Research and Consulting

Quintel helps organizations gain a strategic understanding of the energy transition and the energy system as a whole. The ETM helps organizations explore how robust their energy strategies and transition plans are, given possible future developments. Quintel also supports energy consulting firms in their use of the ETM.

Some recent projects include:

• RES region Midden-Holland
  With a diverse group of stakeholders we explored options for reducing CO₂ emissions from the built environment and how future supply and demand might change. We explicitly departed from and elaborated on the results of previous studies for this area.

• RES region U10 / U16
  Quintel and Generation Energy mapped and visualised the current situation in this region. Next we made an inventory of the potential building blocks for CO₂ reduction for both supply and demand.

• Routekaart Friesland
  Quintel supported the province of Friesland and various stakeholders in creating a scenario with CO₂ emissions 49% lower than in 1990. We also explored variations on this scenario and defined concrete first actions.

• Openingsbod Gemeente Groningen
  Quintel and CE Delft worked together with the city of Groningen, Enexis and Gasunie to determine optimal technical solutions for CO₂ neutral heating in all neighbourhoods. We also determined the certainty of those preferences and where the ETM and CEGOIA (CE Delft) agreed or disagreed.

See our list of publications for examples of our work.

Energy Modeling

We keep improving the Energy Transition Model. Our expertise lies in reducing the complexities of an interdependent energy system to their essence. Our open source model is ideally suited for collective development. All improvements to the ETM are made in close collaborations with our partners.

A recent example of a modeling project:

• Infrastructure Outlook 2050
  For their Infrastructure Outlook 2050, Gasunie and TenneT based their own calculations for infrastructure impact on scenarios created with the ETM in both Germany and the Netherlands.

Recent improvements of the ETM include:

• Electricity network
  The ETM now models hourly load on all voltage levels.

• Heat
  We now define five housing types and use energy labels to indicate insulation. Heat demand is modeled on an hourly basis.

• Hydrogen
  Hydrogen demand, supply and storage are now modeled on an hourly basis.

• Data export
  All energy flows, installed capacities and hourly profiles can be easily exported for further analysis.

• CO₂ footprint
  Infographic of regional CO₂ emission; e.g. the CO₂ footprint of the Netherlands.

• Scenario overview factsheet
  Infographic of scenario results; e.g. scenario overview of Urgenda scenario.

Development

Quintel does all its product development in-house. The calculation engine for the Energy Transition Model is entirely written in the Ruby programming language. This language is a dynamic, reflective and object-oriented language with an active open-source community. For the ETM it offers a readable way to create, maintain and expand our modules.

... more on development at Quintel

Energy Education

Quintel has also developed a range of educational material for the Dutch education system. Students from primary school to PhD level use these educational materials to interactively learn to understand the energy system better. More information can be found on Quintel's education page. (in Dutch).