The main input of renewable energy in our future energy system will come from wind and PV, which supply renewable electricity to our grids. Reaching higher shares of fluctuating renewables in the grids may cause a variety of problems. In order to avoid this and at the same time to even further increase the share of renewables in the system, renewable electricity can be distributed to other sectors, mainly the heating (and cooling) and the mobility sector.

The coupling of the three sectors electricity, thermal (heating and cooling) and mobility,  can be realised by different technologies like power-to-gas or power-to-heat. Each sector can have its own direct renewable input. However, most of the expected input will be in the electricity sector.

By coupling the sectors, the demand pattern of the “consuming” sectors, “thermal” and “mobility”, can help to better utilize the renewable input in the electricity sector. By implementing energy storage technologies between the sectors, where the energy has to be transformed (e.g. into heat and cold) or stored anyway (for mobility applications), the match of fluctuating supply and demand can be managed –  flexible sector coupling.

The purpose of the meeting is to introduce the Annex proposal and interested parties (Implementing Agreements, Institutes, Industry and others), their projects and activi-ties as well as to start a discussion on the objectives, scope, activities and outcome of the annex. If you are already working on this topic, we would like to invite you to shortly present your findings.

Please find the invitation here and a background document here.