• Energy Research
• European Commission close
• 2015 close
• 2018 close

In recent years, research has shown that energy savings resulting from energy efficiency improvements have wider benefits for the economy and society such as increases in employment, GDP, energy security, positive impacts on health, ecosystems and crops or resource consumption. In order to develop more cost-effective energy efficiency policies and optimised long-term strategies in the EU, these multiple benefits have to be accounted for more comprehensively in the future. Although this field of research is growing, the findings are disperse and mostly have important gaps regarding geographic, sectorial or technical measure coverage and findings vary largely. This makes a consideration of multiple benefits in policy making and policy evaluation difficult today. The proposed project addresses these issues and aims at closing the identified gaps by five central research innovations: 1) data gathering on energy savings and technology costs per EU country for the most relevant 20 to 30 energy efficiency measures in the residential, commercial, industrial and transport sectors, 2) developing adequate methodologies for benefit quantification, monetisation and aggregation, 3) quantifying the most important multiple benefits and where adequate, monetising, 4) developing an openly available calculation tool that greatly simplifies the evaluation of co-impacts for specific energy efficiency measures to enable decision-making and 5) developing a simple online visualisation tool for customisable graphical analysis and assessment of multiple benefits and data exportation. Project outcomes can thus directly be used by stakeholders and will help to define cost-effective policies and support policy-makers and evaluators in the development and monitoring of energy efficiency strategies and policies in the future.

The project arises from a joint venture between Enair Energy SL and Lancor 2000 S Coop to develop a Cost efficient Small Wind Turbine (SWT) of 40 kW rated capacity (ECIWIND®).Within the wind energy sector, the small wind power is growing: According to World Wind Energy Association the small wind power market is expected to increase massively, from 768 M€ in 2013 to 2517 M€ by 2020, at a CAGR of 22%.The main challenge of the small wind energy industry is to decrease its costs to push a socialisation of this renewable technology. Thus, this electricity generation will be more competitive in the energy market and independent of the subsidies. The European Commision highliths the importance of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as small energy producers and the need to empower them to take up this role. Several european SMEs such as farms (200-400 kWh/day) and small industry (200- 450 kWh/day). In the case that these end users are located in areas where annual average wind velocity is higher than 5 m/s, small wind turbines in the 10-50 kW capacity is the best option to cover their energy needs. The acquisition and commissioning costs of SWT in this capacity range rounds 4000 €/kWh and have annual maintenance average costs of 1500 €/year depending on the configuration, which makes unaffordable the investment without government subsidies. The price reduction on this capacity range can be approached through the elimination of costly parts of current technologies as the Gearbox, and the optimization of the cost/performance of the rest of components.Enair and Lancor have therefore identified a business opportunity for SWT technologies and have developed a first prototype of ECIWIND® at 10 kW scale (free-gearbox with pitch control and permanent magnet generator SWT) that requires 50% less maintenance and decrease the price to end user installed in 40%, which entails an investment payback period <6 years without any government subsidy.

The EUFORIE project studies energy efficiency at macro level (EU as a whole and comprison to China), national level (EU-28 Member States), sectoral/company level (selected energy-intensive sectors and companies) and household level, taking into account the perspectives of energy production and consumption. The project uses also participatory foresight workshops to provide new information for energy policy preparation in selected EU Member States. The project has nine Work Packages, the Research/Innovation WPs focus on (1) macro-level analysis on energy efficiency (EU as a Whole and EU-28 Member States; WP2), (2) regional and sectoral case studies on energy efficiency (WP3), and (3) energy efficiency metabolism in socio-economic systems (WP4) by using innovative analysis tools developed by the EUFORIE consortium beneficiaries in previous projects financed by the EuropeanCommisson. Moreover, the project analyses energy efficiency from the consumer perspective (WP5) and energy efficiency development in selected energy-intensive companies by using the previously developed analysis tools (WP6). Last but not least, the project implements a participatory foresight process for energy efficiency stakeholders in selected countries (WP7) and a comparison of energy efficiency in the EU and China (WP8).

Focusing the Sun’s rays onto a piece of paper with a magnifying glass may sound as a children’s game, but it lies over the same principle that Photovoltaic (PV) technology, which can potentially lead Europe to obtain energy at a lower price and with the least environmental impact. In order to achieve it, PV’s efficiency and its associated costs need to be improved. REPHLECT project tackles both factors thanks to an innovative combination of advanced High Concentration PV (HCPV) technology and a close to the end market model. HCPV, due to its use of very high efficiency PV cells, is currently the solar technology with the highest cost reduction potential (85% in the last 5 years). REPHLECT’s HCPV builds up on the excellent results obtained in the FP7 project “NGCPV”, in which concentrator cells, module and system efficiency were improved. Now BSQ Solar, one of NGCPV’s partners, will take a step forward by designing a module that will reach a concentration of 1000X from the 820X developed by NGCPV, and at the same time including innovative features. To reduce the associated costs, REPHLECT will design components that allow local manufacturing and will migrate assembly lines to Satellite Production Centres (SPCs) located in highly irradiated areas to produce the panels close to the market. The only most IP sensitive part, the receivers, will be developed in BSQ headquarters in Madrid. In order words, REPHLECT intends to replicate the white box paradigm which introduced the ultimate commoditization of the computer hardware industry, by challenging the present industry model based in huge centralized upscaling in Asia. The project will be piloted in-house and the assembly satellite production will be demonstrated at the University of Al Akhawayn, in Morocco. REPHLECT counts already with letters of support of more than 15 prestigious companies which are very interested in its business model.

As wind energy is considered one of the most promising renewable energy resources, energy production technologies relying on wind energy are currently flourishing under the EU ambitious plan for 2020. Market demands to prepare a generation of researchers within the EU that are able to face the challenge of fulfilling the EU ambitious plan, to sustain the production of wind energy and to innovate and promote wind energy systems (WES) for the future needs, are clearly met in AEOLUS4FUTURE. The primary research aim is to develop a sustainable WES for a variety of EU needs. There are a number of detailed scientific and technical issues that will be addressed by the project starting from identifying the wind energy potential (off-shore and on-shore, including the built environment) to the design of a sustainable and highly efficient WES. Also the new challenging load conditions imposed on wind farms located on places where existing type of wind turbine towers are not suitable require the development of new type of support structures for wind energy converters. This fosters new structural concepts taking advantage of high performance materials e.g. high strength steel and novel maintenance free fasteners. In addition, while most research efforts and practical applications of wind energy have focused on large-scale wind installations in remote offshore or onshore areas, much less attention has been given to wind energy installations near buildings. The project has a major training aim to create technical experts who will be able to lead the necessary industrial developments in the WES, and have a broad overview of a new and emerging multi-disciplinary field. The project will thus enable a number of young scientists and engineers to obtain high level training in various technical aspects of the problem, to gain an overall understanding of how this work fits into the wider EU Directives and plans for the future and in doing so to improve their career prospects.

Following the EC SET-Plan Education and Training Roadmap, the concept of this proposal is to develop a joint PhD programme between universities and research centres, on the topic of Thermal Energy Storage (TES). The goal of INPATH-TES is to create a network of universities and research institutes to implement a joint PhD programme on TES technologies. The final result of such a network is to educate professionals on these technologies for the European research and industry institutions. The consortium includes 14 universities that will implement the joint PhD programme, two research institutions (AIT and PROMES-CNRS), three companies and two SME (Arcelik, Abengoa Solar NT, KIC InnoEnergy, UFP and LAIF), that will cooperate in defining the programme and in its implementation and deployment. The specific objectives of the project will lead to the qualification of professionals for the European research and industry institutions, bringing Europe to continue being leaders in these technologies. The partners in the proposal will be the core of a future larger network of excellent R&D institutions, and industries for co-funding and industrial placement, sharing infrastructure capacities, and enhancing mobility of students. The overall approach of the project involves a work plan divided in six work packages, being either coordination or support activities. Coordination activities: WP1 – Management and coordination; WP3 – Developing, maintaining and updating a PhD programme in TES; and WP4 – Implementation of the PhD programme in TES. Support activities: WP2 – External communication and dissemination; WP5 – Stakeholder involvement and extension of partnerships; and WP6 – Framework for monitoring and evaluation of INPATH-TES as well as IPR and regulatory issues.

The consortium behind SPARCARB – Global Lightning Protection Services A/S (GLPS, non-academic beneficiary), Denmark, together with the University of Southampon (SOTON, academic beneficiary entitled to award doctoral degrees), UK, and six Partner organizations – aims at providing an innovative international, interdisciplinary and intersectoral training network for four Early-Stage Researcher (ESRs), which will integrate in a single project (1) Science-based Training in material and electrical engineering; (2) Transferable Skills-based Training in carbon fibre, wind turbines, lightning protection technologies, business and innovation, and other competences; (3) and Research-based Training designed around cutting-edge challenges for the Wind Power Industry, which has identified the need for continuous research on lightning protection of large wind turbines with blades incorporating CFC structural components. The SPARCARB project aims at addressing the strong lack of doctoral-level trained human resources to push forward the research base in the field of lightning protection of CFC structures, building the proper environment for shifting paradigms in the Wind Power Industry. Specifically, the project will address scientific and technological challenges related to an effective protection of CFC wind turbine blades from lightning-induced damages, enabling the reliable use of very large and more efficient wind turbines. The goal is to train four ESRs to be familiar with both Industry (15 months at GLPS and secondments to industrial partner organizations for 3 months) and Academia (18 months at SOTON The doctoral training programme will be carried out according to SOTON’s criteria from which all four ESRs will obtain doctoral degrees. The envisaged training will provide a range of skills to all ESRs making them high-potential candidates to be employed at GLPS and other wind power industry players.

ENTRUST provides mapping of Europe’s energy system (key actors & their intersections, technologies, markets, policies, innovations) and an in-depth understanding of how human behaviour around energy is shaped by both technological systems and socio-demographic factors (esp. gender, age and socio-economic status). New understandings of energy-related practices and an intersectional approach to the socio-demographic factors in energy use will be deployed to enhance stakeholder engagement in Europe’s energy transition. The role of gender will be illuminated by intersectional analyses of energy-related behaviour & attitudes towards energy technologies, which will assess how multiple identities and social positions, combine to shape practices. These analyses will be integrated within a transitions management framework which takes account of the complex meshing of human values and identities with technological systems. The third key paradigm informing the research is the concept of energy citizenship, with a key goal of ENTRUST being to enable individuals overcome barriers of gender, age and socio-economic status to become active participants in their own energy transitions. Central to the project will be an in-depth engagement with 5 very different communities across the continent, who will be invited to be co-designers of their own energy transition. The consortium brings a diverse array of expertise to bear in assisting and reflexively monitoring these communities as they work to transform their energy behaviours, generating innovative transition pathways and business models capable of being replicated elsewhere in Europe. Deliverables will include a policy tool-kit incorporating contemporary best practice in promoting energy transitions at a Europe-wide level; a suite of innovative transition pathways and community engagement tools designed to stimulate dialogue and break down barriers to behaviour change and the adoption new technologies at a community level.

The targeted breakthrough of the HELENIC-REF project refers to the establishment of a new sustainable methodology for the water thermolysis at temperatures below 300oC and the immediate corresponding production of energy or fuels. The method is based on our preliminary experimental evidence of water thermolysis at 286oC in the presence of Fe3O4 nanoporous catalytic thick films, with the sustainable maintenance of the catalyst due to a new reduction method based on Lorentz force electrons generated by a magnetic field in the vicinity of the electric current heating the semiconducting catalyst. The method is used for the production of hydrogen and oxygen, as well as of fuels in the presence of CO2 in order to reduce CO2 to CO or even to hydrocarbons, (like Synthetic Natural Gas – SNG) via methanation.

AWESOME network aims to educate eleven young researchers in the wind power operation and maintenance (O&M) field by constructing a sustainable training network gathering the whole innovation value chain. The main EU actors in the field of wind O&M have worked together, under the umbrella of the European Wind Energy Academy (EAWE), in order to design a training program coping with the principal R&D challenges related to wind O&M while tackling the shortage of highly-skilled professionals on this area that has been foreseen by the European Commission, the wind energy industrial sector and the academia. The overall AWESOME research programme tackles the main research challenges in the wind O&M field identified by the European wind academic and industrial community: (1) to develop better O&M planning methodologies of wind farms for maximizing its revenue, (2) to optimise the maintenance of wind turbines by prognosis of component failures and (3) to develop new and better cost-effective strategies for Wind Energy O&M. These main goals have been divided into eleven specific objectives, which will be assigned to the fellows, for them to focus their R&D project, PhD Thesis and professional career. The established training plan answers the challenges identified by the SET Plan Education Roadmap. Personal Development Career Plans will be tuned up for every fellow, being their accomplishment controlled by a Personal Supervisory Team. The training plan includes intra-network activities, as well as network-wide initiatives. The secondments at partner organizations and between beneficiaries are a key attribute of the training programme. Each fellow will be exposed to three different research environments from both, academic and industrial spheres. All the network activities will be developed in accordance with the established in the Ethical Codes and Standards for research careers development, looking therefore for talent, excellence and opportunity equality.