• Energy Research
• OA Publications Mandate: Yes close
• 2018 close
• 2018 close

High electricity prices and the lowering costs of renewable technologies and energy storage are leading European energy consumers towards a distributed generation and self-consumption model. Electricity consumers are progressively turning into prosumers (producers & consumers) who decide at a given moment whether to buy electricity from the grid, to self-consume or even to export it to the grid. Moreover, European energy regulations require EU consumers to commit to clean and energy efficient objectives. For instance, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive requires all new buildings to be nearly zero-energy (NZEB) by the end of 2020 by reducing energy consumption and using renewable sources and all new public buildings to be NZEB by 2018. The most extended renewable energy in the world is wind power. However, wind power is not very common in urban areas where high speed laminar wind turns into a low speed turbulent one due to the existence of obstacles (buildings, houses, trees, structures, etc.). Traditional wind power turbines are not designed to work with low speed wind (2 m/s – 6m/s) and turbulent wind flows. Besides, traditional SWTs entail other serious problems such as the hazard of rotating machinery, vibrations, noise, the possibility of collapse atop buildings, blade shedding and visual impact. EOLI FPS is a patented rooftop vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) specifically designed to work under low speed and turbulent wind profiles such as the existing in urban environments. EOLIS FPS works perfectly with horizontal laminar wind but also take advantage of turbulent flows that adversely affect traditional wind turbines. Its internal rotor design facilitates the creation of vortexes out of the wind turbulence that drastically increases the driving force of the laminar wind. Besides EOLI FPS is safe, noiseless, does not vibrate and integrates aesthetically in the urban landscape.

Sistema Eólico Morcillo is a Spanish SME specialized in the development, construction and sales of innovative medium power wind turbine systems. We have developed and patented a disruptive multi-award winning wind turbine technology called INNOWIND. By 2050, the EU-28 aims to achieve CO2 emissions cuts of 80-95% compared to 1990 levels and to achieve a 20% share for renewable energy sources in its overall energy consumption by 2020. This requires a process of "decarbonising" Europe's economy, including the development and deployment of low-carbon technologies. Wind energy and Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy have been the leading sources of low carbon electricity generation in EU since 2011. The installation of wind turbines is characterized by very high construction costs that amortize slowly over the years through the sale of electricity to the grid. The amount of energy produced depends mainly on the nominal power of the installed generator and of the amount of wind that can be used. INNOWIND offers cost-effective mid-power wind turbine farms, with high flexibility in terms of size and area of construction, with low security requirements and no special construction permits required, making implementation in urban areas a possibility. INNOWIND offers for the first time the opportunity to make use of terrain not suitable for conventional wind farming. Furthermore, thanks to the easy scaling of the units from 50kW to 1000kW, it is possible to cater the specific power needs in a wider range of use-cases and scenarios. Other unique selling points include less visual and environmental impacts, safer in case of storm or fire damage,

A hybrid solar panel that maximises heat capture and electricity generation. Although solar panel technology is well established, commercial hybrid panels are a recent innovation. A typical PV panel transforms ~20% of incident solar irradiance into electricity – and a thermal panel several times that, into heat. Between the two, there are trade-offs; and the detailed economics – factoring in power prices and other heating costs, etc. – can be very complex. In the end, however, people/businesses need continuous electricity and regular hot water. There is clear need for a solution that delivers both: hence the development and uptake of hybrid panels. The battle is to establish technology (efficiency) leadership – which EndeF has achieved in ECOMESH: the most efficient panel ever built. At the core of the innovation is ECOMESH’s Transparent Insulating Cover (TIC) technology: an advanced heat recovery system which, using an inert gas layer, maximises heat capture. TIC also increases electricity generation by 15%, by cooling the PV cells to their optimum operating temperature.

GEV Wind Power is one of Europe's leading wind-turbine maintenance companies with teams working on more than 40 wind farms both on and offshore every year. With a presence throughout Europe and North America, GEV Wind Power is a truly global service provider. We understand that it is important to wind energy maintenance companies to find new ways of delivering core services to reduce the cost of energy provision. To realise this vision, we commit significant financial resources to in-house R&D and are constantly looking at technologies that fit well for Wind Energy. We have now developed a patented habitat solution that retrofits to market available access platforms. This creates the perfect protective working environment for blade maintenance and repairs to be completed. Maintenance productivity is increased and, with the added benefit of 24 hour working, GEV Wind Power are able to eliminate the cost uncertainty of weather downtime and will help wind farm owners reduce maintenance costs, improve Annual Energy Production (AEP) and the competitiveness of wind generated energy. Trials completed onshore with our Ventura Habitat prototype using two different access platforms (Power Climber and Kaeufer) in varying weather conditions and ranging between 30 metres and 100 metres high, with successful deployment demonstrating the flexibility and operability of the Habitat in a real-life environment. The overall objective of this development project is to create a commercially ready Ventura Habitat system, with validated results through field trials. This will enable us to achieve our overall commercial objective to become the leading blade maintenance services provider in Europe and North America. We forecast a total revenue of €20 million and a profit of €5 million 5 years post-commercialisation, with a breakeven on investment after 3.43 years and an ROI of 150%.

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.

HACE brings to market the first multi-chamber oscillating water column. Unlike other wave energy converter (WEC) technologies that can harvest energy from a limited wave spectrum, our unique technology can generate power from all types of waves. Our low-cost and low-weight device is able provide 10-15x the energy output per ton compared to state-of-the art WECs and its simple maintenance can reduce operating costs by a factor of 2x. These innovations will drive the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of wave energy below 50 Euros / MWh for the first time. Led by its lead inventor and supported by a skilled technical and business team, the HACE team has developed and validated between 2013 and 2017 its first scaled device with an initial funding of €1M and support from key technical partners such as SOGETI High Tech, ENSAM and Ingeliance. This breakthrough innovation has been recognized with the TransTech Award in 2015 and the E5T Energy Transition Prize in 2017. HACE already received commercial interest from several utilities (Akuo Energy, JIRAMA, TOTAL) and will use this phase 1 project to identify at least one full-scale demonstration customer. HACE estimates a demand from utilities of 19 power plants in 2022 (8x66kW, 4x200kW and 4x1MW, 2x5MW, 1x10MW) corresponding to a revenue of 67M Euros and generating 37 direct jobs and 120 indirect (ecosystem) jobs.

The reasoning which emerges the need for creating WindiBox is to effectively tackle the existence of limited wind turbine applicability for wind energy generation in buildings on a global scale. There is an obvious technological gap in the market, covering the exploitation of low speed air flows, especially in urban environments and areas where the dynamics of air are low and do not allow the installation of common wind turbines. According to the requirements imposed by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive all new buildings must be nearly zero-energy by the end of 2020. All new public buildings must be nearly zero-energy by 2018. The WindiBox device is comprised of a vertical axis wind turbine, enclosed inside a box-shaped, convergent-divergent casing (diffusers). This casing has been proven to augment the rotational speed of the wind turbine by a factor of at least 2.5, compared to a stand-alone turbine and additionally, enhancing its power output by at least 3 times. WindiBox size of 1m height – 2.5m width – 4m length offers power outputs ranging from 2700-3400kWh annually for wind speed 5m/s. The casing is also utilized to act as an environmental shield for minimal noise and vibration emissions since its extended surface area can be exploited for the addition of insulation. WindiBox overcomes the technological limitations of existing solutions in the market as well as the targeted milestones for CO2 emissions imposed by the European Union. What differentiates WindiBox from the competition is that it offers an unparalleled cost-effective solution of ROI less than 4.5 years for 5m/s with exceptional performance characteristics, disrupting the existing market of renewables. Our goal is to bring the WindiBox solution to market, after preparing an elaborate business plan. According to our initial plan, within 5 years from WindiBox commercialization, revenues will reach an annual total of approximately 19.2 million euros and net profits estimated at 30%.