NOVEL DIGITAL COMPONENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY VALUE CHAINS

Informations projet

ORION

N° de convention de subvention: 101158432

DOI

10.3030/101158432

Date de signature de la CE 27 Mai 2024

Date de début 1 Septembre 2024

Date de fin 31 Août 2027

Financé au titre de

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Coût total

€ 3 000 000,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 3 000 000,00

Coordonné par

SINTEF AS
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ORION (NOVEL DIGITAL COMPONENTS FOR INTERNATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY VALUE CHAINS)

Période du rapport: 2024-09-01 au 2026-02-28

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

The ORION project aims to reinforce European leadership in science and technology and accelerate the twin energy transition by developing a modular toolbox of advanced digital components. These innovations will be validated across five unique use cases involving hydro, solar, and wave energy systems on four continents. ORION will integrate these breakthroughs into a human‑centric Digital Twin designed to enhance digitalisation across the energy value chain, increase the share of renewable energy in global electricity grids, and reduce reliance on fossil fuels amid rising energy demand and geopolitical and climate uncertainties.

The project’s digital components will address critical limitations in the energy value chain, supporting more sustainable, affordable, and secure energy systems. The human‑centric Digital Twin will enable better‑informed decision‑making for all stakeholders, including policymakers, by providing a collaborative virtual environment enriched with insights and best practices from leading EU platforms.

ORION brings together top research and innovation organisations from nine countries—France, Germany, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Brazil, Canada, and Cape Verde. Through high‑impact R&I activities, testing and validation in five real‑world use cases, and contributions to education and multidisciplinary knowledge, the consortium will develop solutions, services, and products that can be applied across global energy value chains.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

During the reporting period, the ORION project made strong progress across its core technical work packages. WP2 established the foundational framework for the project by completing a comprehensive state‑of‑the‑art analysis and defining the first version of the ORION system architecture, ensuring alignment with the needs of all five use cases. The Data Management Plan was delivered, providing a robust governance structure that ensures GDPR compliance and adherence to international data protection requirements.

Building on this foundation, WP3 advanced the development of the operational framework and enabled automated access to use case data through the central server. Significant progress was made in algorithm and model development, and the digital twin is being progressively refined, with initial data already integrated and visualised in the Global Digital Twin environment. These developments mark a key step toward enabling advanced simulation and decision‑support capabilities.

WP4 successfully activated all five use cases, completing the setup of GDT scenes and advancing data collection and integration activities across all sites. A major milestone was the establishment of the Azure Data Space, which now supports secure data sharing and algorithm deployment across the consortium. With the technical foundations from WP2 and WP3 in place, WP4 is now transitioning from initial setup to active testing and validation of data flows and digital twin functionalities.

Overall, the coordinated progress of WP2, WP3, and WP4 demonstrates strong alignment between architecture design, framework development, and real‑world use case implementation, positioning ORION for continued advancement toward its objectives.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

Reported in the scientific outputs and standardistions activites. Tasks 5.3 and 5.4 are creating pathways to translate these technical results into policy and standardisation contributions. Current activities include engagement through policy-oriented workshops, collaboration on the storage and availability of energy and meteorological data, and work towards an IETF contribution describing the provenance and technical characteristics of AI models used in Digital Twins. This machine-readable record could document elements such as the model version, datasets, training parameters and operational context, helping users verify the authenticity and suitability of a model for a specific application. A five-member Advisory Board covering EU policy, grid operation, digital energy and maritime infrastructure is also supporting the development and validation of the project’s policy messages.