LPRC attends the EU Sustainable Week (part 2)

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LPRC participated in this year’s EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW 2020) from the 23 to the 26 June 2020, an event hosted by the European Commission. Due to the current limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic this event was held online with many talks, presentations and discussions. This event enables citizens and companies to learn and exchange about sustainable energy, digitalization and green development.

24 June 2020

On the 24, the focus of the discussions was on the Renovation Wave, LIFE clean energy transition and the European Investment Advisory Hub.

The Renovation Wave initiative is a priority under the European Green Deal and the recovery plan for the EU, aimed at increasing the rate and quality of renovation of existing buildings and thereby helping to decarbonise the building stock. Given the relatively labour-intensive nature of renovation work and the way in which this matches the “green, digital and resilient” ambition of the Commission recovery package, the Next Generation EU Communication talks of regulatory and financial support to “at least doubling the annual renovation rate of existing building stock”.

The Clean Energy Transition sub-programme of LIFE will be a continuation of the market uptake activities, currently funded under Horizon 2020. The aim is to support the objectives of EU legislation and policies in the transition towards a decarbonised energy system and a decarbonised economy. It will include capacity building and dissemination of knowledge, new skills, and innovative techniques in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

The European Investment Advisory Hub (“Advisory Hub” or “the Hub”) is a joint initiative with the European Commission, which helps project promoters, the European Union, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other financial institutions achieve their mission and get investment projects off the ground. The Hub is often the first point of contact for those who need advisory expertise from the EIB Group and its partners to help projects to get financed. The Hub works in education, agriculture, healthcare, environment, research and innovation, energy, transport, and other sectors.

25 June 2020

The last day of the EUSEW 2020 focused on the Innovation and Modernisation Funds. Both funds will mobilise jointly some 24 billion EUR. These funding instruments will be pivotal to mobilise further investments under the Green Deal with a view to reach climate neutrality.

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programmes for demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies. This body will invest €10 billion up to 2030 in Europe’s climate neutral future. Its main objectives are to avoid emissions and to boost competitiveness. The Innovation Fund will support disruptive technologies decreasing the harmful impact of energy intensive industries and support the development of renewable energies, energy storage as well as carbon capture, use and storage.

The Modernisation Fund is a dedicated funding programme to support 10 lower-income EU Member States in their transition to climate neutrality by helping to modernise their energy systems and improve energy efficiency. The beneficiary Member States are Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. The Modernisation Fund will support investments In generation and use of energy from renewable sources, energy efficiency and energy storage.

Link of all presentations: https://eusew.eu/programme

LPRC attends the EU Sustainable Week (part 1)

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LPRC participated in this year’s EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW 2020) from the 23 to the 26 June 2020, an event hosted by the European Commission. Due to the current limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic this event was held online with many talks, presentations and discussions. This event enables citizens and companies to learn and exchange about sustainable energy, digitalization and green development.

23 June 2020

The first event was the award-winning ceremony celebrating projects and EU citizens which work to push the EU as a whole toward climate neutrality.

  • The winner in the Engagement category was Clear 2.0, a pan-European project spanning from Spain to Slovenia. The project helps citizens to become producers and consumers of renewable energy in their own homes.
  • In the Youth category, Fair (FER) won. From Zagreb, Croatia, the project teaches electrical engineering students how to do household audits to identify energy-saving solutions.
  • The Innovation award went to REMOTE – Remote area Energy Supply with Multiple Options for integrated hydrogen-based Technologies) – a project started in Italy, Greece and Norway. The project helps locally produced renewable energy to be stored.
  • The first, second and third prizes of the EaP went to Green Light Moldova; EU4Civil Society Energy Efficiency in Armenian Communities; and Biomass Energy and Energy-efficient Technologies in Georgia.
  • The Citizens’ Award went to the Dutch project cVPP, based in Eindhoven. The project helps local communities to take charge of their renewable energy generation through community-based Virtual Power Plants (cVPPs) in Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland.
  • The three winners of the Women in Energy awards went to: Sophie Attali (Director of Guide Topten in France), Katharina Habersbrunner (Women Engage for a Common Future) and Ada Ámon (Climate Commissoner to the Mayor of Budapest).

Following the award-winning ceremony, a discussion on The EU’s support for clean energy technologies and innovation was held by European Commissioner Kadri Simson and IEA Executive Director Dr. Fatih Birol.

Commissioner Simson announced that the Clean Energy Transition – Technologies and Innovations Report will soon be released, together with the State of the Energy Union report this Autumn. Funding clean technologies has gotten a massive boost recently through the Recovery Plan for Europe that the Commission proposed a few weeks ago. The Green Deal is its growth strategy at its core. So, it is designed to help accelerate innovative investment through a number of programs:

  • The reinforced Multi Annual Financial Framework, with the proposed increase in Horizon Europe to 94 billion EUR will bring extra resources for the digital and green transitions. Horizon will allow the Commission to support the most innovative new ideas.
  • The InvestEU research and innovation window of 10 billion EUR guarantees help to scale-up private sector investments in R&I. Most importantly it will help downstream bringing the results to the market and seeing a tangible solution.
  • The European Commission also created a new Strategic Investment Facility to support private investments in European strategic value chains with a guarantee of 15 billion EUR. So, any company planning to invest in clean hydrogen technologies for example, you could use the Strategic Investment Facility for projects to scale up electrolysers or for carbon capture and storage solutions.

in July a first 1 billion EUR call under the Innovation Fund will be launched. It will fund – amongst other things – demonstration projects for innovative hydrogen-based and renewable technologies. Soon after, in September, the European Commission will adopt a Green Deal call of 1 billion EUR under Horizon 2020. Of that, more than one third will be dedicated to energy topics, including a call for a large-scale electrolyser.

The private sector also has a very important role in funding clean energy technologies. In fact, private investments still represent roughly three quarters of R&I funding. That’s why the EU will also launch a new Hydrogen Alliance, to bring public and private to the same table.

Link of all presentations: https://eusew.eu/programme

La Palma Research Centre

LPRC participates in the UNEXUP & PIPEBOTS webinar

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LPRC’s members participated on a recent joint webinar between the UNEXUP and PIPEBOTS consortia. LPRC is integral part of UNEXUP, where it leads the efforts on communication and dissemination of the project. The UNEXUP consortium was invited to provide their vision on the technology development in aspects such as IPR (Intellectual Property Rights), development of the UX-1 robotic system and hardware and software integrations.

Participation in this online webinar allowed the team members to contribute to the discussions on the topics and at the same time collect information for outreach purposes. LPRC is extending its communication capabilities within UNEXUP and other projects alike to turn them more efficient. For this the interaction with stakeholders is of paramount importance.

Call for participation in our projects!

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La Palma Research Centre is a partner in many EU-focused projects. Some of these projects are calling out for stakeholders involvement in their tasks. Find below what projects are open for participation and how you can get involved with them.

MOBI-US – The project will host an online workshop about its future Masters mobility program on the 3oth of June and 1st of July, two hours each day, from 9h to 11h. Participation is free, but requires registration.

UNEXUP – UNEXMIN’s natural follow-up, UNEXUP has an open pilot policy – if you have an underwater structure and have interest in getting it surveyed with top notch technology, then this is your oppportunity. Get in touch with the project through the contact form.

ROBOMINERS – LPRC is leading the Active clustering and roadmapping efforts. Therefore, engagement with stakeholders is a given. At this moment, the team is collecting projects and persons willing to do clustering activities (exchange information, debate) and to participate in focus groups to discuss the ROBOMINERS technology and the future of mining itself. Get in touch through the project’s contact form.

Your participation is always relevant and can shape the future of this projects now and beyond!

AGEO

AGEO e-meeting – May 2020

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On the 27th and 28th of May the third Consortium meeting of the Interreg Atlantic Area project AGEO was held online. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemics, the programmed El Hierro Congress and in-person meeting had to be substituted by an online two days meeting, consisting of nine parallel sessions divided in three groups addressing three of the main themes of the project: Citizen Observatories, Citizen Engagement and, Copernicus Products and Services.  A total of 52 people belonging to the 14 partners across 5 countries participated in the discussions held during the two-day event.

AGEO e-meeting – May 2020

LPRC, along with the Portuguese Association of Geologists, led the session on Citizen Engagement. During this session, partners identified the main stakeholders for each of the five pilots in order to update and optimise the capitalisation and communication strategies of the project. New approaches to planned activities and meetings were discussed in the light of the new COVID-19 situation all over the world.

AGEO e-meeting – May 2020

AGEO is a project funded by the Interreg Atlantic Area and it aims to launch several pilots on citizen observatories to highlight how citizen involvement in risk prevention can strengthen regional and national management systems. The outcome of this specific initiative will be used to formulate recommendations for the creation of future permanent observatories in response to the wide range of hazards in the European Atlantic areas – floods, fires, earthquakes, among others.