FLUWS aims to develop and validate a more flexible, reliable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective thermal energy storage (TES) system futureproofed for next-generation concentrating solar power plants operating at higher temperatures and hybridized with PV, two of the main paths for reaching cost-efficiency of CSP. FLUWS validates up to TRL 5 a novel TES concept that ensures elevated thermal efficiency with minimum environmental impact thanks to on the one hand the upcycling of waste and residual materials from the ceramic industry and the use of air as heat transfer fluid and on the other thanks to building on previous consortium know-how in the development of new cost-effective radial packed-bed TES and materials for high-temperature applications. The new FLUWS TES will enable more flexible and modular CSP systems as it will have embedded electric heaters driven by renewable electricity and will be designed for easier integration with compact gas Brayton cycles, thus facilitating the provision of additional services from CSP to the grid and widening the applications of CSP as a competitive technology for combined heat and power (CHP) in the industrial sector. FLUWS addresses key technological challenges: development of high-temperature solid TES media materials based on upcycling of waste and residual material streams; Production of bricks-shaped TES materials via low energy demanding extrusion processes; Development of high temperature (≥800°C) packed bed TES with embedded electric heaters with enhanced performance and reduced structural challenges facilitating upscaling and commercial uptake; Development of high-temperature TES with minimal environmental impact and maximized circularity along the full value chain; Deployment of comprehensive modelling suites for industry and grid operators to maximize the dispatchability of CSP plants, improving their role in the energy sector and the variety of provided services.

The SOLAR-MOVE project aims to contribute to the massive adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) minimizing their impact in the power grid by proposing solutions for different Vehicles Integrated Photovoltaic (VIPV) ecosystems: i) VIPV in cities, ii) VIPV in residential and service buildings, iii) VIPV in passenger transportation and iv) VIPV in highways. The SOLAR-MOVE will follow three main targets: i) increase the range of the VIPV in 5 to 10 km/day compared to normal EVs; ii) reduce the dependency on the grid (energy provided by the grid) from 20 to 50 %, depending on the eco-system; and iii) create solutions with positive Net Present Value. To achieve these goals the consortium - comprised by 34 partners across 16 countries - will develop innovative VIPV solutions, including tools to be integrated in VIPV; VIPV prototypes (Heavy-duty vehicles with PV in the trailer, garbage trucks, passenger buses, last-mile delivery and motorhome); VIPV Use Optimisation solutions to maximise the range of the VIPVs; and ePIPV (charging stations with PVs) for diverse applications (in highways, opportunity charging for eBus, ePIPVs at municipality level, public ePIPV in commercial areas and private ePIPVs). The solutions will be demonstrated in six pilots across Denmark (VIPV:heavy Duty vehiles, ePIPV parking lot for trucks in highways), Greece (VIPV: Garbage Truck, ePIPV: Management of ePIPV at municipality level), Turkey (VIPV: Passenger Bus, ePIPV: Management of ePIPV Opportunity charging), Portugal (VIPV: Last mile delivery, ePIPV: Management of public ePIPV), Albania (ePIPV; Management of private ePIPV) and Slovenia (VIPV:Motorhome). The findings will contribute to the elaboration of policy recomendations to support the adoption of VIPV and ePIPV, guidelines for municipalities to simplify the procurement process for VIPS and ePIPVs solutions and regulatory frameworks and incentives to facilitate the mass deployment of these technologies.

HYBRIDplus:Advanced HYBRID solar plant with PCM storage solutions in sCO2 cycles. HYBRIDplus aims to pioneer the next generation of CSP with an advanced innovative high-density and high-temperature thermal energy storage (TES) system capable of providing a high degree of dispatchability at low cost and with much lower environmental burden than the State of the Art. This thermal storage is based in the Phase Change Material (PCM) technology in a cascade configuration that can reproduce the effect of a thermocline and integrates recycled metal wool in its nucleus that provide hybridization possibilities by acting as an electric heater transforming non-dispatchable renewable electricity such as PV into thermal stored energy ready to be dispatched when needed. HYBRIDplus proposes a novel approach to concentrated solar power with a PV+Cascade PCM-TES CSP configuration based on a high temperature supercritical CO2 cycle working at 600 ºC. This new plant is called to form the backbone of the coming energy system thanks to a higher efficiency and lower LCoE than state-of-the-art technology, and in addition to other benefits such as full dispatchability reached with the hybridization in the storage that allow higher shares of variable output renewables in the energy system and environmental friendliness (lower CO2 emissions, minimum water consumption, enhancement life cycle impact).

The main hurdle the Concentrated Solar Thermal Technologies (CST) sector has been facing over the last decade in Europe is the assumed level of the costs of CSP power plants with a too narrow perception of its use as flexibility provider to the sole electricity systems. To mitigate this, the CST4ALL project identifies an array of hybridisation and cooperation initiatives at the interface between CST and other technologies for applications relevant to the 3 sectors (electricity, heat and fuels) incorporating the work products of various ETIPs. Well-aligned on current EU initiatives (Smart Sector Integration, Fit for 55, CETP) and specific energy strategies across the reviewed Member States to provide answers to the most urgent challenges of decarbonisation, the core deliverable of CST4ALL consists of an intertwined set of workshops with respective industry and R&I focus. These shall bring together, better coordinate and incentivise the interaction of main stakeholders at key technology interfaces with the CSP sector building on combined technological and non-technological improvements. Both the research and the industry perspectives are first analysed aiming primarily at supporting and enlarging the network of active stakeholders in the CSP Implementation Working Group in the SET Plan and to raise the general awareness about the role CST can play in a future sustainable energy mix. These workshops finally result in specific proposals at EU-level from a cross-sector perspective to foster public/private funding for R&I and create the necessary political/regulatory framework conditions for the execution of the new CSP Implementation Plan.

The TRIUMPH project aims to initiate the development of a future PV cell technology node, based on an advanced triple junction cell concept, that is widely considered to be the next technology node to come after tandems. Presently, there is considerable amount of attention and research and development (R&D) activities devoted to Pk/Si tandems and already promising cell efficiencies, reliability and outdoor performance results have been obtained. The highest efficiency reported for a 2-terminal (2T) Pk/Si tandem is 29.8%, which has already gone past the Auger limit of Si. Therefore, in TRIUMPH, we plan to venture a step further than tandems by targeting TRIple junction devices, that can add the extra “OOMPH” (hence the name TRIUMPH) needed to reach efficiencies even >33%. These 2T triple junction devices will be based on perovskites for the middle and top cells and silicon for the bottom cell and will build on the knowledge garnered in the field of Pk/Si tandems. Additionally, cost-effective processing techniques that are industrially viable will be selected for scale-up developments, with minimal upscaling performance loss and degradation during reliability testing and outdoor monitoring. As we enter the tera-watt (TW) era of PV deployment, using earth-abundant materials and enforcing circularity become necessities. Towards this objective, we not only explore options that reduce critical raw materials (CRM) such as silver (Ag) and indium (In) in the triple junction devices, but also apply design for recycling principles to the triple junction modules. The consortium consists of 14 complementary partners from both research institutions and industry, each bringing their best forte to the table, which will help to establish the pathway and the value chain for future multi-junction modules. In this way, TRIUMPH would help the European Union (EU) to maintain its technological leadership in the PV domain for the future generation of PV technologies.