TITLE : The Energy Transition in Germany – Objectives, Status and Prospects for Superconductivity (conférence en anglais)

Lecturer : Pr. Dr. Ing. Mathias Noe, Directeur, Institute for Technical Physics, Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (Allemagne)

In Germany there is a major political consensus to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 80% (compared to 1990 level) and to increase the share of renewable electricity production to 80% by the year 2050. To achieve this a massive increase in electricity generation by renewable energy sources is needed and a stimulus system (i.e. a political subsidy system) already showed a significant impact with approximately 23% of electricity generated from renewables in 2013. The first part of the presentation gives an overview of the objectives of the German Energy Transition and summarizes the development and the status of renewable energies. The consequences and major challenges are discussed.

The second part of the presentation points out the prospects of superconducting power devices like cables, generators, transformers, fault current limiters and magnetic energy storage. It focusses on cables and fault current limiters because these devices are well developed and have seen up to now many successful field installations. Recently, the world’s longest superconducting cable (40 MVA, 10 kV, 1km) was commissioned in combination with a fault current limiter in an urban area grid of Essen, Germany.