• Energy Research
• 2018 close

"Offshore wind in Europe is expected to produce up to 11% of EU's electricity by 2030, BUT due to days lost in maintenance this total is unlikely to be achieved \[Wind Europe Unleashing Europe's offshore wind potential, June 2017\]. In particular, turbine blades are subject to heavy leading edge erosion, reducing efficiency and necessitating rapid repair. Blade repair is expensive, dangerous and limited by a shortage of trained blade technicians ([http://bit.ly/altitec\_2016)][0]. Epoxy repairs also require exact environmental conditions (cured at \>12°C and humidity <75%) which are difficult to achieve on-site. There is a pressing need to return inefficient turbine blades to optimum condition and for a safe and environmentally controlled 'habitat' allowing 24/7 repair work even in otherwise prohibitive conditions and by a lower skilled workforce, but technology has so far not met this need. GEV wish to carry out this 11 month project to develop and test a functioning prototype to demonstrate the efficacy of our new concept - the Ventura-OS. The Ventura-OS is a new style of platform and enclosed pod which will allow improved QA repair work offshore, increasing annual energy production (AEP) of between 1.5 and 2% through Leading Edge Erosion efficiencies. Additionally Ventura-OS offers better maintenance scheduling; risk reduction; 'fixed price' servicing agreements; OEM warranties; 24hr operation in wider weather conditions; less down time, lower manpower overheads (insurance, training); boosting OEMs delivering a warranty regimen and Owner/Operators wishing to maximize their RoI. [0]: http://bit.ly/altitec_2016)"

The feasibility study looks at how to exploit cutting edge ICT, Internet of Things (IoT), Cryptography and Fintech enabling technologies to transform energy access with "affordable" rooftop solar energy and "behind the meter" energy storage. Solar PV provides excellent low carbon alternative to back up diesel generators for cheap, non-stolen electricity and will improve the supply of clean, affordable and resilient energy to South Asian countries. We will build a system test-bed at University of Hertfordshire (UH) "Smart Lab" to show how we can improve energy security and reduce cost though decentralised database systems based on blockchains and distributed ledger technology linked to our patented smart solar panels. We have a potential Indian partner standing by. Problem statement: Many communities in developing countries suffer from poor grid infrastructure which can be mitigated with rooftop solar energy located close to the point of consumption. Ongoing fraud and theft costs must be reduced for schemes to be financially viable; strong asset management and improved security against cyber-attacks can help. Distributed rooftop solar PV also mitigates local energy distribution problems and grid stability bottlenecks. Smart solar panels increase resistance to cyber-attacks and provide strong asset management to reduce cost of theft and fraud. This will benefit aid agencies, investors, operators and owners. Project outputs: (i) System test-bed with demonstration hardware and software applications linked to the cloud. (ii) We will demonstrate how new kinds of cryptocurrency such as SolarCoins can complement income from selling electricity to reward investors or repay loans. This may offset the disappearance of feed-in-tariffs. (iii) Our demonstrator will help financiers, businesses and government departments further understand investment opportunities arising from these fast moving technologies. (iv) During the project we will explore opportunities and cultural barriers for in-country deployment to replicate our test-bed with local partners.

The main objective of the project is the organization of the international conference 10th Year Anniversary SET Plan - Central European Energy Conference 2017. The 10th Year Anniversary SET Plan conference will be once again conjoined with the 11th annual Central European Energy Conference (CEEC 2017) and organised in Bratislava, Slovakia. The conference has an ambition to create a prestige international platform offering a floor for open discussion about the most important issues regarding current EU energy policy and research and innovation policy between relevant stakeholders. The conference will examine achievements in the implementation of the Energy Union with a special focus on the Low Mobility Package, State of Play of the negotiations of the 2016 Winter Packages, and the outcome of the 2017 Tour of Europe. In particular, the research and innovation achievements in Europe in the past 10 years that have supported the development of clean, sustainable, efficient and affordable energy technologies for low carbon energy systems in Europe. The conference will pay special attention to evaluation of the role of Central European member states, including their contribution to the implementation of the goals of the Energy Union and the Integrated SET-Plan. The conference will bring together researchers and policymakers from various member states, in particular, from the region of Central Europe, as well as a range of stakeholders from international organizations, research organisations, business, municipalities and civil society to encourage open debate around key energy issues. The program of the conference will consist of ten main panels, five parallel workshops held in a form of dinner sessions, poster session, and will also include side events.

With the emerging automated tasks in vehicle domain, the development of in-vehicle communications is increasingly important and subjected to new applications. Although both wired and wireless communications have been largely used for supporting diverse applications, most of in-vehicle applications with mission-critical nature, such as brake and engine controls, still prefer dedicated wired networks for reliable and secure transmission. One of the key challenges for data wiring is to facilitate the interconnectivity of increasing devices, e.g., sensors and electronic control units (ECU), effectively creating an in-vehicle network with low response latency, improved reliability and less complexity. The space requirement, weight, and installation costs for these wires can become significant, especially in future vehicles, which are highly sophisticated electronic systems. Given that vehicle components, sensors and ECUs are already connected to power wires, we apply vehicle power lines, which have recently been utilized for in-vehicle communications at the physical layer, to in-vehicle networks in this proposal. Taking mass air flow sensor as an example, it has one power wire and two signal wires, it will be efficient to use power line communications to replace the current signal wires, so 66% of wiring can be reduced. The advancement of vehicular power line communications (VPLC) can provide a very low complexity and free platform for in-vehicle networks, which is ideal for the increasing demand of applications in particular with future vehicles. However, the emerging VPLC is constrained by lack of protocol support, which pose significant challenges to deploy it in practise and ensure mission-critical communications. The following example illustrates the motivation of this proposal. An example for the motivation: A future vehicle is equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) which can be connected with multiple sensors and ECUs to provide safety monitoring and control. An important demand of this scenario is that the systems, viewed as sources, should have stable connections with all ECUs, or network destinations. And it is also important that such in-vehicle networks must guarantee ultra-low latency for emerging control services since any seconds of delay may cause fatal accident. Therefore, an effective protocol design is crucial for VPLC to support future applications with mission-critical and high-bandwidth demands. The aim of the project is to improve the reliability of the network and guarantee stringent mission-critical requirements of in-vehicle applications in vehicular power line communications. We will partner with automotive specialists and construct the project to develop innovative and intelligent in-vehicle communication protocols. The solution this proposal is seeking is two fold. One is to pursue new design of intelligent access and congestion control solutions by fully exploring the practical and theoretical analysis, dynamic nature of channels/traffic patterns and self-learning techniques, which provides the theoretic aspect of the proposal. Then, the second step is from the practical aspect, where the proposed power line method shall be able to coexist and cooperate with existing state-of-the-art solutions, and its performance will be validated by practical in-vehicle traffic data. Obviously the two are inseparable not just because the ultimate goal of reliable communication for in-vehicle networks is only possible with the accomplishment of the both two parts, but also because the interaction between the two parts is the key for effective system design.

TurboSol is an innovative solution to provide heat for industrial processes using solar thermal power in a system in which solar collectors and a turbocharger integrate to provide hot air at 300ºC without the use of any additional energy sources other than the sun. Our system reduces the operational costs of industrial drying process by not requiring electricity or any other fuel, as well as thermal oils or any other heat carrying fluids, since our system uses air as heat carrier. In addition, the emissions of combustion derived pollutants and greenhouse gases are reduced to zero. Industrial drying processes are energy intensive and they are used in multitude of industries. Conventional industrial driers consume great amounts of fossil fuels and electricity and produce vast amounts of greenhouse gases. A TurboSol system of 240 kW power producing 480,000 kWh of hot air at 300ºC, will save more than €60,000 per year compared with an equivalent diesel oil facility, recovering the initial investment in just 4 years. The recovery is even faster compared to an equivalent system using electricity, 3 years. The greenhouse gas emissions saved are 126 tCO2 and 120 tCO2 compared to the previously mentioned equivalent facilities. There are other solar thermal solutions in the market, however all of them require an input of fossil fuels and the use of thermal oils or water vapour as heat-carrier. The identified market for our technological solution is the industrial driers market and the market segments are wastewater treatment plants, chemical industry, food & beverages industry and pharmaceutical industry. Our target users are European industrial facilities located in high solar irradiation zones requiring process heat up to 300ºC for drying operations. Thanks to TURBOSOL project, DEMEDE forecasts a total profit of €4.8M in 5 years and a ROI of 2.69.

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.

Nanocomposites are promising for many sectors, as they can make polymers stronger, less water and gas permeable, tune surface properties, add functionalities such as antimicrobial effects. In spite of intensive research activities, significant efforts are still needed to deploy the full potential of nanotechnology in the industry. The main challenge is still obtaining a proper nanostructuring of the nanoparticles, especially when transferring it to industrial scale, further improvements are clearly needed in terms of processing and control. The OptiNanoPro project will develop different approaches for the introduction of nanotechnology into packaging, automotive and photovoltaic materials production lines. In particular, the project will focus on the development and industrial integration of tailored online dispersion and monitoring systems to ensure a constant quality of delivered materials. In terms of improved functionalities, nanotechnology can provide packaging with improved barrier properties as well as repellent properties resulting in easy-to-empty features that will on the one hand reduce wastes at consumer level and, on the other hand, improve their acceptability by recyclers. Likewise, solar panels can be self-cleaning to increase their effectiveness and extend the period between their maintenance and their lifetime by filtering UV light leading to material weathering. In the automotive sector, lightweight parts can be obtained for greater fuel efficiency. To this end, a group of end-user industries from Europe covering the supply and value chain of the 3 target sectors and using a range of converting processes such as coating and lamination, compounding, injection/co-injection and electrospray nanodeposition, supported by selected RTDs and number of technological SMEs, will work together on integrating new nanotechnologies in existing production lines, while also taking into account nanosafety, environmental, productivity and cost-effectiveness issues.