What goes on in Poland on the 15th of June.
Northvolt at Impact’18: Europe will not make it without energy storage
The challenge of our time is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and dependence on fossil fuels. We want to replace them with renewable sources – wind, sun and hydrogen, and for this, it is necessary to develop energy storage – said the head of Northvolt Peter Carlsson.
– China produces 28 million electric cars per year, and this number will grow. The car industry will change over the coming years, quitting traditional drives. In 2025, every third car in the world will be electric. In Europe, 15 battery factories will be needed to drive these changes – said Carlsson. His company manufactures batteries for passenger cars, but also for buses and trucks. – In 2025, Europe will need 217 GW from factories to meet the demand for energy. Volkswagen itself announces that they will need over 100 GW – he calculated.
Northvolt is soon opening a new battery factory in northern Sweden, which is due to start working in six months. – We will need a lot of electricity to produce storages. In an economy free of fossil fuels, it makes sense, but if we continue to gain energy from coal, we will create more problems than solve – Carlsson said.
JSW and PKP Cargo join forces in innovation
Yesterday during Impact`18 conference in Kraków, representatives of the management boards of Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa and PKP Cargo signed a letter of intent for joint, innovative investment projects related to the commercial use of hydrogen fuel.
The document assumes m.in. cooperation for research, analysis and future production of new types of hydrogen-fueled wagons and shunting locomotives and their subsequent maintenance and operation.
– JSW is one of the largest companies that uses PKP Cargo services. The letter concerns research and development and mining works. We can provide the amount of hydrogen that could drive around 900 buses that could navigate the Silesian agglomeration. This hydrogen can also drive locomotives – said the president of JSW Daniel Ozon. He also said that the hydrogen propulsion is part of the revolution of electromobility, which is taking place all over the world. – In Poland we have great producers of buses and hydrogen drives, so step by step we have a chance to successfully implement it – he said.
– We have been cooperating with JSW for many years, we are looking for innovative solutions that will contribute to increasing the efficiency of our operations. Hydrogen technologies are already in commercial use, for example in Germany, so I hope that within a few years we will be able to implement similar solutions here, and the potential is huge. In a few months we will present the effects of our cooperation – said PKP Cargo President Czesław Warsewicz. He added that the first works on the project of such a locomotive will depend on the pace of cooperation with other institutions, such as NCBiR.