"The CySTEM ERA Chair project was designed with the expectations that the activities to be carried out by the ERA Chair and his research team within the framework of the project were going to be fully aligned with the Smart Specialisations Strategy (referred as S3Cy) established in April 2015 by the Republic of Cyprus. These expectations were fully accomplished. In the relevant document detailing the priorities for Cyprus’ economic development, ""Energy” is identified as a main priority and as one of the main areas of strategic specialisation of Cyprus’ for accelerated growth and prosperity. One of the main energy areas listed as of special interest for Cyprus is ""Solar Energy"" and specifically includes large-scale solar thermal systems, solar desalination, solar thermal energy for cooling and heating, and solar thermal energy storage systems.
The academic impact of the CySTEM project has been very relevant. The CySTEM ERA Chair and his research team focused, within the framework of the CySTEM project, on the development of software tools, patentable technological ideas, and experimental activities, which are all targeted to assist researchers in the exploration of advanced CST+DSW concepts, their design, testing and validation. They have also proposed new CST+DSW concepts, which have elicited the interest of other research organizations and companies around the world. The high-calibre researchers of the CySTEM team have intensified the scientific activity in the research fields of the SED Group (CST and Desalination) and have contributed to the spanning of a new group on “Energy Policy and Assessment”, which clearly complements the SED and the Sustainability and Built Environment (SBE) groups.
The CySTEM Team, led by the ERA Chair has initiated new research lines on:
- Open source development of software tools to assist in the modelling and optimization of CST systems,
- Multi-tower and multi-aiming systems solar tower systems in collaboration with the Solar Group of the Australian National University (ANU),
- Solar tower systems with hybrid CST-PV heliostats
- Operational optimizations of CST plants based on the use of Neural Networks and others AI technologies.
- Automatic generation of solar receiver geometries based on the use of AI approaches.
- UAV-based geometric characterization of solar reflectors
- UAV-based full optical characterization of solar concentrating systems
Through direct hiring, internships, training and educational activities, the CySTEM team created and improved opportunities for junior scientists and researchers. A clear success of the CySTEM project is the substantial increase of the international network of the SED Group during the project.
During the implementation of the CySTEM project, the Energy Division managed to attract a substantial number of top-level researchers. The CySTEM project has also contributed to enhance the research level of the whole SED Group. CySTEM has also contributed to the increase in patent applications. Finally, CySTEM has dramatically improved the research output of the SED Group and of the Energy Division at large, both in terms of quality and quantity.
The economic and market impact of the project has also been quite relevant. The CySTEM ERA Chair project has being instrumental in CyI providing advice to the Cyprus Government on different matters related to energy and innovation policies and activities; making the industrial sector and the society at large aware of the potential of Renewable Energy Technologies in general and CST technologies in particular to play a key role in the Energy Transition in Cyprus and the EMME region."
