Despite the encouraging scenario of Wide Solar Thermal Electricity market - it is a reality today with 4.9 GW in operation worldwide in 2015, forecasting 260 GW in 2030, 664GW in 2040 and finally to reach a 12% of total electricity generation by 2050 (982 GW) - CSP growth has been slower than expected because several issues have not been overcome yet. It is not as cost-efficient as other technologies making difficult its access to the generation mix. Another not-solved aspect is flexibility, since one of the main issues of the electrical market is the complexity to match the supply and demand curves due to the arbitrariness of the sun. Finally, CSP technology brings environmental issues related to the usage of oil sinthetic as HTF and a meaningful water consumption. In this framework, MSLOOP 2.0 aims to validate a business opportunity consisting of developing a cost effective solar field for CSP Parabolic Trough Power Plants using optimized ternary molten salts as HTF with an innovative hybridization system. The result of the project will be a new solution of CSP commercial plant with at least a 20 % LCOE reduction and flexibility improvement providing firm and dispatchable electricity based on a disruptive and environmentally friendly innovation. MSLOOP 2.0 will ensure the market-drivers acceptance from the beginning of the project in order to launch the solution in open tenders in less of 6 months after the project final, boosting significant contributions to industry, environment and society and that will make possible a deep penetration of CSP plants in the generation mix increasing the share of renewables. In order to achieve this challenge, the MSLOOP 2.0 consortium consists of a multidisciplinary team formed by 5 partners from 3 European Union member countries in strategic fields within solar thermal sector. This composition will boost an innovative development capable of achieving a strong positioning in the market.

This project aims to develop and validate (to reach TRL 4) a novel thermochemical technology that not only can store mid-temperature heat (250-400 deg C)This project aims to develop and validate (to reach TRL 4) a novel thermochemical technology that not only can store heat at competitive cost and very high efficiency but also may upgrade that to considerably higher temperatures. This way, the technology enables the upgrade of medium-temperature heat to drive high-temperature and more efficient power cycles, e.g. supercritical. The heat is stored in the form of chemical bonds making it suitable for a long-duration and seasonal storage solution for power and heating applications This novel and outstanding heat storage/upgrading concept offers some further important features that make it even more promising. These are its i) competitive cost-effectiveness compared to other technologies due to its expected long lifespan, and design/operation simplicity, ii) compatibility with a variety of heat sources (solar collectors, industrial waste heat, electricity, etc.), and power blocks, upon the right material selection, iii) capability of continuous discharging with periodic charging as a requirement for many power cycles upon proper sizing/design, iv) scalability up to several-hundred MWhs of capacity and storage duration from several days to even seasonal with minimal losses, v) no environmental impacts, toxicity, and human health issues, and vi) many more potential applications upon further and case-specific developments in the future. The consortium consists of 9 partners from all corners of the EU; including 3 universities, 1 research center, 2 SMEs, 2 large enterprises, and 1 NGO, ensuring that all required expertise exists for the successful accomplishment of the project and future exploitation, and also the partners optimally supplement each other. The technology will be demonstrated in different designs and integrations at 5 kW heat capacity at the DLR laboratory.

TELWIND unites a strong complimentary team of renowned European companies and research institutions, which join forces to develop a revolutionary integrated floating offshore system. The concept, which has already undergone trial tank testing with overly positive results, shall enable a radical cost reduction both in terms of material usage and required means and operations. The system has been conceived in a holistic approach to the overall substructure, tower and turbine, generating ground breaking synergies between the integrated elements to specifically address the particular requirements of offshore wind, focusing in the capacity for low-cost industrialization in the inshore construction and offshore installation processes. The Telwind concept integrates a novel floating substructure and a pioneer self-erecting telescopic tower. The former provides all the performance advantages of a spar-buoy substructure while allowing for qualitatively lower material usage, the latter enables a full onshore preassembly of the overall system and a highly beneficial reduction of offshore works and auxiliary means. Together they overcome the limitations imposed by the available inshore infrastructure and offshore heavylift vessels, and thus generate a fully scalable system, perfectly fitted for the effective integration of the next generation of extremely large (10MW+) offshore wind turbines which are key to enhance the reduction of the Levelised Cost of Energy (LCOE). The system will also profit from the proven structural efficiency and economy of precast concrete, a material particularly well suited for low-cost industrialized production of repetitive units. Robust, reliable and virtually maintenance-free marine constructions result, reducing OPEX costs, greatly increasing durability and fatigue tolerance, and setting the ground for extended service life of the infrastructure, which could further magnify the system’s capacity for drastic reduction of the LCOE.

Operation & Maintenance (O&M) costs are the main cost driver in offshore energy due to the difficult accessibility to the WTs, but also due to the environmental conditions. O&M costs can account for up to 30% of the levelised cost of energy (LCOE) and sensing & monitoring systems could help attain the expected fall to 70 EUR/MWh by 2030. The highest criticality (in €/kWh) in offshore wind is caused by structural failure, that mainly occurs due to corrosion processes non-adequately neither predicted nor monitored. For that reason, it is crucial to implement new monitoring, diagnosis, prognosis and control tools into the offshore wind farms (WFs) to enable Wind Farm Operators (WFOs) to take predictive smart O&M decisions fully considering structural components real and future status. WATEREYE aims to develop an integral solution that will allow to WFOs a 4% reduction of OPEX, accurately predicting the need for future maintenance strategy and increasing the offshore wind annual energy production. To this end, WATEREYE will: 1/ develop a monitoring system capable of remotely estimating the corrosion level in exact WT locations (tower, splash-zone, tower-platform junction) as a supporting tool for predictive maintenance to considerably reduce the O&M costs and reduce the risk for operation failures; New Ultrasound corrosion sensors (ad-hoc, low-cost, high accuracy, fast-response, non-invasive) will be developed, as well as high efficient and robust wireless communications specifically conceived for offshore WTs hard communicating environment. Besides, a novel drone-based mobile platform to move one mobile sensor inside the WT tower will be developed. 2/ develop enhanced prediction models by analysing the acquired data in novel ways (semantic models); 3/ develop WT & WF control algorithms with accurate consideration of the structural health, giving operators freedom to choose the best balance between energy production, protective control, and predictive maintenance.