The aim of this proposal is to promote and facilitate technologically, financially, and operationally mature projects from Horizon 2020 to reach deployment phase by means of developing synergies with the ETS Innovation Fund. The overall objective of H2IF is to validate such connection could be effective between promising Horizon funded R&I results and Innovation Fund for hydrogen and energy storage projects. This proof of concept will be made thanks to the scaling-up and submission of 3 projects to the Innovation Fund instrument, all of them having been selected due to their high ‘climate neutrality’ potential, their innovation degree, while already being supported by Horizon 2020.

Although decentralized and utility-scale renewable energy sources have grown, the EU must speed up their deployment to meet decarbonisation targets. Outdated grid infrastructure, limited system flexibility, complex regulatory frameworks, and rising NIMBY attitudes hinder the full market integration of these plants, affecting their business models and service monetization. Addressing these issues is essential for both facilitating the deploying of new utility-scale RES plants and maintaining previously existing ones and its viability. To achieve this, LUMENS will implement a comprehensive strategy built on three key pillars: (1) Establishing a multi-actor engagement framework to ensure a strong stakeholder dialogue and capacity building, providing the project with valuable feedback from the sector. (2) Creating a dynamic repository of knowledge transfer materials (KTM), including success stories and recommendations based on a portfolio of cases that will be studied throughout the development of LUMENS, as well as an open-source toolkit composed by analytical and decision-support tools that will aid in a variety of aspects, such as location, sizing, hybridization or market performance prediction of a RES plant. (3) Executing a continuous knowledge transfer strategy that promotes direct interaction with key international market players. With a consortium of nine partners from seven EU countries, including market operators, power system operators, RES promoters, and multidisciplinary research experts, LUMENS is well backed up to develop actionable insights for optimizing key factors including the planning, location, operation, and monetization of utility-scale RES plants among others. Ultimately, LUMENS seeks to enhance the competitiveness of RES plants in the EU energy market, particularly utility-scale infrastructures, by promoting secure, cost-effective energy solutions and advancing the path toward net-zero emissions.

Batteries Europe Secretariat (BEST) proposal aims to enrich, strengthen and extend the key role of Batteries Europe by gathering academia, industry and research expertise within the Secretariat to consolidate the Battery R&I community and assist the existing platform in the achievement of their ambitious goals. BEST consortium will engage in its experts working groups industry stakeholders, academia, policy makers, researchers and citizens from all the value chain, especially broadening involvement on underrepresented domains and countries. BEST will contribute to gain synergies among battery R&I stakeholders’ landscape, consolidate the workflow among the initiatives, facilitate free and inclusive access to information, strength industry-research collaboration to push technology developments to reduce time to market of new solutions, reinforce European talent attraction capacity and provide fact-based orientations to policy makers. The Secretariat will gather expertise to develop Strategic R&I agenda, design updated roadmaps, establish KPIs per application (transport, stationary, portable, etc.) to nurture the SET Plan, contribute to standards and reporting methodologies harmonization, promote education on battery fields and rise social awareness. The Secretariat will organize workshops per objectives, complemented with experts’ interviews, discussion forums, scientific papers review, etc. to confront current state of the art with future trends, considering international tendencies. BEST is formed by 11 partners and 4 affiliated entities, led by Innonergy, with ZABALA, CLERENS SINTEF, VDI/VDE INNOVATION, CICenergiGUNE INSTM (UNIMIB, UNIPV, POLITO), EERA, EASE and ENEA. The partners are promoters of main European initiatives related to batteries that has facilitated the establishment of collaboration flows to bring Batteries Europe Platform to next stage in 36 months, with a budget of 2.999.889 €.

The greatest challenges towards the worldwide success of battery-powered electric vehicles revolve around the safety, energy density, and cost of the battery technologies. Solid-state polymer electrolytes and lithium metal anode address these challenges by replacing the flammable and unstable liquid electrolytes and enabling dendrite-free cycling of high-energy lithium metal cells manufactured by sustainable and cost-effective processing. The PSIONIC project advances the development of all-solid-state battery technology by employing amorphous cross-linked Polyethylene oxide (PEO) laminated on the thin lithium foil at the anode and high voltage cathode coated with a single-ion conductive polymer. This will allow to replace the flammable and unstable liquid electrolytes and enabling dendrite-free cycling of high-energy lithium metal cells manufactured by sustainable processing. Special attention will be devoted to the optimization of interfaces between the active material and polymer electrolyte. Materials selection will enable the use of the manufacturing technology available at BlueSolutions, which is readily scalable, based on sustainable processing using solvent-free extrusion. PSIONIC is aiming to develop cells with a safety hazard level 2, since no liquid component will be in the cell at the end of the project. The research and innovation actions carried under the PSIONIC project will not only just contribute to the technological advancements of all-solid-state Li-ion batteries in terms of safety, reliability, performance, cost, and sustainability, but will also enable higher uptake by the electromobility sector and end consumers, paving a pathway towards climate neutrality, and green energy transition.

In the context of increasing global battery use, developing sustainable, safe and efficient processes is a tangible issue to further enhance circular economy and strategic autonomy of the European Li-ion batteries value chain, in line with the battery partnership’s objectives launched under Horizon Europe. RESPECT main objective is to develop a global process encompassing a process-chain flexible enough to treat all kind of batteries in closed loop, considering the variability of Li-ion batteries chemistries (NMC, LFP, NCA, LMO) , applications (EV and ESS) and states (aged, damaged, EoL, production scraps) up to date not covered by any process on the State of the Art. RESPECT addresses two recycling routes: full hydrometallurgy and direct recycling and an improved Life Cycle Assessment of each recycling segment to lower emissions and reduce secondary pollution, safety and health risks. RESPECT will aim to design and validate the recycling processes up to pilot scale to recovering the highest amount of resources, including CRMs and active materials present in the batteries to closing the loop by their reuse in cathode and anode materials for new batteries. Socio-economic, as well as sustainability aspects will be covered throughout the project. To ensure a successful project implementation, knowledge sharing on Li-ion battery green recycling processes will be fostered, based on the engagement with relevant international stakeholders and experts through the advisory board. Based on a solid and interdisciplinary consortium of partners covering the whole value chain, RESPECT seeks high recovery rates (for Li, Mn, Co, Ni or graphite) with low environmental impact and strong energy savings, in accordance with the European Green Deal and the proposed Battery Regulation.