As a significant source of greenhouse gasses (GHGs), it is essential that the maritime transport sector focuses on ways to become climate neutral. Partial electrification of power systems has already been adopted as a GHG reduction measure. However, further advances are necessary on such aspects as the provision of high charging powers to minimise costs and improve standardisation. In this context, HYPOBATT will be focused on the development of an interoperable charging solution with a cost-competitive performance. HYPOBATT will deliver a modular, fast, and easy multi-MW recharging system demonstrated in two European ports with fast turnaround times. The project will assess the end-to-end services between both ports, and compatibility with other ports. A modular approach on electrical and mechanical integration will minimize the required connection time, the charging time, land from port side and the number of components and costs. The charging system will be designed to achieve interoperability and compatibility with different electric ships, grid constraints, components, modularity, logistic and handling, monitoring and safety systems, power flow, maintenance, digitalization/automation, cybersecurity, and human element aspects. The standardization of the charging modules, the interfaces, and the communication protocol, will scale up the charger based on and on/offshore sides; flexibility of power levels will be addressed and the impacts on the electrical grid infrastructure and on the battery degradation during fast charging will be minimized. HYPOBATT unites key actors from the European maritime sector to develop and demonstrate the charging system. A key element is to develop business mechanisms to exploit the flexibility of the charging system amongst shipbuilders, integrators, ports and stakeholders. This will enable the wide adoption of the solution, thus increasing Europe’s lead in fast charging systems.

While Fully electric vehicles (EV) have zero tailpipe emissions and are seen as a key solution to meeting the European Fit-for-55 target of reducing CO2 levels in 2030 and climate-neutrality by 2050, much more can be potentially achieved if the global market uptake of innovative EVs is accelerated. The ZEV-UP project aims to address this urgent need by developing modular, cost-effective, and user-centric EVs for both passenger and goods transportation. Leveraging innovative design and engineering techniques, ZEV-UP vehicles will be tailored to meet the specific needs of users in both developed and emerging markets, ensuring high levels of user acceptance and market uptake. Key innovations include a base L7e BEV model that is designed respectful of affordability and can be upgraded and adapted for various purposes and needs, including commercial applications and higher-value passenger vehicles. By optimizing vehicle components for reduced material usage and enhanced structural properties, the project will achieve lighter vehicles with increased autonomy and minimized environmental impact. ZEV-UP will also develop digital-twin models to improve vehicle development efficiency and reduce validation costs, as well as designing charging capabilities compatible with a variety of regional power systems. Novel business and usage models, such as Battery as a Service, will be explored to maximize the benefits and impact of the L7e BEV platform. User-centric design, informed by market research and field interviews in both established and developing countries, will be a central focus of the project. Additionally, ZEV-UP will develop a proliferation model to assess policy intervention scenarios and strategize for short- and long-term BEV uptake in various markets. By delivering these key results and adhering to its objectives, ZEV-UP will accelerate the transition to sustainable urban mobility and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector.

SAFARI’s project aims to develop a generic digital platform for resilient port infrastructure, connected to large port communities, facing extreme weather events, with emergency management modules fed by operational, maintenance and analytical modules. The implementation of the SAFARI project will allow to: Maintain the port operation at 80% of capacity during the disruption periods; Optimize the allocation of multi-modal transport assets before and after the disrupting event to reach 20% of modal cargo shift with less environmental footprint and to minimize the downtime during extreme weather events; Develop resilience measures to strengthen existing port infrastructure against extreme weather events. Ensure the safety of personnel, vessels and protect the biodiversity; Build a governance model and guidelines to address climate risks and hazards for port infrastructure. The SAFARI consortium aims to deploy new measures reaching a TRL 7 by the end of the project in different maritime and inland infrastructures of port partners, from North Sea, Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, that can minimize the impacts of the disturbances issued from the extreme weather events. Three pilot demonstrators are selected from the littorals of Europe, namely Port of Dunkirk (FR), Port of Seville (ES) and Port of Lisbon (PT).

The growing motorization in our cities has led to an increase in traffic congestion, noise, pollution, carbon emissions and concerns about road safety, resulting in social, environmental, and economic consequences. AntifragiCity’s overall aim is to pave the way to a new urban mobility governance approach that enables cities to understand their business-as-usual modus-operandi (defined as their state of equilibrium) and to monitor (near) real-time continuous stressors and deviations from this state, assess potential implications through simulation and prediction capabilities, evaluate mobility triage scenario public acceptability and justice, and inform adapted decision making to mitigate their consequences, while continuously enhancing sustainability and resilience. AntifragiCity will pave the way to antifragile mobility urban systems that (a) exploit an adapted framework and associated KPIs to continuously monitor the level of resilience of urban mobility and detect (near) real-time potential stressors; (b) characterize these stressors as well as their level of severity thanks to an event ontology; (c) devise adapted short-term responses based on a mobility triage decision support system; (d) simulate and analyse multi-objective transportation management strategies to improve long-term performance of urban mobility and transport systems, through a wide range of measures, including adaptive traffic management systems that ad-just in real-time to disruptions, predictive analytics to preemptively address potential system stressors and innovative, energy-efficient solutions like dynamic routing and adaptive lighting, (e) employ participative methods to engage citizens through a co-creation process via Living labs in three demonstration cities (Larisa, Odessa, and Bratislava) that addresses both their immediate needs and long-term goals. The project results will be scaled up across our 8 participating countries and wider Europe.

HiHELIOS aims to deliver a TRL 7 modular, scalable, circular-by-design and safe Hybrid Energy Storage System (HESS) that combines High-Power storage capabilities of LFP battery or supercapacitors, with High-Energy storage capabilities of second-life NMC batteries. To achieve this, HiHELIOS will adapt the modular, flexible and scalable HESS architecture developed in the EU project SEABAT to grid applications and EV charging support. HiHELIOS aims to design the HESS based on the shelf battery modules and components, and repurposing EV 2nd life battery modules. Supported by digital models, HiHELIOS will custom design and manufacture a HESS for 4 use-cases of problem owners to solve a real-life hybrid energy storage challenge. In HiHELIOS, the use-cases altogether cover storage services for supporting grid-connected microgrids and islanded grids; renewable energy uptake in weak and weak islanded grids; and EV charging, EV and E-boat fast-charging infrastructures, as well as ancillary services. The HiHELIOS HESS contains an innovative BMS and physics-based and data-driven PMS, EMS and cloud platform (based in the RED and Battery passport principles) enabling multiple (fast) services. HiHELIOS immediately achieves impact, because the 4 HiHELIOS demonstrators will stay in-use at the use-case owners after the project, until their end of life. HiHELIOS develops a roadmap to TRL 9 together with main stakeholders in the energy sector, and creates fertile soil for market application with replication studies. HiHELIOS will bring long durartion storage (>12 hours) within reach, against storage costs of less than €0.05/kWh/cycle by 2030, with a projected cycling life of >5,000 cycles. Via BRIDGE , ETIP-SNET and CEN-CENELEC , the experience emerging from HiHELIOS be used as input to national and EU-level standardization processes. HiHELIOS brings together a consortium of 12 partners from 6 countries, of which 4 partners are SMEs and 3 partners are from widening coutries.