Since 2007, the initial deployment of CSP/STE in Spain has brought the European STE sector to be a worldwide technology leader. But the further deployment has been hindered in Europe since 2013 due to the retroactive changes in the investment conditions in Spain. To unlock this situation, the EC has launched in 2015 a dedicated Initiative – Initiative for Global Leadership in Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). This Initiative, focusing on 2 targets (a cost reduction target and an innovation target), was adopted in 2016 within the SET-Plan structures. A working group gathering representatives from several SET-Plan countries and the STE stakeholders from both industry and research sectors was set up to define a corresponding Implementation Plan (IP), which was officially adopted in June 2017, including 12 R&D action line and the implementation of new innovative, so-called First-Of-A-Kind (FOAK) plants. Thus, as response to the call H2020- LC-SC3-JA-2-2018, this project proposal aims at supporting the full implementation of the a.m. Initiative taking into consideration the political, legislative and institutional as well as the market backgrounds put in perspective to the situation of the STE sector in 2018 – 2 years after the “Initiative” was presented and the corresponding “IP” adopted by the SET-Plan Steering Group. Building bridges to other ongoing projects (MUSTEC, SMARTSPEND, etc), the project will propose solutions and pathways for relevant countries to overcome the main shortcomings of current national strategies related to STE that are: a) for the industry the framework conditions for procurement of manageable RES, and b) for the R&I sector, the extension to more public funding agencies and other sources for the funding of a.m. R&I projects. This will result in national country reports and events as well as an EU-wide cooperation report/event to be extensively covered by national mainstream media and supported by a strong dissemination and political communication campaign.

SUN-DT partners will take advantage of the great potential of the promising CSP tower technology together with the hitherto unexplored possibilities offered by digitalisation to execute this project, aimed at increasing the competitiveness of the European CSP tower plants sector, as well as that of its supplier digitalisation companies. To do so, the project members will jointly mature four complementary and interoperable innovative digital tools: i) a tool for calibration and characterization of heliostats; ii) a Digital Twin of the solar field and the receiver; iii) an Energy Management System for dispatch optimization, and iv) a predictive tool for enhanced Operation and Maintenance(O&M). These digital tools will then be integrated into a single platform capable of processing data collectively to optimize decision-making at the plant level, and tested for validation in 2 experimental test facilities and 2 commercial tower plants. Two of the world's largest solar thermal projects, the Khi Solar One plant and the Cerro Dominador plant, operated by two of the world's leading solar energy players, COX and ACCIONA respectively, have been selected for demonstration purposes in commercial plants. Each of them represents the two possible types of tower plants (circular solar field and north/south solar field), ensuring the versatility of the solutions adopted for all current and future plants. The demonstration period of the tools will be extended to 1,5 years, which will provide more robust test data and will bring the possibility of testing a complete year with its two distinct seasons: summer and winter. Additionally, the joint maturing of the digital tools and their integration into a common infrastructure for running/coordinating/processing them together will increase the efficiency of the plants by managing multiple elements simultaneously. This will increase the number of data sources, and the amount of shared information for better decision-making.

IIn the light of the EU 2030 Climate and Energy framework, MUSTEC aims to explore and propose concrete solutions to overcome the various factors that hinder the deployment of concentrated solar power (CSP) projects in Southern Europe capable of supplying renewable electricity on demand to Central and Northern European countries. To do so, the project will analyze the drivers and barriers to CSP deployment and renewable energy (RE) cooperation in Europe, identify future CSP cooperation opportunities and will propose a set of concrete measures to unlock the existing potential. To achieve these objectives, MUSTEC will build on the experience and knowledge generated around the cooperation mechanisms and CSP industry developments building on concrete CSP case studies. Thereby we will consider the present and future European energy market design and policies as well as the value of CSP at electricity markets and related economic and environmental benefits. In this respect, MUSTEC combines a dedicated, comprehensive and multi-disciplinary analysis of past, present and future CSP cooperation opportunities with a constant engagement and consultation with policy makers and market participants. This will be achieved through an intense and continuous stakeholder dialogue and by establishing a tailor-made knowledge sharing network. The MUSTEC consortium consists of nine renowned institutions from six European countries and includes many of the most prolific researchers in the European energy policy community, with very long track records of research in European and nationally funded energy policy research projects.