• Energy Research
• European Commission close
• OA Publications Mandate: Yes close
• 2019 close

Over the lifetime of a wind turbine, operation and maintenance costs represent 25% of total levelised cost per kWh produced. The majority of these costs are attributed to the wind turbine’s blades, yet current methods of inspecting these blades are outdated and inefficient. Blade inspection procedures still largely relies on qualified inspectors roping down each blade to manually inspect for any flaws or defects present on the blade. This is clearly a very hazardous, time-consuming (5 hours), and expensive method (€1500). Other less used methods of blade inspection include capturing blade images from ground cameras and manual review by experts. However, poor image quality and strong backlight leaves many blade flaws undetected. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are now being used to take pictures of the blades from much closer up. Current UAV's however require dedicated experts for both flight control as well as image processing, analysis, and fault detection. Pro-Drone's integrated WindDrone Zenith’s solution is a breakthrough solution providing enabling 3-blade inspection in a single flight. Our technology solution is fully equipped with highly accurate inspection equipment hardware coupled with smart software. The software allows the UAV to be fly autonomously, avoid collisions, automatically detect any faults, and generate reports for the customer on each wind turbine inspected. Machine learning algorithms are used to continuously improve automated fault detection based on a growing database of captured images and their analysis. Our "BladeInsight" cloud reporting platform makes actionable reports available to our customers as part of this solution. Pro-Drone Zenith provides for a 50% direct cost saving, and decreases turbine inspection downtime by 6X, as compared to existing methods.

Thermal end-uses (space heating, hot tap water, cooling) represent a major part of electricity consumption in Europe and cause consumption peaks, often when electricity is expensive. Hot tap water is the only thermal end-use provided as a base load over a year and that is stored. Space heating and air conditioning are seasonal thermal end-uses with a high residential electricity consumption. They are not stored at the buildings scale to allow peak shaving of the residential electricity consumption. These statements show the interest to develop appropriate thermal energy storages, suitable for buildings, to reduce the electricity bill of end-users. ComBioTES will thus develop a modular compact thermal energy storage (TES) solution for heating, hot tap water and cooling fully adapted for electricity load shifting. A first modular TES will be able to store hot tap water to be converted into ice storage during summer (cooling needs). A second compact latent TES, using high performances (ΔH≈260kJ/kg) bio-based non-aggressive PCM, will store high heating energy amount, for space heating or hot tap water demands. As thermal end-uses in buildings are different regarding seasonal needs, this concept combines the advantage of a modular TES (high utilization rate) with the high volumetric energy density of a latent TES using a bio-based PCM (high compactness: ≥ 100kWh/m3 ΔT=50°C). The ComBioTES consortium and associated External Advisory Board (Idex, Danfoss and Passive House) involve all relevant key players in energy storage and management: RTOs for development and testing infrastructure and SMEs for manufacturing & commercialization of the technology, and representative of potential customers and end users (building owners &operators). In line with IC7, two partners from CHINA (The Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and The Henan Province GuoanHeating Equipment Co., LTD) will promote the ComBioTES concept in this country.

The world’s energy market, with an annual turnover of more than € 10 trillion, is in transition. Today’s renewables can replace 20-40% of fossil sources, however, their volatile energy output cause problems with grid stability and matching supply and demand. As a result, additional expenditure in the order of billions of € are required to expand the grid and adding storage solutions. EnerKíte offers a solution – tapping into an as of yet unused and stable energy source, providing twice the yield at half the cost to traditional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT). EnerKítes - a future product portfolio of Airborne Wind Energy (AWE) Systems will harness the powerful and steady winds high above the blade tips of today’s wind turbines. Proprietary control software and machine design will make EnerKítes autonomous and robust and matching renewable energy demands even during lull and at night. EnerKíte is a Berlin-based venture led by pioneers in the wind and kite industry. It has developed a 30 kW working prototype that has provided the longest autonomous operation (72 hrs+) of any AWE player in the world. The SME Phase 2 project focuses on optimizing and validating the EK200, a 100 kW unit, as the commercial market entry model. Working closely with the utility company ENGIE, we will ensure that the technology is matured while anchoring the commercialization journey. Our entry strategy is to provide green energy directly where there is demand. We will address the renewable mini-grid market with a volume of €bn 7.2 p.a. - sufficient for a proper business case itself. We will deploy rural wind-storage charging stations to boost the €bn 40 by 2025 eMobility market, growing with a CAGR of 47.9%. EnerKíte’s value chain is centred around certifiable designs, IP and know-how. The need for scalable manufacturing skillsets prompts dialogues with Voith (DE), Siemens (DE) and Vestas (DK). The innovation effort provides a €m 50.9 business opportunity already for 2021-2026.

Maintenance costs are one of the largest problems in the wind energy market, adding to up to 40% of total wind turbine costs. Blades take the lion’s share of this, with 20-30% of all maintenance costs. Our solution, eolACC is the first condition-based monitoring on-blade sensor system to combine 3 features: blade crack detection, pitch angle measurements and blade icing detection. Monitoring all these features will save wind turbine owners up to €2.9 M across the turbine lifetime, recovering the investment in eolACC in the first 2 months. We studied the target market and competitors. Forecasts predict the wind power O&M market will grow to €22 bn by 2025. eolACC has full Freedom to Operate in our target markets of Europe, North America and Asia. We currently have over 50 customers which have purchased over 200 of our ice detection sensor system, many of which have been asking for an all-in-one solution as eolACC. We will leverage our connection with them to first expand into France, Belgium and the DACH region in 2021, then the rest of Europe and North America in 2022 and Asia in 2023. Our strategy will be to sell our product first to turbine owners directly, and then through large OEMs. We already have registered interest from several of our current customers (Enercon, e.on. Tecnocentre eolien, EVN, Verbund) to implement eolACC into their systems. We will use our current clients, our connection with Phoenix Contact and local sales partners to assist our dissemination efforts. We require a 24-month project with a budget of €1.62 M to bring eolACC to market. Our Work Plan is composed of 3 Technical Work Packages, one Commercial and one for Project Management. Our Phase 2 project will also result in the creation of 6 new jobs. The project is highly profitable, bringing a 4.01 ROI up to 2024 for the €1.62M required to bring our innovation to market. This will translate into a payback period of 2 years and total revenues of almost €12M per year to 2024.

With this proposal, I aim to achieve the efficient conversion of solar energy to hydrogen. The overall objective is to engineer bio-inspired systems able to convert solar energy into a separation of charges and to construct devices by coupling these systems to catalysts in order to drive sustainable and effective water oxidation and hydrogen production. The global energy crisis requires an urgent solution, we must replace fossil fuels for a renewable energy source: Solar energy. However, the efficient and inexpensive conversion and storage of solar energy into fuel remains a fundamental challenge. Currently, solar-energy conversion devices suffer from energy losses mainly caused by disorder in the materials used. The solution to this problem is to learn from nature. In photosynthesis, the photosystem II reaction centre (PSII RC) is a pigment-protein complex able to overcome disorder and convert solar photons into a separation of charges with near 100% efficiency. Crucially, the generated charges have enough potential to drive water oxidation and hydrogen production. Previously, I have investigated the charge separation process in the PSII RC by a collection of spectroscopic techniques, which allowed me to formulate the design principles of photosynthetic charge separation, where coherence plays a crucial role. Here I will put these knowledge into action to design efficient and robust chromophore-protein assemblies for the collection and conversion of solar energy, employ organic chemistry and synthetic biology tools to construct these well defined and fully controllable assemblies, and apply a complete set of spectroscopic methods to investigate these engineered systems. Following the approach Understand, Engineer, Implement, I will create a new generation of bio-inspired devices based on abundant and biodegradable materials that will drive the transformation of solar energy and water into hydrogen, an energy-rich molecule that can be stored and transported.

The main objective of the HyCARE project is the development of a prototype hydrogen storage tank with use of a solid-state hydrogen carrier on large scale. The tank will be based on an innovative concept, joining hydrogen and heat storage, in order to improve energy efficiency of the whole system. The developed tank will be installed in the site of ENGIE LAB CRIGEN, which is a research and operational expertise center dedicated to gas, new energy sources and emerging technologies. The center and its 350 staff are located at Plaine Saint-Denis and Alfortville in the Paris Region (F). In particular, the solid-state hydrogen tank will be installed in a Living Lab aimed to develop and explore innovative energy storage solutions. The developed tank will be joined with a PEM electrolyzer as hydrogen provider and a PEM fuel cell as hydrogen user. The following goals are planned in HyCARE: - High quantity of stored hydrogen >= 50 kg - Low pressure < 50 bar and low temperature < 100°C - Low foot print, comparable to liquid hydrogen storage - Innovative design - Hydrogen storage coupled with thermal energy storage - Improved energy efficiency - Integration with an electrolyser (EL) and a fuel cell (FC) - Demonstration in real application - Improved safety - Techno-economical evaluation of the innovative solution - Analysis of the environmental impact via Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) - Exploitation of possible industrial applications - Dissemination of results at various levels - Engagement of local people and institution in the demonstration site

Earth is inhabited by an energy hungry human society. The Sun, with a global radiation at the ground level of more than 1 kW/m^2, is our largest source of energy. However, 45% of the total radiation is in the near infrared (NIR) and is not absorbed by most photovoltaic materials. PAIDEIA focuses on two main advantages aiming to enhance the capacity of solar energy conversion: i) plasmon assisted hot carriers extraction from NIR plasmonic materials; ii) linewidth narrowing in plasmonic nanoparticle films that enhances the lifetime of hot carriers and, thus, boosts the efficiency of light driven carrier extraction. Instead of metals, which operate mostly in the visible region, we will make use of doped semiconductor nanocrystals (DSNCs) as hot electron extraction materials possessing a plasmonic response tunable in the range 800 nm – 4000 nm. Three different innovative architectures will be used for improved device performance: i) improved Schottky junctions (DSNC/wide band gap semiconductor nanocomposites); ii) ultrathin devices (DSNCs/2D quantum materials); iii) maximized interface DSNC/semiconductor bulk hetero-Schottky junctions. By combining both concepts in advanced architectures we aim to produce a solar cell device that functions in the NIR with efficiencies of up to 10%. A tandem solar cell that combines the conventional power conversion efficiency, up to ~1100 nm, of a commercial Si solar cell (~20%) with the new PAIDEIA based device is expected to reach a total power conversion efficiency of 30% by extending the width of wavelengths that are converted to the full spectral range delivered by the Sun. PAIDEIA has a deeply fundamental character impacting several areas in the field of nanophysics, nanochemistry and materials processing and, at the same time, having a high impact on the study of solar energy conversion. Finally, PAIDEIA will provide answers to the fundamental questions regarding the physical behaviour of plasmonic/semiconductor interfaces.

PV Impact will try out a variety of approaches to stimulate the private sector to spend more on PV research, development and innovation in Europe. The part of the project will focus on inviting companies to matchmaking events so they can make new connections and find partners with whom to work on their plans. The project will also target two specific industrial companies: one, ENEL Green Power, will try to make progress on the Implementation Plan by coordinating the many different PV actors in Italy; the other, Photowatt, will work mostly privately but tap the consortium's expertise and those of scientists whom it will select to help it make the right strategic technical choices to be a serious competitor in PV manufacturing. Another important part of the project is to monitor progress in PV. Data will be collected on public spending in the EU, on private spending, on the kinds of projects being funded and on the overall performance of PV technology. Forecasts for future spending will be made according to various scenarios. The project will track whether improvements in the performance of technology are keeping pace with expectations. It will make recommendations to European funding authorities on how they can play their part in putting European PV technology back the top of the class if it is falling behind.

Lancey Energy Storage is pioneering a new era for energy storage, in which home appliances can contribute to the energy transition by storing electricity and engaging citizens. To fight global warming, renewable energy (RE) production is soaring, which is good news but has direct consequences on network management due to the intermittency of solar and wind power. Distributed storage can help better regulating the power grid and integrating more RE through self consumption and grid services. But few can afford it. Lancey aims at democratizing it by embarking a battery into a space heater. In France alone, 1/3 of real estate is electrically heated. Yet 1st generation electric heaters consume a lot of electricity and are highly responsible for the evening winter power peaks. Lancey has the solution to both of these issues. With its efficient heating technologies and energy management system, Lancey heater fine tunes to users’ needs while its battery charges off peak or with renewable energy surplus and discharges to prevent it from consuming power during peak hours. Total heating bill reduction can reach up to 50%. In 1,5 year of existence, Lancey has put on the market an innovative patented product rewarded by a CES Best innovation award. Yet this first version of the Lancey heater is still limited as its battery can only be used to power the heater. Solar QUEST’s purpose is to develop the V2 of Lancey heater, able to reinject power stored in the battery into buildings’ grid to power other devices. It will unlock Lancey’s participation to grid services and make it possible to maximise PV installations’ self consumption rate in summer too. With its Danish partner Tomorrow, Lancey will showcase the CO2 emissions its offsets, better engage users on energy transition and integrate self-consumption and grid services parameters into Lancey’s management algorithms. Lancey will perform pilot demonstrations of this new product in France, Canada and Finland with key partners.

The renowned European hydropower industry and its know-how can foster the transition into a more sustainable energy system in parts of the world that still need support to develop the sector. While the European hydropower market does not allow huge developments, some countries present a big potential. HYPOSO will provide strategic support and tools for the European hydropower industry to boost their export of products and services to markets in Africa and Latin America, especially those with a high market potential hydro sector, i.e. Bolivia, Cameroon, Columbia, Ecuador and Uganda. The project will develop solutions which can be easily implemented for overcoming barriers to the broad deployment of hydropower solutions in these export markets. The consortium will bring representatives of the European hydropower industry together with their counterparts and politicians from Africa and Latin America. It will provide political, legal, technical and strategic advice while considering the regional specificities, socio-economic, spatial and environmental aspects all along the life-cycle of hydropower projects. Experts of the consortium will identify pilot hydropower projects and provide capacity building for local stakeholders and politicians. Communications activities such as brochures, events, and workshops highlighting European state-of-the-art technology will complement these measures. Moreover, a website will be created. It will serve as an information hub for the European hydropower industry and useful source of information for hydropower stakeholders worldwide. The outcome of the HYPOSO project will contribute to the promotion of the European hydropower industry, paving the way for better investment conditions in the targeted countries and increasing the share of renewable energy in these regions. It will support the development of policies, market supports and financial frameworks at the local, national and regional level for hydropower facilities.