• Energy Research
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• 2022 close

There are large knowledge gaps around the governance of the low carbon energy system transition in a smooth and participative way, ensuring that citizens are at the centre of the required fundamental transformation and enabling the full efflorescence of their creative potential. Social innovation is a prime way to tap into that potential while Collective Action Initiatives (CAIs), a social innovation in itself, are a prime way to mobilize people and to ensure the acceptance for and participation in the necessary transition process. However, both social innovation and CAIs lack proper scientific and field-tested understanding of their development and factors for success. As of today, the role of citizen-driven CAIs (e.g. energy communities, cooperatives, purchasing groups) and their contribution to the energy transition has neither been quantified at an aggregate level, nor has their contribution potential been estimated or understood in sufficient depth. The COMETS project aims to fill these knowledge gaps by quantifying the European-wide aggregate contribution of CAIs to the energy transition at national and European levels by investigating their evolution and scaling up at an in-depth level in six selected countries. The main expected impacts of the project are two-fold. Firstly, COMETS will advance the scientific knowledge on the motives, desires, objectives and barriers of such collective action initiatives and their historical and future role in the energy transition. Building on the information gathered and tested for its robustness, we will then co-develop and test supportive tools together with CAI members, decision makers and the scientific community. Lastly, these stakeholders will then be able to exploit the main outputs of COMETS, namely a Supporting Platform for CAIs, the enhanced knowledge base, scenarios and roadmaps for spreading CAI models, even after the project is concluded.

The EMB3Rs project will implement a bottom-up, user-driven and open source modelling platform to simulate alternative supply-demand scenarios for the recovery and reuse of industrial excess heat and cold (HC). EMB3Rs’ final users will employ the platform to determine the costs and benefits related with excess HC utilization routes, and to define the required implementation conditions for the most promising solutions. The platform will allow industrial users and other relevant stakeholders to autonomously and intuitively explore and assess the feasibility of new technology and business scenarios. This will benefit each individual producer/ consumer in a given industrial community but also enable win-win solutions between industries and final HC users in other sectors. The main aim is to reuse and/or trade excess thermal energy in a holistic perspective within an industrial process HC/energy system environment or framed in an HC network in regulated or liberalized markets. The resource and energy intensive industries (REII) and DHC networks will be able to use and rely on the EMB3Rs platform to investigate the revenue potential of using industrial excess HC as an energy (re)source. The REII will be able to evaluate the benefits of investing in low carbon options, such as the integration of renewable HC technologies and thermal storage, in industrial processes. Ultimately, by translating industrial excess HC into savings, revenues and increased overall system efficiency, EMB3Rs will allow the REII community to improve its competitiveness, foster and accelerate the decarbonisation of the HC market overall and contribute to the EU climate change mitigation goals. Namely by i) contributing to overcome the barriers for developing and deploying in HC solutions, i.e. reaching a critical mass of users, iii) identifying critical framework conditions and success factors and iv) promoting transfer and replication of solutions in other industrial sectors and iv) stimulating the convergence between energy, energy efficiency goals, CO2 reduction and business interests.

A realistic approach to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) devices above the Shockley-Queisser single-junction limit is the construction of tandem devices. PERCISTAND focuses on the development of advanced materials and processes for all thin film perovskite on chalcogenide tandem devices. This tandem configuration is at an early stage of development today. The PERCISTAND emphasis is on 4-terminal tandem solar cell and module prototype demonstration on glass substrates, but also current- and voltage-matched 2-terminal proof-of-concept device structures are envisaged. Key research activities are the development and optimization of top wide band gap perovskite and bottom low band gap CuInSe2 devices, suitable transparent conductive oxides, and integration into tandem configurations. The focus is on obtaining high efficiency, stability and large-area manufacturability, at low production cost and environmental footprint. Efficiency target is 30 % at cell level, and 25 % at module level. Reliability and stability, tested in line with International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards, must be similar as commercially available PV technologies. High manufacturability means that all technologies applied are scalable to 20×20 cm2, using sustainable and low-cost materials and processes. The cost and environmental impact will be assessed in line with International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and must be competitive with existing commercial PV technologies. Such a tandem device significantly outperforms not only the stand-alone perovskite and chalcogenide devices, but also best single-junction silicon devices. The development will be primarily on glass substrates, but also applicable to flexible substrates and thus interesting for building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) solutions, an important market for thin film PV. Hence, the outcome has high potential to strengthen and regain the EU leadership in thin film PV research and manufacturing.

The overall aim of sEEnergies is to quantify and operationalise the potentials for energy efficiency (EE) in buildings, transport and industry, combining this bottom-up knowledge with temporal and spatial analyses to develop an innovative, holistic and research-based EE-modelling approach going beyond current state-of-the-art science based knowledge and methodologies. Because the changes in one energy sector can contribute to impacts in another sector, it is only possible to have a comprehensive assessment and quantification of the EEFP policies impacts if we look at the energy systems from a holistic point of view and take into consideration the synergies between sectors. Therefore bottom-up sectorial approach and grid assessment, together with energy system modelling and spatial analytics is combined in the novel EE modelling approach. To achieve its aim, sEEnergies comprises a combination of in-depth knowledge on the consumption side and in-depth analyses of the energy systems that enables a detailed scientifically based pool of knowledge needed to make EE potentials concrete and operational, and as a resource on its own. Embedded in the applied project methodology is the identification of synergies across the supply chain and towards additional impacts not directly linked to the energy system. This nonenergy impacts can be very important benefits that are often invisible but which sEEnergies aims to operationalise to a larger extent on a sectoral, system and member state level. For each sector we will take as starting point the state-of-the-art including best practices, policies in place and energy and nonenergy impacts of EE, for the EU and for the 28 Member States. In order to maximise the outreach of sEEnergies’ results and the understanding of their importance, an online and user friendly GIS platform will be developed where EE impacts can be geographically visualised.

The efficiency of geothermal utilisation depends heavily upon the behaviour of the fluids that transfer heat between the geosphere and the engineered components of a power plant. Chemical or physical processes such as precipitation, corrosion, or degassing occur as pressure and temperature change with serious consequences for power plant operations and project economics. Currently, there are no standard solutions for operators to deal with these challenges. The aim of REFLECT is to avoid the problems related to fluid chemistry rather than treat them. This requires accurate predictions and thus a thorough knowledge of the physical and chemical properties of the fluids throughout the geothermal loop. These properties are often only poorly defined, as in situ sampling as well as measurements at extreme conditions are hardly possible to date. As a consequence, large uncertainties in current model predictions prevail, which will be tackled in REFLECT by collecting new, high quality data in critical areas. The proposed approach includes advanced fluid sampling techniques, the measurement of fluid properties at in situ conditions, and the exact determination of key parameters controlling precipitation and corrosion processes. The sampled fluids and measured fluid properties cover a large range of salinity and temperature, including those from enhanced and super-hot geothermal systems. The data obtained will be implemented in a European geothermal fluid atlas and in predictive models that both ultimately allow to adjust operational conditions and power plant layout to prevent unwanted reactions before they occur. That way, recommendations can be derived on how to best operate geothermal systems for sustainable and reliable electricity generation, advancing from an experience-based to a knowledge-based approach.

SONNET aims to create an inter- and transdisciplinary understanding of the diversity and processes of social innovations in the energy sector (SIE). It assesses - critically and reflexively- the success, contributions and future potential of SIE towards sustainable energy transitions in Europe. SONNET investigates how, to what extent and under which enabling conditions diverse types of SIE may result in new breakthroughs or successfully help to overcome transition barriers; such as limited citizen engagement or slow adoption of new technologies. SONNET’s empirical research is informed by a novel conceptual framework combining insights from sustainability transitions, energy studies and social innovation literatures. It bridges qualitative and quantitative methodological approaches in an innovative multi-method research design. Across 30 qualitative in-depth case studies situated in six European countries, SONNET investigates the diversity, processes, success and contributions of SIE. Given its focus on urban areas as major hubs for SIE, SONNET conducts six transdisciplinary SIE city labs to experiment with new forms of SIE and learn about how multiple actors can harness the potential of SIE. In addition, based on three large-scale representative citizen surveys, SONNET assesses the future potential of SIE and derives implications for reconfiguring existing and developing new business models. SONNET synthesizes its findings in an integrated knowledge framework for a socio-economic, socio-cultural (incl. gender) and socio-political understanding of enabling and impeding conditions for SIE and SIE contributions when working towards accelerating sustainable energy transitions in Europe. Through a cutting edge co-creation, dissemination and exploitation strategy, SONNET ensures that its practical recommendations, tools and capacity building activities have a maximum impact on its key stakeholders such as citizens, SIE actors, policy makers, and businesses.

Data is central for energy research and analysis. Unfortunately, energy data is often difficult to find, mixed in different repositories, and generally fragmented. This results in a lack of efficiency for research and energy transition management. EnerMaps aims to improve data availability, data quality, and data management for industry (in particular renewable technology industry), energy planners, energy utilities, energy managers, energy consultants, public administration officers specialised in the energy sector and policy decision makers as well as social innovation experts and data providers, applying FAIR principles. To this end, we focus on three axes: a) The creation of two tools working in conjunction: a scientific community dashboard providing a critical mass of energy datasets in one common tool, and a data management tool providing a quality-check selection of crucial data with an integrated visualization and calculation modules. Both tools will be freely accessible to all users. b) Scientific communication: we increase current capacities of publicly-financed R&I projects to communicate their newly created datasets through enrichment and promotion activities. The aim is to increase the probability of seeing these datasets reused. c) Capacity building on data management: an extensive set of formation is organized for lead-user representatives. The use of action-learning techniques and the application of a “train the trainer” approach ensures the efficiency of the training programs. The project collaborates actively with European-wide data management initiatives such as the European Open Science Cloud Initiative and integrates actively its future users into the development of the different tools to insure their usefulness.

The future wind turbines will require flexible and economically affordable PDPs to obtain reliable and validated new concepts for bigger wind turbines or already installed turbines. One of the most critical components that have a high contribution to wind farms OpEx costs are the bearings (selected Case Studies 1 and 3 during INNTERESTING) and gearboxes (selected Case Study 2 during INNTERESTING). Since both components transfer high loads and have high failure rates, they are considered as critical components inside the wind turbine. Although the percentage of the total Capex cost of bearings (2% ) is not as high as other structures (e.g. blades 22% and gearbox 13%) , their role is not insignificant.However, the role of bearings and gears in the OpEx is higher due to the major impact of early. The fatigue requirements that must be assured for the lifetime is a key factor to reduce the negative effect of reparations. New wind energy key concepts and uses which are faster to commercialisation have been prioritised: INNTERESTING project aims to accelerate wind energy technology development and increase lifetime extension of wind turbine components by developing a disruptive methodology to demonstrate reliability of larger wind turbine critical components without the need of building larger test-benches in the future by overcoming size dependent issues during design process and testing. In this matter, INNTERESTING project pursues the development of innovative virtual and hybrid testing methods for prototype validation of pitch bearing and gearboxes components (Selected Study Cases Components). The new methodology will help saving time and money during the product development process (PDP) by integrating virtual testing and hybrid testing: including innovative non-physical and scaled/simplified physical testing. In comparison with current methodologies INNTERESTING will reduce considerable environmental and economic impacts, and improve social acceptance.

The SETWind project supports the implementation of the SET-Plan Implementation Plan for Offshore Wind. The proposal has been developed in consultation with the Temporary Working group that authored the Implementation Plan and key stakeholder organisations including ETIPWIND, WindEurope, the EERA Joint Programme for Wind Energy, the IEA Wind TCP and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Petten. The SETWind project will update and work with the Implementation Plan to maintain it as a dynamic reference point for offshore wind energy research and innovation; it will monitor and report on progress towards the Implementation Plan targets of 1090 million € to be invested in R&I in the offshore sector until 2030; it will strengthen policy coordination in European offshore wind energy R&I policy by supporting the work of the SET-Plan Implementation Group for Offshore Wind; and it will facilitate a breakthrough in the coordination across borders of nationally funded R&I projects. The SETWind project will be run in the same spirit as it was developed: as a collaborative efforts bringing in European and international stakeholders to translate the Implementation Plan into a living document by updating the research and innovation priorities and implementing these together with relevant stakeholders through nationally funded projects coordinated across borders.

The hydrogen-based Solenco Powerbox allows solar or wind power to be privately stored for hours or months, allowing 24 hour, year-round renewable electric power and heat, independent of the power grid. Powerbox allows every home and business to cheaply store their own generated energy, with over 90% conversion efficiency, electric and heat storage. The Solenco Powerbox is a heavily-patented combination of an electrolyzer and a fuel cell in one unit. It transforms electricity into hydrogen, stores it indefinitely, then converts hydrogen back into electricity and/or heat, at minimal loss. Heat comes out as hot water at a rated temperature of 80°C. Unlike battery storage, the Powerbox stores heat as well as electricity. There is no degradation of conversion capacity over time – its working lifetime is over 30 years. Unlike natural gas storage, there is no need to draw on local underground storage capacity. Unlike hydroelectric power storage, there is no need for local mountains or lakes to be available. Unlike chemical storage, there is no hazardous storage, transport or disposal concern. Our method has zero carbon footprint and works anywhere, allowing homes and businesses to be heated and powered with intermittent solar and/or wind storage and even to feed excess power into local city grids as needed. Solenco will be powerful to commercialize, since it has comparable cost to existing inferior solutions, and has the fastest return on investment (<3 years) of any storage solution on the market. Powerbox is targeted at the EU-28 residential renewable energy market of €33.6B (2016), which continues to grow rapidly. Our founder has created hundreds of energy jobs in Europe. Solenco won the Hansa Green Tour Startup Challenge in 2018 and will earn 530,000 Euros in 2019.