Section 2 i) Initial Research Work - Gewerbliche Schule Ravensburg

Section 2i) Initial Research Work – German StudentsSummary of various presentations on the topic“Local businesses take an active part in shaping the future of our energyforms”,given at the Industrie- und Handelskammer, The Chamber of Industry andCommerce, in Weingarten, Germany, on February 22, 2011.First presentation by Dr. Ing. Karl-Friedrich Ziegahn, Program Director forEnergy and Environmental Research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology:“Energy: Challenge for Scientific Research and Industrial Development”Mr Ziegahn pointed out that traditional primary energy sources are still oil, coal,natural gas and nuclear energy. Alternative sources are wind, solar, geothermal,biomass, sea current and other energy sources. But whatever sources we mayswitch to they will have to fulfill the criteria that they supply sufficient amount ofelectricity, heat and mobility. Furthermore the energy sources we will rely on in thefuture will have to have sufficient availability to balance fluctuations in time andlocation, which means that they can be transported and stored easily. As recentprotests have shown, these energy sources also need consensus by the public.The motivating forces for research in energy are scarcity of resources, security ofenergy supply, economic efficiency and environmental impacts. By means of variousdiagrams Mr Ziegahn showed that renewable energy still plays a marginal role inglobal energy consumption. To reverse this trend Germany is aiming at reducinggreenhouse gas emissions, primary energy consumption and consumption ofelectricity. To achieve this aim Germany wants to increase the share of renewableenergy sources and improve energy efficiency. By 2020 29.2% of Germany’s totalelectricity will come from renewable energy sources. Wind energy is making up for40% of electricity production from renewable energies. Baden Württemberg andBavaria are lagging far behind although they have got huge capacities. Half of theEU’s and a third of the world’s electricity produced by wind is generated in Germany.Even in the generation of electricity by sun Germany takes a leading position. In2008 40% of the world’s photovoltaic power plants/installations were placed inGermany. Mr Ziegahn is convinced that solar energy gas got a huge capacity but hedoubts whether it can ever play a major role in a country like Germany with fewsunshine hours per year compared to Mediterranean countries for instance. Hewould rather have solar parks built in the Sahara where the world’s demand forelectrical energy could be easily satisfied but the problem is how to get the electric3