European Commission

EU supports breakthrough wind energy technology in Portugal

Portuguese company Windplus will receive a EUR 60 million loan under the InnovFin Energy Demonstration Project programme to install a floating wind farm off the coast of Portugal.

A report from Solar & Storage Live 2018

Solar & Storage Live is one of the UK renewable energy industry's premier annual events and is attended by a range of technology developers and policy makers with an interest in the solar & storage market, both in the UK and internationally.

Alternative Energy Innovations

AEInnovations is a Spanish technology start-up company working on thermoelectric electricity generation. IDTechEx spoke to the company's project and product manager Oscar Meca in 2018.

First solar panels installed on Solar Highways noise barrier

With the installation and mounting of the first sound-resistant solar panels for Solar Highways, an important milestone has been reached. The innovative solar noise barrier is now starting to take shape. By mid-October, all of the 136 glass solar panels, each measuring 6 m wide x 2 m high, will have been installed, forming a 400 metre-long solar noise barrier on the eastern side of the A50 motorway in Uden.

Large Opportunity for 48VMH Medium and Large Trucks?

Like the car equivalents, 48V mild hybrid trucks do not start as electric vehicles (driving the wheels electrically some or all of the time) but they are headed that way.

Corpower Ocean

Corpower is a Swedish wave energy technology developer.

Quantum dot films in displays: major technology and market trends

In this article, IDTechEx Research will focus on some of the key frontiers of short-, medium-, and long-term change in quantum dot films. In particular, we will argue that the transition away from Cd based QDs will soon be complete; we will show how QD material improvements are translating into total cost reductions and how that is reshaping the market's pricing strategies; and finally we will consider whether film type QDs can continue their supreme reign, or whether relentless innovation soon render them obsolete.

European smart cities €30 million project

+CityxChange has just secured EU Horizon 2020 Smart Cities and Communities funding for a €30 million project. 11 enterprises, 9 SMEs, 3 non-profit organisations and 2 universities will be led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in the development of smart positive energy cities across Europe.

Greek island to run solely on wind and solar power

With the EU's clean energy, low-carbon goals and the specific needs of isolated communities in mind, the EU-funded TILOS project set out to make the Greek island of Tilos the first in the Mediterranean to be powered solely by renewable energy. This required more robust technology to store and distribute the power effectively over time and distance.

The Centauro: A new disaster response robot

Researchers have completed the realization, assembly and testing of a new disaster response robot: the Centauro, a Centaur-like robot consisting of a four-legged base and an anthropomorphic upper body. The robot is capable of performing robust locomotion, high strength manipulation and harsh interactions that may be necessary during the execution of disaster relief tasks.

Floating tension-tethered and self-steerable marine-current turbine

A marine turbine specifically designed to harness the energy from tidal and ocean currents in those regions which, having relatively-high-speed water flows at depths with long distance to the seabed, cannot ensure an economic exploitation with fixed turbines.

European Commission backs Minesto roadmap for commercial breakthrough

The awarded phase 1 grant of €50,000 will be used for a feasibility study of commercial Island Mode (off grid) installations of Minesto's marine energy converter DG100.

Robot car Marilyn parks in the furthermost lot fully autonomously

The VTT robot car Marilyn is currently undergoing tests on fully autonomous parking in the area furthest from its driver, at a distance of up to a hundred metres. The Internet of Things assists the car in finding and driving into a free space.

Rehau participates in EU-funded lighting project

Polymer specialist REHAU and 13 partners are investigating OLED lighting technology, an innovative new lighting technology, which allows for lighting to be uniform, bendable, ultra-thin and transparent.

European cities soon to be ready for autonomous vehicles

Autonomous vehicles promise to be the next revolution in public transport. But for these new services to develop, we must first identify the needs and motivations of their future users and be able to respond to them, meet many of the technological and regulatory challenges, and design new business models. This is the aim of the 4 year AVENUE project consortium, with a total budget of 22 million euros and funded by the European Commission up to the level of 16 million euros.

Energy self-consumption and building retrofitting

A presentation on this was given at ICREN Barcelona By Víctor Martinez City Council of Sant Cugat. He is in charge of the coordination of several European projects (FP7 & Horizon 2020) in Sant Cugat.