How do the EU’s energy innovation projects stack up?
Image: 123RF.com
The 183 European energy research and innovation projects completed or underway since 2016 have received cumulative EU funding of €1.6 billion ($1.75 billion).
The projects, funded under the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe programmes, involve 2,237 organisations from 38 countries, with 78 projects completed and 105 projects currently active, according to the latest BRIDGE report.
Moreover, the number of projects under review has increased by over 700% over the period, with an 18% increase in the last year.
The BRIDGE initiative was formed in 2016 to share knowledge and experiences from the EU projects and to draft policy recommendations.
Have you read?
Centrica launches new research and innovation startup
EU Projects Zone
As such it should ensure that the findings from the projects can gain wider exploitation, rather than remaining ‘siloed’ within the consortium participants or that the projects simply come to an end with no further development.
The BRIDGE analysis presents a useful breakdown of the nature and participation in projects, which cover a range of thematic fields and involve a cross-section of partners, some with multiple roles.
With a focus on ongoing projects, the partners most involved are research and innovation partners at 17%, followed by consumers at 11% and energy suppliers at 10%.
Conversely, regulated operators and digital innovation hubs make up just 3% each, while market operators and aggregators account for 5% each.
The largest number of participating organisations are from Spain with 83, while 58 are from Italy and 57 from Germany.
However, fewer than 10 participants have come from countries in Eastern Europe, apart from Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland, which each number between 11-20.
Spain also hosts the highest number of demonstration sites with 53, while Germany has 34 and Italy 33.
BRIDGE project categories
Turning to the projects themselves, BRIDGE has identified six main categories, with grid technologies making up the most with 24% followed by distributed storage technologies with 19% and generation technologies with 17%.
Others are technologies for consumers with 14%, large-scale storage technologies with 12% and the market with 8%, while a further category of ‘others’ that do not align with these is at 6%.
Broken down further in the grid technology category, network management and monitoring and control tools make up the most projects together accounting for 42%, with microgrids and HV direct current following at 16% and 11% respectively.
Among the distributed storage technologies, the most significant are batteries at 42% and electric vehicles at 27%, while hydro storage at 32% and power-to-gas and compressed air energy storage each at 26% make up the majority of large-scale storage technology projects.
PV systems and wind account for 31% and 22% respectively of the generation technology projects, while the top consumer technologies are demand response at 31% and intelligent household appliances and smart metering at 22%.
In the market category, the top projects are focused on the electricity market and ancillary services at 41% and 38% respectively.
