Review: NEFI Technology Talk: Net-Zero now!

The worldwide innovation landscape offers a competitive basis from which to develop novel solutions that will help to achieve the international climate goals. Since numerous research projects for deploying new green technologies are already well underway, within the NEFI Technology Talk with the collaboration of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) national (Austrian) and international industrial endeavours – in the context of selected decarbonisation topics – were presented and discussions encouraged.

Moderator Simon Moser (Energy Institute JKU Linz, Austria) opened the second NEFI Technology Talk and welcomed nearly 70 national and international participants on 29th of June 2022. Thomas Kienberger (Chair of Energy Network Technology, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria / Head of NEFI_Lab, Austria) emphasized in his opening statement the relevance of decarbonisation.

The first talk was presented by Timo Ritonummi (Deputy Director General, Energy Department at Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Finland) who showed the results and the next steps of the European SET-Plan. Right after, the first virtual question round started. It was focused on the national and international political situation regarding accelerating industrial decarbonisation and funding for sustainable energy projects.

On the subject of “The NEFI Pathway towards Industrial Decarbonisation”

Peter Nagovnak (NEFI – New Energy for Industry, Austria) presented the key findings from scenario-based modelling of industrial decarbonisation in Austria. Focusing on “Flashlights from the Austrian Innovation Network” presentations were held about industrial excess heat utilisation (René Hofmann, TU Vienna, Austria), circular economy in industry (Maedeh Rahnama, Chair of Energy Network Technology, Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria) and industrial digitalisation (Jürgen Fluch, AEE – Institute for Sustainable Technologies, Austria).

The last virtual panel was filled with lively discussions about bio-methan production and utilisation of waste heat, followed by talking about next steps of ‘NEFI-scenarios’, virtual reality in industry and the impact of energy prices on the results of scenario-based modelling.