Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda for Renewable ... - EGEC

RenewableHeating & CoolingEuropean Technology PlatformTo give communities the possibility to choose the best energy mix, evaluate new installationsand adopt the most energy efficient behaviour, appropriate tools and equipment must bedeveloped. Given their intrinsic functional complexity, additional research is needed on toolsthat provide a flexible user interface tailored to different stakeholder groups: operators/utilities, user communities, ESCOs, and financial institutions. Each group requires a different“view” (focus, detail level) of the common underlying information (production and consumptioninformation, user profile, social aspects, demographics, economics,business models, etc). Sophisticated data mining and simple but effective visualisationof complex processes is a must for building smart tools and services.The involvement of end user communities can also be stimulated by implementing socialnetwork tools (or extending existing ones) for the dissemination of information about bestpractices and results obtained by virtuous behaviour. An efficient RHC system is uselessif not properly used.7.2 Materials scienceThe advanced materials sector is one of the traditional strengths of European industry.Moreover, materials research is at the core of sustainable technologies for and solutions toour thermal energy needs. Research and development of new materials as well as the understandingand use of their properties is crucial to enable scientists and engineers to enhanceenergy systems and to realize the full potential of renewable heating and cooling technologies.Materials play a pivotal role in the renewable energy technologies explored in this report.Materials science is ubiquitous and it is extremely difficult - even detrimental - to break it upby specific application. The results of material research generate opportunities for complementarityand synergies between different applications both within and beyond the energysector. One example is the development of novel thermal insulation materials to store thermalenergy, which could also be applied to reduce the losses of district heating and cooling. Bothapplications have far reaching impact enhancing the potential of RES.In 2011, the European Commission presented a new working paper dedicated to “MaterialsRoadmap Enabling Low Carbon Energy Technologies” 76 . Regrettably, materials researchfor heating and cooling technologies has largely been overlooked in the EC Roadmap.The added value of novel functional and structural materials for heating and cooling is oftenunderestimated in terms of required resources and lead times necessary to ensure differentiatinghigh added value results. In the medium to long term, it is essential that sufficientmeans are dedicated to materials R&D and demonstration.The present report by the RHC-Platform addresses a large number of strategic researchpriorities relevant to materials research. While designed to address the specific needs ofeach RHC technology, several priorities are common to more than one technology. In addition,a broad range of activities proposed for one application can profitably be shared with otherapplications either within the energy sector or in other economic sectors (e.g. the work onphase change materials for thermal energy storage is potentially also of great benefit to theconstruction industry).Leveraging these complementarities and synergies is of critical importance for theimplementation of the RHC-Platform’s Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.Economies of scale and scope can be realised and cross-technology knowledge canbe pooled at European level to accelerate the development and integration of innovativematerials into low carbon energy technologies. The following table shows the strategic researchpriorities that are relevant to materials science:76European Commission(2011b).75