• Energy Research
• European Commission close
• 2020 close

The aim of SUNRISE is to make sustainable fuels and commodity chemicals at affordable costs of materials and Earth surface, using sunlight as the only energy source. This includes nitrogen fixation and the conversion of atmospheric CO2 into products, which will be a game changer in the fight against climate change. The CSA SUNRISE gathers the scientific and industrial communities that will develop radically new technologies to harvest solar energy and enable the foundation of a global circular economy. SUNRISE targets three synergistic S&T approaches: (i) electrochemical conversion with renewable power, direct conversion via (ii) photoelectrochemical and (iii) biological and biohybrid systems. These will be implemented with the crucial support of novel material design via high performance computing, advanced biomimicry, and synthetic biology. Ultimately, the novel solar-to-chemical technologies will be integrated into the global industrial system. In 10 years, SUNRISE will bring renewable fuel production to TRL 9 at a cost of 0.4 €/L and atmospheric CO2 photoconversion at TRL 7. The ambition is to convert up to 2500 tons of CO2 and produce > 100 tons of commodity chemicals (per ha per year), realizing a 300% energy gain over present best practices and deploying devices on the 1000 ha scale. This requires new solutions for absorbing >90% of light and storing >80% of the photogenerated electrons in fuels/chemicals produced in large-scale solar energy converters, in close interaction with social and environmental sciences to optimize their deployment. SUNRISE will make Europe the leading hub of disruptive technologies, closing the carbon cycle and providing a solar dimension to the chemical industry, with enormous economical, societal and environmental benefits. SUNRISE is an intrinsically flagship enterprise that has obtained explicit commitment from top organisations, both from industry and academia across Europe, to set the stage for the next steps of the action.

Soiling (i.e. the accumulation of dust on photovoltaic modules) is an issue affecting photovoltaic (PV) systems worldwide and causes significant economic losses. An appropriate cleaning schedule can raise the energy yield of the PV modules and reduce the operating costs, increasing the revenues and, at the same time, limiting the need of non-renewable energy generation. NoSoilPV aims to tackle this issue by developing a smart method capable of quantifying the soiling accumulated on the PV modules in real time without the need of expensive additional hardware. Moreover, through the analysis of historical precipitation datasets and the use of weather prediction models, the algorithm developed in this project will predict the economic impact of soiling and notify at which time artificial cleanings should be performed in order to minimize costs and maximize the energy production. NoSoilPV will be conducted by Dr. Leonardo Micheli within the Centre for Advanced Studies in Energy and Environment (CEAEMA) of the University of Jaén (Spain). CEAEMA is an ideal environment for this project, which involves PV performance analysis, weather and dust prediction modelling and machine learning techniques, because of the high quality research conducted in PV and in all the multidisciplinary aspects of the project. NoSoilPV aims to answer a number of unsolved questions in soiling and to provide the community a useful tool to increase the energy production and the economic revenues. The project will support the EU in its effort to increase the clean energy share and to maximize material efficiency, leading to an increase in PV energy yield, without the installation of new modules or systems. In addition, this fellowship will favor the EU reintegration of Dr. Micheli and will give him the opportunity to enhance his career as an independent researcher.

The profound advantages of printed photovoltaics (PVs), such as their light weight, mechanical flexibility in addition to the small energy demand, and low cost equipment requirements for roll-to-roll mass production, characterise them as a dominant candidate source for future electrical power. Over the last few years, the discovery of novel solution processed electronic materials and device structures boosted PV power conversion efficiency values. Despite that, power conversion efficiency is not a 'stand-alone' product development target for next generation PVs. Lifetime, cost, flexibility and non-toxicity have to be equally considered, regarding the technological progress of solution processed PVs. The ambit of the Sol-Pro research programme is to re-design solution processed PV components relevant to the above product development targets. Based on this, processing specifications as a function of the electronic material properties will be established and provide valuable input for flexible PV applications. Adjusting the material characteristics and device design is crucial to achieve the proposed high performance PV targets. As a consequence, a number of high-level objectives concerning processing/materials/electrodes/interfaces, relevant to product development targets of next generation solution processed PVs, are aimed for within the proposed ERC programme.