Energy and mobility are the main causes of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and they also have other environmental impacts (e.g. land use). Nationwide and around Europe major structural changes are needed in both areas in the forthcoming decades. In the energy sector almost the entire stock of power stations, the transport and distribution networks as well as the energy improvement of the building stock will need to be renewed. In the transport sector the changes depend on the decision whether, when and how for reasons of climate protection and distribution of risk the transport sector can be operated electrically and new fuels can gain market entry.
Structural changes in the energy and transport sectors are linked to major long-term investments, and these investments require secure foundations for decision making. The research group draws up robust development pathes both at national and at international level, addressing the following questions: - Which ecological, economic and social demands will be placed on sustainable energy and mobility structures – particularly concerning climate and resources compatibility and what could such structures look like (identification of deadlines).
- Which combination of technologies, infrastructures and other system elements might be necessary to enable the transfer into the mentioned structures (transformation path)
- What are the implications of this transformation process and which ecological, economic, systematical or social unrequested adverse effects could be connected to the transformation process (effect analysis)
- Which consequences and possible courses of action could arise for political, economic and social actors for the realization of tranformation pathes (conception)
The goal of the research group is to generate practical knowledge about sustainable structures on the regional, national and international scale. This knowledge will be provided to social actors from policy, civil society and economy. For this purpose quantitative targets will be derivated and the resultant necessary system tranformations will be conveyed into strategies, conceptions and action areas. Relevant methods are e.g. the analysis of multi criteria, life cycle, scenarios and perspectively agent based modelling.
Furthermore, our goal is to achieve a better understanding of the numerous interdependencies between energy structures and mobility structures at the system level (Understanding systems and system changes).
For this reason, we take an integrated approach that is focused on both sectors - in analysing the introduction of new energy carriers (electricity or fuels), including the establishment of new infrastructures and options for making them available (see Topic Online "Alternative Fuels and Energy Carriers");
- in identifying how each sector (e.g. transport, private households, industry) can contribute to climate protection, considering in particular demand-side measures (increasing energy efficiency);
Presently Research group 1 is working on three main research spheres: - Development potentials of complex low-carbon-energy systems and mobile systems.
in this key area we analyse and develop paths of low-carbon-tranformations. Actually, research projects are realized with the goal to generate comparison analysis of long-term and sustainable low-carbon-strategies for the EU, Germany and other countries (e.g. Czech Republic, Iran, Tunisia, Turkey). Analysis of problems and movement of visions will be carried out on the level of metropolises (big cities) (e.g. Munich, Düsseldorf or Wuxi, China) as well as on the level of branches (see Topics Online "Scenarios for a Sustainable Low Carbon Society"). - Low-Carbon-Technologies
in this key area generally technically oriented climate protection strategies are identified and particularly discussed and evaluated with regard to the systematic frame conditions as well as their specific interdependencies and adverse reactions in the transformation process. One example is the carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a potential relevant climate protection technology (see Topic Online "Carbon Capture and Storage"). One more strategy is electro mobility, but there are strong interdependencies between the energy system and mobility system. - Infrastructures for Low-Carbon-Systems
Renewable energies are already integrated into the energy system and the mobility system. Therefore, it is necessary to put more effort to the question according to the complete changeover of these systems. The embedding of these aspects into the context of long-term and sustainable low-carbon-strategies requires special spatial and intertemporal simulations.
The research group's perspective is both national and international and it can build on various experiences gained in successful third-party-financed projects. A differentiated set of methodological approaches is available for these analyses. It includes various scenario approaches, tools for resource use, models for projecting demand for energy and transport services as well as demographic, infrastructure- and learning curve models. |
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