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Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs may account for 30 % of the total cost of energy for offshore wind power. Alarmingly, only after a few years of installation, offshore wind turbines (WT) may need emergency repairs. They also feature an extremely short lifespan hindering investments to green energy, effectively designed to reduce CO2 emissions. We have designed real-time monitoring and diagnostics platform in the context of operation and maintenance scheduling of WT components. Using this architecture, we can quantify the risk of future failure of a given component and trace back the root-cause of the failure. This is business-critical information for Energy Companies and Wind Farm Operators. The platform consists of an autonomous software-hardware solution, implementing an Object Oriented Real-Time Decision Tree learning algorithm for smart monitoring and diagnostics of structural and mechanical WT components. The innovative concept lies in running WT telemetry data through a machine learning based decision tree classification algorithm in real-time for detecting faults, errors, damage patterns, anomalies and abnormal operation. We believe our innovation creates evident value and will raise great interest as decision-support tool for WT manufacturers, Wind Farm Operators, Service Companies and Insurers. In this project, we will carry out pre-commercialisation actions to position ourselves in the market, provide unique selling proposition for future customers as well as raise interest among potential R&D collaborators and pilot customers. We will also establish technology proof of concept for the platform. For the first time, we are applying our design in difficult-to-access energy infrastructure installations and deploying it on a real-world prototype wind turbine. The project will be carried out with technical and commercialisation support from key players within the wind energy industry.

The proposed Action will support analytical work carried out in the context of the IEA-Morocco Joint Work Programme (JWP). Under the JWP, which came into effect on 28 June 2017, the IEA will provide technical support and advice to assist Morocco in developing a strategy to design an integrated assessment of long-term low carbon energy transition pathways. The IEA-Morocco work programme will include capacity building and training in data and statistics; modelling and support for the de-carbonisation programme. The IEA will also provide advice on further energy price liberalisation and energy security in the oil, gas and electricity sectors. It will also advise the Moroccan Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development (MEMDD) and related stakeholders on optimal technologies and best practices that can be implemented to help Morocco attain its Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy targets. It is anticipated that EU support will cover the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy work streams outlined in the JWP. In addition to on-site visits, IEA experts will host interactive webinars in English with Moroccan energy efficiency stakeholders on mutually agreed priority areas. The IEA could also assist MEMDD and the Moroccan Agency for Energy Efficiency (AMEE) in assessing the economic and other conditions for a push towards clean, electric cooking. The main purpose of this activity would be to ensure that energy efficiency measures are accelerated and run parallel with renewable energy deployment. This proposal relates to item 57 in the Horizon 2020 Work Programme for 2016-2017. This action will be instrumental in supporting Morocco’s transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system, in particular in Horizon 2020 priority areas such as reduction in energy consumption and carbon footprint; generation and transmission of lower-cost, low-carbon electricity; new knowledge and technologies;

Extreme weather conditions (i.e. strong and unsteady winds, icing, etc.) - that countries such as Iceland and the other four Nordics (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland), the UK, Ireland, Canada´s Prairies, Northern US, Russia, and Nigeria along with high altitude sites face - make traditional wind turbines (horizontal-axis) to spin out of control resulting in catastrophic system failure in the first year of operation. As a result, these locations needed a different kind of wind technology capable of working over a wide production range (whether it’s in the stormy afternoon, in hurricanes or on calm and icy winter nights in the range of -10 to -30 °C) with mimimum maintenance. IceWind has therefore identified a business opportunity for a rugged and durable VAWT intended for extreme wind conditions with a power capacity range between 300W to 1,000W and focused on on-site small applications that require a continuous 100% green energy source of reduced carbon footprint and will bring down energy bills of customers through self-generation and consumption. The excellent match of aerodynamics and materials give our NJORD turbines unique features such as optimal structural stability, strength, and hence durability to withstand the most extreme wind conditions. Our VAWT can produce electricity at very low wind speeds, as well as spin elegantly, non-stop and noiseless at high speed winds. As for our commercial strategy, we plan to respond: 1) directly to individual end-users of isolated areas for residential applications (i.e. cabins, homes, and small farms) mainly in Iceland and other EU countries (i.e. the other four Nordics, the UK, and Ireland) and 2) owners of telecom towers worldwide. Expected total net income from selling NJORD turbines after deducting costs of purchase, manufacture and distribution fees amounts to a cumulative 10.32M€ along with the creation of over 140 skilled works in IceWind and partners worldwide for the 2020-2024 period.

Skyscrapers building technology marked a turning point in the construction sector: Due to the great heights of those buildings, the only way to build them is with a crane which rises in the manner the skyscraper does. Inspired by that idea, we developed the AIRCRANE SYSTEM. The wind energy sector currently has a main objective: decrease the Levelized Cost of produced Energy (LCoE), in order to be comparable to other energy sources in the coming years. The strategies to decrease are mainly concentrated in two action groups: Reduce the cost of wind turbines and capture as much energy as possible. Regarding the second group, manufacturers are convinced the best way is to create more powerful turbines (up to 8 MW) and install the nacelle and rotor at greater heights, where the wind blows harder and there are less turbulences. The market requires taller towers, supporting heavier loads on top as well. The only alternative, due to steel tower's limitations, is to make at least the lower part with concrete. But the concrete weak point is its weight, which requires the use of largest crawlers and cranes: very expensive machines and with a limited number of units worldwide. The AIRCRANE SYSTEM is a brand new technology that serves to assembly concrete wind-turbine towers, with theoretically infinite height: the Aircrane system is based on a external self-climbing crane which rises as the construction of the tower does, once its completed and built, the system will lift the nacelle and blades. There are two main advantages: (1) Radically reduce current construction costs in the tallest concrete towers, and additionally (2) open a new market-niche, being able to construct towers with no height limits. Successful project completion represents a significant business opportunity for our SME, with expected REVENUES of € 32,5/58,5 million within 5/7 years and the creation of 98/167 Direct Jobs, and 176/307 Indirect jobs

Wind Power has become the most promising technology as source of renewable energy in the World. In 2016, Wind Power installed more than any other form of power generation in Europe (51% of total power capacity installations), overtaking coal as the 2nd largest form of power generation capacity. Since cost reduction of each kW/h generated by Wind Power industry is one of its strategic targets, the market displays a strong tendency towards bigger wind turbines with longer blades. However, bigger rotor diameters have raised a dramatic problem regarding the durability of the blades which concerns the whole value chain of the wind power industry. Increasing blade lengths means faster linear velocity of the tip of the blade and consequently higher erosion rate of the leading edge of the blade caused by rain, hail or suspended particles. Although the lifespan of a wind turbine is calculated in 25 years, traditional medium sized wind turbines provided with current protection systems of the leading edges, required complete maintenance tasks due to deterioration of the blades at around year 10. However, recently installed turbines with +100 m diameter rotors showed problems regarding the erosion of the blades at year 2. In order to solve the erosion problem, Aerox Advanced Polymers SL, a SME specialised in developing solutions for the wind power industry, has developed an innovative leading edge protection (LEP) polymeric coating with particular mechanical and chemical properties which is able to avoid the erosion problem during the whole lifetime of the wind blade. The LEP4BLADES project aims to accelerate the commercialisation of the coating solution through the scaling-up the manufacturing and application processes, which will also require the improvement of the polymer technology and the product formulation.

Pyrolectric materials could harvest energy from naturally occurring temperature changes such as changes in ambient temperature, and artificial temperature changes due to exhaust gases, convection or solar energy. These materials can operate with a high thermodynamic efficiency and, showing an advantage over thermoelectric materials, they do not require bulky heat sinks to maintain the required heat difference. Hence, “pyroelectric energy harvesting” could be the right methodology to rescue some of the enormous amount of energy wasted as heat by converting the thermal fluctuations into electrical energy (e.g. more than 50% of the energy generated in the U.S. is lost that way each year). Reusing the wasted energy and increasing the share of renewable energy in final energy consumption are important EU targets, expressed in the Europe 2020 Strategy. Enhancing energy efficiency solutions would help citizens both in economic (lower electricity bills) and ecological (clean, green energy) terms. This project examines the development of pyroelectric nanotextured ceramics, for use in future ambient energy harvesting. An original combination of an inexpensive mechano-chemical synthesis for the production of hexagonal ZnS (wurtzite) nanopowder, and the subsequent fabrication of nanotextured ceramics applying a high-pressure-low-temperature sintering, will be used, an approach we have explored previously to suppress grain growth. Neither the fabrication methods, nor the existence of nanotextured pyroelectric ceramics of wurtzite have yet been reported in the literature. In particular the project will explore the potential of the wurtzite nanotextured ceramics as new functional anisotropic bulk materials for pyroelectric energy harvesting. We expect the pyroelectric properties to improve with the introduction of nanostructures and texturing within the anisotropic material like wurtzite, which should ultimately lead to more efficient pyroelectric devices for energy harvesting.

The biggest challenge for renewable energy sources is to match the demand with the supply. By using thermal energy storage for concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, the stability, reliability, and capacity factor of the plants are improved. Conventional CSP plants typically use mirrors, which are expensive to produce, install, and maintain. Apart from that, conventional thermal storages are also expensive as these are based on molten salts, which are expensive and their handling require special materials. Based on a novel micro-structured polymer foil, Heliac, Denmark, has demonstrated cost-effectiveness of the Fresnel reflector integrated foil based CSP plants. The primary objective of “Small-scale CSP” is to design a novel thermal storage for Fresnel reflector integrated foil based CSP plants. Detailed numerical works as well as experimental demonstrations are included. The intention is to design a packed bed storage system with heat storage charging and discharging using evaporation/condensation of one or more heat transfer fluids. For the thermal storage to be designed in this project, the cost is estimated to be around 4 €/kWh which is less than half of the cost of conventional storage system using molten salt (~ 11 €/kWh). The estimated cost of electricity and heat generation from the Fresnel reflector integrated foil based CSP plant with storage (at Seville, Spain) is 38 €/MWh and 8 €/MWh, respectively. By involving research topics from different fields and collaborations with world-leading organizations from industry and academia, this is a truly inter-disciplinary and inter-sectorial project, ensuring its successful completion. In broader terms, the project will contribute to the development of cost-efficient renewable energy systems, reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and reducing the carbon dioxide emissions of the heat and power generation sector, thus helping to attain socio-economic and environmental targets in context of the EU 2020 vision.

Replacing fossil-fuels with solar energy in electric power generation is one of the most important challenges to humanity. From an economic point of view, the important parameter is the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE), or Levelized Energy Cost (LEC), which is the net present value of the unit-cost of electricity over the lifetime of an energy generating asset. The minimally expected LCOE for any solar energy system in 2030 is 0.045 [€/kWh], similar to today's Photovoltaics (PV) LCOE, and at the same level as fossil-fuels. In this proposal, we aim to demonstrate a Proof of Concept [PoC] for a low-cost CPV operating at LCOE of 0.025 [€/kWh] (50% reduction of PVs today). The proposal is a direct continuation of our ERC project on new thermodynamic ideas for solar cells, where we demonstrated that; In contrast to thermal emission, photoluminescence (PL) rate is conserved when the temperature increases, while each photon is blue-shifted (photon-energy increased). We also demonstrated how such Thermally Enhanced-PL (TEPL) generates more energetic photons, by orders of magnitude, than thermal emission at similar temperatures. These findings show that PL is an ideal optical heat pump, and can harvest thermal losses in photovoltaics with a theoretical maximal efficiency of 70%, and a practical device/solution that can reach 48% efficiency. In our preliminary unpublished work, we demonstrate 42% TEPL efficiency compared to an ideal-PV. The challenge in this PoC is to demonstrate photon recycling, photon management, and thermal management, where the maximum of the PL is converted to electricity in an operating PV. We also performed a detailed breakdown of the costs related to TEPL based device. Based on our cost analysis, achieving 32% total conversion efficiency without a cooling system supports LCOE of 0.025 [€/kWh], which will significantly accelerate the usage of renewable energy.

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.