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Simone Landolina
The renewable energy industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Europe thanks to two factors: the supportive political and legal frameworks and the region’s prominent investment in renewable energy research and development.
With the new emphasis on rapid implementation of renewable energy technologies to achieve the 2020 targets, the EUREC Agency decided to revisit the research priorities in terms of how research can and should contribute to the achievement of those targets. Whilst the research itself provides the means to achieve the European ambitions of sustainable growth and competitiveness, it should also be recognised that it provides an important educational tool for the training of the highly skilled workforce who will design and implement the new energy systems of the future.
This webinar will present a general overview of the policy and research activities which in EUREC’s view are needed to underpin the growth of the renewable energy industry by 2020, with a special focus on the critical role which European postgraduate higher education is set to play. Founded in 1991, EUREC Agency’s mission is to improve the quality and scope of European research and development in renewable energy technologies (RET). Its 43 members are Europe’s leading organisations in renewable energy scientific research, covering all its aspects.
Speakers
Simone Landolina is Project Manager at EUREC Agency since March 2008. He is responsible for the daily management and implementation of EUREC’s portfolio of strategic projects. Before joining EUREC, Simone has been working as research funding advisor at ENEA, the Italian National Agency for new Technologies, Energy and Environment, and for one of the largest European banking groups as policy analyst at the International Affairs Office. Simone graduated in Business Administration at the LUISS University in Rome, and specialised in economics of research and development, technology transfer and innovation policies.
Greg Arrowsmith is Policy Officer at EUREC Agency. He is in charge of providing advice to EUREC members with respect to policy dossiers of interest for the renewable energy community, as well as making sure that our policy messages effectively reach the European institutions. Greg has been coordinating the definition EUREC’s position and strategy with respect to the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, and its follow-up initiatives. He is also a member of the Smart Grids Forum, an advisory body to the European Technology Platform on Smart Grids, Greg holds a Cambridge degree in natural sciences.
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Q&A Session
By Fernando Nuno / Published on Thu, 2009-11-19 12:39Q: Do you believe that with BAU (business as usual) in the RES sector we will reach the 20% target by 2020? If not, what else can we realistically do?
A: In order to reach by 2020 the binding target of 20% renewable energy from final energy consumption outlined in the European RES Directive, a shift of paradigm is urgently needed.
During the webinar we discussed how scientific and technological research can contribute to meet the 2020 targets, however it also necessary to enforce this legislative framework at national level in the EU for making 20% renewable energy become a reality.
Administrative barriers are still a major problem for renewable energy development and need to be removed. There are a number of non-cost related options to be integrated for anyMember State
Infrastructure development and priority access for renewables to the grid are key for a large-scale penetration of renewables. This should not only apply to electricity networks but should also apply to district heating networks sourced by renewables and gas pipelines for the increased use of biogas.
More efforts are essential in education and vocational training. This includes not only specific studies for renewable energy as a course topic in itself, but more focus on renewable energy topics being included in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, physics and other traditional technical studies. Post graduate studies, like the European Master in Renewable Energy offered by the EUREC Agency, represent important educational tools not only for young graduates but also to allow retraining to meet the rapidly growing need for skilled personnel in the renewable energy industry.
Q: Are renewables being discussed in relation to the instruments in the Eastern Partnership? Focus onUkraine
A: A reliable energy supply is one of the basic prerequisites for a Country’s economic development and stability. In recent years the European Union’s energy policy has acknowledged the strategic role of its eastern neighbouring countries not only for the geographical transit of the energy imports, but also for the huge potential in terms of sustainable production of electricity and heating from renewable energy sources.
Questions about technologies:
Q: In Solar PV, what is the type of solar cells used-cost effective and efficiency?
A: Different companies have different strategies. Sunpower produces relatively expensive but relatively more efficient monocrystalline silicon solar cells. First Solar produces less efficient cells that also cost less. High efficiency cells can sell for a price that is proportionally greater than the improvement in efficiency compared with less efficient sells because they enable the project developer to make savings in installation costs related to mountings, trackers, land, installers’ time. The magazine Photon International tracks the spot market price (in EUR/Wp) for modules from theUS , Far East and Europe .
Q: Is there any research in the use of a garment with a kind of solar air conditioning?
A: at present, we are not aware of any specific research in the application of solar thermal technologies to individual items of clothing for cooling purposes.
Nevertheless, solar thermally driven cooling technologies are set to play a key role in the efficient conversion of energy in the field of building air-conditioning and refrigeration.
The demand for cooling in buildings is rising across the world and notably in southernEurope , in both the residential and tertiary sector. As most cooling and refrigeration systems worldwide are powered by electricity, this has created a massive increase in peak electricity demand, putting a burden on power supply infrastructure and generating capacity and increasing the risk of blackouts. While demand-side management is crucial, on the supply side solar thermal may represent the ideal medium-term solution. Apart from the research activities related to the components of solar thermal systems in general, such as solar collectors and thermal storage, basic research is ongoing to achieve a higher coefficient of performance (COP-values), to make machine more compact and to enable them to operate at lower driving temperatures. One critical long-term objective is to develop stable and cost-efficient new sorption materials, applicable at industrial scale.
Q: What is the potential of Integrated Solar thermal & Photovoltaic power generation systems inEurope ?
Between four fifths and five sixths of the sunlight falling on a module is dissipated as low temperature heat, a proportion of which can be captured. We are not aware of a module that is commercially available that does this. Past research projects have looked at such combinations (search among European Commission-funded projects here http://cordis.europa.eu for the projects “Highly integrated pv / thermal / structural building components” and “Hybrid photovoltaic module for roof integration”). The Fraunhofer ISE is one of probably several research laboratories looking at such technology.
Questions about master:
Q: What particular program would TU Delft potentially be hosting in the Masters program?
A: we are currently exploring both possibilities with the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) to become either “Core” provider or “Specialisation” provider. TU Delft has much research and teaching expertise in several renewable energy sources, so it represents a good candidate to teach the initial “Core” semester of the EUREC Master.
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