BIG HIT will create a replicable hydrogen territory in Orkney (Scotland) by implementing a fully integrated model of hydrogen production, storage, transportation and utilisation for heat, power and mobility. BIG HIT will absorb curtailed energy from two wind turbines and tidal turbines on the islands of Eday and Shapinsay, and use 1.5MW of PEM electrolysis to convert it into ~50 t pa of hydrogen. This will be used to heat two local schools, and transported by sea to Kirkwall in 5 hydrogen trailers, where it will be used to fuel a 75kW fuel cell (which will provide heat and power to the harbour buildings, a marina and 3 ferries when docked), and a refuelling station for a fleet of 10 fuel cell vehicles. The project employs a novel structure to manage the hydrogen trading, and dissemination that includes a follower territory and associations of over 1640 isolated territories.

The RIPEET project will support Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) policy experimentations for energy transition in three European territories - in Extremadura (ES), Highlands and Islands of Scotland (UK) and Ostrobothnia (FI). The methodology builds on RRI, transformative innovation, transition management and the Multi-Level-Perspective. RIPEET brings together quintuple helix actors of the territorial socio-technical energy regime in Transition Labs in order to envisage and implement a place-based energy transition process. Building on this evolutionary model of socio-technical transitions, RIPEET will use existing landscape and regime-level pressures to facilitate the development of territorial socio-technical futures based on RRI actions. The governance and agency in this transformative process will be organised within the Transition Labs. These Labs will bring together stakeholders to co-create common visions based on the potentials and priorities of territorial eco-systems (mapping and visioning), generate transition pathways and innovation needs, launching a call for immediate bottom-up solutions to these (pathways and piloting) and anchor the process on organisational as well as policy level (sustainability and exploitation). The framework conditions, processes, and outcomes of these experiments will be mapped, monitored, and evaluated. This constitutes an evidence-base for the revision of sectoral policies, strategies and research and innovation (R&I) instruments as well as for establishing a European RIPEET community. Thereby, RIPEET will support territories in establishing experimental spaces to address the territorial dimensions of the European Green Deal. The consortium consists of 11 renowned and EU-FP-experienced universities, research organisations, SMEs, CSOs, business and innovation centres and regional authorities from seven European countries, with the competences and territorial anchoring necessary to implement the approach.

Europe’s electricity sector is experiencing severe transformations: modernization of the electricity system is vital for achieving Europe’s energy targets, and smart grids and flexible electricity systems are essential for this modernization. On this respect, the SMILE project will demonstrate different innovative technological and non-technological solutions in large-scale smart grid demonstration projects in the Orkneys, Samsø and Madeira islands, paving the way for their introduction in the market in the near future. The technological solutions vary from: integration of battery technology, power to heat, power to fuel, pumped hydro, electric vehicles, electricity stored on board of boats, an aggregator approach to demand side management (DSM) and predictive algorithms. The pilots will demonstrate operation of the distribution grid under stable and secure conditions to implement solutions for demand response, intelligent control and automation of distribution networks; they have high shares of RES in the electricity grid or have planned increasing shares in the next years. All of them will demonstrate stable grid operation with use of storage solutions and smart integration of grid users from transport. Each pilot will test the most appropriate solutions for local specificities, and common lessons with cross-cutting valence will be derived. Involving projects on islands will ease engaging residents in SMILE. Indeed, islanders are usually sensible to provide availability to test solutions impacting their daily life. Finally, two of the pilots are not total energy islands, thus representing smart grids located on the mainland and not limiting replication potential to other island locations only. SMILE consortium is composed by 19 partners from 6 EU countries: all the value chain actors needed to efficiently implement the 3 projects have been involved and an innovation management approach will guarantee a wider exploitation and replication of technological solutions.