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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.

The EU promotes the use of renewable energy for the reduction of CO2 emissions as part of the EU’s effort to protect the natural environment. It aims to reduce carbon emissions by 60% relative to the 1990 level by 2050 and increase the use of renewable energy to 20% by 2020. Buildings account for about 40% energy consumption in the EU and the use of renewable energy for heating and cooling of buildings will be important in achieving this goal. Transformation of the EU new-existing building stock towards low/zero energy buildings requires effective integration and full use of the potential yield of intermittent renewable energy sources. Thermochemical heat storage (THS) can play a pivotal role in synchronizing energy demand and supply, on both short and long term basis. The proposed solar powered thermochemical heat storage (Solar-Store) system will integrate solar collector, evaporative humidifier and heat pipe technology with a novel THS reactor design for seasonal storage of solar energy. The proposed system will deliver efficient, low-cost THS that can be fitted in the limited space in dwellings. The fellowship aims to benefit from Prof. Yijun Yuan’s recent work in energy storage systems, making use of sorption materials and solar thermal technology. Professor Yuan's considerable industrial and academic experience will make valuable contribution to the EU host organisation in terms of technology/knowledge transfer, PhD student/young researcher training and IP/commercialisation of new technologies. The partner organisations will also involve to this interaction (secondments) to enhance the effectiveness of the fellowship. Combining the skills and experience of UNOTT, Prof. Yuan and partner organisations and presenting them to the next generation of researchers and professionals in industry through the comprehensive programme of knowledge transfer activities proposed in this project will lead to a step change in the development of future products in this area.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) is one of the most promising renewable energies, but its deployment has been negatively affected by its high investment costs. This fact reduces its competitiveness compared to other alternatives (photovoltaics and wind power). In addition, existing CSP plants are facing troubling issues with the molten salts mega tanks, one of the core elements of their Thermal Energy Storage (TES) areas. These tanks, usually worth around €10M, are made of stainless-steel or carbon. The length of their welding cord and the increased corrosiveness of these materials at high temperatures endanger their durability. Recently, some settlements and even breakages have been reported in commercial plants, causing relevant repairing and substitution costs. TANKRETE project, developed by InCrescendo, is aimed at tackling this problem while contributing to increase the CSP profitability. TANKRETE is a cylindrical tank with an isolating foundation system, all manufactured with patented thermal concretes. TANKRETE provides greater stability and durability to the TES area, with a significant reduction in the investment cost (35% cheaper than current tanks), plus additional 3-4% savings in a budget of €45M in salt volume. TANKRETE provides adaptability and design flexibility, as well as immediate applicability, it being compatible with current plants’ technologies. We have developed two small-scaled functional prototypes, whose long term thermal and structural stability has been successfully tested. Based on our estimates, TANKRETE will reach by the 3rd year from launch a cumulative turnover of €63M in a turnkey business model, with a cumulative profit for us of €6.3M. This is a high-risk project. We have the customer base and a current existing demand. However, they need a more adequately sized pilot unit to be tested, due to the high investment. We aim to confirm our preliminary feasibility data through Phase 1 and then we will pursue the pilot unit construction.

REEEM aims to gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the system-wide implications of energy strategies in support of transitions to a competitive low-carbon EU society. Comprehensive technology impact assessments will target the full integration from demand to supply and from the individual to the entire system. It will further address its trade-offs across society, environment and economy along the whole transition pathway. The strong integration of stakeholder involvement will be a key aspect of the proposal. The assessments performed within REEEM will focus on integrated pathways, which will be clustered and categorised around two focal points: the four integrated challenges of the Integrated Roadmap of the Strategic Energy Technology (SET)-Plan and the five dimensions of the Energy Union. Case studies will further serve to investigate details and highlight issues that cannot be resolved at a European level. A range of outputs will target the specific needs of various stakeholder groups and serve to broaden the knowledge base. These include, among others, Policy Briefs, Integrated Impact Reports, Case Study reports and Focus Reports on economy, society and environment. A focus on technology research, development and innovation will be included through the development of Technology Roadmaps with assessments of the Innovation Readiness Level of technologies. Further, a set of enabling tools will help to disseminate and actively engage stakeholders, including a Stakeholder Interaction Portal, a Pathways Diagnostic Tool and an Energy System Learning Simulation. Access to all work developed and transparency in the process will be guiding principles within this project exhibited by, for example, providing open access to a Pathways Database.

Currently about 47% of the total energy consumption in Europe is needed for space heating and water heating, also considering the industrial heat/process heat. The biggest potential to reduce CO2 emissions significantly is within the heating sector. The ambitious objectives of the European and the worldwide climate and energy policy can only succeed, if the increasing heat and cold supply is considered. The technology of the near-surface geothermal energy offers good prospects for big energy savings and the reduction of greenhouse emissions and also ensures an ideal room climate in summer and winter within buildings. Due to the complex installation, connection and function, existing system solutions (especially in the near-surface geothermal energy) could not establish at the market yet. Another unsolved problem is the large space requirement of the heat source system and the unfavorable cost/benefit relation. Therefore Holzammer Kunststofftechnik GmbH and GeoCollect GmbH developed an innovative geothermal heat absorber system called “GeoCollector”. Project output is the ability to produce the current Prototype GeoCollectors (TRL 6/7) in a way meeting the identified market requirements: - use of renewable energy - low installation effort, low investment costs - high surface extraction rate of heat from the ground, low land usage - best value for money, low amortisation rate, high quality - No approval procedure necessary This is to successfully enter the key user market of companies of the housing sector, industrial companies, public institutions and private owners of houses and properties. Europe’s corresponding high-volume market is valued at €530-€770 Mio. for this field of operation, continuously growing rapid. The GeoCollector project is integral part of HA´s and GC´s strategy of developing and producing permanently new solutions for geothermal energy systems to establish clean and sustainable heating and cooling systems in Europe and worldwide.

In this project proposal reversible solid-state chemical reactions (eutectoids, peritectoids) are proposed for the storing of thermal energy at high temperature (300-800 °C). The development of a novel heat storage concept, based on solid-solid reactions, proposed in this project, could contribute to open new scenarios in the thermal energy storage field. To the best of our knowledge, the use of this class of reactions for TES applications has not been explored so far. The goal of this study is the identification of solid-state reactions fulfilling a large number of scientific and technological requirements (high storage capacity, good thermal conductivity, mechanical and chemical stability, complete reversibility of a charging/discharging cycles etc.). For this scope, an interdisciplinary research strategy will be followed involving materials chemistry, physics and engineering disciplines to achieve a complete overview of their behaviour starting from basic research challenges, focused on the material development and characterization (reactivity, stability, kinetic, reversibility, heat and mass transfer etc.), up to arrive to the investigation of their feasibility in real applications (e.g. concentrated solar power technologies (CSP) and waste heat recovery). During the project a two direction transfer of knowledge will be applied. On one side, an intense training will be offered to the applicant by the host laboratory with the objective to increase his scientific and managerial skills. Secondment in one established European technological center with recognized international expertise in concentrating solar plants (CSP) technologies is also planned. On the other side, the applicant will make available the knowledge and competences matured along his career both to give an impulse to the scientific work and fulfil the objectives set in the project and to explore other funding opportunities and collaborations.

The focus of the project will be on floating wind turbines installed at water depths from 50m to about 200m. The consortium partners have chosen to focus on large wind turbines (in the region of 10MW), which are seen as the most effective way of reducing the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). The objective of the proposed project is two-fold: 1. Optimize and qualify, to a TRL5 level, two (2) substructure concepts for 10MW turbines. The chosen concepts will be taken from an existing list of four (4) TRL>4 candidates currently supporting turbines in the region of 5MW. The selection of the two concepts will be made based on technical, economical, and industrial criteria. An existing reference 10MW wind turbine design will be used throughout the project. 2. More generally, develop a streamlined and KPI-based methodology for the design and qualification process, focusing on technical, economical, and industrial aspects. This methodology will be supported by existing numerical tools, and targeted development and experimental work. It is expected that resulting guidelines/recommended practices will facilitate innovation and competition in the industry, reduce risks, and indirectly this time, contribute to a lower LCOE. End users for the project deliverables will be developers, designers and manufacturers, but also decision makers who need to evaluate a concept based on given constraints. The proposed project is expected to have a broad impact since it is not led by single group of existing business partners, focusing on one concept only. On the contrary, it will involve a strong consortium reflecting the value chain for offshore wind turbines: researchers, designers, classification societies, manufacturers, utilities. This will ensure that the project's outcomes suit the concrete requirements imposed by end-users.

Semiconducting polymers have attracted extensive attention due to their potential applications in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) and organic photovoltaics (OPVs), but it is still a great challenge to modulate their microstructure in a controllable way. In this proposal, I will outline how the controllable growth of a fibrillar microstructure can be realized using diketopyrrolopyrrole (DPP) polymers. On the one hand, quasi polymer crystals such as fibers or wires will be deposited, leading to the fabrication of high-mobility transistors due to an almost complete elimination of grain boundaries. Such quasi polymer crystals will provide an ideal platform for the investigation of charge carrier transport. On the other hand, hierarchical microstructures of DPP polymers with two distinct characteristic fiber diameters will be grown in polymer/fullerene blend films in a controllable way, in which the thick fibrils (~100 nm) will be beneficial for the charge carrier transport and the thin fibrils (~10 nm) will facilitate the exciton generation and charge separation in polymer solar cells. The controllable growth of a fibrillar microstructure including quasi polymer crystals and hierarchical microstructures will allow me to systematically study the correlation between film microstructure and device performance in both OFETs and OPVs. This will open new prospects for the fabrication of high-performance polymer electronic devices and create the opportunity to reveal the intrinsic mechanism of charge carrier transport in semiconducting polymers.

In the search for renewable energy sources, solar energy shows great promise through its conversion to electricity and storable fuels using artificial photosynthesis. A detailed understanding of the energy conversion processes on the nanoscale is needed for the rational design and improvement of solar technology. This project is aimed at the development of a methodology for in-depth characterisation of spin-dependent processes in solar energy devices. The method will be based on a novel combination of pulse Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and Electrically Detected Magnetic Resonance (EDMR) spectroscopy with arbitrarily shaped pulses. ESR by itself has already proven to be instrumental for advancing the understanding of natural photosynthesis and the increased sensitivity of EDMR allows the extension of this technique to assembled devices. The combination of both techniques and development of new pulse schemes based on arbitrarily shaped pulses will lead to significant advancements, enabling the simultaneous study of charge separation, charge transport and catalysis and their interdependence in fully assembled solar-to-fuel devices. The research will utilise cutting-edge instrumentation for simultaneous detection of magnetisation and photocurrent at FU Berlin. To fully exploit the advantages of this methodology, a theoretical description for the new experiments will be implemented in the widely used ESR simulation software EasySpin, providing a unified framework for the description of ESR and EDMR. The work on this project will serve to diversify the researcher’s competences and provide her with a broad skill set combining experimental and theoretical expertise, paving the way for an independent research career. The methodology developed for the characterisation of solar energy devices will provide new insights into artificial photosynthesis that will guide progress in solar technology with important implications for its commercialisation and industrial application.

The wind energy market is developing quickly and it will produce 15% of the EU’s electricity demand by 2020, avoiding 333 million tonnes of CO2 per year and saving Europe €28 billion a year in fuel costs. Yet, it struggles to find innovations that can reach the market soon, with little costs, and that be used on existing turbines. We address this need via a novel coating technology that we have developed in house and patented. In short, we create microstructures on the wind turbine blades in order to reduce their air resistance. These microstructures are grooves that channel the air turbulence on the surface thus improving the aerodynamics. Our innovation is perfectly suited to wind turbines blades, since it helps to increase their efficiency without changing their shapes or manufacturing process, and it can be even used on existing wind turbines, simply by recoating them. We are currently at TRL 6, we filed one patent in 2018 and performed an extensive Freedom to Operate analysis, with positive results. Our customers are the manufacturers of wind turbines, who want to create a better product without re-engineering the blades, and the Operations and Maintenance companies of wind farms, who want to improve the performances of existing wind turbines. The Total Addressable Market is over €1.76 billion. Our first sale will happen in December 2020 but we are already commercializing the printing system without the full capabilities of microstructure coating in order to gain revenues and reputation. In our commercial strategy, we will first address five countries that are promising (UK, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands) because of the maturity of the wind turbine market to then expand to the rest of the EU, and eventually to the whole world. According to our forecasts, our turnover will reach €16 million at the end of 2022. We are a woman-led team of 9 people, all with at least a master degree, with complementary expertise in engineering and business.