Press Release | Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Leopoldina Symposium on the Technologies of Energy Storage
The importance of energy storage has grown with the expansion of renewable energy technologies because the yields from wind energy and photovoltaic installations fluctuate significantly. The supply of electricity is locally often less or more than the demand. These differences can be balanced out by a program for storing electricity. What role efficient and affordable energy storage will assume in the energy transition will be examined by scientists at the symposium entitled “Energiespeicher – der fehlende Baustein der Energiewende?“ (Energy Storage – the Missing Piece of the Energy Transition?), which will take place on Thursday, 6 February at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle (Saale).
Why do we need energy storage? Is it an alternative to network expansion? What is the best way that energy storage can be utilized for bringing about the energy transition and what must be done to convince consumers to adopt the corresponding technical solutions? The Leopoldina Symposium „Energiespeicher – der fehlende Baustein der Energiewende?“ on Thursday, 6 February will attempt to answer these questions concisely and intelligibly. In the morning session, the speakers – scientific and economic experts – will focus their attention on issues like the need for energy storage in the course of the energy transition, the behaviour of the consumer, as well as the utilization of energy storage for electrical grids and energy markets. In the afternoon session, feasible storage technologies will be introduced, including battery technologies beyond lithium and lead, chemical energy conversion and biological energy storage.
The academic preparations for the symposium were carried out by Prof. Dr. Robert Schlögl, Director of the Fritz Haber Institute at the Max Planck Society in Berlin and Leopoldina member. Further speakers will include, among others, Prof. Dr. Eberhard Umbach (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, KIT), Prof. Dr. Ortwin Renn (University of Stuttgart) as well as the Leopoldina member Prof. Dr. Ferdi Schüth (Max Planck Institute for Coal Research located in Mülheim an der Ruhr) and Prof. Rudolf K. Thauer (Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology Marburg).
Contact: Dr. Christian Anton, Telefon: 0345/472 39 861, E-Mail: christian.anton@leopoldina.org
Leopoldina Symposium
„Energiespeicher – der fehlende Baustein der Energiewende?“
Thursday, 6 February 2014, 10:00 to 17:00 hrs
National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Jägerberg 1, Halle (Saale)
