Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SolarHub (A Greek-Turkish Solar Energy Excellence Hub to Advance the European Green Deal)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-01-01 al 2024-03-31
SolarHub aims to connect and scale up five Greek and Turkish solar energy innovation ecosystems into a single, hybrid, cross-border, interconnected Solar Energy Excellence Hub to support Green Deal priorities and accelerate the Clean Energy Transition at local, national, regional, and European levels. The project was carefully structured to support this aim by strengthening co-creation skills in two ways. First, the consortium completes the quadruple helix at the central nodes for Greece (Thessaloniki) and Turkiye (Ankara) by including partners from academia, business, public sector, and society, while the 3 satellite nodes (Athens, Istanbul, and Izmir) include partners from academia and business. Second, the project activities are purposefully based on inter-quadrant, interdisciplinary, and cross-border collaboration. The project has four strategic objectives: 1) to co-develop a Hub Strategy and a Joint Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda supported by appropriate policy and investment recommendations aligned with RIS3 and the Green Deal; 2) to execute a diverse set of complementary interventions to engage quadruple helix actors to support R&I and to accelerate commercialization of innovation results; 3) to implement joint R&I activities to co-develop 4 diverse pre-designs of solar energy solutions that explicitly align with the defined Joint Strategies and serve as innovation accelerators; and 4) to maximise the project’s impacts through Dissemination, Exploitation, and Communication activities carefully tuned to actively engage all players of the quadruple helix.
A “Hub Board” was established that contains 1 representative from each of the 5 ecosystems and 1 representative for each of Greek and Turkish industries. For each ecosystem, an initial mapping exercise was performed to identify strengths and to strengthen local networks including beyond the SolarHub consortium. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis was conducted for each ecosystem, and the results were critically analysed, assessed, and synthesised to produce a consortium level SWOT analysis that led to the first draft of a Joint Strategic R&I Agenda. Existing policies and funding mechanisms and the framework conditions for policy change and funding instruments were identified and analysed at national (Greek and Turkish) and European levels.
Specific actions and implementation plans were developed for mobility, training, and social/public activities with a specific focus on strengthening competencies and skills for co-creation. Academic-business collaborations were strengthened through a joint post-doc and technical visits. R&I capacities were strengthened through mentoring visits by experts from the leading partner to a Widening partner. A diverse set of workshops were executed, including on energy communities targeting the general public. SolarHub’s Innovation Acceleration program was developed to support entrepreneurs, research teams and Start-Ups in the solar energy sector by guiding them from industry challenge identification to designing program structure and providing a variety of support services. Significant advancements in the project's social aspects were realized through the creation of the Greek Energy Communities Coalition that includes 20 energy communities as founding members and represents over 3,500 citizens. A comprehensive approach for developing Green Business Plans for solar energy solutions was developed that holistically integrates diverse aspects including technical, economic, social, environmental impact, training programs, legislative aspects, and the Sustainable Business Model Canvas.
The roadmap for each of the 4 pre-designs defined in the Grant Agreement (GA) were further elaborated and refined in terms of the technical description, allocation of resources, definition of the KPIs, and the expected outcomes. Notable activities for each of the 4 pre-designs (PD) include the following.
PD1. Non-concentrating solar thermal for industrial process heat: Construction of 2 pre-prototypes, thermodynamic simulations of the solar collector, definition of smart control, characterisation of heat storage materials, and development of a cost and dimensioning tool.
PD2. Concentrating solar thermal for liquid fuels: Concept refinement, preliminary experimental results using hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) reactor, numerical modelling of parabolic trough collectors (PTCs), CFD analysis of thermal energy storage (TES), and initiation of green business plan development for the pre-design.
PD3. Agri-PV systems for tree plants: Information was collected on crop requirements and their response to the environmental factors affected by microclimate. Novel support structures for agri-PVs were developed. A calculation tool was developed to quantify the irradiance incident on agri-PV modules.
PD4. Agri-PV systems for bushy plants: Concept refinement, consolidating information on Agri-PV system utilization in Greece and Türkiye, identifying essential crop cultivation requirements, and implementing various solar panel designs to optimize the system. Stakeholder consultations, literature reviews, and software development efforts to support aspects such as rainwater collection and monitoring system design.
Specific actions and implementation plans were developed for mobility, training, and social/public activities with a specific focus on strengthening competencies and skills for co-creation. Academic-business collaborations were strengthened through a joint post-doc and technical visits. R&I capacities were strengthened through mentoring visits by experts from the leading partner to a Widening partner. A diverse set of workshops were executed, including on energy communities targeting the general public. SolarHub’s Innovation Acceleration program was developed to support entrepreneurs, research teams and Start-Ups in the solar energy sector by guiding them from industry challenge identification to designing program structure and providing a variety of support services. Significant advancements in the project's social aspects were realized through the creation of the Greek Energy Communities Coalition that includes 20 energy communities as founding members and represents over 3,500 citizens. A comprehensive approach for developing Green Business Plans for solar energy solutions was developed that holistically integrates diverse aspects including technical, economic, social, environmental impact, training programs, legislative aspects, and the Sustainable Business Model Canvas.
The roadmap for each of the 4 pre-designs defined in the Grant Agreement (GA) were further elaborated and refined in terms of the technical description, allocation of resources, definition of the KPIs, and the expected outcomes. Notable activities for each of the 4 pre-designs (PD) include the following.
PD1. Non-concentrating solar thermal for industrial process heat: Construction of 2 pre-prototypes, thermodynamic simulations of the solar collector, definition of smart control, characterisation of heat storage materials, and development of a cost and dimensioning tool.
PD2. Concentrating solar thermal for liquid fuels: Concept refinement, preliminary experimental results using hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) reactor, numerical modelling of parabolic trough collectors (PTCs), CFD analysis of thermal energy storage (TES), and initiation of green business plan development for the pre-design.
PD3. Agri-PV systems for tree plants: Information was collected on crop requirements and their response to the environmental factors affected by microclimate. Novel support structures for agri-PVs were developed. A calculation tool was developed to quantify the irradiance incident on agri-PV modules.
PD4. Agri-PV systems for bushy plants: Concept refinement, consolidating information on Agri-PV system utilization in Greece and Türkiye, identifying essential crop cultivation requirements, and implementing various solar panel designs to optimize the system. Stakeholder consultations, literature reviews, and software development efforts to support aspects such as rainwater collection and monitoring system design.
The 15-month 1st Reporting Period (RP1) largely contained the project’s initial Start-Up Phase (M01-M12). At the end of RP1 the project had just fully transitioned to Phase 2. Generate Results, and had yet to enter the final two phases Consolidate Outcomes and Maximize Impacts. Thus, at the end of RP1 the project was just starting to produce results beyond the state of the art. In this section the current trajectory at the end of RP1 and expected results are presented rather than the realized results.
During the Start-up Phase the links between the green business and innovation activities (WP2) and the research and technical activities (WP3) envisaged in the GA were established. An aim of Phase 2. Generate Results is to strengthen and exploit these links to produce results beyond the state of the arts to support Green Deal priorities and accelerate the Clean Energy Transition at local, national, regional, and European levels. A main mechanism to do this is the 1st cycle of the SolarHub Accelerator Programme that was launched at the end of RP1. This Accelerator Programme includes an open call for start-up business ideas to commercialize the WP3 pre-designs, and the execution of this program will strongly engage WP3 key actors with external key stakeholders interested in commercially exploiting WP3 results mediated by WP2 expertise. A main expected outcome is that a diverse set of pathways to commercialize the 4 pre-designs are fully defined that strongly reflect key external stakeholder knowledge on market opportunities and needs, and this knowledge is then used to update the WP2 and WP3 activities and objectives.
During the Start-up Phase the links between the green business and innovation activities (WP2) and the research and technical activities (WP3) envisaged in the GA were established. An aim of Phase 2. Generate Results is to strengthen and exploit these links to produce results beyond the state of the arts to support Green Deal priorities and accelerate the Clean Energy Transition at local, national, regional, and European levels. A main mechanism to do this is the 1st cycle of the SolarHub Accelerator Programme that was launched at the end of RP1. This Accelerator Programme includes an open call for start-up business ideas to commercialize the WP3 pre-designs, and the execution of this program will strongly engage WP3 key actors with external key stakeholders interested in commercially exploiting WP3 results mediated by WP2 expertise. A main expected outcome is that a diverse set of pathways to commercialize the 4 pre-designs are fully defined that strongly reflect key external stakeholder knowledge on market opportunities and needs, and this knowledge is then used to update the WP2 and WP3 activities and objectives.