The long-term impact of increased fossil fuel prices and market design on the market values of renewable generation

Following Russia\u27s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European countries took significant steps to reduce their reliance on energy imports from Russia, particularly in the gas and coal sectors. At the same time, to import less primary energy in the future, some countries have adopted new renewable energy targets. The question is to what extent the increase in gas and coal prices can contribute to refinancing renewable energy on the electricity wholesale market. To investigate this, an agent-based approach is used to examine the market values of renewable energies in several European countries until 2040. It is shown that increased expansion targets have a more substantial negative impact on the market values of renewable energies than increased gas and coal prices have a positive effect. In addition, it is observed that the introduction of capacity markets does not significantly influence market values and wholesale electricity prices in the medium term. However, by 2040, lower electric

A Comprehensive Study of Module Layouts for Silicon Solar Cells Under Partial Shading

Integrated applications for solar energy production becomes increasingly important. The electrification of car bodies and building facades are only two prominent examples. In such applications shading becomes a challenging problem, since the classic serial interconnection of solar cells in terms of power output is highly vulnerable to partial shading. In this article, we investigate the three most common module layouts in the market (conventional, butterfly, and shingle string) and add a fourth layout (shingle matrix) to be introduced to the market in the future. We discuss an approach to cluster shadings occurring in urban surroundings into basic shapes like “rectangular” and “random”. Choosing a Monte Carlo technique in combination with latin hypercube sampling (LHS), we consider more than 3000 scenarios in total. For the evaluation of the scenarios, we conduct circuit simulations using LTspice. Furthermore, we define a normalization base, which considers only partial shading as a quantitative baseline for comparison. Our results show, that already for 200–400 scenarios the obtained output values stabilize. Among the investigated module layouts, the shingle matrix interconnection achieves the highest score, followed by a shingle string, half-cell butterfly and the conventional full-cell layout

Parallel-in-Time Integration of the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert Equation with the Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time

Speeding up computationally expensive problems, such as numerical simulations of large micromagnetic systems, requires efficient use of parallel computing infrastructures. While parallelism across space is commonly exploited in micromagnetics, this strategy performs poorly once a minimum number of degrees of freedom per core is reached. We use magnum.pi, a finite-element micromagnetic simulation software, to investigate the Parallel Full Approximation Scheme in Space and Time (PFASST) as a space- and time-parallel solver for the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation (LLG). Numerical experiments show that PFASST enables efficient parallel-in-time integration of the LLG, significantly improving the speedup gained from using a given number of cores as well as allowing the code to scale beyond spatial limits.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 4 table

Einsatz von Strommarktmodellen zur Untersuchung der Versorgungssicherheit in Europa

Versorgungssicherheit ist eine der Zieldimensionen bei der Ausgestaltung von Energiesystemen. Die Energiekrise in Europa im Jahr 2022 hat grundlegende Fragen aufgeworfen, inwieweit die Stromversorgung noch gesichert ist. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll analysieren, mit welchen Methoden Energiesysteme und Versorgungssicherheit in der Fachliteratur untersucht worden sind. Es wird unterschieden zwischen Arbeiten zu kurz- und mittelfristiger, sowie langfristiger Versorgungssicherheit. Dazu werden einschlägige Arbeiten aus dem Bereich der Energiesystemanalyse betrachtet und die unterschiedlichen Modellierungsansätze herausgearbeitet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Optimierungsmodelle am häufigsten in der Analyse langfristiger Versorgungssicherheit eingesetzt werden, obwohl agentenbasierte Simulationsmodelle signifikante Vorteile bei der Untersuchung einzelwirtschaftlicher Anreize in liberalisierten Märkten, insbesondere unter Berücksichtigung von Auswirkungen politischer Entscheidungen aufweisen

Simulative Investigation of Thermal Capacity Analysis Methods for Metallic Latent Thermal Energy Storage Systems

Latent heat storage systems are a promising technology for storing and providing thermal energy with low volume, mass and cost requirements, especially when operated at high temperatures. Metallic phase change materials are particularly advantageous for high thermal input and output, which is especially important for mobile applications. When designing a storage system, it is essential to have precise knowledge about the potential storage capacity. However, the system’s storage capacity is typically calculated from material properties determined at lab scale, although systemic boundary conditions can have a considerable influence. Systemic influences can result from thermal and reactive interfaces or from the storage design. In order to consider these influences, we propose three calorimetric procedures to thermally analyse high-temperature metallic latent energy storage systems at an application scale. We examined the procedures in a transient simulation environment, monitoring the storage capacity of the system. The procedure, based on adiabatic conditions, shows the least deviation from the simulation input parameters, but is limited to the heating process of the storage. Discharging the storage can be represented by isoperibolic conditions with controlled heat exchange. The precision of the procedures depends on the evaluation routine, the calibration routine, the heat extraction rate and the thermal inertia of the test bench

Angemessenheit der Erzeugungskapazitäten in Deutschland bei einem Kohleausstieg im Jahr 2030

In dieser Arbeit werden die Auswirkungen auf die Angemessenheit der Erzeugungskapazitäten unter einem in das Jahr 2030 vorgezogenen Kohleausstieg in Deutschland analysiert. Zur Beantwortung der Fragestellung wird das agentenbasierte Strommarkt-Simulationsmodell PowerACE angewandt. Es werden zwei Szenarien untersucht: ein erstes Szenario mit den im Jahr 2023 in den Ländern implementierten Strommarktdesigns und ein zweites Szenario mit einem EU-weiten dezentralen Kapazitätsmarkt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass in beiden Szenarien die Angemessenheit der Stromerzeugungskapazitäten nach dem Kohleausstieg in Gefahr ist. Sowohl die Loss of Load Expectation als auch die Energy not Served sind mit einem Kapazitätsmarkt in Deutschland deutlich geringer als ohne, weshalb eine Anpassung des Marktdesigns vorteilhaft für die Zuverlässigkeit des Stromsystems wäre

First clinical experience of high-power ablation of atrial fibrillation with a novel contact force-sensing gold-tip catheter

Background: Contact force (CF)-sensing catheters are commonly used in the field of radiofrequency (RF) ablation to treat atrial fibrillation (AF). Increasing ablation power (e.g., 50 W) has been suggested as a method to reduce procedure times whilst creating safe and lasting lesions. Methods: We report the first clinical evidence of a 50 W point-by-point RF ablation in 25 consecutive patients with symptomatic AF using a novel CF-sensing catheter with a gold tip (AlCath Force, BIOTRONIK). We collected and analyzed procedural and ablation parameters. The safety and efficacy of the catheter were evaluated. Results: Altogether, 985 RF lesions in 25 patients were created with a mean number of 39.4 +/- 16.3 lesions per patient. The total skin-to-skin procedure time was 116.1 +/- 35.1 min, and the mean total area dose product was 10.9 +/- 5.1 Gy*cm2. The mean RF time per procedure was 13.2 +/- 6.6 min. The mean RF time per lesion was 20.2 +/- 8.4 s. The mean CF was 15.7 +/- 7.6 g. We observed a mean force time integral of 274.7 +/- 11.1 gs (range: 53 to 496 gs). Acute procedural success, defined as entrance and exit block in all pulmonary veins, could be obtained in all cases. No procedure- or device-related serious adverse events were observed. No audible steam pops occurred. Optical inspection of the catheter after the procedure showed neither charring nor clotting. Conclusions: We provide the first evidence for the safety and efficacy of 50 W ablation using the AlCath Force gold-tip catheter. These data must be supported by a larger multi-center study

I-BEAT: New ultrasonic method for single bunch measurement of ion energy distribution

The shape of a wave carries all information about the spatial and temporal structure of its source, given that the medium and its properties are known. Most modern imaging methods seek to utilize this nature of waves originating from Huygens' principle. We discuss the retrieval of the complete kinetic energy distribution from the acoustic trace that is recorded when a short ion bunch deposits its energy in water. This novel method, which we refer to as Ion-Bunch Energy Acoustic Tracing (I-BEAT), is a generalization of the ionoacoustic approach. Featuring compactness, simple operation, indestructibility and high dynamic ranges in energy and intensity, I-BEAT is a promising approach to meet the needs of petawatt-class laser-based ion accelerators. With its capability of completely monitoring a single, focused proton bunch with prompt readout it, is expected to have particular impact for experiments and applications using ultrashort ion bunches in high flux regimes. We demonstrate its functionality using it with two laser-driven ion sources for quantitative determination of the kinetic energy distribution of single, focused proton bunches.Comment: Paper: 17 Pages, 3 figures Supplementary Material 16 pages, 7 figure