(Nanowork News) EU member states plan to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This requires not only long-term use of renewable energy sources but also investment in energy storage systems. A new European research association, StoRIES, is now set up to accelerate its growth. It is a collaboration between the Helsin Institute of Technology (HIU), founded by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Ulm University.
In December 2019, the European Commission presented the “European Green Agreement” to achieve its climate goals. The focus is on the energy sector that is being developed to generate energy from renewable energy sources.
However, this alone is not enough, says HIU Director Professor Estefano Parsirini:
As a result, the “Green Agreement” includes integrated research and development work in Europe, including the new research coalition StoRIES (Storage Research Infrastructure Eco-System). It allows researchers from all over Europe to consolidate their knowledge and work closely with the industry on hybrid energy storage technologies.
“We want to accelerate the development of new, innovative and mature storage solutions and we have created a common ecosystem for this purpose,” says Paserini. And the coordinator of StoRIES continued, “Knowledge swimming often opens up unimaginable relationships. The “European Green Agreement” provides a challenging homework assignment. Effective November 1, 2021.
Accelerated development by modern methods
The most important technical goal of StoRIES is the development of all future energy storage systems. The research association focuses primarily on hybrid storage systems. “We need strong, consistent, sustainable and inexpensive solutions,” said Dr. Miriam Gil Bardaji. The science manager coordinates the activities of the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) at KIT and is involved in the establishment of StoRIES. “At present, however, no energy storage technology is sufficiently flexible to meet all of these criteria. Therefore, it will be necessary to integrate technologies. In this way we benefit from the benefits and compensate for the weaknesses. ”
Shared access to primary research infrastructure and services removes research barriers and pushes innovation. Research aims to improve material resources and optimize hybrid storage systems for current and future applications.
“We are working to reduce the development times for new technologies by ten times,” says the office of the Helholtz Association in Brussels, which supports the launch of the new research cooperative. We also want to accelerate the business of innovation in order to be fast-paced for renewable energy technologies.
This is achieved through the use of modern supercomputers, automation technologies, and artificial intelligence (AI) for the development of materials suitable for energy storage systems. In addition, StoRIES analyzes social and ecological aspects.
“In order to reduce environmental impacts, the new storage technologies will be improved from the outset in terms of resource consumption and reuse,” Ihsen said.
Curriculum for the Specialists of Tomorrow
The new research and industry coalition will be responsible for educating the next generation of researchers, engineers and specialists. In addition to courses for companies, universities, and young scientists, energy storage systems provide training in energy, legal, economic, and social issues.
“We want to understand not only the technologies but also the non-technical aspects of public power, legal framework and economic efficiency for the transition to be successful,” said Dr. Olga Sumininska-Ebsolt, science director at HIU and one of the founders of StoRIES. Often, mutual understanding between the boundaries of different research groups allows for closer cooperation.
A comprehensive approach to developing energy storage technologies through future specialists education will continue after StoRIES is discontinued.
StoRIES – A special ecology for energy storage research
The new technology institutions, universities and industry companies include 17 partners and 31 affiliates from 17 countries with extensive expertise in energy storage technologies (electrochemical, chemical, thermal, mechanical, and magnetic storage systems). Members of the European Energy Research Alliance (ERA) and the European Energy Storage Association (ASA) are a key component of the new ecosystem. The European Commission will provide RI 7 million for StoRIES for the first time in four years under the Horizon 2020 program.