• Energy Research
• 2016 close
• 2019 close

Our SME project addresses the vast and under-served market for solar process heat, defined as the provision of solar-generated heat to industrial thermal processes up to 250°C. This market is worth more than 26 billion €/year, with a current penetration rate of traditional solar thermal technologies of less than 0.02%. Our business idea eliminates any risk for the end user thanks to a first-of-its-kind business model which can be implemented only by exploiting our company’s unique set of achieved and planned technical developments on concentrated solar thermal systems. We will develop cost competitive re-deployable solar boilers, i.e. turn-key and easy-to-install concentrating solar thermal systems of at least 1MWt which can be used to sell heat (as opposed to equipment) to our target customers. Industrial users rarely want to commit to long term heat purchase contracts. Re-deployability and competitive cost enable us to offer minimal initial commitment (only 3 years) for the purchase of solar heat. Afterwards, if the client is happy he will continue to buy the energy, otherwise we can take the system back and re-deploy it (i.e. use it again at a different user’s site). This highly innovative commercial approach, made possible by the technological breakthrough of the system’s re-deployability, will boost market penetration. We will demonstrate the soundness of the proposed business concept by implementing - at real industrial sites in target geographic segments - two distinct pilot installations of approx. 2’500 m2 of net collecting surface (i.e. more than 1MWt) each, one with Fresnel and one with parabolic collectors. Market replication will be pursued by means of active communication to other potential users, and also to institutional and financial stakeholders. These communications will be used to expand Soltigua’s reach in its 7 already identified target market segments and will generate useful input to the finalisation of our investor-ready business plan.

ECHOES is a multi-disciplinary research project providing policy makers with comprehensive information, data, and policy-ready recommendations about the successful implementation of the Energy Union and SET plan. Individual and collective energy choices and social acceptance of energy transitions are analysed in a multi-disciplinary process including key stakeholders as co-constructors of the knowledge. To account for the rich contexts in which individuals and collectives administer their energy choices, ECHOES utilizes three complementary perspectives: 1) individual decision-making as part of collectives, 2) collectives constituting energy cultures and life-styles, and (3) formal social units such as municipalities and states. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create a better Energy Union, system change is required. While technological change is a key component in this change, successful implementation of that change relies on the multi-disciplinary social science knowledge that ECHOES produces. Therefore, three broad technological foci which will run as cross-cutting issues and recurrent themes through ECHOES: smart energy technologies, electric mobility, and buildings. All three technology foci address high impact areas that have been prioritised by national and international policies, and are associated with great potential savings in greenhouse gas emissions. ECHOES’ uniquely comprehensive methodological approach includes a representative multinational survey covering all 28 EU countries plus Norway and Turkey, syntheses of existing data and literature, policy assessments, as well as quantitative experiments, interviews, netnography, focus groups, workshops, site visits and case studies in eight countries. All data collected in the project will be systematised in a built-for-purpose database that will serve both as an analytical tool for the project and as a valuable resource for stakeholders and researchers after the project’s lifetime.

The Energy Data Innovation Network (EDI-Net) will use smart energy and water meter data to accelerate the implementation of sustainable energy policy. It will do this by increasing the capacity of EU public authorities to act quickly and decisively. The capacity will be increased by the provision of just the right amount of intelligible information, by training and exchange of experiences of Public authorities and by provision of tools and support to implement and monitor their sustainable energy plans. To move beyond the traditional technical energy manager approach to use the information to engage with decision makers, finance mangers and building users. To make energy more “visible”. To make energy and water date “more exciting” to buildings users. Innovation in terms of using big data analytics to address issues at scale. Big data; thousands of EU public buildings; information for decision makers, finance managers and building users; benchmarking of EU public buildings; and monitoring implementation of Sustainable Energy Action Plans or local Climate Protection Plans. The core of EDI-NET is the analysis of smart meter data from buildings, from renewable energy systems and from building energy management systems (BEMS) using Big Data analytics technologies. The attractive fruit around this core is an online forum to spread knowledge and facilitate exchange of experience and best practice through peer to peer education in a friendly and useful way. The tree that supports and ripens the fruit is the existing European network of Climate Alliance that builds the capacity of EU public authorities to more effectively implement sustainable energy policies. We recognise the smart meter data, by themselves, will not implement sustainable energy policy. However, when combined with on-line discussion forum, local campaigns, awareness raising and peer to peer knowledge transfer it can achieve savings of between 5 and 15 percent; at least 16 GWh/yr, worth over 1.5 M€.

Considerable challenges remain today regarding Europe´s transition towards a decarbonised energy system that meets the economic and social needs of its citizens. Rebound effects, that is, a full or partial cancelling-out of efficiency gains over time through increased overall energy use, highlight the centrality of consumption in multi-scalar decarbonisation efforts, urgently requiring attention from scientists and policy makers. Calls also abound for innovative, research-led programmes to enhance the social acceptability of energy transition initiatives and technologies. Understanding how culture-specific views and practices and energy policy and governance both shape and reflect individual and collective energy choices is of paramount importance for the success of the Energy Union. ENERGISE responds directly to these challenges by engaging in frontier energy consumption scholarship. Recognising the persistence of diverse energy cultures, both within and between countries, ENERGISE offers an ambitious social science programme to enhance understanding of changes in energy consumption practices across 30 European countries. Moving beyond state-of-the-art research, ENERGISE theoretically frames and empirically investigates socio-economic, cultural, political and gender aspects of the energy transition. It also examines how routines and ruptures (re)shape household energy consumption practices. Adopting a cutting-edge Living Labs approach, designed specifically to facilitate cross-cultural comparisons, ENERGISE fuses tools for changing individual- and community-level energy consumption with a novel method for energy sustainability assessment. ENERGISE will open new research horizons and greatly enhance Europe’s capacity for high-impact, gender-sensitive consumption research. It also offers timely support for public- and private-sector decision-makers who grapple with the design and implementation of measures to effectively reduce household energy consumption.

POWDERBLADE aims to gain market acceptance and rapid market take up of an innovative materials technology involving carbon/glass fibres in powder epoxy to be commercialised initially in the production of larger wind turbine blades (60 metre +). The immediate impact of this disruptive materials technology in the wind energy sector will be reduced wind turbine cost (-20%). This in turn will lead to increased productivity of low-carbon energy from more rapid market deployment of large turbines. The reduction in costs and increase in productivity will reduce the Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) for the European citizen – the ultimate beneficiary of this innovation. This ambitious project is led by Éire Composites, an established industry player in composites manufacturing for the Aerospace and Renewable sectors and an experienced FP7/Horizon 2020 participant.In the year after project end, ÉireComposites will generate over €7m in revenue from direct sales of larger blade components using the new materials, increasing to €39m by 2021. The longer term commercial strategy is to focus on recurring revenues from the supply of advanced materials directly to manufacturers to produce blades and other products under license. This revenue stream will generate €60m by 2021. ÉireComposites will employ an additional 78 staff in direct production at project end increasing to 489 employees over both revenue streams three years later. Suzlon, a large wind OEM and end user, is the second industry partner. Their involvement demonstrates early market acceptance of the new technology. Suzlon are committed to investing substantial funds in the commercialisation of this technology in return for the opportunity to gain significantly as the first large industry player to market with light, cost-effective carbon-glass hybrid blades. Technology partner (University of Edinburgh) and innovation specialists (WestBIC) will support the industry partners in achieving the goals of POWDERBLADE.

In Europe, there is a clear long-term objective to decarbonize the energy system, but it is very unclear how this will be achieved in the heating and cooling sector. As a result, there is currently a lot of uncertainty among policymakers and investors in the heating and cooling sector, primarily due to a lack of knowledge about the long-term changes that will occur in the coming decades. This HRE proposal will enable new policies as well as prepare the ground for new investments by creating more certainty in relation to the changes that are required. The work in this proposal will build on three previous HRE studies, all of which have been successfully completed on time and all of which have already influenced high-level policymakers at EU and national level in Europe. The work from these previous studies will be significantly improved in this project. The new knowledge in this project will: - Improve at least 15 new policies at local, national, or EU level, - Specify how up to 3,000,000 GWh/year of fossil fuels can be saved in Europe, and - Quantify how the €3 trillion of investment required to implement these savings will reduce the net cost of heating and cooling in Europe. Furthermore, one of the most significant improvements compared to previous studies is the dissemination and communication strategy that has been developed as part of this proposal. These activities represent the largest work package in this proposal, which is necessary to ensure that policymakers, investors, and researchers at local, national, and EU level are all aware of the new data, tools, methodologies, and results from this project. The dissemination activities are expected to directly build the skills and capacity of at least 350 people in specific target groups identified by the consortium, while the communication activities will inform at least 50,000 people about the project activities and results.

The transition to a low carbon economy needs to achieve multiple aims: competitiveness, protection of the environment, creation of quality jobs, and social welfare. Thus policy-makers and other key stakeholders require tools that need to focus beyond the energy sector by including these other domains of economy, society and the environment. Currently, most available tools lack integration of these important areas despite being tightly connected to the energy sector. Moreover, current energy modelling tools often lack documentation, transparency and have been developed for a specialized insider audience, which makes validation and comparison of results as well as independent review impossible. Our project aims to solve the current needs of integration and transparency by developing a leading-edge policy modelling tool based on WoLiM, TIMES and LEAP models and incorporating Input-Output Analysis, that allows for accounting of environmental, social and economic impacts. The modular design of the tool will take into account the necessary flexibility to deal with different levels and interests of stakeholders at great sectorial and spatial detail. Finally, transparency will be achieved through an open access freeware distribution of the model based on the open access programming language (Python), providing a detailed user manual, addressed to a wider non-specialist audience, and including free internet courses and learning materials.

The Liftra self-hoisting crane (LSHC) enables significant cost savings on exchange of major components of wind turbines – which in turn reduces the cost of wind energy. With a crane that fits within a single 40 foot container, it is possible to change major components such as gearboxes and generators on wind turbines, with no restrictions on wind turbine height. Today there is more than 94.000 wind turbines installed worldwide in the size range from 1,4MW to 2,4MW, which is the current market range for the LSHC for changing of major components. Since each wind turbine conservatively requires minimum one major component exchange per 10 years, the market potential is between €235 million and €1,9 billion EUR per year in pure crane servicing costs. However, the value proposition of the LSHC does not only concern the existing market. The superior mobility of this technology enables major component service in remote areas with poor infrastructure and low access to large cranes. In turn this reduces the risk of installing wind turbines in less developed regions and may facilitate truly global expansion of wind energy. This far, the LSHC has been deployed project-to-project business model, according to which each commercial engagement is a unique solution, and based on thorough adaptation and testing on WT models. This approach is time consuming and very costly, thus, not scalable or replicable to global, mass markets. The project as a whole addresses the challenges of penetrating the market with an innovative new crane technology and allow fast scaling of the business worldwide to become the new industry standard through a mass customization-base business strategy. Successful project completion represents a significant business opportunity for our SME, with expected revenues of €125 million within 5 years, of which more than €22 million stand as direct profit. In addition, the successful market introduction of the LSHC is expected to create over 220 new jobs.

The Energy Union Framework Strategy laid out on 25 February 2015 has embraced a citizens-oriented energy transition based on a low-carbon transformation of the energy system. The success of the energy transition pillar in the Energy Union will hinge upon the social acceptability of the necessary reforms and on the public engagement in conceptualizing, planning, and implementing low carbon energy transitions. The ENABLE.EU project will aim to define the key determinants of individual and collective energy choices in three key consumption areas - transportation, heating & cooling, and electricity – and in the shift to prosumption (users-led initiatives of decentralised energy production and trade). The project will also investigate the interrelations between individual and collective energy choices and their impact on regulatory, technological and investment decisions. The analysis will be based on national household and business surveys in 11 countries, as well as research-area-based comparative case studies. ENABLE.EU aims to also strengthen the knowledge base for energy transition patterns by analysing existing public participation mechanisms, energy cultures, social mobilisation, scientists’ engagement with citizens. Gender issues and concerns regarding energy vulnerability and affluence will be given particular attention. The project will also develop participatory-driven scenarios for the development of energy choices until 2050 by including the findings from the comparative sociological research in the E3ME model created by Cambridge Econometrics and used extensively by DG Energy. The findings from the modelling exercise will feed into the formulation of strategic and policy recommendations for overcoming the gaps in the social acceptability of the energy transition and the Energy Union plan. Results will be disseminated to relevant national and EU-level actors as well as to the general public.

Tackling climate change, providing energy security and delivering sustainable energy solutions are major challenges faced by civil society. The social, environmental and economic cost of these challenges means that it is vital that there is a research focus on improving the conversion and use of thermal energy. A great deal of research and development is continuing to take place to reduce energy consumption and deliver cost-effective solutions aimed at helping the UK achieve its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. Improved thermal energy performance impacts on industry through reduced energy costs, reduced emissions, and enhanced energy security. Improving efficiency and reducing emissions is necessary to increase productivity, support growth in the economy and maintain a globally competitive manufacturing sector. In the UK, residential and commercial buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of the UK's total non-transport energy use, with space heating and hot water accounting for almost 80% of residential and 60% of commercial energy use. Thermal energy demand has continued to increase over the past 40 years, even though home thermal energy efficiency has been improving. Improved thermal energy conversion and utilisation results in reduced emissions, reduced costs for industrial and domestic consumers and supports a more stable energy security position. In the UK, thermal energy (heating and cooling) is the largest use of energy in our society and cooling demand set to increase as a result of climate change. The need to address the thermal energy challenge at a multi-disciplinary level is essential and consequently this newly established network will support the technical, social, economic and environmental challenges, and the potential solutions. It is crucial to take account of the current and future economic, social, environmental and legislative barriers and incentives associated with thermal energy. The Thermal Energy Challenge Network will support synergistic approaches which offer opportunities for improved sustainable use of thermal energy which has previously been largely neglected. This approach can result in substantial energy demand reductions but collaboration and networking is essential if this is to be achieved. A combination of technological solutions working in a multi-disciplinary manner with engineers, physical scientists, and social scientists is essential and this will be encouraged and supported by the Thermal Energy Challenge Network.