Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of €95.5 billion. Horizon Europe calls have supported and incentivised different areas along the years: Health, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics, Energy, Transport, Marine Science, Agriculture. They have also shown particular interest in the fields of renewable energy, climate change and the safeguard of the planet.

No wonder, many of the forthcoming Horizon Europe Calls (opening May 26, 2022) focus on the following topics:

 

1. Innovative renewable energy carrier production for heating from renewable energies

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Advance the European innovative knowledge basis and increase technology competitiveness in the area of energy carrier production and heating value chains, in particular increase of feedstock availability for renewable heating, thus supporting the EU goals for climate protection, energy independence and economic growth.
  • Technology de-risk of renewable energy carrier value chains as a necessary step before scaling up at commercial level.
  • Enhanced sustainability of renewable heating value and supply chains by improving techno-economic efficiency and minimising negative environmental effects.

Scope:

To demonstrate cost-effective and energy-, catalyst and equipment material-efficient transformation of renewable energy into renewable energy carriers for heating, while ensuring very good combustion properties in respect of efficiency and avoidance of pollutants and environmental and socioeconomic sustainability of the respective heating supply and value chains.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project. If it can be your case, see General Annex B.

 

2. Technological interfaces between solar fuel technologies and other renewables

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Advance the European scientific basis, technological leadership and global role in the area of renewable and solar fuels, while creating evidence for policy making.
  • Provide breakthrough solutions towards a fossil-free economy and ecosystem by bridging solar energy and other renewables in boosting renewable fuel production and storage with the potential of strongly reducing CAPEX and OPEX/toe, high penetration in the energy system, ensuring stability and security of energy supply.
  • Increase European technology competitiveness in solar and renewable fuel technologies, thus supporting the EU goals for climate protection, energy independence and economic growth.

Scope:

Development of energy transmitting technological interfaces to couple solar fuel technologies to other renewables such as from e.g., biosources or directly connected renewable power generation, which allow for efficient feed in of other forms of renewable energy into solar fuel conversion technologies and allow for efficient and continuous renewable fuel production.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 4 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

 

3. Digital solutions for defining synergies in international renewable energy value chains

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Advance the European and global scientific basis, European leadership and global role in the area of renewable energy and renewable fuels and related energy value chains while creating evidence for policy making by developing novel digital solutions.
  • Provide digital breakthrough solutions for promoting the increase of the global renewable energy share.
  • Reinforce the European scientific basis through international collaboration while increasing the potential to export European renewable energy technologies and ensuring political priorities in the context of sustainable global energy value chains.
  • Improve reliability of system components, advanced and automated functions for data analysis, diagnosis and fault detection, forecasting and model-predictive control frameworks, ancillary services for the stability of the network; maintenance planning and/or reporting.

Scope:

Development of novel real time and open data monitoring and/or simulation solutions (e.g. including digital twins) for sustainable energy production and consumption, predictive modelling and artificial intelligence for the analysis of international renewable energy value chains and for internationally aligned decision-making in cooperation with international partners from Mission Innovation Countries. To ensure trustworthiness, wide adoption by user communities and support EU policy-makers, actions should promote the highest standards of transparency and openness, going well beyond documentation and extending to aspects such as assumptions, models and data related to renewable energy and fuels.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

 

4. AU-EU Energy System Modelling

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Reinforce the activities in the long term of the AU-EU HLPD CCSE Partnership.
  • Provide knowledge and scientific energy system modelling as an evidence base including the environmental, social and economic trade-offs to contribute to R&I strategy and policy making.
  • Increase clean energy generation in the African energy systems.
  • A permanent network of African experts and expertise in this area.

Scope:

The topic contributes to the activities of the AU-EU High Level Policy Dialog (HLPD) Climate Change and Sustainable Energy (CCSE) partnership. Current models have as foundation developed country standards and usage. The development of energy system models tailored to the specific African social, economic and regulatory environment is crucial for energy generation system planning and for energy policy development. Today, African countries rely heavily on developed country models and expertise.

Therefore, the proposal should develop and test models for decision makers and planners to design and evaluate energy system(s) with a high penetration of renewable energy generation in African countries through a regional approach. Climate neutrality of cities and industries, using no fossil fuels, must be considered. Moreover, the introduction of clean energy technologies must be a focus. Also, the tests should be done for at least two base cases.

Proposals should include activities to coordinate with the project(s) to be selected under the topic HORIZON-CL5-2021-D3-03-01.

Actions should promote the highest standards of transparency in model adoption, including assumptions, architecture, code and data. The outcome of the project should be widely disseminated and all the source codes of the whole model to be open source and open access to stimulate future development. To ensure future uses, African experts in energy and in models’ development should be full partners in the project. In addition, the project should identify further local training needs.

The project should make use of existing European activities to create synergies and cross-fertilisation.

Lastly, the project will contribute to the work of the AU-EU HLPD CCSE partnership through networking activities with existing projects.

 

5. Direct renewable energy integration into process energy demands of the chemical industry

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Advance the European scientific basis, technological leadership and global role in the area of renewable integration into the chemical industry, while creating evidence for policy making.
  • Increase European technology competitiveness in renewable process energy technologies, thus supporting the EU goals for climate protection, energy independence and economic growth.
  • Provide breakthrough solutions towards a fossil-free economy and ecosystem.
  • Allow high penetration in the energy system, ensure stability and security of energy supply, including integration of local resources, and gain efficiency and costs in transforming the energy system on a fossil-free basis.
  • Enable transformation of the energy supply to socio-economic and environmental fossil-free sustainable solutions across energy intensive chemical industry, targeting, in particular – process energy and its GHG emissions.

Scope:

Development of the technology and the methodology of integrating renewable energy in chemical processing by substituting fossil process energy in the chemical industry, which has a high carbon footprint due to processing relative to the mass of the final product. Pursued technology developments are expected to directly target renewable energy integration into process energy demands of the chemical industry beyond electricity (targeting e.g. electrochemical potential of artificial photosynthesis to chemical reduction processes and/or e.g. direct solar thermochemical conversion) and should improve GHG balance and sustainability of the targeted process.

Possible synergies exist with topic:

HORIZON-CL4-2021-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-21: Design and optimisation of energy flexible industrial processes (IA).

 

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 4-5 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

 

6. Demonstration of complete value chains for advanced biofuel and non-biological renewable fuel production

Complete value chains for advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin provide a systemic understanding of the value created and the constraints in individual chain steps. Demonstrating such complete value chains will contribute to increase the competitiveness of their technologies and foster their commercialization to allow high penetration of advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin in the energy and transport energy system, in particular for hard to electrify sectors.

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Build a portfolio of complete value chains for advanced biofuels and renewable fuels of non-biological origin.
  • De-risk technology, boost the scale-up of advanced biofuels and non-biological origin renewable fuels.
  • Contribute to the priorities of the SET Plan Action 8.
  • Respond to short and medium-term needs for renewable fuels in energy and transport.
  • Improve sustainability and security of the value chains.

Scope:

Proposals should demonstrate innovative and cost-effective sustainable value chains for advanced biofuels or synthetic renewable fuels of non-biological origin (other than for hydrogen as a final product), over the entire cycle from feedstock to end use. Any sustainable biomass feedstock including residues and wastes, biogenic or industrial CO2 and renewable hydrogen, as well as input energy to the conversion should be addressed. Pathways which are biochemical, thermochemical, biological, chemical, electrochemical or combinations of them should be considered. Proposals should aim at improved performance in terms of increasing the efficiency and sustainability and reducing the cost, while evidencing the value creation along the value chain steps. Complete value chains may address any relevant end use.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

 

7. Renewable energy carriers from variable renewable electricity surplus and carbon emissions from energy consuming sectors

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Advance the European scientific basis and increase technology competitiveness in the area of energy carrier production and integration with renewable electricity, and carbon value and supply chains.
  • Technology de-risk of renewable energy carrier value chains through demonstration as a necessary step before scaling up at commercial level.
  • Enhanced sustainability of renewable energy carrier value and supply chains by improving techno-economic efficiency and avoidance of CO2/GHG emissions and renewable electricity economic or curtailment losses and supported by a life cycle assessment.

Scope:

Demonstration of renewable energy carrier synthesis from variable renewable electricity surplus and carbon emissions from energy consuming sectors, which is targeting improvement of the overall synthesis value chain efficiency and viability while making best use of the CO2 emissions in synergy with renewable electricity generation. The incorporation of hybrids of renewable electricity with algal or synthetic renewable fuels in energy intensive sectors by integrating the conversion of surplus renewable electricity and carbon emissions from these sectors to liquid renewable energy carriers by algal, artificial photosynthesis or homologous non-solar pathways will be demonstrated. Conversion technologies should be based upon biological, biochemical, thermochemical and or electrochemical processes.

Proposals should avoid curtailing of renewable electricity and improve overall efficiency and viability of renewable electricity assemblies in synergy with reduction of carbon emissions.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

 

8. Renewable energy incorporation in agriculture and forestry

Meeting local and seasonal energy demands in agriculture and forestry with optimum agricultural and forest waste management and use while reducing the associated emissions is essential. If not managed, agricultural waste is often burnt in the fields and forests suffer from fires. This, thus, increases the environmental footprint of agriculture and forests. Soil and biodiversity improvement in agriculture could also benefit from renewable energy technologies.

Demonstrating incorporation of renewable energy technologies to attain heat, waste and land management needs in agricultural and forestry will contribute to increase the penetration of renewable sources in the energy system and enable transformation of the energy supply across critical energy-consuming sectors. Thus, this will accelerate the achievement of the European Green Deal, 2030 climate and energy targets, and 2050 net zero greenhouse gas, while supporting the EU goals for energy independence and economic growth. Furthermore, it will support achieving the specific objective of the post 2020 Common Agricultural Policy regarding contribution to climate change mitigation and adaptation, as well as sustainable energy.

 

Results of projects carried out under this topic should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

Project results are expected to contribute to some of the following expected outcomes:

  • Promote decentralised renewable energy use and cost-efficient decentralized production of renewable energy carriers.
  • Reduce agriculture and forestry carbon footprint from own energy consumption and agricultural/forest waste management.
  • Increase sustainability and circularity in agriculture while creating positive effects on biodiversity.
  • Increase sustainability and circularity in forestry.
  • Foster regional development in rural areas.
  • Support farmers’ and foresters’ engagement as prosumers of renewable energy.

Scope:

Proposals should demonstrate incorporation of renewable energy technologies in agriculture or forestry to meet its electricity, heat, cold, waste and land management needs. Solutions should combine innovative renewable, circular and regional value chains from different renewables and adapted storage options to defossilize agricultural or forest processes trans-seasonally, considering hybridization compatibility. They should also address one of the two options:

  • Transformation of agricultural or forest wastes to renewable energy carriers in situ, e.g., by modular slow pyrolysis units, using renewable energy for process energy needs. Solutions should improve the cost-effectiveness and the sustainability of agriculture or forest seasonal energy demand based on renewables.
  • Development of renewable-based agricultural protocols for multiple and cover cropping and/ or mixed cropping which increase carbon sequestration and soil organic matter and reduce pesticides, combined with transformation to renewable energy carriers in situ, e.g., by biogas production, in a circular approach for soil nutrients and carbon. Positive effects on soil biodiversity/soil health and soil functionality respect to increasing soil organic matter, phosphorus and other nutrients, and risk reduction of groundwater contamination with nitrogen oxides should be assessed. Solutions should improve the cost-effectiveness and the sustainability (including biodiversity) of agricultural waste and land management through valorisation of wastes and secondary crops based on renewable energy technologies.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. The effective contribution of renewable energy and agronomy disciplines is also expected.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities should achieve TRL 6-7 by the end of the project – see General Annex B.

 

COMMON DESTINATIONS

(As reported in all the pages)

 

A. Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply

This Destination includes activities targeting a sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply. In line with the scope of cluster 5, this includes activities in the areas of renewable energy; energy system, grids and storage; as well as Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS).

The transition of the energy system relies on reducing the overall energy demand and making the energy supply-side climate neutral. R&I actions will help make the energy supply side cleaner, more secure, and competitive. This will be done by boosting cost performance and reliability of a broad portfolio of renewable energy solutions, in line with societal needs and preferences.

Furthermore, R&I activities will underpin the modernisation of the energy networks to support energy system integration, including the progressive electrification of demand side sectors (buildings, mobility, industry) and integration of other climate neutral, renewable energy carriers, such as clean hydrogen. Innovative energy storage solutions (including chemical, mechanical, electrical and thermal storage) are a key element of such energy system. R&I actions will advance their technological readiness for industrial-scale and domestic applications. CCUS is a CO2 emission abatement option that holds great potential. Hence, R&I actions will accelerate the development of CCUS in electricity generation and industry applications.

 

This Destination contributes to the following Strategic Plan’s Key Strategic Orientations (KSO):

  • C: Making Europe the first digitally enabled circular, climate-neutral and sustainable economy through the transformation of its mobility, energy, construction and production systems.
  • A: Promoting an open strategic autonomy (“Open strategic autonomy’ refers to the term ‘strategic autonomy while preserving an open economy’, as reflected in the conclusions of the European Council 1 – 2 October 2020) by leading the development of key digital, enabling and emerging technologies, sectors and value chains to accelerate and steer digital and green transitions through human-centred technologies and innovations.

 

It covers the following impact areas:

  • Industrial leadership in key and emerging technologies that work for people.
  • Affordable and clean energy.

 

The expected impact, in line with the Strategic Plan, is to contribute to “More efficient, clean, sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply through new solutions for smart grids and energy systems based on more performant renewable energy solutions”, notably through fostering European global leadership in affordable, secure and sustainable renewable energy technologies and services by:

  • Improving competitiveness in global value chains and position in growth markets, notably through the diversification of renewable services and technology portfolio
  • Ensuring cost-effective uninterrupted and affordable energy supply to households and industries in a scenario of high penetration of variable renewables and other new low carbon energy supply. This includes more efficient approaches to manage smart and cyber-secure energy grids and optimise the interaction among producers, consumers, networks, infrastructures and vectors (more detailed information below).
  • Accelerating the development of Carbon Capture, Use and Storage (CCUS) as a CO2 emission mitigation option in electricity generation and industry applications (including also conversion of CO2 to products).
  • Fostering the European global leadership in affordable, secure and sustainable renewable energy technologies

 

Renewable energy technologies provide major opportunities to replace or substitute carbon from fossil origin in the power sector and in other economic sectors such as heating/cooling, transportation, agriculture and industry. Their large scale and decentralised deployment should create more jobs than the fossil fuel equivalent. These technologies are the baseline on which to build a sustainable European and global climate-neutral future. A strong global European leadership in renewable energy technologies, coupled with circularity and sustainability, will pave the way to increase energy security and reliability.

More established renewable energy technologies (such as wind energy, photovoltaics or bioenergy) require enhanced affordability, security, sustainability and efficiency. They also require the further diversification of the technology portfolio. Moreover, advanced renewable fuels, including synthetic and sustainable advanced biofuels, are needed to provide long-term carbon-neutral solutions for the transport and energy-intensive industrial sectors. This is particularly so for applications where direct electrification is not a technical or a cost-efficient option.

Synergies with activities in cluster 4 are possible for integrating renewable energy technologies and solutions in energy consuming industries. Complementarities with cluster 6 concern mainly biomass-related activities.

In line with the “do not harm” principle for the environment, actions for all renewable energy technologies also aim to improve their environmental sustainability. Hence, the delivered have reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved environmental performance regarding water use, circularity, pollution and ecosystems. For biofuels and bioenergy, environmental sustainability improvement is associated with the biomass conversion part of the value chain. In addition, it is associated with the quality of the product. Air pollution associated with combustion in engines, in turn, falls in the scope of other parts of the WP.

 

The main impacts to be generated by topics targeting the renewable energy technologies and solutions under this Destination are:

  • Availability of disruptive renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies and systems in 2050 to accelerate the replacement of fossil-based energy technologies.
  • Reduced cost and improved efficiency of renewable energy and renewable fuel technologies and their value chains.
  • De-risking of renewable energy and fuel technologies with a view to their commercial exploitation and net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
  • Better integration of renewable energy and renewable fuel-based solutions in energy consuming sectors.
  • Reinforced European scientific basis and European export potential for renewable energy technologies through international collaboration (notably with Africa in renewable energy technologies and renewable fuels and enhanced collaboration with Mission Innovation countries).
  • Enhanced sustainability of renewable energy and renewable fuels value chains, taking fully into account social, economic and environmental aspects in line with the European Green Deal priorities.
  • More effective market uptake of renewable energy and fuel technologies.

 

B. Energy systems, grids and storage

Efficient and effective network management is key to the integration of renewables in an efficient way. Meaning, in a way that ensures cost-effectiveness and affordability, supply security and grid stability. Real-time monitoring and optimisation are necessary to increase flexibility, through solutions such as storage, demand response or flexible generation, to integrate higher shares of variable renewable energy.

Exploiting synergies among electricity, heating and cooling networks, gas networks, transport infrastructure and digital infrastructure is crucial for enabling the smart, integrated, flexible, green and sustainable operation of the relevant infrastructures. Besides hydrogen and batteries, R&I in other storage technologies (in particular thermal but also electrochemical, chemical, mechanical and electrical storage solutions), is necessary to create a set of flexibility options.

Activities on energy systems, grids and storage under this Destination will primarily focus on the systemic aspects to enhance the flexibility and resilience of the system, in particular: energy system planning and operation integration, consumers engagement and new services provision, electricity system reliability and resilience, storage development and integration and green digitalization.

Moreover, the role of citizens and communities is key when it comes to bringing flexibility at appliance level available for the grid. Related to this, the inclusion of social sciences and humanities (SSH) where relevant is essential to build the social acceptance of new energy technologies and increase participation of consumers in energy markets.

All projects will contribute to augmented capacity of the system to integrate renewable energy sources and reduce curtailment at transmission and distribution levels.

 

The main expected impacts are:

  • Increased resilience of the energy system based on improved and/or new technologies to control and keep system stability under difficult circumstances.
  • Increased flexibility and resilience of the energy system, based on technologies and tools to plan and operate different networks for different energy carriers simultaneously, in a coordinated manner, that will also contribute to climate neutrality of hard-to-electrify sectors.
  • Enhanced customer satisfaction and increase system flexibility, enabling consumers to benefit from data-driven energy services and facilitating their investment and engagement in the energy transition through self-consumption, demand response or joint investments in renewables (either individually or through energy communities or micro-grids).
  • Improved energy storage technologies, in particular heat storage but also others such as electrochemical, chemical, mechanical and electrical.
  • Foster the European market for new energy services and business models as well as tested standardised and open interfaces of energy devices through a higher degree of interoperability, increased data availability and easier data exchange among energy companies, as well as companies using energy system data.
  • More effective and efficient solutions for transporting off-shore energy thanks to new electricity transmission technologies, using superconducting technologies, power electronics and hybrid Alternate Current – Direct Current grid solutions as well as MT HVDC (Multi Terminal High Voltage Direct Current) solutions.

 

C. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS)

CCUS will play a crucial role in the EU Green Deal for the transition of energy-intensive industries. Also, it is crucial for the neutrality of the power sector. Supporting R&I for CCUS will be particularly important in those industries where other alternatives do not yet exist, like the cement industry. This will be highly relevant towards 2050, when most electricity will come from renewables, but the need to combat emissions from industrial processing will continue. If CCUS is combined with sustainable biomass, it can create negative emissions.

Low carbon hydrogen from natural gas with CCUS could also play a significant role in industrial climate neutrality, mainly during the transition towards full use of hydrogen from renewable sources in steel making, chemicals or refining industries, where large quantities of hydrogen are needed. CCUS would enable early, clean hydrogen at scale. The hydrogen infrastructure built for clean hydrogen with CCUS could also be shared by hydrogen from renewable sources. It is thus important to develop CCUS for industrial clusters, including aspects of system planning, shared infrastructure solutions (such as buffer storage, shared CO2 and hydrogen transportation) and CCS and CCU infrastructure optimisation.

Full CCUS chain demonstration is needed in the EU, with special emphasis on the reduction of energy penalty and funding cost, in addition to safe storage verification. Under the EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan), ambitious R&I targets have been set in agreement with the sectoral stakeholders. The focus is on CO2 storage appraisal, cost-reductions, new technologies and proliferation of pilots and demonstrators.

Synergies with cluster 4 exist on the use of CO2 (please see topic “HORIZON-CL4-2022-TWIN-TRANSITION-01-11: Valorisation of CO/ CO2 streams into added-value products of market interest – IA”).

 

The main impacts are:

  • Accelerated rollout of infrastructure for CCUS hubs and clusters.
  • Updated authoritative body of knowledge on connecting industrial CO2 sources with potential ‘bankable’ storage sites, providing greater confidence for decision makers and investors.
  • Proven feasibility of integrating CO2 capture, CO2 storage and CO2 use in industrial facilities. Demonstrating these technologies at industrial scale shall pave the way for subsequent first-of-a-kind industrial projects.
  • Reduced cost of the CCUS value chain, with CO2 capture being still the most relevant stumbling block for a wider application of CCUS.
  • Adequate frameworks for Measurement, Monitoring and Verification (MMV) for projects storage, document safe storage and public acceptance of the technology.

 

 

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