Dr Falko Ueckerdt

Falko Ueckerdt is a senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He leads the National Energy Transitions Team (together with Robert Pietzcker) in the energy systems group of Research Department III - Transformation Pathways. He leads or works in national and international research projects with researchers from all over the world, including China, USA, India, Europe and Australia.

Currently, he is PIK project head of the Sino-German INTEGRATE project and works on hydrogen, e-fuels and the industry sector in the German flagship project Ariadne. Dr Ueckerdt has been managing director of the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub - a bilateral research network of 7 Australian and 6 German research institutes - and an affiliate partner to the Reliable Affordable Clean Energy for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre (RACE for 2030 CRC). Dr Ueckerdt is part of two IEA advisory groups, on system integration of variable renewables and on projected costs of generation. He was/is a contributing author to the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation of the IPCC (2011) and the Sixth Assessment Report (current).

In the past, Falko Ueckerdt was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Hanley Sustainability Institute of the University of Dayton, Ohio (2016), worked in energy planning for the International Renewable Energy Agency (2014/2015) and in e-mobility for the Boston Consulting Group (2009). Falko Ueckerdt studied physics at the Humboldt University Berlin and did his PhD at PIK (on renewable system integration) supervised by Ottmar Edenhofer, Bob Brecha and Gunnar Luderer.

Research

Falko Ueckerdt has a background in physics and economics and conducts research and policy advice in the field of climate change mitigation and energy system transformation, particularly on wind and solar power integration, sector coupling, electrification, hydrogen and e-fuels.

• Renewables: Are wind and solar PV power becoming the backbone of the energy transition in many countries?

• Electrification and hydrogen: In what form is renewable electricity best used? What are the trade-offs of direct electrification, green hydrogen and synthetic hydrocarbons (e-fuels, Carbon Capture and Utilization: CCU)? What are sensible policy instruments and strategies? Can green hydrogen deliver, or does it require fossil bridges (e.g. blue hydrogen)?

• System integration: Is the temporal variability (intermittency) a deal breaker for high shares of wind and solar PV in power systems? What role play integration options (e.g. transmission grids, energy storage, demand-side management and electrification) in mitigating 'integration costs'?

• Industry sector: What are key technologies and policy instruments for the industry sector? Which processes should build on low-emission hydrogen, and which should be electrified directly?
  
  
• Country energy transition pathways: How are mitigation options across sectors (industry, transport, buildings) combined to sensible pathways towards climate-neutral energy systems? What are the most important policy levers?

Publications

For an up-to-date list see: Google Scholar Publication and Citation Profile 

Distinct roles of direct and indirect electrification in pathways to a renewables-dominated European energy system. F Schreyer, F Ueckerdt, R Pietzcker, R Rodrigues, M Rottoli, S Madeddu, ... One Earth 7 (2), 226-241

On the cost competitiveness of blue and green hydrogenF Ueckerdt, PC Verpoort, R Anantharaman, C Bauer, F Beck, T Longden, ...
Joule 8 (1), 104-128

Data Repository-Complementary Roles of Direct and Indirect Electrification in Pathways to a Renewables-dominated European Energy SystemF Schreyer, F Ueckerdt, RC Pietzcker, R Rodrigues, M Rottoli, S Madeddu, ... CERN/Zenodo

2023

E-Fuels - Aktueller Stand und Projektionen, PIK-Analyse, Ueckerdt and Odenweller

Robust CO2-abatement from early end-use electrification under uncertain power transition speed in China's netzero transitionCC Gong, F Ueckerdt, C Bertram, Y Yin, D Bantje, R Pietzcker, J Hoppe, ... arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.04332
 
Bidirectional coupling of the long-term integrated assessment model REgional Model of INvestments and Development (REMIND) v3. 0.0 with the hourly power sector model Dispatch …CC Gong, F Ueckerdt, R Pietzcker, A Odenweller, WP Schill, M Kittel, ...
Geoscientific Model Development 16 (17), 4977-5033

Estimating the renewables pull in future global green value chains, PC Verpoort, L Gast, A Hofmann, F Ueckerdt, (Nature Energy, accepted)
 
2022

Odenweller, Ueckerdt, Nemet, Jensterle, and Luderer. 2022. “Probabilistic Feasibility Space of Scaling up Green Hydrogen Supply.” Nature Energy 7 (9): 854–65. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-022-01097-4.

Ueckerdt, Verpoort, Anantharaman, Bauer, Beck, Longden, Roussanaly. On the cost competitiveness of blue and green hydrogen. Nature Energy (in Review), https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1436022/v1

Odenweller, Ueckerdt et al. (2022), Ariadne Project, Hydrogen and the energy crisis. (in German)
 https://ariadneprojekt.de/publikation/analyse-wasserstoff-und-die-energiekrise-funf-knackpunkte/

Bauer et al., On the climate impacts of blue hydrogen production, Royal Society of Chemistry, Sustainable Energy Fuels, 2022,6, 66-7, https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2022/se/d1se01508g

2021

Ueckerdt, F., Bauer, C., Dirnaichner, A., Everall, J., Sacchi, R., Luderer, G. (2021): Potential and risks of hydrogen-based e-fuels in climate change mitigation. link to paper. presentation on the paper.
Nature Climate Change. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-01032-7

Bertram, C., Luderer, G., Creutzig, F., Bauer, N., Ueckerdt, F., Malik, A., Edenhofer, O. (2021): COVID-19-induced low power demand and market forces starkly reduce CO2 emissions.
Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/s41558-021-00987-x.

Ueckerdt et al. (2021) Ariadne Project Policy Paper: „Cornerstones of an adaptable hydrogen strategy“ (in German)
https://ariadneprojekt.de/publikation/eckpunkte-einer-anpassungsfaehigen-wasserstoffstrategie/

2020

Roelfsema et al., Taking stock of national climate policies to evaluate implementation of the Paris Agreement,
Nature Communications 11, 2096 (2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-15414-6

Madeddu S., Ueckerdt F., Pehl M., Peterseim J., Lord M., Kumar K.A., Krüger C. and Luderer G., The CO₂ reduction potential for the European industry via direct electrification of heat supply (power-to-heat),
Environmental Research Letters (2020). doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbd02

Schreyer, F., Luderer, G., Dias Bleasby Rodrigues, R., Pietzcker, R. C., Baumstark, L., Sugiyama, M., Brecha, R. J., Ueckerdt, F. (2020): Common but differentiated leadership: strategies and challenges for carbon neutrality by 2050 across industrialized economies.
Environmental Research Letters, 15, 11, 114016. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abb852

Ershad AM, Pietzcker R, Ueckerdt F, Luderer G, Managing Power Demand from Air Conditioning Benefits Solar PV in India Scenarios for 2040, Energies 13, 2223 (2020). doi.org/10.3390/en13092223

Schaeffer et al., Comparing transformation pathways across major economies, Climatic Change 162 (4), 1787-1803, (2020), https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-020-02837-9

Before 2020

F Ueckerdt, K Frieler, S Lange, L Wenz, G Luderer, A Levermann, The economically optimal warming limit of the planet, Earth System Dynamics 10 (4), 741-763, 2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-10-741-2019

Ueckerdt, Falko, Pietzcker, R., Scholz, Y., Stetter, D., Giannousakis, A., Luderer, G., (2016): "Decarbonizing global power supply under region-specific consideration of challenges and options of integrating variable renewables in the REMIND model". Energy Economics. 2016. link to paper: doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2016.05.012 [Alternative link to pre-print]

Pietzcker R, Ueckerdt F, Carrara S, De Boer H, Depres J, Fujimori F, Kitous A, Johnson N, Scholz Y, Sullivan P, Luderer G (2016)  Representing the challenge of renewable energy variability in Integrated Assessment Models. Energy Economics (under review)

Ueckerdt, F., Brecha, R., Luderer, G., Sullivan, P., Schmid, E., Bauer, N., Böttger, D., Pietzcker, R. (2015): "Representing power sector variability and the integration of variable renewables in long-term energy-economy models using residual load duration curves". Energy. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2015.07.006

Ueckerdt F, Brecha R, Luderer G (2015) Analyzing major challenges of wind and solar variability in power systems. Renewable Energy 81:1–10. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2015.03.002

L Hirth, F Ueckerdt, O Edenhofer (2015) Integration costs revisited-An economic framework for wind and solar variability. Renewable Energy 74, 925-939. doi:10.1016/j.renene.2014.08.065

Hirth, L, Ueckerdt, F, Edenhofer, O. (2014): “Why Wind is not Coal: On the Economics of Electricity”, forthcoming in The Energy Journal

Ueckerdt, Falko, Lion Hirth, Gunnar Luderer & Ottmar Edenhofer (2013): “System LCOE: What are the costs of variable renewables?”, Energy 63, 61-75. doi:10.1016/j.energy.2013.10.072

Ueckerdt, F, Luderer, G, Müller-Hansen, F, (2013): "Analyse des Klimaschutzpotentials der Nutzung von erneuerbarem Wasserstoff und Methan". A study for the DVGW German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water.

Hirth, L, Ueckerdt, F (2013): “Redistribution Effects of Energy and Climate Policy”, Energy Policy 62, 934-947. doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.07.055

Hirth, L, Ueckerdt, F (2013): "The Decreasing Market Value of Variable Renewables: Integration Options and Deadlocks", Transition to Renewable Energy Systems, 75-92.

Edenhofer, Ottmar, Lion Hirth, Brigitte Knopf, Michael Pahle, Steffen Schloemer, Eva Schmid & Falko Ueckerdt (2013): “On the Economics of Renewable Energy Sources”, Energy Economics 40(S1), 12-23. doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2013.09.015
Contributing author to the IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation. 2011. (Chapter 8: “Integration of Renewable Energy into Present and Future Energy Systems”)

Ongoing projects

Ariadne - flagship project on the German/European energy transition
The Kopernikus project Ariadne is researching which policy instruments are actually suitable for this purpose. From a better understanding of the effects of individual political measures and policy paths to an overview of the entire system - together with actors from politics, energy system transformation and society, the project is investigating meaningful strategies for energy system transformation and their acceptance by citizens. The project continuously compiles findings and results on a multimedia website.

Sino-German INTEGRATE project
Local air pollution control and climate change mitigation are timely and important challenges that are tackled not only in the international arena but also on national and regional level. Both aims can be approached with a number of interacting policy options that may contradict or complement each other. Only a well-coordinated set of policy instruments can avoid inconsistencies while leveraging synergies. The overarching objective of the research project INTEGRATE is identifying such a coordinated set for China and Germany based on an integrated economic analysis.

Australian-German Energy Transition Hub
The Hub brings together leading research organisations that are central to energy transition in Germany and Australia to learn from each other, generate mutual benefit through the global energy transition, and strengthen the bilateral relationship. The goal of the Hub is to provide a critical evidence base for new growth centred upon the economic opportunities of zero emissions.