Rolls-Royce showcases forward-looking mtu Onsite Energy technologies for the reliable and sustainable power supply of the future

• 600 participants attend the 3rd Power Generation Symposium in Friedrichshafen/Germany
• Discussions on strategies for handling energy demand and decarbonisation

The future of a sustainable and reliable energy supply in times of climate change, decarbonisation and the energy transition will be the main focus of the 3rd Power Generation Symposium, which has been arranged by the Rolls-Royce mtu Onsite Energy brand and will be held on 2 and 3 July in Friedrichshafen. Around 600 experts from the energy sector, including 400 mtu Onsite Energy customers, will discuss strategies for handling growing energy demands in view of the urgent need for environmentally sound and climate-friendly solutions. Rolls-Royce is moving forward as a pioneer in sustainable power generation and, with its mtu Onsite Energy brand, offers forward-looking energy solutions, such as microgrids, CHP plants and emergency standby systems, that will safeguard the energy transition and secure an uninterruptible power supply. There will be live demonstrations of these solutions during the symposium.

“The Power Generation Symposium has developed into a key industry meeting point in the course of the last few years,” says Andreas Görtz, Vice President Power Generation of the Rolls-Royce Power Systems business unit. “We are proud that, for this year’s symposium, we have once again been able to attract a number of eminent experts as speakers, who will give us an insight into the energy future ahead of us.” They include John Murray from the highly respected energy research and consultancy services company Delta-ee, who will present current trends on the global energy markets. Quinous, a start-up company with which Rolls-Royce entered into a partnership last year as a strategic investor, will be presenting innovative ideas for storage systems in microgrids that are available today. Further exciting perspectives will be the subject of a presentation on the challenges facing the data centre industry given by Stijn Grove, the Director of the Dutch Data Center Association, in addition to a panel discussion on the subject of power-to-X. This also shows quite clearly that, with regard to alternative fuels, Rolls-Royce is leading the way: together with its partners in the Meth(an)Quest project, the company is currently looking into ways in which methane-based fuels can be obtained from renewable energy sources and used to generate electric power.

A further highlight of the symposium will be a series of presentations of mtu Onsite Energy products in innovation rooms, where an informative and entertaining stage show will present the function of gensets and other components as integral parts of microgrids and data centres. The intention is to demonstrate how sophisticated system solutions supplied by Rolls-Royce secure its customers’ energy supply and thus, among other things, enable renewable energy sources to be used.     

The power generation sector is one of the most important markets for Rolls-Royce and in 2018 accounted for roughly 30 per cent of the total sales generated by the Power Systems business unit (Rolls-Royce Power Systems total revenue: 3,900 million euros). Under the mtu Onsite Energy brand, Rolls-Royce supplies cost-effective, reliable and environmentally friendly system solutions for the supply of energy covering a very wide range of applications. These include systems for emergency standby, baseload and peak load applications to high-performance cogeneration plants and microgrids. The product portfolio also includes diesel gensets with outputs of up to 4,000 kVA, gas gensets delivering up to 2,500 kW of power and battery containers. This range of products is supplemented by medium-speed engines and generators for power generation to 11,600 kW. With gensets from mtu Onsite Energy, Rolls-Royce is one of the most important system partners for operators of data centres. The majority of the major Internet companies and collocation providers put their trust in mtu Online Energy emergency standby gensets to safeguard their data centres.

Power Generation Symposiums have a long tradition at Rolls-Royce Power Systems: in the United States, the symposiums have been held every year since 2009, and in the course of the last 10 years around 4,000 energy experts have attended. In the Near East, similar events have already been held and an event is scheduled to take place in Asia in the year 2020.