19 Dec HORIZON-STE newsletter issue 1
State of Play
HORIZON-STE has been running since April 2019. The Kick-off Meeting was held on the 7th May 2019, together with the STE industry and R&D stakeholders.
Work Package 1: “Implementation Plan (IP) initial and yearly status update”
Work Package 1 (WP 1) has been carrying out since May 2019 starting with the task of updating of the Implementation Plan of global CSP Initiative of the SET-Plan and the identification of the relevant countries to analyse from the industry perspective and the revision of the overall framework conditions in the identified countries. A report on countries relevance for the IP has been completed. You can download from here.
The objective of this task will be, jointly with task 1.3 (on R&D perspective), the analysis of boundary conditions and options available for the development of the Implementation Plan, including industrial, market, funding and R&I issues (stakeholders). This work will be an input into Task 2.4.
We continuously monitor all relevant initiatives at European level that contribute to the achievement of CSP-IP goals, including the continuous update of the list of projects/initiatives considered relevant to the CSP-IP (H2020 projects, national projects, other international initiatives). This task will be performed as follow up of Task 1.1 in form of yearly update reports regarding market conditions and the results of relevant related initiatives, projects and activities in the CSP/STE sector. A yearly update report will be prepared in April/May 2020.
Work Pack 2: “Re-launching STE Industry in Europe”
Work Package 2 (WP2) has started in September 2019, based on the work performed in WP 1. An initial stakeholder mapping exercise has been carried out (D.2.1, submitted on 30 September 2019) targeting 14 countries, and was taken as the basis to select the countries of relevance for the next phase.
The overall aim of this Work Package is to assess the current national perspectives (as well as expected changes in the near future) regarding the needs of their energy systems. This will lead to the design of suitable value proposition offered by the STE industry to tackle those challenges. Meetings and brokerage events in countries of interest, with high- and mid-ranking authorities and relevant stakeholders will be arranged for this. Finally, draft country reports will summarise the findings from this exercise and will also integrate the supplementary perspective of R&I (from Work Package 3), addressing the status quo and potential opportunities.
Turkey will be the first country to be approached, starting from January 2020. A stakeholder mapping is currently being performed, focusing on four main stakeholders (TSO, Regulatory Authority, relevant Ministries and local industry). With the help of METU, our Turkish R&I partner, we are now starting to organise stakeholder interviews and meetings in the country.
Work Package 3: “R&I Impact Maximization”
Work Package 3 (WP3) has been carrying out since May 2019 focusing on the Research and Innovation activities that may contribute to the realization of the SET-Plan. It is based on the pre-selected R&I projects of the Implementation Plan for CSP/STE and aims at defining the best boundary conditions for an effective accomplishment of the SET-Plan goals. Starting with the task of stakeholder mapping, WP 3 partners have now focused on the task of “Support for the refinement and launch of R&I projects”.
In order to gather the interest of the stakeholders regarding the participation in R&I and First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) projects, HORIZON-STE prepared and published an online survey. This survey was open to the public from 15th Oct until 2nd Dec 2019 and it was disseminated by HORIZON-STE partners through the channels in Europe and Turkey reaching a vast number of stakeholders.
This survey was based on the 12 R&I Actions defined in the Initiative for Global Leadership in Concentrated Solar Power of the SET-Plan. Among these 12 R&I Activities, 8 were selected by the consortium of the project CSP-ERANET (Horizon 2020 grant agreement No. 838311) for the ongoing call for proposals and were therefore in the focus of this survey.
A total of 75 survey participants provided the minimum data required to be considered in the analysis of the survey results. An even distribution of industrial and research stakeholders was obtained, with most of the participants being involved in CST for many years. A positive result of the survey is that for all sub-tasks proposed stakeholders expressed their interest to participate in projects covering those topics. The survey results have been published since 7th Nov on the HORIZON-STE website’s restricted area for survey participants only. The report of the results will be published soon for public.
Upcoming activities:
On 26th February 2020, a “Joint National Event” (R&I and Industry) for Turkey with the support from our partner METU will be organized at METU in Ankara. Depending on the outcomes of the previous meetings, it could be a brokerage (working event) or a dissemination event.
About the event: It is an open workshop showcasing some H2020 projects and European activities (e.g.: HORIZON-STE, CSP ERANET, SolarTwins, etc.) and perhaps 1 or 2 additional H2020 projects involving Turkish industry. It will give the opportunity to present existing capacities in terms of research and industry as well as offering opportunities for collaboration and development of CST technologies.
The first Draft Country Report (concerning Turkey), will be available by June 2020. As for WP3, D.3.1. “Proposal for prioritization of Implementation Plan projects and actions for the funding agencies” will be ready by Month 9, the end of December 2019. A first rough sketch of D.3.2. “Develop indicators and methodology for monitoring success of the execution of the IP” is due by Month 10 (Jan 2020).