Smart Electrification with Renewables: Empowering a Sustainable Energy Transition
Demands for electrification are higher than ever in a largely automated and electrified world. A versatile, fit-for-purpose, and adjustable power supply is crucial for businesses, structures, and infrastructures due to the unique demands and difficulties of each application. Because power is a lever to boost availability and profitability and is essential to promote digital transformation, this becomes ever more crucial in the age of digitization. From switchgear, switchboards, distribution systems, and bus bar trucking systems to protection and power quality equipment, switching and measuring equipment, industrial switching and control technologies, and electrical installation equipment, these devices cover a wide range of applications.
SMART ELECTRIFICATION WITH RENEWABLES
BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF ENERGY TRANSITIONS
Simply said, an energy transition denotes a significant transformation of the energy system. Major adjustments are made to the energy supply, the way it is produced, transformed, delivered, and consumed, as well as a variety of markets and legislation. It also has significant ramifications and consequences on other aspects of the economy, culture, and environment that extend far beyond the energy system itself.
THE FORCES DRIVING THE CURRENT TRANSITION OF ENERGY
In the twenty-first century, it has become increasingly obvious that the widespread production and use of fossil fuels is contributing to major issues, including climate change and ecological and environmental harm. A new energy transition based on energy efficiency and renewable energy can be imagined and created as a result of the acceleration of global innovation in energy research and technology.
THE MOVEMENT TO SMART ELECTRIFICATION BRINGS MANY IMPORTANT BENEFITS
- Smart electrification can increase the flexibility and resilience of power networks while also increasing the security and decreasing the reliance on fossil fuels of the larger energy system. It also provides significant increases in energy use efficiency at the same time. Smart electrification will actually lower total energy demand for the same amount of energy services and increase economic productivity because using electricity for end uses like transportation and building heating systems is more efficient than using fossil fuels. Additionally, it lessens pollution, which enhances both air quality and health.
- New synergies between smart electrification and renewable energy sources themselves are also made possible.
- A vastly different system is created by smart electrification. With this system, there will be a huge increase in the overall demand for power in buildings, industry, and transportation, which opens up new markets. The main suppliers to these new markets will be solar and wind.
Therefore, smart electrification using renewable energy produces a positive feedback loop in which electrification spurs new applications and markets for renewable energy, which then quickens the transition to electricity for end uses, opening up the possibility of greater flexibility and spurring additional renewable energy growth and technological advancement.
SMART ELECTRIFICATION WITH DIFFERENT SECTORS
BUILDINGS
Currently, 30% of worldwide final consumption is used by buildings. Moreover, half of its energy is provided by biomass, natural gas, or oil. About 70% of the energy used in buildings is used by homes and other dwellings, with the remaining 40% going to commercial and government structures. Currently, 51% of the energy utilized in commercial and public buildings comes from electricity, compared to 24% for residential structures.
INDUSTRY
About 28% of the 119 EJ of energy that was consumed as electricity was used to supply the energy is the total global final consumption of the industrial sector. About 60% of industrial energy demand is accounted for by the four energy-intensive industrial commodities cement, iron and steel, ammonia, and ethylene. Fossil fuels are the only source of non-energy consumption; of these, 70% are used as a feedstock for the manufacturing of ethylene (using primarily oil), while the remaining 30% are used to produce methanol and ammonia (using mainly natural gas).
TRANSPORT
Currently, just about 1% of the approximately 121 EJ of energy required for transportation—including the movement of people and goods by land, air, and sea—is provided by electricity (IEA, 2020a). Globally, more than two thirds of that electricity is utilized for rail transportation, with trams and subways using the majority of the remainder.
CONCLUSION
In order to illustrate the appealing synergies between renewable energy and electrification across sectors, this scoping paper has outlined the fundamentals of smart electrification with renewables in the transport, building, and industrial sectors. The research also describes strategies to take advantage of these synergies and create a future with better energy systems, better health, a higher standard of living, and a lower risk of potentially disastrous climate change. It will take careful planning, political will, and comprehensive national energy strategies and roadmaps to make this shift because offering effective pathways to electrification with renewable energy sources can be challenging.
Author: Sachetanand