How the energy-space nexus is resulting in a data fusion to boost climate resilience
Start Up Energy Transition Festival
Lessons learned in space are increasingly resonating back on Earth as the planet grapples with increasingly frequent climate shocks while trying to enable energy transitions globally.
That was the message today from a panel of experts in Berlin which explored the space-energy nexus.
The intersection of the space and energy sectors was highlighted in a debate during the Start Up Energy Transition Festival, in which Pia Dorfinger, Director Start-up Ecosystem at the German Energy Agency (dena), explained: “We have been talking about an integrated energy transition for a decade… now we need to literally broaden our horizons.”
Daniel Seidel is an aerospace engineer who co-founded LiveEO, a company which uses space data applications in conjunction with AI to generate insights for energy infrastructure maintenance.
He said that because “energy infrastructure is distributed globally and we have a lot of external threats like climate change, it’s a perfect problem for a space solution”.
Rita Rinaldo, Head of Projects and Studies Implementation Division at the European Space Agency, highlighted the value of space data in the fight for climate resilience.
She said there had been a “democratisation of space data” in recent years which had resulted in a wealth of hugely valuable – and previously unseen – data become available for grid monitoring and management and planning for microgrids in developing countries, among many other uses.
Rüdiger Süß, Head of the DLR Startup Factory at the German Aerospace Center, agreed. “A lot of algorithms used to process space data was brought into energy and grids. It’s a data fusion.”
He said electricity grids have so many data points that it is often mind-boggling to assess what data is useful, yet these lessons have already been learned by data scientists processing space data.
“Is it space technology? No: it’s space-proven technology,” he stressed.
He said space data can now be used to “bridge the gaps in the energy transition.”
Have you read?
DEWA reports 2,690MB of space data on its networks
Harnessing the power of the EU’s Space Programme for renewable energy
Oscar del Castillo has led the integration of backup satellite communications system within Belgian and Germany TSO group Elia.
He echoed the potential of the convergence of space and energy expertise. “Space can help us accelerate the energy transition because it brings energy autonomy. Space and energy are areas for collaboration.”
And he said key to this collaboration was a regular injection of innovation: “We need more start-ups because we need more out-of-the-box thinking.”
Originally published on Enlit World.
