E-fuels vs. battery: "Efficiency is not the most important question".

Stephan Schwarzer, Managing Director of the E-Fuel Alliance Austria, spoke in an interview with Motor.at about the shadowy existence of synthetic fuels, how this status could change in the future.

"Europe simply does not have enough electricity to supply all sectors," admits Schwarzer regarding the expansion with renewable energies. And without green electricity, e-fuels do not make ecological sense. That is why Schwarzer advocates producing synthetic fuels in other regions of the globe where, for example, solar energy or wind power are abundant and reliable. In future, the electricity for e-fuels will come from areas "where we have the greatest yield, where no one lives and where no agriculture is practised".

And energy is available in abundance, says Schwarzer: "We are now harvesting only a per thousand share of the gigantic amount of renewable energy that the sun sends us," he says. In the case of wind, too, there is "still enormous untapped potential in top regions". Australia and New Zealand, for example, have already recognised this potential and want to build around 100 large-scale projects for renewable energies, e-fuels and hydrogen by 2030, explains Schwarzer, who says he has "identified more than 30 countries" where such projects could also be built. In this way, one could also rule out dependencies on a superpower like Russia, as in the case of gas, for example.

"In 2030, four-fifths of the cars on the road will still be powered by internal combustion engines."
Schwarzer sees e-fuels as a complement to pure battery power, whose efficiency is a good five to six times better than that of combustion engines fired with synthetic fuels. "The goal is: we have to save millions and millions of tonnes of CO2," says Schwarzer. "How high the efficiency of the energy carrier is with which we can achieve this is not the most important question," he thinks. What is important, he says, is to get a CO2-free energy carrier for mass applications.

Schwarzer assumes that e-fuels will no longer be more expensive than fossil fuels in just three years and "no more expensive than the interaction of electric battery and electricity". Because with mass production, "the price will start to slide". He is sure that e-fuels can "ultimately contribute as an additional factor to stabilising energy prices".

Useful areas of application are everywhere "where fossil energy is now used", says Schwarzer. For example, in the existing fleet of millions and millions of combustion engines that will still be in use for a long time: "In 2030, four-fifths of the cars on the road will still have combustion engines," says Schwarzer. "We have to make them climate-compatible. And the only way to do that is with alternative fuel."