iNANO lecture of the week - open to all Please Note Change of Location Vice-Dean for Research & Chairman of the European Energy Research Alliance Henrik Bindslev <http://inano.au.dk/fileadmin/inano/iNANO_lectures/2011/06/CV_Bindslev_01.pdf> Faculty of Science and Technology Aarhus University Aarhus, Denmark Title: Flexibility in the future energy system Time: Friday 17 June 2011, at 10:15am Coffee and bread will be served from 10:00 Location: AUD F (1534-125), Department of Mathematics Abstract: Delivering on necessary climate change mitigation requires deep reductions in CO2 emissions associated with production of electricity, transport and other energy related services. To bring costs to a level where societies across the Globe will accept them we need radical evolution of existing technologies and emergence of new technologies. Those who are successful in this will also reap great opportunities in terms of wealth and job creation. So the race is on. This lecture will look at challenges and opportunities both in individual technologies and in their interplay. With an increased share of renewable energy resources in the energy mix the system needs to be accommodating of asynchronous fluctuations in production and consumption. Energy storage and conversion between energy carriers such as electricity, gaseous and liquid fuels, and heat will be essential. Biomass provides valuable flexibility, but is a limited resource and must be used optimally and integrated with production of electricity, heat and synthetic fuels. The recent cost reductions in exploitation of shale gas drive investments in gas infrastructures. These may well impact on the character of the future flexible energy system and open an interesting interplay of bio-synthetic gas and electricity in a smarter grid. Making it economically feasible does, however, require breakthroughs not least in nanotechnologies.