PRODUCTIVE4.0 - AMBITIOUS PROJECT WITH A UNIQUE MAIN OBJECTIVE The main objective of Productive4.0 is to achieve improvement of digitising the European industry by electronics and ICT. Ultimately, the project aims at suitability for everyday application across all industrial sectors – up to TRL8. It addresses various industrial domains with one single approach of digitalisation. What makes the project unique is the holistic system approach of consistently focusing on the three main pillars: digital automation, supply chain networks and product lifecycle management, all of which interact and influence each other. This is part of the new concept of introducing seamless automation and network solutions as well as enhancing the transparency of data, their consistence and overall efficiency. Currently, such a complex project can only be realised in ECSEL. The consortium consists of 45% AENEAS, 30% ARTEMIS-IA, 25% EPOSS partners, thus bringing together all ECSEL communities. Representing over 100 partners from 19 EU and other associated countries, it is a European project, indeed. HANDS-ON SOLUTIONS FOR THE EUROPEAN DIGITAL INDUSTRY • Productive4.0 tackles technological and conceptual approaches in the field of Industry 4.0. The term comprises IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), CPS (Cyber Physical Systems) and Automation. • The innovation project takes a step further towards hands-on solutions. In the process, practical reference implementations such as 3D printerfarms, customised production or self-learning robot systems will benefit in fields like service-oriented architecture (SOA), IOT components & infrastructures, process virtualisation or standardisation. These fields are addressed in the work packages WP1 through WP6. • In addition to furnishing the industry with tailor-made digital solutions, the Productive4.0 Framework will be provided. • Productive4.0 is a brain pool initiated to strengthen the international leadership of the European industry.

To prevent the worst outcomes of climate change and increase Europe’s energy independence, urgent and massive efforts are required to transform Europe’s energy production to renewable and secure sources. Photovoltaics (PV) has emerged as a key technology in these efforts with projected annual growth rates of 30-35% over the next years. A strong base of PV industry across the entire value chain is, therefore, of strategic importance for Europe to support this strong market growth. Since the currently dominating silicon (Si) PV technology is approaching its efficiency limit, PEPPERONI aims to 'spice up' cost-efficient industrial Si cells with a thin perovskite top cell in a monolithic tandem device. This technology promises the best ratio of performance over manufacturing costs and therefore enables to push solar module efficiencies beyond the limit of Si at lowest CO2 footprint. The key objective of PEPPERONI is to enable large-scale production of such tandem PV modules in Europe by (i) demonstrating 26%-efficient modules on industrial scale; (ii) developing fabrication processes for high-volume manufacturing; (iii) extending the operational stability of tandems to meet market expectations (>30 yr); and (iv) removing any human health or environmental risk. To reach these objectives, PEPPERONI capitalises on the world-leading tandem PV expertise of a strong and complementary consortium: 4 equipment suppliers, 2 material suppliers, 1 service provider, 9 R&D institutes and universities that hold tandem efficiency world records, and one of the world's largest PV module manufacturers: PEPPERONI coordinator Q CELLS. When joining forces, their excellence puts PEPPERONI in the unique position to set up a tandem pilot line in Europe by 2026. This will establish a robust and competitive European innovation base and PV supply chain, putting all involved partners well on track towards GW-scale production of solar modules in Europe by 2030.

Action on circularity is not taken when information and evidence is not available across the life cycle chain. The CircThread project's main objective is to unlock access to data now in silo’s, and enhancing it as decision information for actors across and outside the extended product life cycle. To do this CircThread will deliver a Circular Digital Thread methodology, a framework for facilitating information flow exchanges across the extended life cycle chain of Products, Components, their Materials and Chemicals data, and related Circularity, Environmental, Social and Economic Information. The core is to create data linkages between product chain, value chain, asset chain and life cycle chains based on a Product information Catalogue, and enable information exchanges via data contracts governed by secure and reliable management standards. The project will implement the system in Cloud Platforms in 3 demonstration clusters in Italy, Slovenia and Spain rolled-out across the entire extended life cycle chain of home appliances (incl. washing machines and dish washers) and home energy systems (incl. boilers, solar-PV systems and batteries) to test 7 circularity use cases and associated business models. The expected impact for the work programme is to enable improved decision taking accelerating Circularity and Carbon emissions reductions including: i) Enhanced life extensions of products by better understanding of in use failures and maintenance needs, ii) improved understanding of the quality of end-of-life products for spare parts buy-backs to support right to repair, iii) improved assessment of circularity routes by waste management and recycling companies by delivering enhanced product composition data, iv) improved materials and chemicals tracing of products and components for safer products and identifying Critical Raw Materials cycles, v) Empowering decisions by citizens and citizen organisations by providing direct access to product performance information.

Scenarios have forecasted a long lasting amplification with PV electricity becoming the cheapest electricity source in many regions with costs in the range of 4 to 6 c€/kWh for EU by 2024, while 2.2 c€/kWh has been achieved for a 800 MW PV plant planned in Abu Dhabi for 2019. The PV market will continue to expand in the coming years with more than a doubling in the production capacity expected for 2024. At the same time investment in production capacities is foreseen to keep growing hence maintaining the sector highly competitive. For the European PV industry, which is struggling to survive after years of massive investments in China and south-east Asia, the growth of the market represents a chance to come back as a prime player on high-efficiency premium technologies. This is the positioning of GOPV to develop highly competitive technologies for the PV utility market and strong synergies between European players. The project will accelerate reduction of electricity cost implementing advanced PV features and creating synergies across 5 topic areas: Light Management; Energy Efficiency; Material Efficiency; System Reliability; and System configuration and O&M. Ultimately, it will set up an integrated 500 kW PV system to demonstrate a competitive electricity cost of 0.02 €/kWh for irradiation levels of 1900 kWh/m²/year GHI in Southern Europe. The levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) will hence be reduced by 50% (currently 0,04 €/kWh) and the energy payback time reduced by 40%, both in respect to actual standard solution and to PERC best in class mono-facial solution. GOPV project will deliver a 35 years lifetime for the PV string instead of 25 years standards. Beyond GOPV, the global turnover for the six industrial partners exploiting the results of the project will be close to 48 M€ (2022) and will reach 680 M€ in 2027 (x 14 compare to 2020) with an expectation of creating more than 2000 jobs on the 2022-27 period.