Ad van Wijk: “The energy sector has nothing to do with energy companies anymore”
Energypost.eu |September 2, 2015 | Sonja van Renssen
Dr. Ad van Wijk, PhD
“The energy sector will develop outside of energy companies,” predicts Ad van Wijk, Professor for Future Energy Systems at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. Academic, sustainable energy entrepreneur and innovator, one of Europe’s most influential thinkers describes the paradigm shifts he sees: a switch to LED lighting, a DC grid, and fuel cell cars, plus the emergence of the Internet of Things and 3D printing.
Originally a physicist, with a PhD in wind energy and electricity production, Van Wijk went on to found consultancy Ecofys in 1984. It later became part of Econcern, a company founded by Van Wijk, which he wanted to turn into “the Shell of renewable energy”. In its heyday it owned a wide range of activities and assets, including an offshore wind farm, several multi-MW solar farms, a bio-methanol plant, energy-producing greenhouses, and a production company making electric vehicles. It also launched a tool to visualise energy consumption in buildings. Thanks to Econcern, Van Wijk was elected Entrepreneur of the Year in the Netherlands in 2007 and Top Executive of the year in 2008. The company turned out to be too ambitious, however, and went bankrupt the next year when the economic crisis hit. Ecofys and several other parts of the business were bought by Dutch utility Eneco...
Q: What is your vision for the future of our energy system?
snip
Q: What is the size of the efficiency improvement from LED lighting?
snip
Q: Apart from LED, what are the other two paradigm shifts you see coming?
snip
Q: And what about your final big paradigm shift?
A: Third, is the fuel cell car. Many car manufacturers are now working on this and it is being introduced in California, Germany, South Korea and Japan. The fuel cell car can produce electricity – it is an electric car with an electric motor – but the power comes not from the car’s batteries but is produced on board by a fuel cell converting hydrogen to electricity. The efficiency of this fuel cell is high, 60%.
The idea is that when this car is parked somewhere, it can also produce the electricity for your house, the grid, your office etc. Indeed every fuel cell engine, with about 100kW, can provide the electricity for 100 houses, not just one. The potential electricity production capacity of our cars – if they became fuel cell cars – is ten times that of our power plants worldwide. In Europe, we buy as much electricity production capacity in cars every year, as twice our power plants.
CHAdeMO plug on a Toyota Hydrogen Mirai-Plug your house into your car!
and be powered for up to a week on a full tank of H2
So we can replace our power plants by cars. You could build a parking lot for example, where you connect cars to a hydrogen production facility and to the electricity grid. When there is a surplus of electricity production from wind or solar, you produce hydrogen and store it in the tank of the car. When there is less electricity production, the car can produce the electricity that is needed.
Q: The car becomes both a store and producer of electricity?
A: Yes...snip
More: http://www.energypost.eu/ad-van-wijk-energy-sector-nothing-energy-companies-anymore/
also on CleanTechnica
Energy Sector “Will Develop Outside Of Energy Companies,” Says Ad van Wijk
https://cleantechnica.com/2015/09/07/energy-sector-will-develop-outside-of-energy-companies-says-ad-van-wijk/
Biography
Prof. Dr. Ad van Wijk (1956) is one of the most influential sustainable energy entrepreneurs and innovators in Europe, and has extensive experience of both scientific research and education. He studied physics at Utrecht University, where he obtained a PhD on the strength of research into wind energy and electricity production. Van Wijk held a responsible position at Utrecht University, where he headed the Energy and Environment research group. In 1984, Van Wijk founded the company Ecofys (which later became part of Econcern). Econcern supplied services and products relating to sustainable energy and energy-efficiency, and Van Wijk was chairman of the board until 2009...snip
http://www.tnw.tudelft.nl/en/about-faculty/departments/radiation-science-technology/organisation/scientific-staff/profdr-ajm-van-wijk/
= new reply since forum marked as read
