• Energy Research
• 2016-2025close
• 2016 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.

This is a PhD research project in mechanical engineering, more specifically in floating offshore wind turbine aerodynamics. The impact on the aerodynamic performance of the rotor as the platform moves in the wind direction will be investigated using computational fluid dynamics. The scenarios considered will be those with platform motion high enough to enter the turbine into propeller state and vortex ring state, two events that can lead to a significant reduction in the turbine's performance as a result of the turbine interacting with its own wake.

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.

At Meteopole we set our sights on making the wind energy sector more profitable by maximising the economic value of the wind energy site through optimising wind “quality” and “quantity” and de-risking market and performance uncertainties. Meteopole specialising in wind power optimisation. We realised there was a need in the wind energy sector to provide both technical and technological expertise to an industry suffering from a lack of confidence and reliability. Our ZephyWDG (Wind Data Generator) and ZephyCDF (Computational Fluid Dynamics) products are currently sold as desktop packages to utility companies, Green Field developers, consultancies, certification bodies and research institutions and banks. These analytical tools reduce uncertainties at each and every stage of a wind project development to ensure that a wind farm project (onshore and offshore) deployment will be profitable with optimum power performance for all key players mentioned. These industry-proven tools also rectify and optimise performance on existing wind energy projects. However, these tools, in their current format as desktop packages are holding us back and do not give us the benefits of being on the Cloud. This is why need this Phase 1 to carry out a feasibility study and draft a business plan to be full our ambitions to our platform and tools on the Cloud (to offer it as a SaaS to scale-up our products and offer it as a worldwide service, to offer the platform as Opensource, and to be able to analyse and gather big data to for our customers to be use when analysing and evaluating similar “case studies”). We will also define a pricing strategy for our 3 types of users (free users who pay for what they calculate), active users who pay an annual fee and also get premium services and academic users). Together with our know-how, products and service and this Phase 1, we will de-risk the wind energy market to make wind energy a force to be reckoned with!

The 2012 Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) establishes a set of binding measures to help the EU reach its 20% energy efficiency target by 2020. Countries have also set their own indicative national energy efficiency targets. To reach these targets, EU countries have to implement energy efficiency policies and monitor their impact. The Commission has also the task of monitoring the impacts of the measures to check that the EU is on track with its 2020 target. The objective of the ODYSSEE MURE 2015 proposal is to contribute to this monitoring: • By updating two comprehensive databases covering each EU MS; ODYSSEE on energy consumption and energy efficiency indicators, and MURE on energy efficiency measures; • By providing new and innovative trainings and didactical documents to national, regional and local administrations in EU MS to raise their capacity and expertise in the field of energy efficiency monitoring and impact evaluation. • By extending the evaluation of the impact of energy efficiency from energy and CO2 savings, as already done in ODYSSEE, to the multiple other benefits. The updating of two databases ODYSSEE and MURE will play a key role to provide updated and centralized information required by each MS and the Commission to assess, monitor and evaluate energy efficiency progress and the state of implementation of measures and their impact. The project will provide innovative training tools and documents in a very user friendly way to public administrations to help them in implementing the monitoring of the progress achieved with indicators, in designing new policy measures and assessing the impacts of these measures, not only in terms of energy savings, but also in terms of the other benefits linked to energy efficiency improvements. Finally, the project will try to provide an assessment of the multiple benefits of energy efficiency policies for all MS combing existing evaluation and new calculations.

Sustainable energy production is a critical challenge faced by mankind currently and one that will persist in the coming decades. Production of electricity from sunlight is a key technology in the global search for a solution to this problem. Current photovoltaic technologies, especially silicon-based photovoltaics, are widely deployed, however concerns remain over the ability of solar to compete with traditional electricity generation in a truly free market. To this end, secondary and tertiary photovoltaic technologies at the forefront of research are focused on low-cost production methods while at the same time reaching and maintaining the high efficiencies currently on the market. One current exciting approach taken by research is that of quantum dot photovoltaics. By creating nanoparticles out of semiconductor materials, quantum effects cause the band gap to increase and shift relative to their position in the bulk material. This can be harnessed to convert a larger proportion of sunlight into electricity, and to expand the catalog of suitable photovoltaic materials. Quantum dots can be made at low cost, and their small size allows them to be used in printing technologies for low cost, large area device processing. Of paramount importance to this technology is the separation of these quantum dot nanoparticles, aggregation in close proximity causes the particles to interact in such a way as to destroy their quantum properties. To prevent this, large organic ligands are attached to the quantum dots during their synthesis. These large organic ligands are then exchanged for smaller ones during device production, and different ligands can affect the position and size of the band gaps in quantum dots. Currently, the ligands used to ensure a uniform dispersion of the quantum dots do not contribute to the performance of the photovoltaic device beyond separating the quantum dots and modifying their band gaps. In fact, we believe that the insulating layer of ligands hinders the movement of charges within the device by providing large barriers to electron tunneling between the dots, preventing the charge from leaving the device and reducing efficiency. This research aims to improve device efficiency by using ligands that provide a smaller barrier to electron tunneling. We aim to use ligands with conjugated double bonds commonly seen in plastic electronics and organic photovoltaics. This should make it easier for electrons to tunnel out of the dots, improving charge transport within the device and subsequently its efficiency. EPSRC's research area is Energy

According to the Integrated Roadmap of the Set-plan, and to reach the new EU target of 27% of renewable energies in 2030, there is the need to rapidly expand the use of all renewable energy sources in Europe to accelerate the fight against global climate change. This requires the acceleration of development of new options that are emerging today, particularly, technologies that solve the key issue of energy storage. The next-CSP Project is a response to this need and addresses significant improvements in all three elements targeted by the LCE-07-2016 call related to concentrated solar power: heat transfer fluids, which can be used for direct thermal energy storage; the solar field; and high temperature receivers allowing for new cycles. The proposed fluidized particle-in-tube concept is a breakthrough innovation that opens the route to the development of a new generation of CSP plants allowing high efficiency new cycles (50% and more) and 20% improvement of CSP plant efficiency. The Next-CSP technology that cumulates the know-how acquired during the CSP2 FP7 EU project on the particle-in-tube technology can be rapidly cost-competitive and introduced in the market. A cost reduction by 38% is expected with respect to current CSP electricity cost. The project will demonstrate at industrial pilot scale (TRL5) the validity of the particle-in-tube concept atop the Themis facility solar tower. A 4-MWth tubular solar receiver able to heat particles up to 800°C will be constructed and tested as well as the rest of the loop: a two-tank particle heat storage and a particle-to-pressurized air heat exchanger coupled to a 1.2 MWel gas turbine. A commercial scale power plant (150 MWel) will also be designed on the basis of experimental and simulation results and associated costs assessed. The consortium includes 6 companies that will lead the development of the first worldwide demonstration of this innovative technology and pave the way for future commercial exploitation.

HotMaps will develop, demonstrate and disseminate a toolbox to support public authorities, energy agencies and planners in strategic heating and cooling planning on local, regional and national levels, and in-line with EU policies. The toolbox will facilitate the following tasks on a spatially disaggregated level: (1) Mapping heating and cooling energy situation including renewable and waste heat potentials in GIS layers; (2) Model the energy system, considering hourly matching of supply and demand, demand response etc.; (3) Supporting the comprehensive assessment of efficient heating and cooling according to the Energy Efficiency Directive; (4) Comparative assessment of supply and demand options and of given scenarios until 2050 regarding e. g. CO2-emissions, costs, share of renewables. An open data set for EU-28 will be created to perform those tasks in virtually any EU region up to a 250x250m level, which will reduce barriers for authorities to heating and cooling planning. HotMaps will allow for updating

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.