Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE
The transition from a fossil to a renewable energy supply system depends on the use of large quantities of many different raw materials, which are necessary for the production and maintenance of the technologies and infrastructures required for the energy transition.
As part of the topic “Energy System Analysis”, Fraunhofer ISE assesses the resource requirements for the further development of individual energy technologies and the entire energy system, taking into account realistic techno-economic roadmaps, future innovative technology concepts, possible material efficiency measures and recycling potentials.
This dynamic resource assessment serves as a basis for a multi-criteria criticality analysis of raw materials: Risks on the supply and demand side of individual materials can be identified and assessed, as can the associated environmental implications.
By means of adapted criticality mitigation strategies, vulnerabilities caused by shortages of raw materials and material criticalities can then be avoided in order to optimize the development paths of energy technologies in terms of resource strategy and thereby secure the feasibility of the future energy system.
Customers benefit from these interdisciplinary studies in many ways: Raw material criticality assessments can be used to identify resource strategic opportunities and risks of a company portfolio in good time and to propose measures to reduce raw material supply risks. These studies can thus serve as a basis for the development of long-term corporate strategies and investment decisions with the aim not only of establishing a sustainable energy system, but also of making the path to it sustainable and cost-efficient. An additional service is the continuous raw material criticality assessment during the development process of a product in order to be able to take into account findings from the resource assessment already in the product development.