research*eu
Magazine on European Research

is a quarterly magazine published by the European Commission presenting a mix of research results and debate on scientific subjects of interest to a wide, non-specialised readership. The common theme is Europe.

Nine focal points of the EU’s energy strategy

Hydrogen and fuel cells: Integrated action to provide a strong technological foundation for competitive EU fuel cell and hydrogen industries to develop stationary, portable and transport applications. The Hydrogen and Fuel Cells European Technology Platform contributes to this activity by proposing an integrated research and deployment strategy.

Renewable electricity generation: Technologies to increase overall conversion efficiency, cost efficiency and reliability, driving down the cost of electricity production from indigenous renewable energy sources, including wastes, and the development and demonstration of technologies suited to different regional conditions.

Renewable fuel production: Integrated fuel production systems and conversion technologies to develop and drive down the unit cost of solid, liquid and gaseous (including hydrogen) fuels produced from renewable energy sources including biomass and wastes, while aiming at the cost-effective production, storage, distribution and use of carbon-neutral fuels, in particular biofuels for transport and electricity generation.

Renewables for heating and cooling: Research, development and demonstration of technologies and devices including storage technologies to increase efficiencies and drive down the costs of active and passive heating and cooling from renewable energy sources, ensuring their use in different regional conditions where sufficient potential can be identified.

CO2 capture and storage technologies for zero-emission power generation: Research, development and demonstration of technologies to drastically reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuel use, while aiming at highly efficient and cost effective power and/or heat generation plants with near zero emissions, based on CO2 capture and storage technologies, in particular underground storage.

Clean-coal technologies: Research, development and demonstration of technologies to substantially improve plant efficiency, reliability and cost through development and demonstration of clean coal and other solid fuel conversion technologies, producing also secondary energy carriers (including hydrogen) and liquid or gaseous fuels. Activities will be linked as appropriate to CO2 capture and storage technologies or co-utilisation of biomass.

Smart energy networks: Research, development and demonstration of how to increase the efficiency, safety, reliability and quality of the European electricity and gas systems and networks, notably within the context of a more integrated European energy market, e.g. by transforming the current electricity grids into an interactive (customers/operators) service network, developing energy storage options and removing obstacles to the large-scale deployment and effective integration of distributed and renewable energy sources.

Energy efficiency and savings: Research, development and demonstration of new concepts, optimisation of proven concepts and technologies to improve energy efficiency and to enable further final and primary energy consumption savings, over their life cycle, for buildings (including lighting savings), transport, services and industry. This includes the integration of strategies and technologies for energy efficiency (including co- and poly-generation), the use of new and renewable energy technologies and energy demand management measures and devices, and the demonstration of minimum climate impact buildings.

Knowledge for energy policy making: Development of tools, methods and models to assess the main economic and social issues related to energy technologies and to provide quantifiable targets and scenarios for medium- and long-term horizons (including providing scientific support for policy development).