High-temperature electricity-based applications for industry

Seventy percent of the final energy consumed by European industry in 2015 came from burning fuels, primarily to supply heat (Madeddu et al., 2020). One alternative is to use electricity directly by switching to electric furnaces, electric boilers or other electrolytic processes. Promising solutions are already being developed for the three most difficult-to-decarbonise sectors: chemicals, cement and steel. For the chemical industry, electric crackers (e-crackers) are in the pilot phase. For the cement industry, kilns heated by plasma generators are in the proof-of-concept stage. Meanwhile, the steel industry is piloting electrolytic reduction processes. Finally, as discussed later in this report, these industries could also be electrified indirectly using renewably produced fuels. See Box 5.1 for an overview of power-to-heat technologies, temperature ranges and sectors they can cover.

Replacing fossil fuels with electricity in industry significantly reduces CO₂ emissions when this electricity is produced from renewables. The benefits would be substantial, since industry now consumes about 38% of the total energy used worldwide. While full electrification is challenging, the adoption of mature and ready-to-use solutions (such as low-temperature heat pumps) can significantly increase industry’s electrification rate outside of the difficult-to-decarbonise sectors.

TES makes it possible to decouple heating or cooling demand from power generation. Such decoupling offers many important benefits, including greater efficiency, flexibility, security and reliability in energy supply, while also reducing costs and greenhouse gas emissions. As described in this section, thermal energy can be stored at low or high temperatures, ¹¹ or at short or long time scales using the alternatives shown in Figure 6.5 (IRENA, 2020b).

FIGURE 6.5 Operating temperature ranges and time scales for TES technologies