Leading European Research Institutes aim to accelerate new energy technologies

The European Commission encourages leading research institutions of the individual member states to join forces. This is seen as one of the ways to accelerate the development of new technologies. Europe has to be a match for the United States and Japan when it comes to the development of energy technology. So Brussels is delighted to see that all kinds of cooperation arrangements are being set up within Europe, such as PETRA and EERA. ECN is playing an important role in both.

Europe takes climate change and security of supply very seriously. To be ready for what lies ahead the European Commission has established a Strategic Energy Technology Plan (‘SET Plan’). The purpose of the SET-plan is to accelerate the development and deployment of cost-effective low carbon technologies. The SET-plan comprises measures relating to planning, implementation, resources and international cooperation in the field of energy technology.
Three institutions are located alongside each other on the coast at Petten. They are ECN, NRG and JRC-IE. All three are working on present and future energy technology. It is only logical that the three ‘neighbours’ are convinced of the usefulness of harmonising their programmes and resources. “By sharing our facilities we can achieve greater synergy,” is how Giovanni De Santi, managing director of JRC-IE, describes the broadly-based cooperation. The institutions formalised their intentions and arrangements in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in September 2008. Petten may be a small place but the geographical concentration and cooperation of the three institutions give it a very special status. They have no hesitation in proclaiming that Petten can evolve into Europe’s energy research capital thanks to PETRA (Petten Energy Technology Research Alliance).

Harmonise research programmes
Less than a month after PETRA came into being, an even more extensive form of cooperation took shape in Europe through EERA, the European Energy Research Alliance (www.eera-set.eu). Ten leading European research institutions agreed to explore the opportunities to harmonise research programmes. The EERA aims to strengthen, expand and optimise EU energy research capabilities through the sharing of world-class national facilities in Europe and the joint realisation of pan-EU programmes. EERA is geared to the phase between fundamental research and industrial development.
In order to meet massive challenges with respect to climate change and security of supply, Europe has to formulated ambitious targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Substantial investments in R&D for the development of new technologies are needed to achieve these goals. While the Founding Member of EERA jointly have EUR 1.3 billion a year to spend on R&D for energy technology, the European budgets have decreased over the past 20 years compared with those in the United States. Japan has actually increased its budget by 15% in the same period. “That is why a substantial increase of the budget is necessary,” says Tom Hoff, chairman of the ECN board of management and current chairman of EERA.

Doing more with the same money
Sitting back and waiting for Europe to raise the research budgets is not an option. Through EERA the institutions have seized the initiative. Hoff: “We will utilise each other’s strengths, avoid fragmentation and harmonise our research programmes. This should lead to an accelerated development of energy technology.” It implies doing more with the same money. “Cooperation at project level e.g. through Framework Programmes of the European Commission is already going on for decades,” says Harm Jeeninga, EERA contact person at ECN. “This cooperation has now been elevated to a higher level by cooperating on programme level”. The group of Founding Partners consists of CEA (France), CIEMAT (Spain), CRES (Greece), ECN (the Netherlands), ENEA (Italy), Ineti (Portugal), Jülich (Germany), Risø DTU (Denmark), UK-ERC (United Kingdom) and VTT (Finland).
Initially, EERA will focus on wind energy, solar energy (photovoltaic technology and Concentrated Solar Power, CSP), second generation biofuels, CO2 capture and storage, intelligent grids and energy storage, marine applications, materials for nuclear and fuel cells.

Contact 
Harm Jeeninga
ECN Policy Studies
+31 (0)22 456 4788
jeeninga@remove-this-part-remove this.ecn.nl

Info: www.eera-set.eu