SIEMENS

The second half of the 19th century was an age of pioneers. In 1866 Werner von Siemens discovered the dynamo-electric principle, and thus the most economical method of generating electricity. In the late 1870s Thomas A. Edison resolved to bring light to every household by means of his incandescent bulb. George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla conducted experiments with alternating current. Oskar von Miller was the first to transmit large amounts of electricity over a distance of 175 km. And Werner von Siemens realized that electricity "will result in countless devices in homes and factories that will make life easier." Many of these devices were promptly developed by von Siemens himself. They included the first electric train, the electric coach — a forerunner of the electric car and the streetcar — and the first electric elevator. Broad electrification began around 1890.

Today — 120 years later — we are on the threshold of the second pioneering age of electrotechnology, as this issue of Pictures of the Future illustrates. In the future, electricity will become the dominant energy choice. This development is being driven primarily by the realization that it’s high time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to counter climate change. How this goal will be achieved is the subject of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, which will take place in Copenhagen in December, 2009. Electric energy holds the key to achieve this goal, because it can be produced, transmitted and used in environmentally-friendly ways. In short, it’s ideal for a transition to an economy based on carbon-free energy.

All of the technologies need to make this happen are available — they only need to be implemented. For example, efficiency can be boosted at every link of the energy conversion chain, from power plants (see article "New Life for Old Plants") and energy transmission (see article "China's River of Power") to use in buildings (see articles "Plugging Buildings into the Big Picture" and "Green Campus"), industrial facilities (see article "Efficiency Catches Fire"), and transportation (see articles "From Wind to Wheels" and "Riding on Air"). The amount of electricity generated via CO₂-free methods will vastly increase. According to calculations by the International Energy Agency and Siemens, by 2030 energy generated with wind will have increased 13-fold and we will be producing 140 times more power from solar sources than at present. One especially promising example is the Desertec concept, which focuses on solar power plants in North Africa and the Middle East. An industrial consortium was recently formed to plan and implement this idea (see article "Desert Power"). More and more wind turbines are also being built on land and at sea (see article "High-Altitude Harvest"). In both cases, large amounts of electricity must be transmitted over long distances with minimal losses. And this is where high-voltage direct-current transmission comes in. In China, Siemens is building the world’s most powerful electricity highway, which will transmit 5,000 MW of electricity from hydroelectric power plants in the interior across 1,400 km to cities on the coast, with only minimal losses (see article "China's River of Power").

However, the wind and the sun don’t provide electricity exactly when it’s needed. That means it has to be stored somehow. The likely future boom in electric vehicles could prove useful here (see article "From Wind to Wheels"). Aside from their green credentials, these vehicles could serve as mobile energy storage units — and enable their owners to make some cash. For example, they could recharge their vehicles at night with cheap power and sell this electricity in the daytime for top prices. Just a few hundred thousand electric vehicles in the power grid would be enough to provide more balancing power than Germany currently needs to cover peaks in demand.

To make such a system work, we need smart electric meters — for cars as well as other small energy generators and consumers (see article "Transparent Network") — plus smart grid technology to manage it (see article "Switching on the Vision"). Thanks to sophisticated information, communication, and sensor technology, these grids will make electricity consumption more transparent and manageable, thus helping to save energy. Here too, Siemens has all the necessary solutions in its portfolio. Making power networks smarter has been our core business activity for decades. The worldwide market for smart grid technologies that can be addressed by Siemens alone between today and 2014 amounts to some €30 billion. It’s an enormous growth market — as are the markets for renewable energy sources, power transmission, and electromobility. All of them taken together will be key factors in the new age of electricity.