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Internationally shaped working groups
The ESYS working group "Governance for a European Energy Union" examines the legal, political and economic framework of European energy policy. In April 2018, the working group members discussed in an expert discussion with European energy experts what scope the EU and the member states have for reducing CO2 emissions and increasing the share of renewables in the energy supply. How the fluctuating electricity load can be balanced across the EU and what framework conditions are needed for this was the topic of a seminar in Brussels organised by ESYS in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
In collaboration with Royal Society and IASS Potsdam the Academies' Project "Energy Systems of the Future" has organized a workshop on the international potentials of Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU). The question of how CO2 can be separated and stored by bioenergy (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, BECCS) also played an important role in the ESYS working group "Bioenergy". The working group also examined how the potential of bioenergy can be correctly assessed at the international level and how negative consequences for the environment and food safety can be mitigated.
Exchange with international energy projects
In a globalised world, solutions for the restructuring of national energy supply cannot be found on their own - governments, but also players from science, research and industry have to get into conversation and learn from each other. This is why ESYS exchanges information with related scientific cooperation projects. ESYS scientists thus accompany the project initiated by acatech and the Federation of German Industries (BDI) "Pathways into the energy future. The transformation of energy systems in an international perspective." Within the framework of delegation trips, it examines how the transformation of energy systems is taking place in selected G20 countries and what opportunities this presents for Germany. Previous trips took participants to USA, to China, South Korea and Japan as well as to Australia.
At the European level there are points of commonality between ESYS and the network of European technical academies Euro-CASE (European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering). With 6,000 members, this umbrella organization bundles the competence of technical academies from 23 countries in Europe. Reinhard F. Hüttl, Vice President of acatech and member of the ESYS Board of Trustees, chairs Euro-CASE as President. One of four focal points is energy policy. Experts from 16 academies work within the energy platform of Euro-CASE on questions of future European energy and climate policy. A steering committee chaired by Eberhard Umbach (member of ESYS) accompanies their work.
