NEWS
The EUROSUNMED project has a budget of 5,300,000 euros, and sets out to develop new technologies in three areas within the field of sun-based renewable energies: photovoltaic energy, CSP (concentrated solar power) and grid integration.
The technology to capture, store and distribute solar energy has become an everyday thing. Nevertheless, this technology still involves high costs, so it is necessary to cut costs if solar energy is to be unquestionably competitive on a world scale and if an industry with a future is to be created.
This is the context in which the EUROSUNMED project has emerged; it depends on the 7th Framework Programme and has a budget to the tune of 5,300,000 euros. Participating in it is a consortium of 17 universities and top research centres in the European Union, including IK4-TEKNIKER, in addition to organisations from Egypt and Morocco. The initiative is being led by the CNRS-French National Centre for Scientific Research.
Innovative components will be tested during the project; they include cells or heliostats capable of functioning under specific conditions (in terms of solar radiation, dry climate, dust, etc.) in countries in the Mediterranean basin.
IK4-TEKNIKER's work in this initiative will consist of working to cut the costs of thermal solar systems (concentrated solar power or CSP) by developing new concepts of heliostat and improving the properties and durability of reflective mirrors.
Collaboration
The results of the project will drive forward the research and development activities of technologies like photovoltaics, CSP (concentrated solar power) or grid integration in the European Union, Egypt and Morocco. Strategies will be established to balance the power for the grids in Morocco and Egypt and long-term channels of collaboration will be created between the EU and the two North African countries.
Meeting
The project members will be participating in a workshop on concentrated solar power, energy storage and grid integration scheduled to take place in Rabat (Morocco) from 7 to 11 April, 2014. During this event, IK4-TEKNIKER will be presenting its knowledge in various papers on concentrated solar power, power storage systems and thermal storage systems.
EUROSUNMED is a project funded by the European Commission under the ENERGY theme of the 7th Framework Programme (FP7-ENERGY).
