Stories of #TeamScience

Scientific research is rarely performed by an individual scientist: it usually involves the work of an entire team of people. Moreover, some topics and challenges are so large and complex they require multidisciplinary solutions. On the corridor of the third floor of the EEMCS faculty – which stands for Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science – is a remarkable group of scientists who are working on the transition to sustainable energy. In this long read, we speak with Peter Palensky, who heads the Electrical Sustainable Energy department, and with Laura Ramírez Elizondo, associate professor of microgrids, about the important role played by energy hubs in the energy transition.

The energy hub orchestra

It works in the same way as an orchestra, Peter Palensky explains. You have a violin and a piano, they play different parts, but together they are the orchestra. “Each individual part does what it is good at. In the energy system, we have to start thinking in the same way – no longer isolated as it has been up to now. And we have the technology to really change.” He is referring here to AI – the artificial intelligence that can take decisions to allow the energy hub to work. “This cannot be done on paper. We also need the cloud and data for this to succeed.”
In one of his research projects, he is developing a roadmap in partnership with the energy sector: how can these energy hubs be used as efficiently as possible? Palensky: “We need to electrify the final three sectors that are still completely gas-based – the transport sector, industry, and our heating. One way of doing so is to convert electricity on industrial sites into hydrogen or other synthetic gases, and for that you need energy hubs.”

Flexibility and coordination

For fellow-researcher Laura Ramírez Elizondo, too, energy hubs are an important part of her research. “Problems are already occurring on the electricity grid; it is getting full and clogging up. That causes disruption and that is something we wish to prevent. At the same time, we no longer wish to use gas in the Netherlands, and with the help of energy hubs, that should be possible.”
There is another benefit, in addition to reducing the burden on cables, she explains. “An energy hub has the ability to integrate and optimise all the various energy carriers, which increases flexibility.” And it is precisely flexibility that is needed with sustainable energy. In simple terms, this is because the supply is not always the same – the wind may be strong, it may be cloudy or sunny – and because people and businesses use more power at certain times than they do at others.

Ramírez Elizondo is working on the home as an energy hub, energy hubs at district level, and charging stations. “Imagine a new type of charging station, where you could charge different electric vehicles. This charging station also has batteries, hydrogen infrastructure for storing the electricity, thermal energy storage, and PV-T panels. The electricity or heat that is generated there can be used locally – in the nearby homes, for example, or in the rural areas around them. This hub would gain a kind of autonomy, working autonomously on optimum storage and distribution of the available power.”
The right word is perhaps ‘coordination’, says Ramírez Elizondo. “It is not just about exchanging energy, but actually about the coordination of the various parties in order to create synergy.”

From wind farm to home

Her own doctorate was about the use of energy hubs in residential districts. And although that was years ago, it became clear at the time from her research that even if you include ‘old-fashioned’ gas in the energy hub, the use of primary energy sources could be reduced by thirty percent through smart coordination. “By using the energy carriers correctly, you use the energy sources much more efficiently – optimally, even”.
Nonetheless, energy hubs are still not used everywhere, strangely enough. She says: “What we are showing and researching is not what the world looks like now: we are showing the potential.”

Peter Palensky adds: “What Laura is working on, energy hubs for homes and residential districts, is complicated to achieve. That is because, unlike an offshore wind farm or industrial site, you have to deal with people, the residents. And with their wishes and fears. People are, quite simply, complicated.”
Laura Ramírez Elizondo: “I think industry is one of the most interesting challenges. Take an industrial area like Europoort – that is where the serious energy challenges lie in the next decade. If we want to completely electrify it, you will end up with a system with hydrogen pipelines and heat pipelines and power pipelines and a timetable for all these things, so you automatically end up with an energy hub.”

We make the difference

“I really do believe in energy hubs,” says Laura Ramírez Elizondo. “Do you know why? Because everything in life works like that – synergies create more progress than do individual plans. You achieve more in a team than when working on your own. I believe in the concept; coordination really does move us further.” Peter Palensky is also driven by a strong inner motivation. “Yes, to be honest, I would like to save the world.”
For these scientists, the solution is perfectly clear – we must stop using all fossil fuels as quickly as possible. Palensky: “The only difficult thing to understand is why this transition is not proceeding much more quickly. We starting thinking about this in the 1970s, after the first oil crisis. We are now fifty years down the road. I am disappointed that politicians and businesses still say, ‘let us continue using oil and gas, and we’ll see what happens’. After all, we can work out now exactly what is going to happen. Oil will run out, and before that happens, the earth will have heated up so much that it will not be able to support life. You can literally work this out, and yet people are resigned to it.”
So, through his research, he would really like to make a difference. “You can also become an activist. My choice is to do research. I would like to design the system of the future, a system that is also of economic interest to businesses. And reliable. I believe it can be achieved. Look at where Wall Street investors are looking – at wind and solar energy. It is almost unbeatable, because the primary energy is free.”
Sustainable energy is also very inclusive at a national level, because the sun shines on the poor man’s roof too. And the technology is accessible. “It’s not rocket science. You can install it yourself. In the past, energy was always a means for exercising power, to repress. Wherever there’s oil, there are wars. Renewable energy is a completely different, new type of product.”

The Future

Students no longer need any explanation about climate change, as both researchers know. Palensky: “The students are our secret weapons; they must get the best-possible teaching in the light of this topic. They themselves are keen to make an impact.”
Laura Ramírez Elizondo adds: “Today’s students find themselves in an environment in which people talk about recycling, about sustainability, about climate change.”
Palensky: “The only thing is, it is dishonest to make students, make us all, think it’s our responsibility – that what you buy in the supermarket will make a difference. But that’s not true. The only thing that will really make a difference are policy decisions and decisions by businesses and industry. As scientists, we can’t take the decisions: all we can do is show the potential as effectively as possible. After that, it’s out of our hands.”

The Sad Reality

Do they not get downcast at the state of the world and the current political climate in the Netherlands and Europe? Ramírez Elizondo: “Disasters sometimes occur, which are sometimes the triggers that are needed to bring about change – that is the sad reality. It is our responsibility to use these disasters as a gateway to transformation.”
Palensky: “We have to be persistent. I am reminded of a valedictory speech by one of our professors of wind energy. He spoke of how he had faced opposition throughout his career, funding was stopped, colleagues tried to get him removed, for 35 years, but he did not give up. And it bore fruit. He made the difference. He had a great deal of influence, on students, on industry, and on technology. He was right and he had known that from the very beginning. That is what we must do. Keep going. Current trends or the political climate will pass. We will not give up.”