies
Technologies
In general terms, biomass is the name for the organic resources that can be used to produce energy using different processes. At EU level, biomass is dened as the biodegradable fraction of products, waste from agriculture (including vegetable and animal substances), forestry and 20 related industries, as well as the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste. In this document, only the bottlenecks and indicators for production of biofuels are considered. The bottlenecks and indicators for feedstock production and pre-treatment, end-use integration are not discussed in this report. The rst step of this analysis is presented in this report and focuses on the conversion processes of biomass. In follow-up projects feedstock production/pre-treatment and end-use integration should be included. Furthermore, more basic R&D in the eld of modern biotechnology is not taken into account, as these technologies are discussed in greater detail on page 65 (Generic cross-cutting and horizontal technologies with relevance to energy). The focus will be on the production of biofuels and electricity/heat. Bioreneries have a large potential, but are excluded in this study. The production of ethanol from sugar or starch, biodiesel production from rapeseed, anaerobic digestion, carbonisation, large-scale CHP and combustion will not be considered. These technologies have little improvement potential, as they already are matured technologies. The technologies included in this report are fermentation of lignocelluloses, synthesis of syngas [biomass-to-liquids (BTL) fuel: FT-diesel, methanol, hydrogen, synthetic natural gas (SNG)], hydro thermal upgrading (HTU), ash pyrolysis, (biomass integrated gasication/combined cycle) BIGCC, supercritical gasication and small-scale CHP (wood combustion). Co-combustion with low biomass share is considered to be a commercial technology, for which the current barriers for implementation are not in the technological eld, but on the policy/permissions level. Cocombustion of large amounts of biomass is technically limited and R&D could solve this. In followup projects this should be included. Table 1 shows the state of the art and prospects of the biomass-based technologies considered. Table 1 State of the art and prospects of the biomass-based technologies. Technologies that are already considered to be commercial are not reviewed further
Fuel production technologies (biomass to biofuel) Pressing/extraction (pure plant oil [PPO]) PPO esterication (biodiesel [RME]) Fermentation of sugars/ starch (ethanol) Anaerobic digestion (biogas) Conversion technologies (biomass/ or biofuel to electricity and heat) Combustion Large-scale CHP Anaerobic digestion (biogas) Fermentation of lignocelluloses (ethanol) Gasication (syngas) Synthesis of syngas (biomass-to-liquids (BTL) fuel, e.g. FT-diesel, methanol) Flash pyrolysis BIGCC Supercritical gasication HTU
Small-scale CHP (<100 21 kWe wood combustion)
Flash pyrolysis Co-combustion

Demonstration R&D
Commercial
20 21
EU Directive 2003/30/EC on the promotion of the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport. The Stirling engine is considered as it has very exible fuel usage and promising overall efciency [see Biedermann 2004].
57

The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of the various technologies can be grouped into the following main classes: Cost: Electricity, heat and fuel costs from biomass origin are still higher than those of conventional technologies and represent the main barrier for a fast market penetration. The main parameters characterising the product costs of biomass-based technologies are investment costs, the operation and maintenance costs of the plant, and costs of biomass feedstock. The most promising cost reduction options are technological improvements (e.g. efciency improvements), an increase of power plant size (up-scaling) and a switch to technologies in which cheaper biomass feedstocks can be used Efciency: Parameters characterising this bottleneck are overall efciency and pre-treatment (including logistics) efciency. Apart from cost reduction, improvement of efciency will lead to a larger overall greenhouse gas emission reduction in the whole life cycle of biomass-toenergy systems. Furthermore, the potential of the available biomass will increase since more end-product (electricity, heat or bio-fuel) will be produced from the same amount of biomass Besides the above-mentioned techno-economic bottlenecks, several socio-economic bottlenecks are related to biomass technologies. These cannot be expressed in quantitative terms and are not discussed further in this document. However they are important for an overall picture of the topic and should be listed. Use of biofuels: ethanol: direct ethanol blending in gasoline increases gasoline vapour pressure and therefore requires adaptations of the gasoline. EU legislation does not allow blending over 5%v/v ethanol in gasoline, however there are no technical problems to make blends with more than 5% ethanol content in gasoline. The bottlenecks for the use of methanol and hydrogen in a fuel cell were discussed abovein (see section fuel cells). Availability and contractibility of feedstock: Long-term contracts at acceptable prices are difcult to obtain due to a non transparent international biomass market. Sustainability of biomass: the biomass used has to comply with sustainability standards. Public acceptance of biomass technologies: Biomass plants are easily associated with the (chemical) industry, resulting in the NIMBY effect, which could be identied as a bottleneck for further implementation. Besides this the principle behind its sustainability (i.e. CO2 cycle) is relatively difcult for the general public to understand. Competition with food production and feed stock for e.g. pulp and paper: Biomass has various potential uses, e.g. for food or as raw material. If biomass for energy prices become too attractive e.g. in comparison to food, competition is likely to occur. Bioreneries: Bioreneries have a big potential and R&D is needed in this eld. However, biorefeneries are excluded in this study.
58

The following table gives an overview over the quantitative parameters describing the main bottlenecks for the introduction of the technology. State of the art and values for different time horizons are given.

Parameters characterising the bottleneck 22 cost Fermentation of lignocelluloses (ethanol) Ethanol cost
23
Unit
2004
5 years
10 years -
> 15 years
/GJHH M /GJHH %
24
22 290 5.0 34.9
12 220 1.0 47.3
Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency Gasication and methanol synthesis (methanol) Methanol cost
23
/GJHH M /GJHH %
12 235 1.3 58.9
9 190 0.9 57
25
Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency Gasication and hydrogen production (hydrogen) Hydrogen cost
23
/GJHH M /GJHH % /GJHH M /GJHH % /GJ M /GJHH % /GJ M /GJHH %
16 250 2.1 34.8 18 290 2.5 42.1 -
9 210 1.3 41.3 13 235 1.3 42.1 4.8

26a
Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency Gasication and FT-synthesis (FT-diesel) FT-diesel cost
23
Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency HTU (HTU-biocrude) Production cost HTU-biocrude Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency Supercritical gasication Cost Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency
3226b 2.226c 75-90 26d -
22
Sources: [Palmers, 2004; Hamelinck, 2004; Broek, et al., 2003; Biofuels, 2003]. Note that instead of gasication as well, the syngas produced via supercritical gasication could be used. However, this experimental process has not yet been economically evaluated. See also appendix A, Reduction investment costs biofuel production. O&M for ethanol is very dependent on cellulose required. Lower fuel efciency, but in the future option electricity production is included [Biofuels BV, 2003],a) based on feedstock cost of 0 /tonne and a conversion rate $: of 0.8 b) for a plant producing nearly 12 ktonne/yr LCR and 8.5 ktonne/yr HCR c) based on 47% O&M costs d), depending on conguration and feedstock.
23 24 25 26
59
Parameters characterising the bottleneck 22 cost Flash pyrolysis Production cost pyrolysis oil Investment cost (production plant) Operation and maintenance cost Overall efciency Small scale CHP (<100 kWe wood combustion) Investment cost Overall efciency (35 kWe) BIGCC (30 Mwe; wood gasication, electricity and heat) Investment cost Efciency
Unit
2004
5 years
10 years -
> 15 years
/GJ M/ton input /GJHH %
4-6 1.2 -
27
28
/kWe %LHV electric
2500 25%
29
30%
/kWe %LHV electric
1700 40e
1660 43 e
1620 45 e

In order to coordinate R&D activities it is necessary to know which measures will contribute to improve the identied bottlenecks. In the following tables these measures are listed and critical indicators to further progress are given, wherever possible. Measures and indicators are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters (second column). The table does not contain all possible improvement measures and indicators, but only the most important and most promising ones. The information is mainly based on recent studies and Internet sources.
Table 3 Critical indicators to further progress Fermentation (lignocelluloses)

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Overall efciency Critical indicators to further progress Process optimisation mainly through larger scales and high-efciency enzymes production, availability Development of new micro-organisms for the fermentation of woody biomass Costs of O&M for ethanol production depend largely on celluloses costs. Via the development of cost-efcient enzymes production, e.g. in consolidated bio processing, this can be achieved. Comments
Enzymes production
Cost reduction O&M
27 28
[Hamelinck et al., 2005]: Pyrolysis oil can be produced for 4 6 /GJ, at feedstock costs of 3 /GJ. See also appendix A section Pyrolysis. Technology option is the Stirling engine (Based on Biedermann 2004).
60
29
Table 4 Critical indicators to further progress Gasication

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Gasication efciency Cold gas efciency System Availability Critical indicators to further progress 2004 80-82% target >82% target year 2020 Comments Gasication efciency can be increased by an optimisation of pressure, temperature and exposure time. Establish process simplications. Tthe reliability of the syngas cleaning (especially tar reduction) needs improvement.
The amount of hours that a gasication system can fully operate per year 2004 Operational hours target 8000 hrs/yr target year 2020
Gas cleaning
Overall efciency
High temperature gas cleaning will improve overall efciency 2004 Temperature [C] 120250 target target year
Higher temperatures result in lower gas dilution, an increase in Cconversion and a lower tar content.
350-800 2020
Table 5 Critical indicators to further progress Supercritical gasication

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Demo plant Critical indicators to further progress Commercialisation of the process is not expected before 2020. Comments Still basic experiments have to be done. Scaleup will reduce costs signicantly.
Table 6 Critical indicators to further progress HTU

Technology component End-product Parameters of bottlenecks Proof of utilisation Critical indicators to further progress Acceptance and utilisation standards for endproduct Comments Upgrading process for biocrude has to produce a product that will be acceptable, e.g. for blending with diesel. The rst demo-plant still has to be built (but is being planned). Scaleup will reduce costs signicantly. Apart from scale-up, learning will also reduce costs.
System
Size (demo) plant PJ/jr biocrude
2010 0.3
target >1.3
target year 2015
System
Costs biocrude /GJ biocrude
2015 4.8
Target <2.8
target year 2020
(assuming feedstock costs of 0 /GJ)
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Table 7 Critical indicators to further progress Flash pyrolysis

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Size (demo) plant Toninput/hr System Integration existing systems Critical indicators to further progress 2004 0.2 target >10 target year 2010 comments Scale-up will reduce costs signicantly.
Table 8 Critical indicators to further progress BIGCC

Technology component Improvement gasication process Gas turbine Parameters of bottlenecks See Table 6-4 Critical indicators to further progress See Table 6-4 comments
Overall efciency/ electricity cost
Improvement of gas turbine technology
Table 9 Critical indicators to further progress Small-scale CHP

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Cost reduction Investment Critical indicators to further progress Increase of lifetime of piston rod seal, increase of maintenance intervals and improvement of reliability and availability 2005 Operating hours System Efciency (electric) < 10.000 target 40.000 target year 2010 comments
Heat transfer from combustion to working gas, heat integration in the overall process
Table 10 Critical indicators to further progress Pre-treatment and logistical processes

Technology component Pretreatment Parameters of bottlenecks Pre-treatment efciency Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of biomass losses during pretreatment process (including storage). Integration of mechanical or thermal pre-treatment processes into the production chain. Long-distance ocean transport might cost 5-10% of the total energy content of the biomass. comments Targets are difcult to quantify due to the diversity per chain.
Transport
Transport efciency
Shortening transport distances or increase of bulk size will reduce this. Targets are difcult to quantify due to the diversity per chain.
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Recommendations
For a good analysis of the bottlenecks and indicators the whole chain (feedstock production and pre-treatment, conversion processes, end-use integration) should be included in this study. The rst step of this analysis is presented in this report and focuses on the conversion processes of biomass. In follow-up projects feedstock production/pre-treatment (torrefaction, pyrolysis, etc) and end-use integration (fuel cells, gas engines, microturbines, etc) should be included. Co-combustion of small amounts of biomass is considered to be a commercial technology, for which the current barriers for implementation are not technical, but on the policy/permitting level. Co-combustion of large amounts of biomass is technically limited and R&D could solve this. In follow-up projects this should be included.
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Power storage technologies and integration of distributed generation of energy

Power storage techniques
Technologies
Any storage technology is always a compromise between many characteristics: costs (including all the devices or power electronics necessary to make the storage system operational), specic power and energy, overall efciency, self-discharge rate, rechargeability, optimal operating temperature range, ability to withstand a wide range of charge/discharge conditions, maintenance conditions, etc. Each storage type therefore has special characteristics, making it suitable for different application elds. The demand for R&D is on the one hand determined by the technical particularities of single power storage types and on the other hand guided by application-oriented requirements. In the following only the most promising storage technologies are analysed in the context of the most obvious specic application elds. Generally, storage can be classied into 11 types: lead-acid batteries lithium batteries nickel batteries metal air batteries pumped hydro storage ywheels fuel cells and hydrogen supercapacitors superconducting magnetic energy storage compressed air redox. Pumped hydro storage and ywheels are regarded as technically mature and are not examined here. Fuel cells and hydrogen technologies have already been considered in the section 'fuel cells and hydrogen technology'.
Table 1 State of the art of different storage technologies

lead acid lithium-ion nickel Technology supercapacitors SMEs compressed air Commercial lead acid lithium-ion nickel metal-air supercapacitors SMEs compressed air redox Demonstration metal-air supercapacitors SMEs compressed air redox R&D lead acid lithium-ion
65
Table 1 shows the state of the art of different storage technologies, which is quite hard to dene. All types are currently being tested in various demonstration projects. Further R&D is also being carried out parallel to the demonstrations for most of the types, even for the most conventional lead-acid type.

The situation is not similar with all the storage technologies. On the one hand, lead-acid batteries can be considered as a reference, because it is the most widespread among many applications and the cheapest technology. Over the last decades, it has slowly continued to improve its reliability while continuing a slow price decrease. On the other hand, most of the alternative technologies are generally more, or even much more, expensive, but are able to present one or two specic advantages which are key for the expected application such as a different range of operational temperatures, a higher energy or power density, etc. Therefore, the main bottlenecks are different. For the lead-acid battery, the main bottleneck is its lifetime. Improvements are still expected, the main objective being providing the lower-cost batteries with the performance that usually comes with the strongest design (thick plates, tubular design). New technological advances such as new alloys and coatings, plate compression, or the more innovative use of metallic foam, are associated with better storage system monitoring and management, and may help in extending considerably the batteries lifetime, therefore decreasing the cost of ownership. For most of the other storage technologies, the main bottleneck is their high cost. That is why they usually enter the market in niche markets such as portable applications. This reduces the cost disadvantage, while proposing a key feature such as, for instance, a better power to weight combination. That is the case with nickel and lithium batteries, among others. Lithium batteries especially have decreased their very high costs while gradually improving the power and energy density. But they remain very expensive. Improvements are still possible mainly by decreasing the amount of active materials and by using cheaper materials. The main strategy is usually to introduce new and enhanced chemical combinations, while creating more surface area for a given amount of material. Material sciences and material processing are therefore key for most storage technologies. The development and use of specic coatings, surface structure, particle shapes or sizes, nano-particles, etc, are ways of improving the surface/volume ratio. Such advances usually come along with improved performances (power or energy density in W or Wh/kg) and an extended lifetime or cycling life, by reducing the ageing processes (corrosion of electrodes, degradation of membranes, interfaces, electrolytes). The lifetime extension is nally another way of decreasing the cost of ownership of a storage system. The main bottleneck for supercapacitors is the cost and lifespan of the material. Nanotechnology is being used to develop smaller and faster supercapacitors, with higher power energy densities. The main bottleneck in superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) is the cost of the superconductor, where high temperature superconductors are a very attractive option, because they would enable the application of a more common refrigerant (liquid nitrogen). The main bottleneck in compressed air energy storage (CAES) is the storage container for the compressed air. The normally containers used are geological cavities, such as man-made caves, salt caves, or porous rock, either created by water-bearing aquifers or as a result of oil and gas extraction. The main drawback of CAES is its reliance on geological structures.
66
Redox in this context refers to vanadium-based storage systems. Such systems are commercially available in the USA and Japan, but very few European companies use this technology. There are only very few installations in Europe. Redox batteries have the potential to achieve very high capacities in the range of hundreds of MWh, but such systems still have to be developed by scaling of the cells and stacks and using adequate power electronics. A critical component is the membrane with respect to cost and stability. Electrolyte circulation causes still high selfconsumption losses and some technical problems with pumping, electrolyte distribution, etc.

The following table gives an overview of the quantitative parameters describing the main bottlenecks for the introduction of the technology. State of the art and target values are given. These selected criteria will also help in calculating the expected cost of the energy coming out of the storage system, taking into account the gures (investment cost, lifetime, efciency, etc) relevant to the application under consideration.

Parameters Energy density Energy density Power density Energy cost Cycling service Lifetime Energy efciency Unit Wh/kg Wh/l W/kg /kWh Deep cycle Years % 2004 35-45 70-120 200-400 50-150 100-1 500 3-15 75-85 Target 60 200-600 50-120 200-2 000 5-20 75-85 Target year 2010 2010 2010 2010 2010 -
Lead-acid batteries energy storage for automotive and standby applications (kWh to MWh range)
Lithium batteries (lithium-ion) power storage for transport applications, energy storage (Wh to some kWh range) for small portable electronics (cell phones, computers, etc.) Energy density Energy density Power density Energy cost Cycling service Lifetime Energy efciency Wh/kg Wh/l W/kg /kWh Deep cycle Years % 80-200 300-400 200-1 500 500-800 600-1 000 3-10 90-95 180-300 400-2 000 150-200 1 000-2 500 5-20 90-97 2010 2010 2010 -
Lithium batteries (lithium metal) energy storage (Wh to some kWh range) for small portable electronics (cell phones, computers, etc.) Energy density Energy density Energy cost Cycling service Lifetime Energy efciency (<kWh to some kWh) Energy density Energy density Power density Energy cost Cycling service Wh/kg Wh/l W/kg /kWh Deep cycle 50-80 75-110 40-65 200-400 500 65-100 150-200 600-1 000 2010 2010 2010 Wh/kg Wh/l /kWh Deep cycle Years % 120-180 300-400 500 100-300 3-20 92-97 200 1 000 2010 2010 -
Nickel batteries (nickel-zinc) energy storage for stand-by and transportation applications
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Parameters Energy efciency
Unit %
2004 80
Target -
Target year -
Nickel batteries (nickel-cadmium) energy storage for standby and transportation applications, (Wh to MWh range) Energy density Energy density Power density Cycling service Lifetime Energy efciency Wh/kg Wh/l W/kg Deep cycle Years % 65-75 35-45 80-200 100-1 000 800-2 500 50-100 -
Nickel batteries (nickel-metal hydride) Power storage for small transportation applications, energy storage for portable electronics (Wh to some kWh range) Energy density Energy density Power density Energy cost Cycling service Energy efciency Energy density Energy density Power density Energy cost Cycling service Energy efciency Investment cost Power density Energy density Energy efciency Cycling service Wh/kg Wh/l W/kg /kWh Deep cycle % Wh/kg Wh/l W/kg /kWh Deep cycle % /Wh W/kg Wh/kg % Deep cycle 50-80 80-200 500-1 000 350-500 600-1 200 65-70 200-300 250-300 70-150 200-250 400-500 n.a. 50-150 100-5 000 5-10 85-97 100 000-500 000 80-100 80-300 200-400 135-300 200-500 150-800 700 20-50 10 000-12 000 20 98 500 000 2010 2010 -
Metal air batteries (zinc/air) energy storage for portable and standby applications (kWh range)
Supercapacitors power storage for power quality applications mainly
Superconducting magnetic energy storage power and energy storage for power quality and standby applications Investment cost Power range Capacity Power density Energy density Energy efciency Lifetime Investment cost Power range Capacity range Power density Energy density Energy efciency /kW MW MWh W/kg Wh/kg % Years /kWh kW kWh W/kg Wh/kg % 10-1 000 0.8 97-98 40 300 2,5-3 000 50-5 000 60-166 25-35 70-80 <200 10 000 50 2010 2 000 -
Redox (vanadium system) energy storage for standby applications
68
Parameters Lifetime Investment cost Power Energy efciency
Unit Years /kW MW %
2004 10-15 450 300 42-54
Target -
Target year -
Compressed air energy storage for standby applications (10 kWh to MWh range)

In order to coordinate R&D activities it is necessary to know which measures will contribute to improve the identied bottlenecks. In this paragraph these measures are listed and critical indicators to further progress are given, where possible. Measures and indicators are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters. The tables below indicate at which technology component research activity has to take place. The list does not contain all possible improvement measures and indicators, but only the most important and most promising ones.
Table 3 Critical indicators to further progress Lead-acid batteries

Technology component Current technology Parameters of bottlenecks Lifetime reliability Critical indicators to further progress Increased grid corrosion resistance of current technologies, which provides positive plates with longer life potential. Comments Several opportunities: use of new alloys, with higher purity control new material processing, resulting in an enhanced control of metallurgical structure improved plate design (thickness, optimised grid structure). New additives, negative plate expander.
Current technology
Lifetime reliability/ deep cycle performance Partial state of charge operation
Increased resistance to sulphation and electrolyte stratication.
New plate design
Lifetime reliability/ deep cycle performance and Partial state of charge operation
Increased grid corrosion performance and sulphation resistance: technological breakthroughs are achievable through research at the material level and on material processing. A cost-effective and efcient storage system relies upon a good battery technology and a well-designed system integration, which optimises the overall service provided to the end-user.
Issues of interest: plate compression new electrode design, providing more surface area for battery chemistry to occur (metallic foam, composite plates, insertion of nanocomposites) For a given installed capacity, optimisation of the daily useable capacity and of the lifetime, through optimised management strategy. State of charge and state of health indicators.
System integration
Lifetime reliability/ cost of ownership
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Table 4 Critical indicators to further progress Lithium batteries

Technology component Positive electrode Parameters of bottlenecks Cost of the active material Critical indicators to further progress Research on new components and new chemistry design is required, because the existing LiCoO2 is too expensive due to the cobalt. Cheaper and less toxic material, with similar or higher performance are needed, especially for the development of larger sizes of batteries and for high power applications. Negative electrode Cost of the active material This cost is less important than the one of the positive, but research is necessary to decrease the cost. The electrolyte is currently based on organic solvents which results in safety and environmental concerns. There is a need for stable and non-reactive electrolytes, especially in large capacity batteries, where the amount of material is larger and the heat exchange more critical. Cell to cell voltage divergence has to be avoided. Charge equalizer needs power electronics which increases the total cost of the energy storage systems. Comments Several alternative options exist: replacement of Co by a compound Mn/ Co/Ni, with an optimised ratio between the elements LiMn2O4 and LiFePO4 may present a comparable energy density performance and could be interesting for power applications, (up to 2000 W/kg, and 80 to 150 Wh/kg) Whatever the active materials, the ways of synthesis, the particle sizes, and the conductive cathode coatings also have strong impacts on the overall performance. New low-cost graphite materials (with optimised particle size and shape and surface properties through nanostructuration) or Li4Ti5O12 are some alternative options Environmentally friendly electrolytes that do not contain any halogens would be ideal. The addition of nano-particles as dopant has to be investigated. Electrolyte based on non-ammable ionic liquids, such as molten salts operating over a large temperature range seems achievable, would solve safety concerns due to abuse conditions (overcharge, overheating, external short-circuit, internal short-circuit by penetration, crushing). Power electronics has to full several requirements: cell monitoring, maintaining the state of charge balance of the cells, and to provide state of charge and state of health indicators.
Electrolyte
Performance/ safety/ recycleability
System integration
Investment cost
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Table 5 Critical indicators to further progress Nickel batteries

Technology component Electrode Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost Critical indicators to further progress The main concern is the cost reduction of battery components and raw materials. The main goal is therefore to improve the active material efciency. Comments Cobalt, a key additive of the nickel electrode, can be replaced by less expensive graphite (as powder or bres), with some adjustments for power applications. Additional additives like Y, Ca, Ti, or Nb, as elements or compounds may also improve the charge acceptance. There are no processes today that can recycle the metal hydride alloy in NiMH batteries. More than 1000 cycles have been reached with NiZn batteries at 80% DOD, with the use of metallic foam and nano particles of ceramics.
NiMH Battery NiZn battery
Environmental issues Reliability
Development of recycling processes. As the zinc electrode is known to have a limited cycle life within alkaline electrolytes, the specic R&D needs are mainly to improve cycle life and reliability.
Table 6 Critical indicators to further progress Metal/air batteries

Technology component Anode Parameters of bottlenecks Energy and power density Critical indicators to further progress Improvement of the reaction capacity through an optimised texture and structure of the surface. A higher specic surface area increases energy and power density. The mechanical replacement of the exhausted anode has to be made easier or suppressed. Comments Anode is made up of pure metal (zinc, magnesium or aluminium), magnesium alloys, or specic alloys (Magnesium-aluminium-zinc). The size and the structure of the active material as well as catalysts and inhibitors have a great impact on the electrode kinetics. Several options : quick mechanically rechargeable cell development of special metal/airchargers The development of bifunctional air electrodes is crucial and depends on advances in material science and catalyst technologies This research will lead to more compact metal-air systems for energy storage and generation
Anode
Easy or continuous fuel supply
Air Cathode
Energy and power density
The use of new materials, particularly high-surface-area high porosity media for the gas diffusion electrode Increased reliability and reduced costs. Zn/air: solid or xed electrolyte cell for high cycles uses cheap and reliable bifunctional electrodes
Stack
Energy and power density cycling life reliability
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Table 7 Critical indicators to further progress Supercapacitors

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Cost Critical indicators to further progress Cost reduction must be made especially in the carbon, electrolyte and separator elds, where target as low as 10 /kg or 1 /m has to be reached. Comments Nanotechnology will allow production costs to be lowered with an expectation of 50% cost reduction year-on-year. One of the enabling materials of supercapacitors is carbon, and it is in the engineering of this material where nanotechnology is used. Based on activated carbon an increase of the surface area is looked for by working down the particle size from 50nm to 2nm. Also the pore size is tailored for the particular power and amount of energy store required.
System
Recycleability
Development of non-toxic cell components especially for the applications in transport. Research on degradation phenomena and improvement of ageing performances during cycling or oating. Better use of the volume of the carbon material, Higher cell voltage and thus higher electrolyte stability, Novel denition of the electrode structure. For high energy density the nominal voltage has to be increased using an organic electrolyte. [6] Improvement of cell structure by the development of an intermediate modular structure, reliable cellbalancing systems and battery management systems.
System
Lifetime
System
Energy density
Cell
Voltage
Cell
Balance
Table 8 Critical indicators to further progress Superconducting magnetic energy storage

Technology component Superconductor Parameters of bottlenecks Cost Critical indicators to further progress Application of oxide superconductors. Comments Oxide superconductors have hidden potential to achieve the further improvement in economic efciency. For high elds at the higher operating temperatures some form of thin lm YBCO-coated conductor will be used. The most promising route to a coated conductor is RABiTS whereby thin, exible textured metallic substrates form the basis for textured YBCO thin lms with extremely high current density.
72
System
Design
Development of cost-minimum design of superconducting metal coils. Development of low-temperature electronics.
In AC applications, there are still electrical losses, but these can be minimised through appropriate wire architecture and device design. Currently applied electronics require expensive heating system radioisotope heating units.
Electronics
Temperature
Table 9 Critical indicators to further progress Redox

Technology component Circulation system Parameters of bottlenecks Self consumption Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of circulation, improvement of pump management; Development of no-ow systems for small systems Improvement in electrolyte distribution (ow geometries). Membranes Electrodes Stability, cost Cost, stability Improved membranes, new materials. New materials (polymers), new production process; Introduction of bipolar plates (bonding of electrodes). Electrolyte Stability Formula Comments
Table 10 Critical indicators to further progress Compressed air

Technology component Vessel Parameters of bottlenecks Availability Critical indicators to further progress Development of man-made storage vessels and buried high pressure piping for small (5-15 MW) CAES plants. Application of concepts like 30 HAT and CHAT thermal cycles that use humidied air as a working uid, thus reducing the specic air consumption and parasitic power consumption by compressors. Comments Availability of natural caverns for air storage is very limited.
Compressor
Efciency
The combustion turbine compressor is directly driven by a combustion turbine expander that takes over 50% of its power. Unfortunately, the HAT and CHAT concepts have not yet found attractive market applications, because they require some combustion turbine modications. The manufacturers have not yet concluded that the potential market is large enough to justify the required investments. Avoids complications associated with HAT and CHAT concepts.
Combustion turbine
Efciency
Development of humidication process of the stored compressed air before injection into combustion turbine.
30
HAT Humidied Air Turbine; CHAT - Cascade Humidied Advanced Turbine.
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Integration of distributed generation of energy

Technologies
Distributed energy resources (DER) include distributed generation, storage technologies and demand-side measures. Distributed generation is by small-scale electricity generation sources connected to the distribution network or the customer side of the meter, which are based on the 31 32 use of renewable energy sources or technologies for combined heat and power generation . The area of DER integration is large. For instance, it may include integration of microsources into island systems, or certain local impacts of particular technologies. However, taking into account the European dimension of the task, the highest priority and particular emphasis should be put on the large-scale integration of DER into European interconnected power systems with respect to power system impacts and security of supply. Table 11 State of the art of different concepts of DER integration
Concept Virtual power plant microgrids Commercial Virtual power plant microgrids Demonstration Large-scale virtual power plant microgrids R&D

There are a number of technical and socio-economic bottlenecks in the eld of DER integration. Controllability and intermittency represent the most important bottlenecks for further development of DER. Controllability: DER can supply a substantial part of energy demand, but unless it becomes controllable, it will not displace the centralised generation needed for system operation, thus using increased network and generation capacities (with associated costs). There are now several innovative concepts of improved DER integration, which will allow DER to participate in system support, displacing parts of centralised power plants without affecting power system reliability. There are already some available solutions, for instance DEMS [5], but they are able to solve only local optimisation tasks. However, in order to ensure reliable and secure operation of the European power system with high penetration of DER, system-wide approaches must be developed to provide DER control on both distribution and transmission levels. In general, two approaches are anticipated: Large-scale virtual power plants that are an aggregation of a large number of DER units, responsive loads and storage devices, which, when integrated, have exibility and controllability similar to large conventional power plants. This approach presents an evolution of power systems, facilitates DER integration into the whole operation hierarchy and enables DER to take over system services. MicroGrids are an innovative approach, which forms a new type of power system on low voltage networks. MicroGrids can be connected to the main power network, or be operated autonomously if they are isolated from the power grid, in a similar manner to the power systems of physical islands. For all the advanced integration concepts, there are three main issues to be tackled: design of distributed control system architecture development of communication and information systems to enable distributed control
31 32
Including wind power plants, excluding large hydro power plants. Emergency units (e.g. UPS) are not considered within the ESTIR project, due to their limited application eld and low annual electricity production.
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establishment of market and regulatory framework to facilitate secure and cost-effective DER integration. Integrated DER will be able to provide system support and participate in wholesale, balancing and ancillary services markets Intermittency: Some distributed generation technologies based on renewable energy sources are intermittent by its nature (e.g. wind power, PV, hydro power) or application (e.g. cogeneration). Wind power attracts particular attention with respect to DER integration. Variability, unpredictability and the remoteness of resources from load centres imply additional costs for reliable power system operation with a large wind generation share. Moreover, wind power will amount to a substantial share of future power supplies. This section considers the integration issues of intermittent energy sources (mainly wind power): Predictability: Forecasting of such DER generation can signicantly reduce the reserves required and associated costs of integration, which are quite substantial for wind energy, for example. Wind power forecasting systems have almost achieved their limits on accuracy. Further improvement will be based on increasing quality of weather prediction and aggregation of power output from DER installed in a larger area. Accuracy of forecasting systems are characterised by error level, but for system operators the range between the expected minimum and maximum levels has more added value. It is difcult to compare different forecasting systems, if they are not applied at the same location. Balancing: Any power system must be able to balance demand and supply at any time. Apart from demand uctuations, intermittent energy resources call for additional balancing energy. The magnitude of the balancing energy strongly depends on the wind energy penetration, time horizon, generation mix of power system and geographic distribution of wind power plants. Improved wind power forecasting systems, shortened gate closure, advanced reserves options (storage, demand-side management) can decrease the cost. Reserve capacity: The penetration of intermittent generation increases uncertainty of system operators about generation availability, therefore additional reserve capacity is needed to back up a sudden loss of generation. Higher penetration and longer planning horizons imply a larger reserve capacity. Additional capacity represents a xed cost per MWh for the power system (independent on energy production) for a certain level of installed wind capacity and market costs of reserve capacity. Network infrastructure: As wind farms are built where the resources are, not the load centres, networks must be reinforced or extended to accommodate and transmit the power generation. The cost of infrastructure measures depends on wind penetration, power system capacity, level of existing interconnections.

Table 12 lists the parameters that try to describe the main bottlenecks in quantitative terms, where possible. All parameters of the bottlenecks of the DER integration depend on (1) characteristics of power systems (generation mix, level of internal and external interconnections of electricity networks, requirements for DER interconnection and operational behaviour, etc.); (2) DER generation mix, installation capacity of each DER technology, its geographical distribution. Since both prerequisites for the determination of integration parameters (and thus setting up indicators) are very countyspecic and technology-specic, it is hardly possible to generalise them to derive quantitative indicators. Integration of DER is more than a technology. It is a set of measures (or concepts) required to adapt legacy power systems (being designed for the operation and management of large, centralised, controllable power plants) to accommodate a large number of small, distributed, intermittent generation sources without jeopardising the security of supply.
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Table 12 Parameters for characterisation of critical bottlenecks

Parameters of bottlenecks Controllability Control system architecture Information and communication system architecture Regulatory and market framework DER coordinated control system Ancillary services markets Intermittency Accuracy of prediction systems Penetration of intermittent generation Investment in innovative DER control solutions DER share in network ancillary services markets Root mean square error 33 (wind power forecasting) Ability of a power system to integrate intermittent energy resources Cost of extra generation reserve required to offset DER unpredictability % Unit 2004 Target Target year
% %
7.18 -
6.06 -
2010 -
Energy reserve costs
/ MWh

In the following tables research measures to overcome the identied bottlenecks and critical indicators to further progress are identied. The table is structured in the same way as in the power storage techniques chapter. Please see page 60 for an introduction to the structure.
Table 13 Critical indicators to further progress Controllability

Parameters of bottlenecks Control system architecture Measures and critical indicators to further progress Improvement of intelligent local and central controllers Comments
Local controllers are responsible for individual generation unit control, providing basic functions, such as selfprotection, simple control of active and reactive power and advanced functions, such as island operation, anticipating disturbances. Central controllers should allow DER aggregators to take over some responsibilities of system operators, such as management of power ows and congestions, frequency controls, reactive power and voltage control, black start.
Information and communication system architecture Regulatory and market framework
Development of information architecture Improvement of market access and operation rules
New architecture will facilitate data and communications exchange between controllers and power system actors. Controllers software will also be developed monitoring, control and data management. This activity is aimed at offering market-related incentives to DER portfolio operators against the new advantages which these DER bring to network operators : - reduced emissions - distributed VAR control - network stability.
33
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On the base of ISET Advanced Wind Power Prediction Tool results for German power system for day ahead (in % of installed wind turbines capacity).
Table 14 Critical indicators to further progress Intermittency

Parameters of bottlenecks Accuracy of prediction systems Measures and critical indicators to further progress Improvement of weather prediction models and forecasting of DER output from larger areas. Comments Wind power forecasting calculations are based on the input of weather forecasting, which still has a potential of improvement. For DER installed in large areas a selfbalancing effect is valid, which reduces forecasting error. Penetration of intermittent generation Improvement of generation forecasting and controllability. Development of technical capabilities of DER. Extended technical capabilities are required from DER units by network operators with increase of DER penetration. Such capabilities include the ability to operate at wide ranges of frequencies and voltages, provide frequency and voltage control, withstand short circuits, and contribute to system restoration.
Energy reserves
Improvement of generation forecasting, shortening gate closure time, advanced reserves options (storage, demand side management).
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Use of fossil fuels in power and heat generation, including carbon dioxide capture and storage
Use of fossil fuels in power and heat generation
Technologies
The market for large-scale fossil fuel-based power generation technologies is mature. There is a continuous striving to improve environmental performance and reduce costs for existing technologies and to develop competing technologies. An overview of fossil fuel-based power generation technologies is given in Table 1. A major power generation technology is pulverised fuel combustion (PFC). Identied landmarks in improved technology are the supercritical, the ultra-supercritical and the pressurised versions of PFC, requiring further R&D. The natural gas combined cycle has a fast-growing market share, due to its superior environmental characteristics and competitive costs compared to other power generation technologies. Nevertheless, there is still a substantial improvement in terms of efciency and costs expected, which require R&D efforts. No major R&D issues were identied for uidised bed combustion technologies. It should be noted that these technologies will also benet from any development of ultra-supercritical steam conditions for PFC plants. Pressurised uidised bed combustion (PFBC) is believed to be more costly and complex and there is hardly any uptake in the European market. Co-combustion is considered to be a commercial technology, for which the current barriers for implementation are not in the technological eld, but on the policy/permitting level. Chemical looping combustion is still at a laboratory-scale level. Table 1 State of the art of fossil fuel-based power generation technologies
Integrated gasication combined cycle (IGCC) Pulverised fuel combustion (PFC) Fossil fuel based power generation technologies Atmospheric uidised bed combustion (GT) Natural gas combined cycle (NGGC) Co-combustion (coalbiomass) Commercial Demonstration R&D Air blown gasication cycle (ABGC) Supercritical PFC (FPC-SC) Pressurised uidised bed combustion (PFBC) Fuel cells Ultra supercritical PFC (PFC-USC) Pressurised PFC (PPFC) Chemical looping combustion (CLC)

The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of this technology cluster can be grouped into the following classes: Security of supply: power generation based on fossil fuels makes the electricity supply dependent on a source of energy which is decreasingly unavailable. From the point of view of security of supply this is not desirable, especially as in this way the European Union will become more and more dependent on the import of fossil fuels. Apart from a shift to renewable energy sources, an increase in energy conversion efciency of fossil fuel-based power plants is also an important contribution to securing Europes energy supply. CO2 emissions: electricity generation based on fossil fuels results in large CO2 emissions. An effective way of reducing the CO2 emissions per kWh generated electricity is increasing
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the energy conversion efciency of the power generation. A fuel shift to fuels with lower carbon levels or a shift to renewable energy sources are also effective measures in reducing CO2 emissions. An alternative way of reducing CO2 emissions resulting from fossil fuel-based power generation is the capture and storage of CO2. This technology is discussed in a separate section of this report beginning at page 85 Environmental performance: emission standards need to be met in order to get a permit for a power plant. Emissions of NOx, SO2 and particulate matter from conventional coal-red PFC power plants are relatively high and therefore a point of attention. Cost: for the relatively new technology for integrated gasier combined cycles, which is being introduced to the market and which offer low emissions to air and potentially high efciency compared to conventional coal-red power generation, costs (capital costs and O&M costs) need to be reduced to allow further penetration into the market.

In the previous chapter, efciency has been stated to be the most important quantitative parameter characterising and inuencing the bottlenecks security of supply and emissions. The following table gives an overview throughout the single technologies. Electricity cost and emissions are also given.
Table 2 Quantitative parameters for characterisation of critical bottlenecks [Lako, 2004; Ecofys, 2004]
Parameters PFC / PFC-USC [1,2] Efciency CO2-emissions [a] NOx-emissions [b] SO2-emissions [c] IGCC Capital cost O&M cost Efciency Efciency with higher inlet temperature CO2-emissions [a] CO2-emissions with higher inlet temperature[a] NOx-emissions [b] SO2-emissions [c] NGCC Efciency CO2-emissions [a] % g/kWh el. 56 98 60 92 (2000/kW) (2000/kW) % % g/kWh el. g/kWh el. g/kWh el. g/kWh el. 1400 71 45 48 205 196 0.4 0.06 994 51 52 52 181 0.4 0.05 % g/kWh el. g/kWh el. g/kWh el. 47 201 1.2 0.60 52 181 1.2 0.53 Unit 2000 > 15 years
[a] based on 96 g CO2/GJ-coal and 56 g CO2/GJ-NG [b] based on low-NOx burners [c] based on 1% sulphur content and LHV of 26.5 GJ/tonne
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In order to coordinate R&D activities it is necessary to know which specic measures will contribute to improve the identied bottlenecks. In the following table these measures are listed and explained. Critical indicators to further progress are given, wherever possible (see yellow tables). Measures and indicators are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters. The tables also indicate at which technology component research activity has to take place. Only the most important and most promising measures and indicators are presented in the tables. Table 3 Critical indicators to further progress Pulverised Fuel Combustion (PFC)
Technology component Parameters of bottlenecks Efciency Critical indicators to further progress Comments
The efciency of a PFC power plant is mainly determined by the efciencies of the steam cycle and boiler. Efciencies of side aggregates and plant integration also play an important role in the overall power plant efciency.
Steam cycle
Efciency (ultra supercritical steam conditions)
Increase of temperature and pressure 2004 temperature [C] pressure [bar] 600620 300 target 700760 350375 target year < 2010 < 2010
(source: AGO 2000, US-DOE 2004) 1970 efciency [%] steam temp. [C] 36 540 2000 45 600 2010 50 700
The development of conventional sub critical PFC plant to supercritical and ultra-supercritical PFC plant implies the application of higher steam temperatures and pressures. Material development is key, particularly the development of new nickel-based alloys and the improvement of the manufacturability of the alloys.
Development of efciency and steam temperature (PFC-power plant) (source: PowerClean 2004) Steam cycle Efciency Use one or two steam reheat processes Single reheat of steam cycle with conditions of 25 MPa, 560/560C gives an efciency of over 45% LHV basis (already in operation). Double reheat of steam cycle with conditions of 28.5 MPa, 580/580/580C gives an efciency of over 47% LHV basis [AGO (2000)]. The double reheat cycle has been stated to add 6% to the capital cost of the power plant. Improvements in turbine blading shape can result in a turbine efciency improvement of 0.4-2% [AGO (2000), DUT (2000)]
Steam turbine
Efciency
Improvement of turbine blading shape
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Technology component Boiler
Parameters of bottlenecks Efciency
Critical indicators to further progress Improvement of design
Comments Horizontal furnace design with internally ried vertical furnace pipes allows for lower construction costs (vertical low-massux once-through boiler with horizontal furnace developed by Siemens) [PowerClean (2004)] By lowering the temperature of the ue gas, less heat is lost resulting in a higher efciency. Limit of the lowest level of the nal ue gas temperature is the corrosion of downstream components. The nal ue gas temperature can be lowered by the inclusion of extra heating surface area in the boiler, usually in the air heater. For every 10C decrease in nal ue gas temperature an efciency increase of the boiler of 0.5 - 1% can be achieved [AGO (2000)]. NOx emissions can be reduced by integrated (combustion modication) and add-on (ue gas treatment) technologies. Low-NOx burners and furnace air staging have been employed in hundreds of plants world-wide. Furnace fuel staging (reburn) is still in demonstration phase. Existent research aims at improving low-NOx burners and developing furnace fuel staging. Flue gas treatment technologies selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR) are commercially available. SCR has been applied in Japan and Germany to meet stringent NOx emission limits.
Boiler
Efciency
Decrease of ue gas temperature
System
NOx-emissions
Reduction of NOx-emissions Combustion modication % NOx reduction low NOx burner furnace airstaging item 1 and 2 combined reburn item 1 and 4 combined Flue gas treatment % NOx reduction SNCR SCR (source: DTI 1999) 30-50% 80-90% 30-70% 20-40% 50-60% 50-60% 70%
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Technology component System
Parameters of bottlenecks So2 emissions
Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of SO2-emissions ue gas desulphurisation technology add-on SO2-reduction regenerable FGD [%] SO2-reduction nonregenerable FGD [%] (source: IEA 1999) > 95 > 95 2004
Comments SO2 emissions can be reduced by integrated technologies (reducing the sulphur content by coal preparation, coal gas desulphurisation) and add-on (ue gas desulphurisation, FGD) technologies. Two main FGD technologies exist: regenerable FGD and non-regenerable FGD. Most coal-red plants have been equipped with nonregenerable FGD, of which wet scrubbing is the most common.
System
Particular matter emissions
Reduction of particular matter (PM) emissions ue gas desulphurisation technology add-on PM reduction, electrostatic precipitators (ESP) [%] PM reduction fabric lters (baghouses) [%] (source: IEA 1999) > 99.5 > 99.9 2004
Table 4 Critical indicators to further progress Integrated Gasication Combined Cycle (IGCC)
Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Capital cost Critical indicators to further progress Integration of components Comments Integration has the advantage of improving efciency, but may increase the complexity of the process Reduction of complexity of the plant and learning-bydoing reduces plant failures
System
Costs
Improve reliability and availability of the plant (availability of IGCC plant in Buggenum, NL increased from 4 000 in 1997, to 7 000 in 2004) Gasier component development, including improved materials for refractories and heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), and improved feeding and handling systems Reduction of air separation units cost
Gasier
Capital cost
Air separation units
Capital cost
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Technology component Gas Turbine
Parameters of bottlenecks Efciency
Critical indicators to further progress Increase of turbine inlet temperature and improvement of heat recovery steam generator and steam cycle 2004 target inlet temperature [C] CO2 emissions [g/kWh] 1200 1400 target year < 2015 2020 2020
Comments Studies under FP4 showed that the design efciency of 45% of the Puertollano IGCC could be increased up to 48% by increasing the turbine inlet temperature (from 1120C to 1250C) and by improving the heat recovery steam generator and steam cycle. Modelling the benets of a major system redesign showed that 51.5% is achievable (IGCC98).
efciency [%] 48 196
52 181
Gasier
Efciency
(source: PowerClean 2004; Ecofys 2004) Increase of fuel gas temperature and development of dry high temperature gas cleaning Establishment of supercritical steam conditions Development of ion-electron conducting membranes using nonporous ceramic membranes, and advanced cryogenic processes 2004 energy requirement [kWh/tO2] 235 target 150 target year 2010 Reduction of energy requirement of oxygen separation includes ionelectron conducting membranes using nonporous ceramic membranes, and advanced cryogenic processes. New inorganic membrane-based systems may reduce the energy requirement for cryogenic separation from 235 kWh/ ton O2 to less than 150 kWh/ton O2. For an IGCC this implies an increase of efciency of more than 3%points [Ecofys (2004), Stein (2001)] The development of zero emission IGCC power plants based on pre-combustion carbon capture requires the development of gas turbine combustion systems, which can use hydrogen as a fuel.
Steam cycle Air separation units
Efciency Efciency
System
Emissions
Development of gas turbine combustion systems, which can use hydrogen as a fuel.
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Table 5 Critical indicators to further progress Gas-red Power Generation Technologies (NGCC)
Technology component Gas turbine Parameters of bottlenecks Efciency Critical indicators to further progress Increase of turbine inlet temperature and development of new materials allowing higher temperatures Optimisation of compressor design, increase of polytrophic efciency Improvement in turbine blading shape (among others by using 3D modelling instead of todays 2D modelling) Improvements in turbine blading shape Comments
Gas turbine Gas turbine
Efciency Efciency
Steam cycle
Efciency
Table 6 Critical indicators to further progress Chemical Looping Combustion (CLC)

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Critical indicators to further progress Comments
CLC principle is to stage traditional combustion into two separate reaction phases, thus CLC can result in a direct concentration of CO2 during its formation. CLC is still in an early stage of development. To take this technology forward, reactor concepts and stable reactive materials at acceptable costs must be developed. Efciency/ costs Reactivity Development of oxygencarrier particles of sufcient reactivity and lifetime
System
System System System
Costs Efciency Security of supply
Loss of nes, i.e. small particles Reactor concept Applicability to multiple fuels The most suitable fuels are natural gas and coal, but in principle biomass is also applicable.
Carbon dioxide capture and storage

Technologies
The demand for R&D is determined by improvement of the performance of existing separation technologies (reduced energy need and capital) and development of novel competitive separation techniques. In post-combustion techniques (separation of carbon dioxide from ue gases), the main challenge is to adapt existing processes to specic requirements (i.e. to scale, temperature and ue gas conditions). Pre-combustion techniques are associated with hydrogen production and CO2 separation from high-concentrate, high-pressure gases. R&D in pre-combustion is needed to integrate existing technology in power production and to improve the overall performance. Denitrogenated conversion (also called oxy-fuel techniques) is a novel approach in which oxygen is separated from air and used in combustion to generate gases with a high concentration of CO2 avoiding the need for further separation. The demand for R&D for this kind of technology is on a more fundamental level. An overview of carbon capture technologies is given in Table 7 whereas Table 8 provides an overview of carbon storage technologies.
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Table 7 State of the art of carbon capture technologies

Post-combustion Absorption (MEA) Absorption (improved solvents, improved technologies) Absorption (improved solvents, membranes) H2 combustion technology Denitrogenated conversion O2 production (cryogenic distillation, PSA) Commercial Demonstration O2/CO2 combustion technology; CLC R&D
Pre-combustion
Absorption (MDEA, Selexol, Rectisol)
Table 8 State of the art of carbon storage technologies

EOR (combined with storage) Depleted oil eld Depleted gas eld Carbon storage technologies Enhanced oil recovery (mainly in USA) Deep saline reservoir Unmineable coal beds / ECBM Enhanced gas recovery Deep ocean Mineralisation Commercial Demonstration R&D

The major technical and socio-economic bottlenecks of this technology cluster can be grouped into the following four main classes: Costs of carbon capture and storage: Carbon capture and storage from power plants adds signicantly to the total electricity cost and is therefore seen as the most important bottleneck. The costs of carbon capture and storage are made up by the costs for capture, compression, transport and storage. The costs are related to capital and O&M costs as well as to the production of extra electricity needed for capture and storage. Estimated cost increases for carbon capture and storage to electricity production costs vary from 1.5 ct/kWh (NGCC) to 3.0 ct/kWh (coalred PFC). Electricity production costs for natural gas-based technologies are dominated by the fuel price, whereas costs for coal-based technologies are dominated by plant investment costs. The cost increase for carbon capture and storage to electricity production costs amounts to 60-70% in case of NGCC and IGCC plants and 80% in case of coal-red PFC plants. There exists a high potential of cost reduction for carbon capture and storage as it is still a very new technology and considerable room for improvement exists. Especially the costs of carbon capture and the fuel costs related to the energy consumption of carbon capture leave room for further improvements. The potentials for cost reduction of carbon capture and storage are shown in Figure 1. Energy requirement of carbon capture: existing CO2 capture technologies require a lot of energy, therefore signicantly reducing the overall energy conversion efciency of a power plant equipped with carbon capture and storage. The most widely-used CO2 capture technology is absorption of carbon dioxide from ue gases by monoethanolamine (MEA). The disadvantages of capture using MEA are high costs and the high need for energy for the regeneration of the solvent. Compression of captured CO2 also involves a relatively signicant amount of energy. Precombustion techniques are generally believed to be more energy-efcient than post-combustion techniques, but further R&D is required on this issue.
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Public acceptance: the technology of carbon capture and storage is still largely unknown to the public. Demonstration projects, which show the feasibility of long-term CO2 storage, are needed to support dissemination of the technology to the public. Thorough monitoring of these projects has to prove that the technology is safe and reliable and that no leakage of CO2 occurs (or only at acceptable low levels). Legal framework: currently a legal framework for carbon capture and storage is lacking, and needs to be put in place. Among other aspects, the liability of carbon storage needs to be addressed.
Figure 1 Long-term (2050) cost reduction potentials of carbon capture and storage
Source: calculation Ecofys

Table 9 gives an overview of the quantitative parameters describing the main bottlenecks for the introduction of the technology. State of the art and values at different time horizons are given.

Parameters Pre-combustion, Selexol (IGCC) Cost increase of electricity generation due to carbon capture and storage El. efciency loss by CO2 capture Post-combustion, MEA (Coal-PF) Cost increase of electricity generation due to carbon capture and storage El. efciency loss by CO2 capture Post-combustion, MEA (NGCC) Cost increase of electricity generation due to carbon capture and storage El. efciency loss by CO2 capture Denitrogenated conversion, PSA Cost increase of electricity generation due to carbon capture and storage El efciency loss by CO2 capture Unit c/kWh % c/kWh % c/kWh % c/kWh % 2000 a 2,3 8,2 3 11.6 1.5 7.1 n.a. n.a. 5 years n.a. n.a 10 years n.a. n.a. 6.1 n.a. n.a 9.3 > 15 years 6.6
Source: Ecofys 2003; Ecofys 2004

a)
Costs estimates based on studies (not valid for rst-in-its-kind plant)
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In order to coordinate R&D activities it is necessary to know which specic R&D measures will contribute to improve the identied bottlenecks and which indicators are important to monitor progress. The following tables list these specic measures and indicators. They are allocated to the corresponding bottleneck parameters. The table also indicates at which technology component research activity has to take place. The list does not contain all possible improvement measures and indicators, but only the most important and most promising ones. The information is mainly based on interviews with technology providers or research institutes.
Table 10 Critical indicators to further progress Post-combustion capture

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Cost increase Critical indicators to further progress Development of cheaper CO2 capture technologies 2000 Investment cost PFC-USC [/kW] Investment cost NGCC [/kW] System Efciency loss 680 2020 544 2050 340 Comments E.g. absorption solvent containing more CO2 per g solvent, improved reactor design, reduction of loss and degradation of absorbing solvent, and learning by doing.
360
288
180
(source: Ecofys 2004) Development of less energy-intensive CO2 capture technologies (e.g. absorption solvent which is easier to regenerate at lower temperatures) Reduction of electric efciency loss and improvement of capture efciency of carbon capture PFC-USC 2000 2020 9.33 90 2050 5.8 95 Higher capture efciencies lead to higher energy requirements. However it is expected that in the future it will be possible to decrease electric efciency loss, while capture efciency increases as well.
el. efciency 11.6 loss [%] capture efciency [%] 85
(source: Ecofys 2004)
NGCC el. efciency loss [%] capture efciency [%]
2000 7.1 85
2020 6.1 90
2050 4.6 95
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Table 11 Critical indicators to further progress Pre-combustion capture

Technology component System Parameters of bottlenecks Cost increase Critical indicators to further progress Development of cheaper CO2 capture technologies [/kW] Investment cost IGCC Investment cost NGCC System Efciency loss 2000 620 350 2020 496 280 2050 310 200 Comments E.g. absorption solvent containing more CO2 per g solvent, improved reactor design
(source: Ecofys 2004) Development of improved and less energyintensive CO2 capture technologies. Reduction of electric efciency loss and improvement of capture efciency of carbon capture [Ecofys (2004)]: IGCC capture efciency [%] 2000 85% 2020 90% 6.6% 7.5% 2050 95% 4.1% 4.5% For instance by better heat integration, improved catalyst for fuel conversion, and development of membrane separation.
el. efciency 8.2% loss IGCC [%] el. efciency loss NGCC [%] 9%
Table 12 Critical indicators to further progress Denitrogenated conversion

Technology component Oxyfuel Parameters of bottlenecks Efciency loss/ cost increase Critical indicators to further progress Reduction of electric efciency loss (%) of carbon capture and reduce costs of total system (avoiding air separation unit) Comments The use of oxygen transfer membranes provides the opportunity to perform combustion of fuels in absence of nitrogen. The technology is the core of AZEP (advanced zero emission power plant).
Table 13 Critical indicators to further progress Storage of carbon dioxide

Technology component Storage Parameters of bottlenecks Retention time Critical indicators to further progress Leakage rate in percentage per year of stored carbon dioxide Comments Acceptable leakage rate is under discussion and is related to the need for how long the stored carbon dioxide must stay out of the atmosphere
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Generic cross-cutting and horizontal technologies

General
Innovative technologies for the generation, storage and distribution of energy originate from a heterogeneous technological eld. Among them are nanotechnology and biotechnology. Different scientic disciplines such as engineering sciences, computer science, life sciences and material sciences have to be combined for further development, and industrial applications have a longterm perspective. Due to this early stage of development little data is available for commercial evaluation. With a time horizon of 15 to 30 years for commercial application the focus has to be to identify bottlenecks within the process in order to shape research process towards efcient industrial use.
Innovative biotechnologies
Introduction
Biotechnological processes can be applied for the production of energy sources from various raw materials and sources. Established processes use biomass in order to generate hydrogen, ethanol, methanol, and acetone with butanol and ethanol (ABE). The processes listed below for the examples of ethanol and ABE characterise key issues for future industrial commercialisation of innovative advancement. Procedural details are outlined in the section hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and the section biomass. Innovative process optimisation focuses on the use of cheaper carbon sources and aim on the improvement of strains and strain metabolism by genetic engineering. A third area for innovation is the improved efciency of product recovery. Biogas and biomass for energy generation employ biotechnological techniques as well, however at present there are few efforts for high-tech improvement. Thus these techniques are solely discussed in the section biomass. A future trend of innovative biotechnology offers the application of photosynthesis for energy generation. At present this process is pure basic research. According to experts industrial applications are expected to have a long-term perspective for commercialisation. The chapter will outline underlying principles and trends towards industrial application.
Indicators for the evaluation of innovative biotechnologies

Innovative biotechnological processes for energy generation such as hydrogen production and light utilisation via articial photosynthesis share a number of bottlenecks with already established biotechnological processes such as ethanol production. For future industrial application the following aspects must be improved: stability of process (e.g. biological contamination, strain degeneration) end product and by-product inhibition of metabolic pathway share of desired end product of all metabolic products and/or high quality usability of byproducts production costs of biotechnological products compared to petrochemical products, mostly inuenced by required carbon source (e.g. glucose, molasses, starch, lignocelluloses, liquid waste material, solid waste material) operating costs of production plant (e.g. for water, steam, electrical power, additives (vitamins, trace elements)
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costs and practicability of downstream processing/product recovery compared to petrochemical processes willingness and availability of human resources to conduct biotechnological processes. frame conditions for biological processes (e.g. threshold of air and water pollution, CO2 emission). Table 1 summarises the bottlenecks for selected processes. The subsequent chapters in this report describe these processes in more detail by an analysis of the present state of the art, future perspectives, and key issues for improvement.
Table 1 Most critical bottlenecks for the industrial commercialisation of innovative biotechnological processes
Process Hydrogen production Bottleneck Low activity of the key enzymes hydrogenase and nitrogenase Critical indicators to further progress 1. genetic engineering of producer strain increase of specic activity of key enzymes inactivation of competing metabolic pathways 2. development of cell-free systems Today process efciency Supply with adequate amount of organic compounds Disposal of fermentative byproducts 5% Aim 10% Middle term Middle term Time horizon Long term
process development for various substrates (e.g. adjustment of process to utilise waste water) 1. process development with mixed cultures for the complete conversion into CO2 and H2 2. extension of substrate specicity of one organism by genetic engineering 1. genetic engineering of producer strain to grow on lignocelluloses integration of cellulase genes into ethanol producing bacteria (e.g. E. coli) integration of ethanol metabolism into plant pathogenic micro-organisms (e.g. Erwinia) Today Ethanol recovery rate on lignocelluloses > 90% (dependent on substrate) Aim 9095%
Middle term Long term
Ethanol production
Expensive carbon source
Long term
Short term
2. development of two-stepped process with an extra cellular hydrolysis of cellulose followed by fermentation Today Aim
Enzyme costs
0.18 US$ 0.018 US$ /l Ethanol /l Ethanol
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Process
Bottleneck Inhibition by side products
Critical indicators to further progress 1. development of biological, physical or chemical processes for detoxication 2. development of side product tolerant production strains by genetic engineering Today 2007 Aim ethanol production costs 0.32 US$/l EtOH 0.26 US$/l EtOH > 0.21 US$ /lEtOH
Time horizon Short term Long term
ABE production
Strain degeneration Expensive carbon source
Determination of gene localisation and stable integration of desired gene into the genome 1. genetic engineering of producer strain to grow on lignocelluloses 2. recycling of fermentation broth Today Butanol production costs 0.55 US $/kg butanol Aim > 0.44 US $ /kg butanol
Middle term Long term
Expensive product recovery Photosynthesis Short durability Low efciency
Development of more efcient methods for product recovery such as nanoltration Development of processes that allow ushing cells with fresh protein solution Development of thicker protein layers Today Efciency 1% Aim 20%
Middle term Long term Long term
All iotechnological processes
Human resources in traditional chemical industry lack qualications for the introduction of biotechnological processes Regulations and frame conditions often favour petrochemical alternatives
1. special advanced courses for technicians 2. integration of biotechnology into existing curricula
Short term Middle term
1. compulsory cost calculation that includes environmental effects 2. subsidies for environmental-friendly energy sources to be retained and/or extended
Short term Short to middle term
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Hydrogen
Present state of the art Three different metabolic principles can be applied for biological hydrogen production. All are in the status of basic research. Industrial application is expected for 20302040 (Cammack 2001). Table 2 Characteristics of three types of biological hydrogen production
Type Biophotolytic hydrogen generation Photoproduction of hydrogen Metabolism Oxygenic photosynthesis Anoxygenic photosynthesis Organisms Green algae, cyanobacteria Phototrophic bacteria Light required Yes Electron donor Water Products Hydrogen, oxygen Hydrogen, CO2, oxidised sulphur compounds
Yes
Organic compounds or reduced sulphur compounds Organic compounds
Fermentative hydrogen production from biomass
Fermentation
Fermenting bacteria
No
Hydrogen, CO2, organic compounds
Source: Rei and Hsing 1993
Future perspectives Biophotolytic hydrogen generation is an ideal type of biological hydrogen generation. However low efciency is due to the complex regulation of the key enzymes hydrogenase and nitrogenase. The production strain may be optimised by genetic engineering (e.g. increase of specic activity of hydrogen producing enzymes, inactivation of competing metabolic pathways) or the development of cell-free systems. Coupling of photoproduction and fermentation with waste-water treatment, as organic compounds are required as electron donors. Development of strategies for the integrated use of substrate and fermentation product. Development of bioelectronic fuel cells. Key issues for hydrogen Increase of efciency of the process towards the theoretical maximum (the present degree of efciency is 5%, the desirable degree for economic competitiveness is 10%) (Jaeckel et al.1993) Increase of the long-term stability of the process Development of a concept for commercial production plant including ecological supply with substrates, water, nutrients and use of resulting biomass. Previous experience has been gained solely from laboratory-scale work.
Ethanol
Present state of the art 31 million m3 ethanol produced worldwide per annum, more than 90% of world ethanol production is produced by fermentation. The USA produces 65% of worldwide production. Increase by over 40% is expected until 2006 due to extension of bioethanol programmes and specic regulations (e.g. EU directive for gasoline blends). Two-thirds of global ethanol production is used for the fuel sector.
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Figure 1 World fuel ethanol production 2001 v. 2006
Figure 2 Sector-specic use of ethanol
Established processes use sugars from sugar cane, sugar beet, corn and potatoes. Fermentation is generally carried out in large-volume fermenters by yeast fermentation followed by distillation for removal of the desired product. Production costs are in the range of 0.851.20 /l, with 0.240.32 /l for raw material (Schmitz 2004). At present basic research is carried out for fermentation of lignocelluloses as a cheaper raw material, which will reduce ethanol production costs by 15 cent/l. This process requires combination of mechanical disintegration, sulphuric acid hydrolysis, enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulases for the conversion of carbohydrates into monomeric sugars. Future perspectives New (transgenic) production organisms will allow the fermentation of ethanol from lignocelluloses (e.g. E. coli, Klebsiella oxytoca, Zymomonas mobilis). An economically sustainable process requires conversion rates of 90-95% of the sugar used into ethanol. Integration of the cellulose-hydrolysis into the ethanol production stage either by integration of ethanol biosynthesis into plant pathogenic bacteria (Erwinia) with a volumetric productivity of 1.5 g ethanol l-1 h-1 or integration of cellulase genes into ethanol producing E. coli.
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Development of measures for detoxication of (phenolic) by-products by biological treatment with laccase or fungi, chemical treatment (precipitation), or physical treatment (extraction, ion exchange) or development by-product tolerant production strains. Key issues for ethanol Cost-efcient hydrolysis of lignocelluloses into fermentable sugars without formation of inhibiting substances (at present production costs of bioethanol are calculated at approx. 0.3 /l of ethanol, competitiveness to fuel on crude oil basis is reached if production costs of ethanol are below 0.18 /l. Complete fermentation of all sugars (hexoses and pentoses) into ethanol, avoidance of byproducts (e.g. glycerine, succinate) Avoidance of contamination Minimisation of number of process steps Use of by-products Substrate diversication for year-round production-processes.
Acetone with butanol and ethanol (ABE)

Present state of the art Fermentative production of acetone with butanol and ethanol (ABE) was of industrial importance in the rst half of the 20th century. Now it has lost economic competitiveness in comparison to petrochemical processes. National importance under certain economic niche strategies may be possible (e.g. China). Basic research with Chlostridium acetobutylicum in order to elucidate regulative processes. Traditional ABE-fermentation is a strict anaerobic batch process with molasses, corn and potato mash as a carbon source. The process has to be sterile as it is prone to contamination. After the initial growth phase solventogenesis is induced at transition to a stationary phase. Final product concentrations reach 20 g/l (ratio 3:6:1 for acetone:butanol:ethanol) with a maximum of 12 g/l of butanol due to its toxicity. Increase in end product concentration is possible by specic mutants of Clostridium beijerininckii with productivity of 33 g/l ABE (ratio 3:16:1) (Qureshi 2001). Downstream processing and end product recovery is carried out by distillation. Future perspectives Development of production strains that maintain their capability of solventogenesis for an unlimited number of cultivation passages. Knowledge of organisation and localisation of genes involved in solventogenesis will allow the generation of stable strains by genetic engineering. Development of efcient measures to avoid phage contamination either by improved fermentation technologies or by development of phage-resistant strains (phage immunisation) Optimisation of product recovery by distillation, nanoltration Recycling of remaining fermentation broth (contains butyrate, acetate, non recovered butanol, biomass, formiate, lactate) as substrate for further fermentation such as biotechnological production of polyhydroxyalcanoate (PHA). As concentrations are low measures to concentrate the broth have to be developed (Parrer et al. 2000).
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Key issues for ABE Decrease of production costs by industrial development of cheaper and easily available raw material Development of energy-efcient downstream processing for cost-saving product recovery Improvement of long-term process stability and reproductivity (e.g. avoidance of phage contamination and degeneration of production strain) Approximation of practical process towards theoretical limits of yield and end product concentration Complete and high-grade usage of all fermentation products.
Photosynthesis
Present state of the art Principle: photosynthetic proteins (approximately 2 billion) from spinach and the bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides are harvested and deposited onto a glass support The glass substrate is coated with indium tin oxide as transparent electrode. The proteins are embedded in a synthetic membrane and covered with a soft layer of organic semiconductor. This is topped with a silver electrode (Rupa et al. 2004). Durability: 3 weeks Efciency: 1% (conventional silicon cells 20%), expected efciency: 20 to 30% Major problem: light goes straight through the device, as protein layer is too thin. Future perspectives Longer-lasting photovoltaic cells, from self-repairing proteins and by ushing the cell with fresh protein solution Cheaper and environment-friendly production of biological cells (Baldo, personal communication 2004). Key issues for photosynthesis Number of proteins to be packed into the device in order to increase the power output, as efciency of biological solar cells is too small compared to conventional silicon solar cells. Durableness of biological solar cells is still too short compared to conventional silicon solar cells. Figure 3 Articial photosynthetic solar cell
Green machine. In this prototype solar cell, photosynthetic proteins (spheres embedded in yellow peptides) absorb light and pump electrons (e) into a silver electrode.
(Source: M. Baldo)
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Material sciences Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology has the potential to signicantly impact energy efciency, storage and production. Nanotechnology as a multidisciplinary eld refers broadly to the creation and use of materials, devices and systems in a size range far below that of human vision or even conventional microscopes, i.e. at nanoscale dimensions (1 to 100 nanometres). At this scale the fundamental characteristics of elements such as colour, strength, weight, conductivity, etc change in unexpected ways. Taking advantage of these, industries are engineering novel materials, some of which have never before been identied in nature. All conventional materials like metals, semiconductors, glass, ceramic or polymers can, in principle, be obtained with a nanoscale dimension. The main classes of nanoscale structures can be summarised as: nanoparticles constitute several hundreds or thousands of atoms or molecules with a variety of possible shapes. Besides carbon black, which has been used industrially for a long time, metal oxide and compound semiconductor nanopowders are of especial importance. carbon nanotubes and fullerenes are a special class of nanoparticles that are expected to nd a broad range of applications. nanocomposites and -ceramics are currently the most important class of nanostructured materials. Through nanoscale engineering of surfaces and layers a vast range of functionalities and new physical effects can be achieved. The most important of these regarding power applications are thermal and chemical properties and electrical and magnetic properties. Nanotechnology materials are already applied to a large number of industrial sectors for various applications and offers exciting new possibilities for addressing key challenges for the generation, storage and transmission of energy (see Table 3). Table 3 Thematic coverage of nanotechnology for the energy sector
Energy generation Energy transformation Energy storage Efciency improvement of conventional technology Fuel additives
Nanoparticles Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes Nanocomposites / Nanoceramics
Dye solar cells Organic solar cells Catalysts
Metal oxides/metals Hydrogen storage supercondenser Nanostructured membranes and electrodes for fuel cells, batteries and accumulators Super conducting cables Super conducting storage coils
Nanoceramics and coatings Magnetic materials OLEDs for displays and lighting
Super conducting materials
Indicators for the evaluation of nanotechnology

Table 4 summarises the bottlenecks for selected processes. The subsequent parts of this report describe the processes in more detail by an analysis of the present state of the art, possible applications and key issues for improvement.
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Table 4 Most critical bottlenecks for the industrial commercialisation of (nano) materials
Process Dye solar cells Bottleneck Measure for improvement / Indicator Time horizon Medium term Medium term
Long-term stability Use of alternative particle materials Maximum obtainable Use of alternative material combinations solar efciency Today Aim Solar efcien Industrial production process Dye material price per gram 8% Today 1750 15% Aim 10
Long term
Nanotubes and fullerenes (general) Organic solar cells
(Mass) production process with controllable material properties
Price today: 150 per gram (single-walled NTs)
Long term
Sensitivity to air and Use of alternative materials moisture Maximum obtainable Use of alternative material combinations solar efciency 2004 Solar efcacy Industrial production process Aim: 0.5 /Wp Today: 2% (at 77 K) 0.6 mass % (room temperature) 3% 2010 5% 2015 10% Long term Long term
Carbon nanotube High adsorption hydrogen storage rates under ambient working conditions Supercondenser Catalyst materials Nano fuel additives Cheap electrode material Price efciency of catalysator
See nanotubes and fullerene (general) See nanotubes and fullerene (general) Use of alternative catalyst material
Long term Long term medium to long term Short to medium term
Price of Detection of other suitable materials nanoparticles (use of Problem depends on fuel price rare earths) Greater temperature gradient Improved materials with higher t across Thermal Barrier Coating Today t across TBC 175 k Aim > 250 k
Nano coatings
Short to medium term
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Process Magnetic Materials LEDs
Bottleneck Production cost
Measure for improvement / Indicator Development of more effective processing methods, especially powder injection moulding (PIM) GaN LEDs are relatively new devices. Further research will improve their efciency 2005 2007 2012 2020 150 200
Time horizon Short to medium term Medium to long term
Quantum efciency for GaN LEDs
Stability of OLED materials, rapid aging of materials Expensive/inefcient production process for OLEDs Superconducting Critical temperature materials and anisotropy
Perfomance 25 50 of white LEDs (lm/W) Development of alternative materials Encapsulation of polymers
Medium to long term Medium to long term Long term
Development of alternative processes (loss of organic material << 95%) Identication of materials with higher critical temperature (77 K and above) Today Tc Anisotropy B 20 108 <<1 50-100 <30 T (4,2 K) <15 T (10 K) <10 T (77 K) Aim >> 77 K <10 3-10 T (at T>>77 K) 0.1 m (generators) 2 m (power cables)
Field
Mechanical stability
Bend radius
Nanoparticles
Dye solar cells Conventional photovoltaics with tailor-made III-V semiconductors have achieved a conversion of 30%. Dye solar cells (DSC) or Grtzel cells (Grtzel 2001) represent a recently developed class of solar cells, which is based on completely different principles to semiconductor technology. The basis for production is inexpensive thin-lm technology, such as that already applied in industrial processing of glass and polymers. This offers the potential for nancially attractive manufacturing. In the (nanocrystalline) DSC, sunlight is converted to another form of energy with the help of dye molecules, as also happens in photosynthesis. The lm of the cell contains TiO2 nanoparticles or quantum dots with a size distribution showing a wide range of electronic band gaps that determine the wavelength absorbed by the respective particle, so that much of the solar spectrum can be captured by the cell and transformed into electricity. The efciency value of dye solar cells is currently about 8% and the aim is to increase it to 15% in the future. The current cost to manufacture the dye material is between 17 and 50 per gramme. The longer-term goal is 10 per gramme (Malsch 2003; Fairley 2004). If DSCs can be made cheaply with an optimised distribution of nanoparticle diameters, properly aligned, this would form an ideal solar collector. Though several rms (e.g. Konarka) are working on rst prototypes to be used in mobile phones and handheld computers, the eld is young and changing rapidly. Major problems like long-term stability, maximum obtainable solar efciencies and industrial production methods still have not been sufciently claried (Fairley 2004).
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Carbon nanotubes and fullerenes Besides long-established materials like carbon black, nanostructured carbon consists of relatively new compounds like fullerenes (C60 molecules, Buckyballs) and carbon nanotubes (CNT). CNTs, which can occur single- or multiwalled, are predicted to have a wide variety of applications due to their outstanding properties like extremely high tensile strength, and excellent thermal and electrical conductance. The main barrier to a broad use of CNTs is due to the high price of approximately 150 per gram for single-walled nanotubes. The high price reects the early development stage of industrial production and purication. Several methods aiming at the mass production of CNTs have been proposed but they are still at the stage of small-scale laboratory tests. Since the properties of CNT vary depending on the diameter and other factors of nanotubes, it is necessary to control these factors. Though progress has been made it is not yet possible to control these factors to produce CNTs with uniform properties. (Tada 2002; Dai 2002) Organic solar cells Another alternative solar cell technology uses a composite material of a conjugated polymer and carbon nanotubes or fullerenes that form lms of about 200 nm thickness (Brabec et al. 2003). Such organic solar cells (OSC) still have low efciency values of about 3% under normal ambient conditions. The main reason is the low absorption of light in the thin organic layers. OSCs are potentially cheaper to manufacture than silicon or dye cells, but still highly sensitive to air and moisture, making commercial applications difcult. New material concepts, but also improvement of the optical properties, could change this. The aim is to increase the efciency of such plastic cells to 5% in ve years and 10% in the long run (Fairley 2004). A long-term goal is to reduce the cost of solar cells to below 0.5 /Wp. This technology is further developed by major enterprises such as Siemens. Hydrogen storage Due to their chemical properties, high surface area and low weight, CNTs and fullerenes are discussed as means for hydrogen storage. After a phase of initial euphoria this is being more critically reviewed today. Reproducible experiments show that a hydrogen storage capacity of up to 2 mass % (at very low temperatures) is possible in single-walled CNTs. The much higher absorption rates (510 mass %) that were published in the late 1990s seem to be the result of inaccurate experiments. At room temperature the gravimetric storage density drops to 0,6 mass %. Much research is also needed to obtain a controlled release of hydrogen from these materials under practical conditions. Despite interesting approaches in hydrogen storage research using CNTs, no breakthrough is in sight (Zttel 2004). Catalysts In general, nanoparticles have a high surface area, and hence provide higher catalytic activity. It is possible to synthesise metal nanoparticles in solution in the presence of a surfactant to form highly ordered monodisperse lms of the catalyst nanoparticles on a surface. This allows more uniformity in the size and chemical structure of the catalyst, which in turn leads to greater catalytic activity and the production of fewer by-products. It may also be possible to engineer specic or selective activity. These more active and durable catalysts could nd application in fuel cells, where the external surface properties and the pore structure affect performance. The hydrogen used as the immediate
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fuel in fuel cells may be generated from hydrocarbons by catalytic reforming, usually in a reactor module associated directly with the fuel cell. The potential use of nano-engineered membranes to intensify catalytic processes could enable higher-efciency, small-scale fuel cells. These could act as distributed sources of electrical power. It may eventually be possible to produce hydrogen locally from sources other than hydrocarbons, which are the feedstocks of current attention. Nanostructured catalysts using CNTs or other nanoparticles will also be applied in cleaning up waste streams. This will be particularly benecial if they reduce the demand for platinum-group metals, whose use in standard catalytic units is starting to emerge as a problem, given the limited availability of these metals. Although progress has been spectacular in the development of nanostructured catalysts, there are still major hurdles to be jumped before rational design of catalysts and other energy-related materials becomes a commercial reality (Steele/Heinzel 2001; Paschen et al. 2004). Supercondenser Electrochemical supercondensers (SCs) are another possibility for the short-term storage of energy. They are made up of two porous electrodes insulated by a separator paper impregnated with an ion-conducting medium or electrolyte. The combination of high specic area electrodes with an electrolyte of a high concentration of ions allows the creation of SCs of high potential and great ability to withstand charge-discharge cycles. SCs are a good complement to batteries and most suitable for the steady delivery of electric current, though they can also be used to compensate for short-term peak loads. Thus the integration of the SCs with other energy storage systems batteries or fuel cells allows a more rational design for electricity supply systems. Besides activated carbons, electrodes can also be formed from carbon aerogels or nanotubes. Both materials have a high surface area and good conductivity, and allow increasing the capacity of a SC signicantly. In addition the use of carbon as the electrode material offers the opportunity of low cost and easy accessibility (Frackowiak/Beguin 2001; Paschen et al. 2004). Fuel additives As additives to solid and liquid fuels nanoparticles can optimise ignition and burning characteristics. A general advantage of nanoscale particles or structures is that they can be mixed with the components of an energetic material on a molecular scale. This is the best possible mixture, and a precondition for a fast and complete chemical transformation. For solid rocket propellants aluminium nanoparticles can increase the burning rate in comparison to conventional aluminium powders (Paschen et al. 2004). Nanoparticles also promise a higher efciency of liquid fuels like diesel, meaning more kilometres per litre, cleaner engines and less pollution. These diesel additives consist of nanoscale cerium oxide particles, which catalyse the combustion reactions between diesel and air. Cerium oxide functions as a kind of oxygen store that is released to oxidise carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon gases to form carbon dioxide, and also absorbs oxygen to reduce the quantity of nitrogen oxides (Zhang et al. 2002). Cerium oxide has been studied for some time but has not become a commercial success yet, mainly due to the high price. Cerium oxide nanoparticles can be used at a much lower concentration since their greater surface improves the catalytic reaction. Various tests with this additive have been made in Hong Kong and Scotland. The Oxonica Corporation reports that up to 12% fuel economy benets were demonstrated in these eld trials under commercial operating conditions (Oxonica 2003).
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Nanocomposites
Nanoceramic coatings Coatings with thickness controlled at the nano- or atomic scale have been in routine production for some time, for example in Molecular Beam Epitaxy or metal oxide Chemical Vapor Deposition for optoelectonic devices, or in catalytically active and chemically functionalised surfaces. Thermal barrier coatings (TBC) are applied in order to reduce the heat ux between the surface and the substrate component. Depending on heat ow conditions and the thickness of the coating, the temperature difference across the thermal barrier coating can reach 175 C. TBCs are considered technologically important because of their ability to further increase the operating temperature of any kind of heat engine (combustion engine, gas turbine, etc), reduce cooling requirements, thus achieving higher engine efciency, lower emissions and increased performance. TBCs using nanoparticles provide better thermic and thermomechanic properties (lower thermal conductivity, better thermal stability and higher toughness) than current coatings. With such advanced TBCs it will be possible to increase the temperature difference across the thermal barrier coating to about 250 C enabling very high operation temperatures (1650 C) for gas turbines and propulsion engine systems (Zhu/Miller 2004). Besides coatings nanoceramics are important materials for other parts of power systems as well. Normally ceramics are hard, brittle and difcult to machine. However, with a reduction in grain size to the nanoscale, ceramic ductility can be increased. Zirconia, normally a hard, brittle ceramic, has even been rendered superplastic. Nanocrystalline ceramics, such as silicon nitride and silicon carbide, have been used in such automotive applications as high-strength springs, ball bearings and valve lifters, because they can be easily formed and machined, as well as exhibiting excellent chemical and high-temperature properties. They are also used as components in hightemperature furnaces. In all this applications the use of nanoceramics can help increase the operation temperature and thus the thermal efciency (Hahn 2004; Paschen et al. 2004). Magnetic materials Soft magnetic materials are those materials that are easily magnetised and demagnetised. They are used primarily to enhance and/or channel the ux produced by an electric current as in electrical generators, motors and power supply transformers. For this purpose the material is continuously cycled from being magnetised in one direction to the other. A high permeability, small conductivity and a narrow hysteresis loop is desirable in order to reduce losses and reach a high efciency. Hard magnets, also referred to as permanent magnets, are magnetic materials that retain their magnetism after being magnetised. In recent decades permanent magnets have become increasingly important as they are used in a wide variety of applications (automotive, industrial, astro and aerospace, etc.) Improved permanent magnets with signicantly reduced cost, increased maximum operating temperature and improved corrosion resistance may replace energy-consuming electro magnets for many applications. They can be used in white goods, such as washing machines, refrigerators etc, in order to improve energy efciency and reduce CO2 emissions. Another important use could be in generators for domestic combined heat and power units and in clean energy production such as windmills. The biggest potential however is in electric vehicles. Recently there has been much interest in nano-crystalline material, which is produced by annealing the amorphous material. These alloys can be single phase but are usually comprised of nano-sized grains, in the range 10-50nm, in an amorphous matrix. They have relatively high resistivity, low anisotropy and good mechanical strength. It has been shown that magnets made of nanocrystalline yttriumsamariumcobalt grains possess unusual magnetic properties due to their extremely
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large grain interface area (high coercivity can be obtained because magnetisation ips cannot easily propagate past the grain boundaries). This could lead to applications in motors, analytical instruments like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), used widely in hospitals, and microsensors. Overall magnetisation, however, is currently limited by the ability to align the grains direction of magnetisation. Though nanocrystalline materials have shown many good properties they have some drawbacks where the cost of production is still very high. Some more cost-effective production processes have been proposed but have not reached maturity (Inoue 2002, Ramanujan 2003). Nanostructured membranes for batteries and accumulators With the growth in portable electronic equipment (mobile phones, navigation devices, laptop computers, remote sensors), there is great demand for lightweight, high-energy density batteries. In the future, rechargeable batteries will become even more important in combination with renewable energy production such as photovoltaics. Nanocrystalline materials synthesized by solgel techniques are candidates for separator plates in batteries because of their foam-like (aerogel) structure, which can hold considerably more energy than conventional ones. Nickel-metal hydride batteries made of nanocrystalline nickel and metal hydrides are envisioned to require less frequent recharging and to last longer because of their large grain boundary (surface) area. There are mainly two types of rechargeable batteries where nanostructured materials are applied. The rst and most advanced is the dry lithium based battery. The other, wet type, uses the same materials as for hydrogen storage, metal hydrides or carbon nanotubes (Tarascon/Armand 2001). It was recently shown that transition-metal oxide nanoparticles can improve lithium-ion mobility which can not only enhance efciency but also allow a signicant extension to the number of cycles a rechargeable battery can withstand before it deteriorates. Light emitting diodes for displays and lighting Signicant changes in display and lighting technologies are expected in the next ten years. Semiconductors used in the preparation of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), as lighting can increasingly be sculpted at nanoscale dimensions. Roughly 1% of all electricity is consumed for lighting, including both incandescent and uorescent lights. Since incandescent light bulbs only convert 5% of the energy into light while even todays gallium nitride (GaN) LEDs have a light efciency between 60 and 90%. Since researchers believe that they can increase the quantum efciency of next-generation GaN LEDs close to 100% and though there are other loss mechanisms enormous energy savings will be possible In 10 to 15 years. Projections indicate that such nanotechnologybased lighting advances have the potential to reduce worldwide consumption of energy by more than 0.5% (Zorpette 2002). Organic LEDs consist of layers of organic thin lms sandwiched between two conductors. When an electric current is applied, bright, visible light is emitted. The devices are lightweight, durable, exible and power efcient, and hence ideal for portable devices but also for conventional application like TV sets and computer displays. They need fewer process steps and use fewer and cheaper materials than the well-established liquid-crystal displays, their marketplace rivals. Since it is believed that OLEDs can be as energy efcient as GaN LEDs, great energy-saving opportunities exist.
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Though the general principle of OLEDs is well researched there are still weaknesses. The dyes in organic solar cells and some of the light emitting polymers are very sensitive to air and moisture. The two industrial production processes in use today are relatively expensive, mainly due to the loss of 95% of organic material during the process (Niesing 2002).
Superconducting materials
For superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) electric energy is stored by circulating a current in a superconducting coil. Because there are no resistive losses, this current persists indenitely. The efciency of charging and discharging is very high because no energy conversion is needed, and for the same reason SMES can respond rapidly, only limited by the time required for AC/DC-conversion. SMES can also be used for load levelling and frequency and voltage control, which will probably be the rst application of this technology. A large-scale application depends on achieving high critical current densities to be cost-competitive with other technologies. At present niobium-titanium, niob-tin and bismuth (2223) alloys are used for storage as well as for transmission purposes at liquid helium or hydrogen temperatures. Widespread use of superconducting materials for higher critical temperatures (at liquid nitrogen temperature and above) still requires more research and development (Labalestier 2001). Recent theoretical studies of NIST and the University of Pennsylvania show that changing the shape of CNTs can reveal new properties including superconductivity and might be used as a material for power applications in the long run (Dag et al 2003). Superconducting transmission lines could reduce resistive losses, but requires energy for cryogenic cooling of the cables. It should be possible to use existing tunnels for these cables, thereby reducing cost while increasing the transmission capacity (Dresselhaus 2001). Since high powers are involved, careful considerations have to be made about the consequences of a failure of cooling. An enormous amount of energy would be released immediately when the superconductor turns into a normal conductor (10 MWh of stored energy would be equivalent of 1.18 tonnes of TNT). In 2003 American superconductors was selected by the Long Island Power Authority to supply the rst high-temperature superconducting power transmission cable (Bi-2223 at 108 K). Cables manufactured by Nexans will provide three to ve times more power than conventional cables of the same size (Lane 2003).
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European Commission EUR 21611 Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References Luxembourg: Ofce for Ofcial Publications of the European Communities 2005 105 pp. 21.0 x 29.7 cm ISBN 92-894-9169-8
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Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators are needed to monitor the status of research and technological development (state of the art), related research and industrial evolution and to dene realistic targets or objectives for future activities. Such indicators and data, when properly dened and validated, are a useful tool for policy drivers, decision-makers, programme managers, potential investors, bankers, technology end-users, etc. They record the complex links between energy use, energy technologies, industrial developments, market needs and socio-economic activities. This study identies and justies a preliminary set of critical indicators and references of a scientic, technological or techno-economic nature. These indicators are based on the present state of the art and characterise the major bottlenecks to be overcome or the main challenges to be addressed by each technology in its future development.

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EUROPEAN COMMISSION

C o m m unity res earc h

Energy Scientific and Technological Indicators and References

The full version of this report is available at: http://www.eu.fraunhofer.de/estir/

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Directorate-General for Research 2005 Sustainable Energy Systems EUR 21611

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Renewable energy sources ................................................................................................................................ 27

Power storage technologies and integration of distributed generation of energy.......................................................................................................... 65

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Generic cross-cutting and horizontal technologies ............................................................ 91

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

A more complete description can be found at http://www.eu.fraunhofer.de/estir/

Abbreviations of fuel cell types:

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Fuel cells and hydrogen technologies

Table 1 - State of the art of different fuel cell types

Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks

Source: FhG-ISI, according to manufacturer estimations

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks

Table 2 Quantitative parameters for characterisation of critical bottlenecks

Unit /kW h % /kW h % /kW h % /kW h % /kW h % /kW h %

8,500 21,560 47 16,000-20,000 2,000-5,000 40-45

1,500 40,000 50 1,500 40,000 50

2007 2009 2007 2015 2015 2010

SOFC (planar design, stationary) source [4]

[1] MTU 2004a [2] MTU 2004b [3] Michelin 2004

[4] FZ-Jlich 2004 [5] Siemens Westinghaus [6] Ned-Stack 2005

Rough estimate as no prototypes exist.

Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress

Table 3 Critical indicators to further progress MCFC, industrial applications

Investment cost Lifetime

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

(FZ Jlich 2004/2005)

*without noticeable degradation (FZ-Jlich 2005)

Technology component Stack

Parameters of bottlenecks Lifetime/ reliability

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Table 6 - Critical indicators to further progress PEMFC, transport applications

200 - 250 ? 25 12 2006

Technology component Fabricating process

Parameters of bottlenecks Investment cost

Table 7 Critical indicators to further progress DMFC, portable applications

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Table 8 Critical indicators to further progress AFC, smaller scale applications

This technology is also feasible in the context of nuclear power plants.

Table 9 State of the art of different hydrogen technologies

considered in the biomass section considered in the section cross-cutting technologies

Technical and socio-economic bottlenecks

Energy Scientic and Technological Indicators and References

Parameters for characterisation of the critical bottlenecks

> 2015 > 2013

1,000* < 8* 1,000* 0.07* > 14* 1,000* 200* 6-13*

2015 > 2015 2015 2015 -

2-3 > 1,000 1.5-2

[7] SKH2 2005

Analysis of the critical indicators to further progress