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Based on the discussion of the role of science as an orientation for social transformations, the lecture will first explore the basics of a transdisciplinary scientific approach combining and integrating classic curiosity driven research with goal oriented (advocacy) knowledge and catalytic, process-oriented expertise. This integration leads to process of co-generation aimed at merging different knowledge pools and providing orientation for collective action. The new transdisciplinary approach has several policy implications: a) it requires an interdisciplinary cooperation between technical, physical and social science expertise; b) it suggests having stakeholders participate not only in the interpretation of the results but also in shaping the research design from the beginning; and c) it requires a rigid monitoring system for assessing impacts and outcomes.
In a second step, the lecture will explain how these concepts have been applied to case studies to promote energy transitions in Germany The first example describes a transdisciplinary approach to design and prioritize climate protection and energy policies in the German State of Baden-Württemberg. It included roundtables with stakeholders, expert workshops with scientists, citizen panels with randomly selected participants and an internet forum. The process was instrumental for deigning a state climate protection plan in 2015. A second example will be the German Citizen Assembly on Climate Change Policies which was conducted in 2022. The process included an expert forum and a large assembly of randomly selected citizens. Stakeholder group representatives served as consultants to the two bodies of deliberation. The lecture will draw some general lessons from these two case studies and explore further possibilities for transdisciplinary studies in climate protection and energy transitions.
The presentation will give an overview of the infrastructures for research and technological development of offshore wind and marine energy projects in Spain, those already available in a real marine environment, as well as the actions under development. The RENMARINAS DEMOS Programme of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, managed by the IDAE, has granted 147 million euros in aid from NextGenerationEU Funds to around twenty projects for the creation of new test platforms, the reinforcement of existing ones and for technological prototypes.
Ongoing actions are due to be completed by early 2026, starting multiannual experimental research activities involving field trial projects on the interaction between offshore renewable technologies and the sustainability of biodiversity in the marine environment. These activities generate employment opportunities for the technological, academic, and scientific community in an international strategic sector, such as Offshore Wind and Marine Energy, in real testing platforms in different coastal environments in the Canary Islands and in the marine sub-regions of the Iberian Peninsula
The recent ESFRI report on “Energy and Supply Challenges of Research Infrastructures” addresses the severe impact of recent geopolitical events, particularly the Russian invasion of Ukraine, coupled with the aftermath of COVID-19, on the operations of European research infrastructures (RIs). These crises have led to soaring energy costs, resource shortages, and supply chain disruptions, threatening the continuity of critical RIs.
As Vice-Chair of the ERIC Forum and a co-author of the report, I will present key findings and recommendations. Energy-intensive RIs, such as synchrotrons and computing centers, are at risk of operational shutdowns due to rising costs. The report advocates for urgent financial support, the creation of crisis response plans with a focus on sustainable practices, and the inclusion of key raw materials in European regulations to prevent future supply shortages.
Additionally, the report calls for coordinated European efforts to support the Ukrainian research community, whose infrastructures have been devastated.
Brookhaven National Laboratory has been a leader in energy and water conservation for decades. Currently the Laboratory is managing the dual challenges of meeting clean energy goals while providing for the increased electric power demand of the Electron Ion Collider (EIC), its new nuclear physics accelerator facility currently being developed. The presentation will provide a summary of energy management achievements and cover current plans for meeting the EIC power demand including expanding the electric distribution infrastructure, increasing onsite solar generation, geothermal facilities, and preliminary studies on capturing low grade waste heat from the EIC and using it to supplement the Lab’s district heating system, offsetting fossil fuels at the Central Steam Facility. Plans for achieving 100% Carbon Free Electricity by 2030 and a brief overview of sustainability initiatives at other US agencies and US Department of Energy laboratories will also be presented.
The ICFA Panel on Sustainable Accelerators and Colliders assesses and promotes developments on energy efficient and sustainable accelerator concepts, technologies, and strategies for operation, and assesses and promotes the use of accelerators for the development of Carbon-neutral energy sources. In this talk I will start with describing why energy efficiency and reduced energy consumption are a critical part of sustainability and addressing Global Warming and then give an overview of the world-wide efforts towards sustainable accelerators and colliders.
Accelerators are high energy consuming infrastructures, and even though light sources in particular has not an extremely high-power requirement, its continuous routine operation has an impact on the yearly required energy. Recent events have impacted the operation of some of the light sources, forcing in some cases the reduction of the operating hours. This has been a reminder that sustainability is an important aspect to consider, not only at the design stage but also during the planning of the operation modes. We will review the different actions and proposals underway at the European Light Sources -the operating ones, the upgrades and the new projects-, in order to make them more sustainable. Aspects that include technical improvements, like the use of permanent magnets and the optimisation of the RF systems, but also operational ones, like reducing the energy at shutdown periods or optimising the requirements from basic infrastructures.
Recent record results of fusion energy production, using both inertial and magnetic confinement, are the clearest demonstration of the potential for fusion energy to deliver a safe and sustainable low-carbon energy source. These breakthroughs indicate that the once-distant dream of harnessing controlled fusion within earth-based laboratories is now a reality. These advancements bring us one step closer in the quest of fusion energy for our society, which stands as our next paramount objective.
Thanks to these groundbreaking achievements, interest in fusion has grown enormously and industries and private investors have become part of the fusion effort. At the same time, the perception of urgency for sustainable energy has grown, driven by the realization of the urgency to fight climate change and by evolving social and economic conditions.
The integration of current fusion science and technology programs is imperative to tackle the remaining challenges for the deployment of fusion energy for society. While the ITER project continues to be a central focus, addressing critical open issues such as the validation of fusion materials, tritium breeding technologies, power exhaust management and integrated plasma reactor scenarios is essential for moving forward towards Fusion Power Plants. This will require continued innovation, multidisciplinary collaboration and persistent commitment. An overview of these challenges and opportunities to make our dreams a reality will be presented.
The climate crisis and the degradation of the world’s ecosystems require humanity to take immediate action. The international scientific community has a responsibility to limit the negative environmental impacts of basic research.
The HECAP+ communities (High Energy Physics, Cosmology, Astroparticle Physics, and Hadron and Nuclear Physics) make use of common and similar experimental infrastructure, such as accelerators and observatories, and rely similarly on the processing of big data. Our communities therefore face similar challenges to improving the sustainability of our research. This document aims to reflect on the environmental impacts of our work practices and research infrastructure, to highlight best practice, to make recommendations for positive changes, and to identify the opportunities and challenges that such changes present for wider aspects of social responsibility.
Advanced nuclear reactors with rated electric power of less than 300 MW are commonly referred to as Small Modular Reactors (SMR); for power levels even below 20 MW, the term “Microreactors” has been established. The recently returning appeal of this class of reactors stems from the believe that the “economy-of-scale”, which had long been dominating the nuclear market and clearly favoured the construction of larger and larger nuclear power plants, will be in the near future increasingly replaced by “economy of production”, i.e. factory-built small modules yielding simpler construction sites, with costs per kWh in the same range as large power plants.
The presentation will shed a light on some of the recent developments and discuss some of the claimed advantages of SMR, i.e. the significantly lower initial capital costs due to the smaller size of the plant, shorter construction times because of the shift to factory production, the increased flexibility for load-following operation that makes SMRs easier to integrate with intermittent renewables sources, and the strongly enhanced passive safety concepts, yielding an unprecedented level of reactor core damage prevention. Some attention will also be attributed to Microreactors, as they have been identified quite recently by several US companies like Microsoft and Amazon as viable power sources for large data centers, operating practically non-stop for periods of several years at rated power of around 20 MW, and with a footprint of not more than the size of a few ISO containers.
With the ambition to maintain competitiveness of European accelerator-based research infrastructures, the Horizon Europe project Innovate for Sustainable Accelerating Systems (iSAS) has the objective to develop, prototype and validate new impactful energy-saving technologies so that SRF accelerators use significantly less energy while providing the same, or even improved, performance. With 17 academic and industrial partners and aligned with the European accelerator R&D roadmap, the project focusses on three key technology areas connected to SRF cryomodules: the generation and efficient use of RF power, the improved cryogenic efficiency to operate superconductive cavities and optimal beam-energy recovery. The most promising and impactful technologies will be further developed to increase their TRL and facilitate their integration into cryomodules at existing research infrastructures and/or in the design of future accelerators.
Considering the imperative need for sustainability in future accelerators, the role of superconducting magnets typically falls into two categories: high-field magnets, which extend the physics reach while striving for optimal efficiency, and low-field magnets, which enhance overall sustainability and aim to provide additional value to physics production. In this presentation, we discuss both types of developments in the context of the FCC integrated program (FCC-ee and FCC-hh), and mention synergies with the needs of accelerator infrastructure at PSI.
The normal-conducting magnetic beam guidance and steering systems are major power consumers in accelerator centres. Therefore reducing the power consumption by upgrading existing normal-conducting magnets with superconducting coils offers a promising way to enhance the centres sustainability. We present two concepts for such an upgrade program, investigate potential sustainability advantages and give details of the electric, thermal and mechanical design for such magnets.
Cryogenics is one of the major energy costs in modern SRF accelerators because of the need to lower the operating temperature to 2K. Substituting Nb with a higher critical-temperature superconductor, such as Nb3Sn, allows operations to be moved up to 4.5 K with a reduction in cryogenic costs by a factor of 3. The European collaboration I.FAST, has the ambitious goal of producing the first prototype of 1.3 GHz Nb3Sn on Cu thin-film elliptical cavity. Through the collaboration between 12 different European research institutes, the different R&D activities cover the entire cavity production chain. In this work the main results obtained by the collaboration will be shown, in particular concerning the development of superconductive coatings of Nb3Sn by Magnetron Sputtering. The scalability from small flat samples to elliptical cavity prototypes and the goals of the new European ISAS project will be also discussed.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon-INFRA-2023-TECH-01 under GA No 101131435 – iSAS and from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme under GA No 101004730 – I.FAST. Work supported by INFN CSN5 experiment SAMARA and INFN CSN1 experiments SRF and RD_FCC.
Current research facilities regularly come along with a large energy demand. Often cryogenic equipment, i.e. low-temperature components are involved, requiring appreciable energy for refrigeration. An example for this are particle accelerators. As a standard today these are based on superconducting accelerator cavities and superconducting magnets with working temperature as low as 1.8 K. In a similar way NMR magnets require cryogenic cooling, moreover material characterisation and basic research covering a wide temperature range. High temperature superconductors (HTS) offer the option for working temperatures at e.g. 50…80 K. Different kinds of respective cooling principles and cooling machines are available today. A minimum energy demand is given unavoidably by the Carnot fraction. Moreover, for a number of reasons, all realistic refrigeration machines exceed this theoretical energy demand by factors. In the presentation different cryogenic cooling solutions are presented. Specific efficiencies are highlighted, and options for further improvement are discussed.
Footprints, LCAs or environmental impact studies help to understand the impact science has on global challenges like climate change and others. They help to identify the fields for improvement and make progress countable. Is also help raising awareness amongst scientists and stirs more attention to better solution already in the design process of new and updated RIs.
Many evaluations have been conducted lately and there is a common understanding and motivation to develop these approaches further and to design science specific methodologies. So far, some evaluations look at everything - others focus on the big parts. Some look only at Co2 – others at all Greenhouse Gases and yet others take the whole environmental footprint into account or even sustainability measures outside of the ecological realm. And everybody is using different databases and sources for the respective conversion factors.
This session is dedicated to give an overview of what has been done so far and analyses the approaches in terms of methodology, scope, parameters and databases used in order to stir the discussion on and development of metrics and processes to facilitate the evaluation of proposals and allow a fair comparison between them.
CERN established a Sustainable Accelerators panel to address all the aspects of sustainability in future accelerators. The panel is used to share information about projects and technologies and in this way harmonise the approach to sustainability across the Organisation. One important aspect is the Lifecycle assessment of accelerator components and infrastructure. Lifecycle assessment is being introduced in the design process through two channels. For large projects, we rely on consultants to perform assessment of large infrastructures, such as the tunnels of CLIC and the FCC, but also the main components such as magnets and RF. On the other hand, we are introducing a systematic training for everyone at cern in order to raise awareness, and in particular designer can follow a specific training in order to be able to perform simple assessments on their own, in order to optimize their design from the beginning. In order to remain compatible with International standards, we started using OpenLCA with the ECOInvent databases, and follow the prescriptions of ISO 14040/14044 and specific standards if necessary (e.g. EN 17472 for civil engineering structures).
The European Laboratory Directors Group that coordinates European programme of accelerator R&D, took recently the decision to establish a working group on sustainability assessment of future accelerators.
Working group mandate is to develop guidelines and a minimum set of key indicators pertaining to the methodology and scope of the reporting of sustainability aspects for future HEP projects.
A panel of 15 people has been endorsed by LDG and is currently committed to preparing an input document for the Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, by Spring 2025.
The working group includes representatives of the projects of future accelerators and experts on sustainability of large research infrastructures, involved in initiatives like CERN Sustainability Panel, IFAST, EAJADE, iSAS, STFC Sustainability Task Force, ESS on Green Facilities.
The talk is intended to summarize the current status and receive a feedback on the initiative from the HEP community.
The Cool Copper Collider (C3) is a new concept for a Higgs Factory based on cryogenic-copper distributed-coupling accelerator technology that promises efficiency and high gradient. In this talk, we will discuss the ongoing sustainability studies for C3, which. will be operated at 250 and 550 GeV center-of-mass energy. We introduce several strategies to reduce the power needs for C3 without modifications in the ultimate physics reach. We also propose a metric to compare the carbon costs of Higgs factories, balancing physics reach, energy needs, and carbon footprint for both construction and operation, and compare C3 with other Higgs factory proposals – ILC, CLIC, FCC-ee and CEPC – within this framework. We conclude that the compact 8 km footprint and the possibility for cut-and-cover construction make C3 a compelling option for a sustainable Higgs factory. More broadly, the developed methodology serves as a starting point for evaluating and minimizing the environmental impact of future colliders without compromising their physics potential.
The original circular Halbach magnet design creates a strong pure multipole field from permanent magnet pieces without intervening iron. This design was modified for the CBETA 4-turn ERL, whose return loop includes combined-function (dipole+quadrupole) Halbach-derived magnets, plus a modular system of tuning shims to improve all 216 magnets' relative field accuracy to better than 10^-3. This talk also describes further modifications of the design enable a larger range of accelerator applications, such as open-midplane designs to allow synchrotron radiation to escape and magnets with an oval aperture to allow larger gradients, including in hadron therapy machines.
INFN is developing in Italy an environment to develop and test GW-rated superconducting lines by the NextGenEU project IRIS (Innovative Research Infrastructure on applied Superconductivity). The design and construction of a full 130 m long GW-rated SC line based on MgB_2 technology and the manufacturing status are discussed. An overview of the solution selected for power transmission, insulation, cryogenics, and power leads is completed by a discussion on the sustainability of such a line and on potential direct applications.
The main features of a brand new test station under construction in Salerno premises are presented, focusing on the commissioning of the line that is foreseen in 2025. The test stand construction is aimed at facilitating the development and standardization of superconducting power transmission lines, an important step toward industrial use of superconducting power lines.
As part of CERN’s commitment to managing energy responsibly, the Organization obtained the ISO 50001 certification for energy management in 2023. This international standard requires systems and processes to be in place to continuously improve energy performance. With this in mind, improving energy efficiency is integrated into the design and operation of CERN’s accelerators and experimental areas. This talk summarises past and present efforts at all levels (organisational, system and equipment) to improve energy efficiency. Looking to the future, studies are ongoing to develop the efficient powering for future accelerator designs.
STFC's Accelerator Science and Technology Centre (ASTeC) aims to be a world leader in the field of sustainable accelerators. We have instigated a Sustainable Accelerators Task Force to carry out R&D into sustainable technologies. This talk describes some of the work of the Task Force. We have produced a report looking at the carbon emissions in building and operating a particle accelerator, focusing on a small facility, RUEDI, which will be built in the UK in the next few years. The report highlights several areas to concentrate on in order to reduce manufacture and operating emissions, and we have developed a toolkit which can be used for future projects.
HZB is developing a fourth-generation light source BESSY III, as successor source to BESSY II. Due to a complete redesign of the accelerator building on a green field and the accelerator itself, an attempt should be made to reduce the invested resources, as well as the initial and running carbon footprint of BESSYIII as much as possible. Here it is necessary to identify the parameters with the most impact and find ways to avoid or to reduce them, like the massive amount of concrete that can be reduce by an optimized floor plate design. Additionally, the running energy cost of accelerator components can be reduced by using dedicated amplifier and Permanent Magnets. In this presentation we will discuss the actual values for the project and new ideas to reduce them.
A holistic view of the life cycle of a piece of equipment, a component or a project is an important tool to assess its sustainability aspect, to make decisions on feasibility and also to improve a design in terms of sustainability.
In the course of the planned PETRA IV upgrade of our light source PETRA III, a large part of the infrastructure, but above all the whole machine (magnets, RF technology and much more) will be renewed.
One of the most commonly used components is the power supply. Power supplies are indispensable for controlling the magnets, but also in other areas, and are almost like consumables. Due to the special requirements of PETRA IV, it was decided to use a specially developed device. The Sustainability Department has carried out a detailed life cycle analysis of this device to assess the costs and benefits of a comprehensive LCA, but also to identify development potential for the device.
The Life Cycle Assessment that we will be presenting considers the entire life cycle of all individual components, such as resistors, capacitors, cables, screws and much more, from cradle to grave.
Sustainability criteria such as GWP, but also soil acidification, human toxicity, ecotoxicity and eutrophication were analysed.
The Future Circular Collider is under study and its sustainable development is a major focus toward its approval. Sustainability is introduced at all levels, from renewable energy sources, and energy management, down to the design of accelerator system devices and technical infrastructures. The technology research and developments to reduce energy consumption will be highlighted. The potential usage of the fatal heat for the local communities will also be developed. The collaborative works performed in the framework of the European Project, Research Infrastructure 2.0, will demonstrate the commitment of the physics community toward sustainable research.
The Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) to be constructed at Brookhaven National Laboratory will likely be the only major collider project worldwide in the next two decades. The project will leverage the existing 4 km circumference Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider with the addition of 15 accelerator support buildings, power distribution, and mechanical cooling systems. When its three accelerator rings and supporting accelerator equipment are operational, the machine will utilize approximately 60 MW of electrical power and produce 50 MW of low-grade heat. A sustainability initiative was launched with the funding support of the Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) Grant to research heat recovery from evaporative cooling loads. The potential redistribution of heat to the BNL site during the winter season will help offset emissions from the Central Steam Facility onsite. The new buildings are also being analyzed for compliance with the high-performance sustainable buildings guiding principles, as outlined by the Department of Energy. As a further commitment to Brookhaven Lab's sustainability goals, the EIC will also not use any fossil fuels and will aim for net-zero emissions. Constructing the EIC with the latest in energy efficient technologies and enabling and advancing energy recovery methods will provide a positive example for future large scientific facilities worldwide.
Laser-plasma acceleration (LPA) will be at the core of next-generation accelerators. Advancing LPA core technolgies, including the development of high average power drive lasers, is an integral part of DESYs accelerator R&D. Recently, we started to investigate a plasma based injector as an alternative technology option for our future PETRA IV synchrotron. Here, we will discuss the basic concept of the plasma injector and update on its progress and future plans.
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory operates three one kilometer-long linear accelerators, and one synchrotron light source. These facilities, as well as the support infrastructure, use more than 30 MW of power when running simultaneously, and this figure is expected to grow as capabilities are added in the next few years. This talk will discuss the site’s electrical power consumption, some of the challenges and constraints on our electrical power infrastructure, and a few projects (some successful and others unsuccessful) to reduce site power usage and utilize renewable energy sources.
Over the past few years, the accelerators operations energy consumption has caught the attention of the facilities operators. The increasing energy cost and the higher attention to sustainability highlighted the importance of implementing and operating efficient and sustainable technologies and systems.
The Horizon Europe project Research Facility 2.0 (RF2.0) envisions a common work of academia, large particle accelerator facilities and high-tech industries towards sustainable and energy-efficient large research infrastructures.
In this work we present a summary of the first results of the RF2.0 project, based on some dedicated surveys on energy solutions and systems with high sustainability potential, that were sent to both the RF2.0 project partners as well as to worldwide accelerator’s facilities. The summary introduces a set of high level sustainability metrics developed for a performance assessment methodology for energy efficient solutions of research infrastructures as accelerators and data centers. These metrics consider not only the well-known factors of the energy consumption and energy costs, but they include also the impact of the raw material consumption and the carbon footprint during the accelerator’s lifetime. In addition, inputs on components and systems with high energy saving potential prepared as a part of an assessment of existing materials, components and technologies for improving energy efficiency in accelerators will be discussed in conclusions.
DESY is upgrading its storage ring X-ray light source PETRA. The entire machine is being replaced, but the old tunnel will continue to be used and requires a stable ambient temperature. The optimize thermal design parameters, the energy consumption, as well as the related operation cost and co2-emissions, of the Petra IV’s tunnel climatization have been investigated for different tunnel temperatures from 21 up to 30°C as well as different cooling water temperatures (25 and 30°C).
Additionally, the influence of the extended shut down period in winter versus an extended shut down period in summer have been compared.
For the study, the different tunnel sectors have been modelled and simulated by using simple energy conservation laws.
With the use of a sensitivity analysis of the ecological and economic parameters, an appropriate tunnel temperature has been chosen.
At the end of the third “long shut down” of the LHC (LS3) the ATLAS and CMS experiments will start operating the largest silicon-based detectors ever built, featuring a cumulated power dissipation in the order of 800 kW and the requirement of keeping several hundreds of m2 of silicon surface at temperatures well below 0 °C. The thermal management of such detectors will be ensured by a cascade of a transcritical R744 refrigeration cycle coupled to pumped loops circulating pure CO2 in the detector evaporators. This environmentally sustainable approach is the outcome of a collaboration between the EP and the EN departments of CERN, and marks a solid step towards the abandon of synthetic refrigerants and the transition to natural fluids. The talk will highlight the major technical points connected to this development and the opportunities it opens towards the general adoption of a more environmentally-aware approach to detector refrigeration in the future.
Heat recovery systems are seen as energy efficient actions and can reduce gas consumption by close to 80%, at the price of significant investments for existing systems. Close to 10 years ago, two multi MW cases were identified on existing infrastructure at CERN. A first project of 10 MW with a local community was studied, confirmed viable and launched with a convention signed in 2019 and now ready to be tested. Since, a new computing center was being considered, for which a possibility to consider heat recovery was added as an incentive in the tendering process. With economic criteria aligned with sustainability considerations, refurbishments of the two existing heating plants are now ongoing with multi MW heat recovery loops. With all teams now familiar with corresponding technologies and experienced gained, the possibility to include heat recovery in future projects is now the baseline, and would be implemented if a synergy is found with internal or external users for heat.
The projects, key parameters and evolution of approach will be presented.
Particle accelerators are known for their high energy consumption and dependence on stable energy supply. The KITTEN (KIT Test Center for Energy Efficiency and Network Stability) test center addresses these challenges by exploring and implementing innovative solutions to optimize energy use in accelerators.
This presentation highlights the latest advancements from our research at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. We will introduce a novel open-access monitoring board designed to track accelerator energy consumption, showcasing its transformative potential. Additionally, we will share preliminary results from our high-bandwidth measurement and communication infrastructure, crucial for developing digital twins of accelerators. Future research directions and upcoming projects will also be outlined.
This talk will review aspects of energy consumption and carbon footprint of present detectors at the LHC and projections for detectors at future colliders.
The "Preliminary sustainability plan" is a key Milestone within the framework of the ET-PP Project, which is funded by the European Commission to support the ESFRI preparatory phase of the Einstein Telescope (ET) project. This presentation addresses in detail all the sustainability questions that will be included as pillars in the design of a large and durable future research infrastructure. Emphasis is placed on the relevant sustainability figures of merit in the different phases of the ET project for which sustainability will be a critical factor. Finally, the main goals of the ET sustainability plan are discussed.
The electrical distribution systems in particle accelerator facilities, typically use standard SCADA systems characterized by slower dynamics. To improve the observability and responsiveness of these networks, the integration of Phasor Measurement Units (PMUs) is proposed. These devices are capable of monitoring voltage and current fluctuations in real time, providing critical data that can be utilized either by the control room or directly by power electronics actuators. This allows for immediate decision-making and actions based on real-time data. As part of the RF2.0 Horizon Europe project, CERN together with Zaphiro plan to install 22 PMUs across CERN’s electrical network, significantly enhancing its monitoring capabilities.
Cement is an intermediate product used for concrete and finally constructions, houses, utilities, etc. The cement industry on global level is producing a significant amount of cement, with major countries like China and India. The European cement industry is relatively small with a production volume of about 175 Mtonnes/a.
Challenging in the production of cement is the emission of CO2 as Green House Gas. Because of the use of raw materials with consequently process emissions of CO2, cement industry is seen as a hard to abate sector regarding climate change. The European cement association CEMBUREAU released in May 2024 an update carbon neutrality roadmap that shows that a net zero cement industry in Europe in 2050 is possible. As a result, the concrete constructions have the potential to become carbon negative, meaning absorbing more CO2 during the lifetime than emitting during production phase.
Helium is a critical resource for various industries and scientific research infrastructures, including at CERN for operation of cryogenic systems for the Large Hadron Collider, associated detectors, and Testing Facilities. Despite its abundance in the universe, helium is a finite resource on Earth, mainly extracted from natural gas reserves. The increasing demand and limited supply require effective helium management strategies to ensure its availability for future generations. This talk will give an overview of the current state of helium sourcing, share good practices for inventory preservation and limitation of losses especially in the context of large scientific equipment. Finally, it will share insights to integrate helium management good practices and evaluate helium footprint for future scientific studies and projects.
The FlexRICAN project, which started in March 2024, brings together three landmark ESFRI infrastructures that have different usages of energy: the European Spallation Source ERIC (ESS) in Sweden, the Extreme Light Infrastructure ERIC (ELI), with two running facilities (Czech Republic and Hungary) and the European Magnetic Field Laboratory AISBL (EMFL), with facilities in Grenoble and Nijmegen for DC fields and Dresden and Toulouse for pulsed fields (CNRS, SRU, HZDR). The RI’s and partners involved in FlexRICAN unite their strengths to optimize their ongoing and future energy projects. They are to demonstrate that the RIs, as electro-intensive actors, are at a good scale to develop a global energetic approach to delivering services to the European electrical grid through optimized energy flexibility and to local heating networks by developing Waste Heat Recovery projects. Developing renewable energy capacity production and managing these developments in an integrated way thanks to energy-oriented modelization integrating RIs user communities and the new stakeholders appears like a promising solution.
The development of energy storage technologies alongside the mechanisms and tools to foster their integration in the electric power systems, stands as one of the key topics in the evolution of energy systems. plays a crucial role not only at the electric grid level, ensuring system stability and energy management, but also at the facility level (behind the meter), offering benefits such as reduced dependence on energy suppliers, backup power provision during outages, minimized power infrastructure, and potential savings on energy bills.
Scientific infrastructures with high electric power demands serve as compelling case studies where the incorporation of energy storage solutions can enhance the reliability and sustainability of power consumption schemes to support research activities. The forthcoming presentation will delve into various application scenarios within scientific facilities, showcasing both implemented technical solutions for ongoing experiments and those poised for feasibility in other contexts.
During the presentation, a range of energy storage technologies will be discussed, including batteries, supercapacitors, flywheels, and SMES (Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage). Special emphasis will be placed on the utilization of hybrid energy storage systems as an alternative where the combination of various technologies brings added value to the storage solution.