From 21 to 23 March 2023, the “Energy Conversion and Storage Days” were hosted by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Karlsruhe. The very active participation of more than 140 attendees from 16 countries made these 3 days an inspiring and fruitful event with many interesting presentations, panel discussions, group work and site visits. The first two days were dedicated to networking between the energy storage and photovoltaic solar power communities.
On Tuesday the event started with the SUPEERA workshop, "Bringing research and industry closer: ES and PV" attended by more than 80 stakeholders from the energy storage and photovoltaic fields. The aim of the event was to facilitate dialogue and exchange between both EERA Joint Programmes (JPs) active in these technologies and representatives of local authorities, university spin-offs and research networks. In the afternoon the Steering Committee meetings of the EERA JPs on Energy Storage (ES) and Photovoltaic Solar Power (PV) took place.
On Wednesday morning, participants of the VIPERLAB roadmapping workshop for perovskite PV technology development and harmonization in Europe discussed the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) on single-junction perovskite PV and harmonization challenges. In parallel the members of the EERA JP ES sub-programmes Electrochemical ES (SP1), Chemical ES (SP2) and ES: Technoeconomics and Sustainability (SP6) held their meetings.
In the afternoon more than 80 participants attended the two StoRIES Workshops. The first workshop “Succeeding with Scale-up of Energy Materials” led by Kourosh Malek from Forschungszentrum Jülich (task leader of T3.1 “Material for devices”) focused on electrochemical materials fabrication processes for hydrogen technologies and electrochemical batteries. Case studies of how integrating AI/ML models and FAIR data intelligence with cost modeling methodologies in the context of an innovation can greatly assist in optimizing efforts and investment on developing new electrochemical materials from design to integration and full scale-up were discussed. During the second StoRIES workshop “Energy System Benchmarking for Hybrid Storage” Kai Heussen (DTU, task leader of T3.2 “Framework for modelling of ES systems”), Raffaele Liberator (ENEA) and Marcos Blanco (CIEMAT) presented preliminary results from the StoRIES project on the development of reference cases and key performance indicators for application-oriented benchmarking of hybrid storage. During the panel discussion chaired by Yolanda Lechón (CIEMAT) the panelists Linda Barelli (University of Perugia), Marcel Weil (KIT), Roberto Scipioni (SINTEF) and Kai Heussen (DTU) discussed how benchmark systems can help to accelerate technology development and roadmapping.
After the StoRIES workshops, we had the opportunity to visit the Energy Lab 2.0 at KIT, Europe's largest research infrastructure for renewable energies. Simon Waczowicz, Gaël Corre and Lakshimi Narayanan Palaniswamy (all KIT) showed us the Smart Energy system Simulation and Control Center (SEnSSiCC), the Power2X Plant Network and the Solar Power Storage Park.
On Thursday, the last day of the event, the StoRIES - FLORES - EERA JP ES Workshop on Applications for Hybrid Energy Storage was a great success with more than 100 participants from 14 countries. In the morning, representatives from industry, academia, the European Commission, and the European Innovation Council gave very interesting insights into various topics of hybrid energy storage, followed by an industry panel discussion in which experts from industry discussed current and future fields of application for hybrid energy storage.
After visiting the hybrid storage demonstrators of the BiFlow project at STAGE76 in Bruchsal and the HyFlow project at the Fraunhofer ICT in Pfinztal, the participants discussed various case studies for hybrid energy storage applications during group work. The Energy Conversion and Storage Days ended with a get-together and social matching event for Horizon Europe calls.
The event fostered the communication between various communities and projects and enabled new contact which will result in future scientific ideas and initiatives. Many workshops and events are already foreseen for this year, including collaborations between EERA JP ES and EERA JP E3S, EERA JP EEIP and EERA JP GEO. In addition, a joint EERA JP ES event is planned in Capri (Italy) in September 2023.
The StoRIES eco-system was able to make many new contacts and especially after the visit of Energy Lab 2.0 many representatives of academia and industry expressed their strong interest in accessing the StoRIES research infrastructures in the frame of the Transnational Access (TNA) programme and participating in the external layer. After this great success, a second edition of the “Energy Conversion and Storage Days” is foreseen in the next future.
If you would like to learn more about the StoRIES project please check our webpage and our LinkedIn profile and if you are interested in joining the eco-system contact us via eera-jpes@bl3.kit.edu.
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