We will still need conventional fossil-based liquid energy sources for a while, but these resources will of course be exhausted at some point. However, experts attribute the fact that this will neither trigger supply bottlenecks nor energy crises to a whole new generation of liquid energy sources that have long been in the starting blocks.
Innovative technologies such as the power-to-liquid process (PtL) will continue to steer the energy mix in Germany towards greenhouse gas neutrality and climate protection.
The reason for the environmentally friendly properties of these liquid energies lies in the production process using electricity generated from renewable sources. This means that PtL represents a real quantum leap compared to the purely fossil-fuel era, but without requiring a new procedure for transportation and distribution.
An instrument that has already been tried and tested in practice can be used for the quality control of supply logistics: The RAL quality mark for energy trading remains the recognized predicate for ensuring reliable deliveries as well as correct metering and billing procedures for transports of so-called e-fuels.
Other forms of energy such as gas (power-to-gas, PtG) or heat (power-to-heat, PtH) can also be produced in a climate-neutral way using technology similar to PtL, for example in the event of future surpluses of green electricity. PtX is therefore the generic term for these processes, the expansion of which has the potential to create 1.2 million new jobs and an added value effect of EUR 80 billion, according to a recent report by the German Economic Institute (IW).
According to the IW, the prerequisite is that suitable political framework conditions are created across Europe: "The EU has the opportunity to position itself as a leading provider of promising, sustainable PtX technologies," say the authors of the report: "The ramp-up of the production of electricity-based energy sources has enormous potential both for the European economy and for the production locations."
