• Energy Research
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Bioenergy is the main source of renewable energy today and it is expected to continue playing a key role in the decarbonisation of the European energy and transport sectors, a prerequisite to achieve the long-term targets of the EU, the Paris Agreement and sustainable development goals. The Implementation Plan of Action 8, Bioenergy and Renewable Fuels for Sustainable Transport (IP8) set detailed targets for the development, demonstration and scale-up of the sector. In order to achieve a step-change, six complementary stakeholders engaged in bioenergy and renewable fuels, joined forces to enable successful implementation within SET4BIO. The overall objective of SET4BIO is to support the full execution of the IP8, i.e. both for research and innovation lines and large-scale projects, acting as competence centre and complementary resource for the Implementation Working Group (IWG8). Industry, academia, institutes, EU Member States and Associated Countries as well as the European Institutions and functions play a key role for successful implementation of IP8. SET4BIO will propose solutions and pathways to overcome essential barriers identified in the IP8 and will engage and coordinate key stakeholders through a participatory approach. The project will identify and promote best practices for development, demonstration and scale-up through a competition-based innovation approach, monitor development, develop a financing roadmap as well as provide policy recommendations and disseminate results. A wide-ranging network must strive towards the same goal and SET4BIO will facilitate the coordination. Several beneficiaries are involved in the IWG8 set up by the European Commission. Commitment and understanding of SET-Plan ambitions on Industry and Member State/Associated Country level will be crucial to the successful implementation. SET4BIO will take an active role in supporting IWG8 and be a catalyst to facilitate the implementation of the actions which are set out in the IP8.

The Sun-to-X project will contribute to European Commission targets for clean energy for all and circular economy by developing a system for the conversion of solar energy into storable chemical fuel. While the concept of solar-to-chemical fuels has been around for decades, the technology has been limited by the economic viability and scalability of the technology. The Sun-to-X project focuses on using solar energy to produce a carbon-free, non-toxic, energy-dense, liquid fuel - Hydrosil, with very good long-term stability, which is applicable in the transport and energy sectors. We will firstly produce hydrogen as chemical intermediate through a photoelectrochemical device. This will then be converted to Hydrosil through a thermochemical reaction. The novelty of our proposal lies in the following three key aspects: 1. Overcoming the known practical challenges of high-performance photoelectrochemical fuel production by using membrane photoelectrode assemblies which can operate with solar energy using only ambient humidity as the water supply 2. Developing reactors for and demonstrating the renewable production of Hydrosil for the first time, using a thermochemical process (using concentrated solar light) 3. Demonstrating a completely decarbonised energy cycle with liquid fuels In addition, we will demonstrate the applicability of Hydrosil towards the transition to a circular economy, by using it for the valorisation of waste plastics.

Energy efficiency lies at the very core of policy interventions for energy security, energy poverty and climate change, while its promoted by technological innovations and investments. However, it seems that these technologies are not adopted by consumers at least to the extent that the assumption of rational behavior would predict. This energy efficiency gap, the difference between expected and realized energy consumption, costs to national economies both in terms of monetary values and emissions. Significant role in mitigating this issue is the exploration of the drivers of individual behavior. There is tremendous opportunity and need for policy-relevant research that utilizes randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental techniques to estimate the returns to energy efficiency investments and the adoption level of energy efficiency programs. EVIDENT proposes several different case studies under the framework of randomized control trials (RCTs) and surveys in order to define the main drivers of individuals’ decision making and to establish new relationships between energy consumption and other fields such as financial literacy. A large number of participants, well stratified samples, innovative design of experiments and state of-the-art econometric models that will be employed in EVIDENT and will contribute in robust estimates and subsequent policy measures for effective policy interventions.

RoLA–FLEX is an industry driven project which provides innovative solutions to the existing OLAE challenges associated with performance and lifetime, through: (a) the fabrication and upscaling of organic semiconductors with high charge mobilities (up to 10 cm2/Vs) and high power conversion efficiencies (16% in OPV cell and 12% in OPV module); (b) the development of metal oxides for charge carrier selective contacts and metal nanoinks for highly conductive micropatterns with increased environmental stability; (c) the seamless incorporation of high speed laser digital processing in Roll-2-Roll OPV module fabrication and photolithography based OTFT manufacturing and (d) the demonstration of two TRL5+ OLAE prototypes enabled by the developed materials and innovative processes: 1. A smart energy platform for IoT devices powered by ITO-free and flexible OPVs operating at low indoor light conditions. 2. A new generation of bezel-less and fully bendable smart watches integrating FHD, ultra-bright OLCD/OTFT displays. RoLA-FLEX will advance all the aforementioned technologies to at least TRL5 within its timeframe. RoLA-FLEX will create an opportunity for a yearly increase in revenues of almost €400 M only 6 years after its end, accompanied by hundreds of new jobs. A timely investment in the early days of these new markets can ensure significant market share for the SMEs and Industries involved and greatly boost EU’s competitiveness globally.

This project is framed under the topic "SSH aspects of the Clean-Energy Transition" and it tries to interpret the "Challengues facing the carbon intensive regions" within a multi-contextual framework: 1) the de-carbonisation policies; 2) the ongoing processes of de-territorialisation; and 3) the territorial dimension of clean energy transition. These contextual elements are presented in the project, providing an interpretation of the main research questions of the topic.: a) The de-carbonisation of coal and carbon intensive regions risks to be a cul de sac of the energy transition process. Along with this process a set of conflicts emerge and move from local to national and European level and vice-versa. One of the main ideas of the project is analysing these conflicts and the negotiation processes related to them, as well as the political cultures and discourses behind these conflicts; b) The challenges facing coal and carbon-intensive regions are studied in the light of the ongoing process at the territorial level. Another main idea of the project is to identifying the factors of de-territorialisation in action in different coal and carbon-intensive regions and to explain their dynamics and interactions; c) The clean energy transition cannot be understood only as a technological change or as an industrial shift, and it is studied as a socio-economic-psychological process affectng the life of local communities. In this respect the project is focused on the study of the coping strategies from a wide array of perspectives: A multidimensional perspective, combining different disciplinary frameworks; a comparative perspective, developing a comprehensive set of case studies; and a multilevel perspective, involving different key players at territorial, regional, national, European and global level. Each of these strategies will be developed in a specific strand of research: Theoretical strand, Analytic strand, and Pro-active strand.

The majority of databases are unfit for deploying advanced analytical tools by humans and machines, causing forgone opportunities arising from advanced ICT solutions. It adds to the problem that the transition towards low carbon and sustainable energy systems requires the integration of interdisciplinary and complex data. It means that it is not sufficient to only account for physical and technical attributes, but also socio-economic and environmental ones. Otherwise, society is misinformed about the consequences of upcoming fundamental systemic changes, affecting acceptance building and the creation of ownership for the energy transition. Transparent and integrated management of energy data with useful metadata information and quality assurance provides the basis for society to choose, monitor, and implement sustainable transition pathways; and for the industry to be innovative. Therefore, databases need to adhere to the principles of open and FAIR data (findability, accessibility, interoperability, re-usability). However, the concepts and infrastructures for FAIR and open data management are currently not existing in low carbon energy research. The overall objective of EERAdata is to develop, explore, and test a FAIR and open data ecosystem. This new data infrastructure is established through the broad involvement of the energy research community in a series of workshops and is applied in four selected use cases, covering essential aspects of data-driven low carbon energy research. EERAdata also implements an open platform for uniform and seamless access to energy data and establishes a pool of experts and data stewards to facilitate a mental shift in the community towards FAIR and open data practices. A key element is the active linking of EERAdata to national initiatives, the European Open Science Cloud, the Research Data Alliance, and others. In this way, the project builds a critical mass to explore the prospects of large-scale FAIR and open energy data.

According to United Nations, the world population will reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Food, energy and water are three critical resources that must be managed for mankind to thrive. With these figures, a 70-100% increase in food supply will be needed to maintain our current nutrition levels. Given that agriculture accounts for 14% of world’s energy usage, 70% of water usage and 11% of CO2 emissions, it is clear that new technology is needed for feeding the world in a sustainable way. Greenhouse farming is as it increases the food production per m2 up to 10x compared to open field agriculture, while using 10x less water. However, Greenhouses require 10x the energy to operate. This is the market opportunity driving our technology development Brite has developed PanePower Solar Window (SW) which is a unique transparent (80%) solar glass panel that generates clean energy. The solar glass combines a nanostructured coating material with silicon solar cell technology to deliver a product ideally suited for greenhouse applications. PanePowerSW contributes in reducing the energy operating costs in greenhouses from 25-28% (of their total operating cost) to near zero depending on climate conditions. The technology enables the growth of almost any kind of crop because it is uniformly transparent over the visible spectrum. Our company has won grants from SME Instrument (Phase 1 and Phase 2), which enabled the technology of PanePowerSW to reach a TRL of 7. By applying to the EIC Accelerator Complementary Blended Finance program, we expect to enter the market in 2021, and sell at least 4 million m2 of solar glass (equivalent to over €160 M of cumulative revenue) by 2026. At our exit (within 5-6 years) we project a return on investment for the EIC equity funding of 7x or higher.

Why at one or several points in time do Coal and Carbon Intensive Regions (CCIR) flip into fundamentally different development trajectories and embrace clean-energy transformations? TIPPING+ will focus on the critical concept of Social-Ecological Tipping Points (SETPs) to inquire how a much more robust scientific understanding of the socioeconomic, psychological, cultural, gender and political processes leading to SETPs can be used to support clean-energy transitions in CCIR or prevent catastrophic or undesirable outcomes in other ones (e.g. populism and anti-democratic attitudes). TIPPING+ will carry out empirical analyses and advance the state-of-the-art on both negative and positive tipping points. However, a main focus of TIPPING+ will concern the participatory co-production of knowledge on the driving forces and deliberate tipping interventions for positive tipping points toward energy transitions in European CCIR. A typology based on at least 20 regional case studies will be generated with an early engagement of key practitioners examining: 1) New trends, changes and impacts of energy transitions on demographic structures and geographical distribution patterns in gender, migration and youth 2) Community, gender and psychological factors related to energy transitions 3) Policy interventions and governance factors 4) Economic transformations on employment, distributional welfare and energy and natural resources. TIPPING+ builds on the latest social science applied to Transition Theory (Tàbara et al, 2019) which shows that enabling deliberate positive tipping points in development trajectories depend on: a) Collective visions and narratives which frame and provide actionable meaning b) The kinds of transformative capacities to achieve these visions and c) Key strategies, solutions and socio-technical innovations derived from such capacities. International cooperation will also be established with non-European partners in Indonesia, Australia and Canada.