SuperNode CEO John Fitzgerald addressed Engineers Ireland on Wednesday of this week with his presentation titled: ‘Transmission to Enable Decarbonisation’.
Mr. Fitzgerald, an engineer by trade himself, is now focused on the fight against climate change and issued a rallying call to engineers to do the same:
“Engineers are in the solutions business. We have a leadership duty to society to espouse a plan for decarbonisation.”
“We need an engineer’s mindset; to lead the way in finding solutions, an openness to new ways and new technologies and to work backwards from 2050.”
One such mindset was to take inspiration from the Chinese Supergrid which utilises extremely high voltage DC overhead lines. This system has shown Mr. Fitzgerald the scale of what is possible while also understanding that Europe’s energy system must predominantly function underground and in the marine setting.
Considering these constraints, Mr. Fitzgerald and his company SuperNode are developing superconducting cable systems to operate a carbon-free Pan-European Supergrid more effectively.
“Superconducting cables, among other innovative technologies, will play a vital role in connecting the amounts of offshore wind required for decarbonisation.”
Mr. Fitzgerald finished with his recommendations for Europe’s next steps on the road to full decarbonisation:
“Europe should establish a Single European Entity for new offshore energy infrastructure. This Independent System Operator would have no assets and would operate as a System Architect, taking a long-term European-wide approach to creating the optimal energy system for a decarbonised 2050.”
A video of the presentation can be viewed on SuperNode’s Youtube channel.
You can view the full presentation here.
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