Full Speed Ahead for Europe’s Largest Platform for the Energy Industry

Press release – Wednesday May 11, 2022

Munich/Pforzheim, May 11, 2022: Pioneering solutions to ensure the energy future have become more important than ever. Whether it is renewable power and heat generation technologies, innovative storage systems, smart grids, charging infrastructure or e-mobility: Promising solutions for renewable, decentralized, digital and reliable power supply and the coupling of the electricity, heat and transport sectors are conquering the market. They will be showcased at The smarter E Europe, Europe’s largest platform for the energy industry, and its four parallel exhibitions Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, Power2Drive Europe and EM-Power Europe from May 11–13, 2022 at Messe München.

Solar Promotion GmbH

The European Union’s “Fit for 55” package, aimed at delivering the European Green Deal, and the German government have set ambitious climate protection targets: Greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 55 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2030, with the German government having upped this target to 65 percent in mid-2021. Meeting these targets will not be possible unless the energy industry reinvents itself. It is a given that the energy transition will not be successful unless power and heat are generated using renewable sources of energy – combined with extensive storage infrastructure and the intelligent coupling of the electricity, heat and transport sectors. But all signs are pointing in the right direction: The photovoltaics (PV) boom has been ongoing for years, the storage industry can look back on a decade of growth, and e-mobility and charging infrastructure have been flourishing as well. A diverse range of solutions are helping us tackle the energy transition, which can be witnessed at the innovation hub The smarter E Europe. Europe’s largest platform for the energy industry is synonymous with cross-sector and cross-industry products, solutions and business models. The new energy world must be both integrated and cross-sector, spanning concepts and solutions for a renewable, decentralized and digital energy industry, smart and integrated energy systems, e-mobility, intelligent charging systems and green hydrogen. The smarter E Europe’s focus is firmly set on this new energy world and on accelerating the transformation of the worlds of energy and mobility.

Twelve exhibition halls with 132,000 square meters of exhibition space host a total of 1,356 exhibitors, who are presenting innovative products, services and business models for the new energy world to an expected over 50,000 visitors.

Dynamic PV growth
Photovoltaics will play a key role when it comes to generating power and heat from renewable energies. In Germany, the goal is to add new PV installations with an output of around 140 gigawatts by 2030 and to tap into new space for deployment. According to industry experts, annual PV installations will have to be tripled or even quadrupled. They expect the European Union’s first solar energy strategy, which is planned for the second quarter of 2022, to provide another boost to solar energy. Figures published by SolarPower Europe, the European solar association, also indicate a rapid acceleration of the solar market, in particular in Germany. The latest issue of the Global Market Outlook for Solar Power 2022-2026 predicts that within Europe Germany will be in pole position, followed by Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and France. SolarPower Europe expects Germany to more than double its installed capacity from 61 gigawatts (GW) at the end of 2021 to around 133 GW by 2026.

Solutions which were previously niche applications, such as agricultural PV on farming land or floating PV, are becoming increasingly important to unlock additional space. Experts predict floating PV installations to grow at an annual global rate of more than 20 percent over the next four years. Moreover, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Freiburg, Germany, calculated that the artificial lakes at former brown coal mines in Germany alone have the technical potential to generate up to 56 GW. Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIVP) is another key technology to achieve climate neutrality as the building sector accounts for up to 40 percent of carbon emissions worldwide and around 30 percent in Germany. At the Intersolar Europe Conference on May 10–11 at Messe München’s Internationales Congress Center München (ICM), industry experts will discuss current and future developments in agrivoltaics, floating PV and BIPV.

Storage market boosted by soaring energy prices
Cross-sector solutions integrating efficient electricity storage systems will be essential to ensuring that in the future power and heat from renewable sources of energy will be available at any time of year, 24/7. The storage market is booming, in particular in connection with solar energy. According to BSW-Solar, over 140,000 battery systems combined with PV installations were installed in Germany in 2021, and growth is set to continue – not least due to soaring energy prices. A number of different sectors are putting great effort into further improving high-performance storage systems, something the finalists of this year’s ees AWARD – which were presented at The smarter E Europe on May 10 as one of the three renowned prizes of the energy industry – also embody.

Another technology about to penetrate the market is green hydrogen. It helps to couple the electricity, heat and transport sectors much more closely using renewable energies and to decarbonize industrial applications in maritime shipping, freight transportation and aviation. Industry experts consider a green hydrogen economy an essential component of a solution which will ensure an energy supply to Europe that is free of fossil fuels and more independent. According to them, we must invest into all stages of the supply chain at the same time, so that green production, storage and consumption can grow continuously in equal measure. The smarter E Europe boasts a dedicated green hydrogen forum and corresponding exhibition segment. For three days, the Green Hydrogen Forum & Expo will put industry representatives covering the entire supply chain center stage.

The path towards becoming a climate-neutral business
We need smart, digital solutions to connect the individual sectors of the complex energy system of tomorrow in an intelligent way protecting the climate. This will increasingly involve the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. These solutions will also help companies to ensure the cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly supply with power and heat to their business and to achieve climate-neutral production. EM-Power Europe’s special area The Path to a Climate-Neutral Business outlines ways for companies to meet their climate protection targets. What’s more, the exhibition and the accompanying EM-Power Europe Conference on May 10–11 focus on the integration of renewable energies into power grids, smart grid solutions and grid-stabilizing inverters that will stabilize the power grids of the future. Other focus topics are energy management and sector coupling in buildings and districts.

Intelligent load management thanks to e-mobility and Vehicle2Grid
Using battery electric vehicles (BEVs) as mobile power banks will be another way to ensure local energy management and overarching grid stability. For example, intelligent load management enables electric vehicles to draw green electricity whenever excess power is available – for example from PV installations. Another great plus is bidirectional charging, which allows electric vehicles to not just consume electrical energy but to also feed it back into the grid (Vehicle2Grid). This technology paves the way for intelligent sector coupling and helps decarbonize the heat, electricity and transport sectors. It also lets utility companies and car owners tap into new sources of income.

The more electric vehicles get on the road and the more comprehensive the charging infrastructure becomes, the more likely it is to achieve grid stability involving electric vehicles – in Europe and in particular in Germany. One in three newly registered electric cars in Europe drives on German roads, according to a 2021 market study by electric car data specialist Schmidt Automotive Research. According to EAFO (European Alternative Fuels Observatory), of the 338,191 charging stations (as of 2021) in the European Union, nearly 30 percent are based in the Netherlands, and 20 percent each in Germany and France. The international exhibition Power2Drive Europe 2022 with its exhibition forum and the accompanying Power2Drive Europe Conference help you navigate this dynamically growing market and let you connect with the industry.

The smarter E Europe: the innovation hub of the new energy world
Having taken place in a more concise format as The smarter E Europe Restart 2021 in October of last year due to Covid-19, it’s now full speed ahead for The smarter E Europe 2022 at Messe München. Europe’s largest platform for the energy industry is an opportunity for stakeholders from all over the world to get information and make connections, according to Markus Elsässer, CEO of Solar Promotion GmbH, who organize The smarter E Europe together with Freiburg Wirtschaft Touristik und Messe GmbH & Co. KG (FWTM). Elsässer: “The smarter E Europe is the right platform for the energy industry at the right time to enable cross-industry and cross-sector exchange.” Daniel Strowitzki, CEO of FWTM, adds: “This is our way of helping to accelerate the transformation of the worlds of energy and mobility towards renewable sources of energy and e-mobility and to come up with projects that span these different areas.”

The smarter E Europe, which encompasses four individual exhibitions (Intersolar Europe, ees Europe, Power2Drive Europe and EM-Power Europe), takes place from May 11–13, 2022, at Messe München.

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