Embraces programmes for specific energy technologies

Covering the entire energy mix except nuclear, EUROGIA stands as a unique tool in the European Research Area (ERA) which mostly embraces programmes for specific energy technologies.

EUROGIA2020 is the EUREKA Cluster for low carbon energy technologies. Its aim is to support and promote transnational low carbon energy technology projects in more than 40 EUREKA Member and Associated Countries. Since 2008, EUROGIA2020 gave the EUREKA label to 41 transnational energy technology projects, enabling the project partners to access public funds in EUREKA Member and Associated Countries, including 28 EU Member States. 

Supported by 10 leading energy technology companies such as Acciona Energy, Air Liquide, Bureau Veritas, CARDTEK  ENERJISA, ENGIE and GE Oil&Gas, EUROGIA2020 is a complementary tool to the European Framework Programmes in reaching SET Plan objectives.

 

EUROGIA2020 responds to the technological changes

EUROGIA2020 is the only programme in the ERA covering the entire energy value chain. This enables the industry to respond swiftly to the current technological challenges and project participant companies benefit from the wide spectrum of technologies that EUROGIA2020 represents.

The period between 2008 and 2013 witnessed the large deployment of wind and solar spectrum renewable energy source (RES) across Europe and eventually led to the generation of many EUROGIA2020 projects in these technology fields.     Now that Europe has reached the largest installed and connected photovoltaic (PV) capacity in the world and overall wind power, a wide-range international, innovation programme like EUROGIA2020 is utmost importance to address energy storage challenges related to intermittency of renewable energy. A leading information and communications technology (ICT) Company CARDTEK chose to join EUROGIA Board and got elected the chairing company with the aim of providing smart ICT solutions for energy efficiency.  EUROGIA2020 responds to the major shift from energy generation to storage, management and efficiency.

 

Expanding Horizons

EUROGIA2020 benefits from the expansion of EUREKA towards non-European countries and is currently the leading EUREKA Cluster in terms of generating proposals with South Africa, and has active participation of Canada in its project calls. 

The Global Stars initiative launched by EUREKA provides a multifaceted approach for the internationalisation of EUREKA.  This programme enables EUROGIA2020 project participants to develop R&D&I cooperation between EUREKA countries, including the associated countries South Korea, Canada, South Africa and Chile, and non-EUREKA partner countries.  Access to new and emerging markets through the Global Stars initiative makes EUROGIA2020 a more attractive funding tool for low carbon energy technology projects.

 

“EUROGIA2020 projects initiate job creation and respond to major societal challenges in more than 40 EUREKA countries, including  Member States and Associated Countries”

 

From Industry for Industry

Led by prominent energy technology companies, EUROGIA2020 follows a bottom- up approach and its non – thematic project calls allow industry to focus on its needs and new market challenges.  Market oriented EUROGIA2020 projects do not only lead to the development of new energy technology products, processes and services in the market; they initiate job creation and respond to major societal challenges in more than 40 EUREKA Member and Associated Countries and beyond.

 

Our Impact –  RENERSTA Success Story

POWIDIAN, a spin-off from AIRBUS as a result of RENERSTA Project

As a market oriented programme, EUROGIA2020`s success can easily be assessed. The RENERSTA project, a pioneering concept to provide remote outlying locations with access to reliable renewable energy, has led to the creation of a new business and opened up a new market for sustainable energy technology. The project developed a highly reliable sustainable solution to produce, store and deliver electricity for isolated sites or in areas where the power grid is not reliable enough

Relying on renewable energy sources however, presents its own set of problems, such as intermittent production according to availability of wind or sun, which means that energy production is either wasted or is insufficient. The key to the success of the RENERSTA project has been developing an autonomous renewable energy solution that eliminates these issues.

Running the project through EUROGIA2020 enabled the Airbus team, which led the project, to connect with major industrial companies like SAFT and AEGPower Solution. The project partners from both participating countries benefited from funding: in France the Direction Générale des Entreprises (DGE) supported the French participation, the German part of the project was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

 

Successful spin-off

Following completion of the project in 2014, Airbus created Powidian, a spin-off company to focus on developing and marketing this novel renewable energy storage technology.

As a pioneer in this field Powidian has been assessing the market, and increasingly sees itself as a provider of reliable renewable electricity. The long term objective is to partner up with major providers such as EDF in order to deliver sustainable electricity solutions to islands, remote areas or buildings where coverage is bad. In this way, Powidian will be able to provide solutions at scale and at prices that would be attractive.