The EU has the long-term goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% to 95% compared to 1990 levels by 2050, mainly by introducing more shares of renewable energy sources in the EU energy systems. Solid oxide technologies (SOC: SOFC & SOE) are key enabling technologies for allowing for such integration. They are an efficient link between sectors: power, gas, heat. SOC can therefore emerge as key players in the energy transition in many concepts, such as • fuel/gas to power and heat at small to large scale, • energy storage through power to hydrogen/fuel, • utilisation and upgrading of biogas, • balancing of intermittent electricity from renewable sources through load following and reversible operation, and • central and decentral solutions for electricity and heat production. The NewSOC project aims at significantly improving performance, durability, and cost competitiveness of solid oxide cells & stacks compared to state-of-the-art (SoA). In order to achieve these goals, NewSOC proposes twelve innovative concepts in the following areas: (i) structural optimisation and innovative architectures based on SoA materials, (ii) alternative materials, which allow for overcoming inherent challenges of SoA, (iii) innovative manufacturing to reduce critical raw materials and reduction of environmental footprint at improved performance & lifetime. The NewSOC project will validate the new cells & stacks at the level of large cells with > 50 cm2 active area and short-stacks in close collaboration with industry thereby moving the technology readiness level from 2 to 4. Six major European SOC manufacturers are part of the consortium, representing a large range of SOC concepts and product & market strategies. Industry partners will take the lead for providing a path how to increase the TRL level beyond the project period towards TRL of 6. The NewSOC project will evaluate the new SOC materials and fabrication processes according to life cycle impact and cost assessment.

The REFLEX project aims at developing an innovative renewable energies storage solution, the “Smart Energy Hub”, based on reversible Solid Oxide Cell (rSOC) technology, that is to say able to operate either in electrolysis mode (SOEC) to store excess electricity to produce H2, or in fuel cell mode (SOFC) when energy needs exceed local production, to produce electricity and heat again from H2 or any other fuel locally available. The challenging issue of achieving concomitantly high efficiency, high flexibility in operation and cost optimum is duly addressed through improvements of rSOC components (cells, stacks, power electronics, heat exchangers) and system, and the definition of advanced operation strategies. The specifications, detailed system design and the advanced operation strategies are supported by modelling tasks. An in-field demonstration will be performed in a technological park, where the Smart Energy Hub will be coupled to local solar and mini-hydro renewable sources and will provide electricity and heat to the headquarters of the park. It will demonstrate, in a real environment, the high power-to-power round-trip efficiency of this technology and its flexibility in dynamic operation, thus moving the technology from Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 to 6. The Smart Energy Hub being modular, made of multistacks/multimodules arrangements, scale up studies will be performed to evaluate the techno-economic performance of the technology to address different scales of products for different markets. To reach these objectives, REFLEX is a cross multidisciplinary consortium gathering 9 organisations from 6 member states (France, Italy, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland). The partnership covers all competences necessary: cells and stacks development and testing (ELCOGEN, CEA, DTU), power electronics (USE, GPTech), system design and manufacturing (SYLFEN), system modelling (VTT), field test (Envipark), techno-economical and market analysis (ENGIE).

CLEANHYPRO gathers some of the most recognised experts in Europe on the electrolysis field for clean hydrogen production and acknowledged facilitators of technology transfer, corporate finance, funding and coaching, making available (i) the most promising and breakthrough manufacturing pilots and (ii) advanced characterization techniques and modelling together with (iii) non-technical services through this Test Bed: while relevant improvement metrics can be defined, the potential network of reachable stakeholders counts thousands of businesses on an international scale. Key facts are reported below. Within the scope of CLEANHYPRO, several circular innovative materials and key components, four main electrolysis technologies and geometries will be covered, providing for the first time a single entry point for industrial partners, mainly SMEs, aspiring to answer their concerns but with minimum investment costs and reduction of risks associated with technology transfer, while opening-up opportunities for demonstration of materials and components (TRL7) and thus faster opening the market for these new products. The main KPIs for CLEANHYPRO: Technical: >20% cell productivity improvement, 30% faster verification, 27-58% and 22-79% cost reduction of technologies in CAPEX and OPEX respectively, 3-9% efficiency enhancement. Non-Technical: 4 Showcases, 4 certification schemes, ≥16 Democases, >100 reachable SMEs and > 300 reachable investors. INNOMEM stems from the consideration that the development of products based on key materials and components for electrolysis require access to finance and an optimised business planning, relying on a sound prior analysis of the market, of the economic impacts and capacity of a company. The project aims at developing and organizing a sustainable Open Innovation Test Bed (OITB) for electrolysis materials and components for different applications. The OITB will also offer a network of facilities and services through a SEP to companies.

qSOFC project combines leading European companies and research centres in stack manufacturing value-chain with two companies specialized in production automation and quality assurance to optimize the current stack manufacturing processes for mass production. Currently the state-of-the-art SOFC system capital expenditure (capex) is 7000…8000 €/kW of which stack is the single most expensive component. This proposal focuses on SOFC stack cost reduction and quality improvement by replacing manual labour in all key parts of the stack manufacturing process with automated manufacturing and quality control. This will lead to stack cost of 1000 €/kW and create a further cost reduction potential down to 500 €/kW at mass production (2000 MW/year). During the qSOFC project, key steps in cell and interconnect manufacturing and quality assurance will be optimized to enable mass-manufacturing. This will include development and validation of high-speed cell-manufacturing process, automated 3D machine vision inspection method to detect defects in cell manufacturing and automated leak-tightness detection of laser-welded/brazed interconnect-assemblies. The project is based on the products of its' industrial partners in stack-manufacturing value-chain (ElringKlinger, Elcogen AS, Elcogen Oy, Sandvik) and motivated by their interest to further ready their products into mass-manufacturing market. Two companies specialized in production automation and quality control (Müko, HaikuTech) provide their expertise to the project. The two research centres (VTT, ENEA) support these companies with their scientific background and validate the produced cells, interconnects and stacks. Effective exploitation and dissemination of resulting improved products, services, and know-how is a natural purpose of each partner and these actions are boosted by this project. This makes project results available also for other parties and increases competitiveness of the European fuel cell industry.

AMPS project brings together the leading European companies in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and Solid Oxide Electrolyzer manufacturing value chain. The project includes automation companies (Rocksoft, Smartal) and manufacturing equipment producers (SITEC, Haikutech, Dosetec) as well as cell manufacturer (Elcogen AS) and stack manufacturer (Elcogen oy). The project is motivated by their strong commitment to develop their products and services and commence real mass-manufacturing. The industry partners are supported by research institutes VTT, Polito and VUTS. The high-level AMPS objectives are: 1. Automated high-speed cell production with integrated quality control 2. Automated high-speed interconnect plate production and coating with integrated quality control 3. Automated high-speed stack assembly with integrated quality control 4. Complete component tracking and optimized mass-manufacturing by using virtual twins 5. Assessment and demonstration of target stack manufacturing cost of <800 €/kWel at production volume of 100 MW/year 6. Establish European supply chain of SOC manufacturing equipment Successful dissemination of the AMPS results is in the core of the participating companies business, as they are selling stack components and associated manufacturing equipment for many other companies than just AMPS partners and therefore want to spread the knowledge of the developed solutions and manufacturing methods and equipment.