Novel solutions for off-grid storage of renewable energy for critical infrastructures

Expected Outcome

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Enhanced European knowledge and leadership in off-grid clean energy storage technologies.
• Improved energy security and cost-effectiveness of Europe's energy systems, particularly for critical infrastructure.
• Elimination of fossil-based backup solutions for critical infrastructures, strengthening European competitiveness.

Scope

The topic aims to develop novel, cost-efficient off-grid energy storage solutions for renewable energy, tailored for critical infrastructures such as hospitals, transport hubs, data centres, and utilities. Solutions should address challenges specific to off-grid or non-interconnected area contexts, including storage scale, compromised grid interaction, resilience to potential shortages of critical materials, and multi-energy needs (electricity, heating, cooling). Emphasis should be on robustness and error-freeness, while considering sustainability, efficiency and performance. The project should foresee these solutions for using real-world critical infrastructures through simulation and experiments and establishing a procedure for decision-making, focusing on energy security and resilience against high-impact, low-probability events, by ensuring operational efficiency both on-grid and off-grid. Where relevant, interdependencies among critical infrastructures and system redundancy should be considered.

Projects are encouraged to support the reconstruction of Ukraine by including Ukrainian beneficiaries.

Activities are expected to achieve TRL 4-5 by the end of the project - see General Annex B. Activities may start at any TRL.