Renewable Energies Chair (CER)
Contribution (last 5 years) to the Anchor Areas (Agriculture, Water, Energy and Environment and also in the context of the Mediterranean region)

Renewable Energies Chair (CER)

Contribution (last 5 years) to the Anchor Areas (Agriculture, Water, Energy and Environment and also in the context of the Mediterranean region)

 

The research topic Renewable Energies has been mainly developed in the context of Solar Energy and its applications.

The University (through CER) coordinates INIESC - the National Infrastructure for Research in Solar Energy Concentration, also integrated by LNEG, for which it obtained an important financing of 3.1M€uro (2,4M€uro is the University’ share). This will allow the University to finalize and complement its large scale experimental infrastructures in Herdade da Mitra and start R,D&D projects which include (among others) the topic of water production and water use (irrigation with innovative water saving technologies and energy coming from advanced photovoltaic technology) combined or not with water desalination in conjunction with large central solar thermoelectric and PV  plants. Other emerging topics, agriculture related, will include new solutions for mobility, greenhouses, drying, and heating and cooling for spaces dedicated to animal husbandry.

The University has developed an important collaboration agreement with DLR (Germany) for the development of the Evora Molten Salt Platform- EMSP, an unique facility in Europe, where, at this very moment, advanced parabolic troughs concentrators (3,6MWhth) are bein installed to operate with molten salts at 560ºC at the same time providing the means for energy storage (for fully dispatchable electricity). A consortium of several companies is behind this project and the total financing at the end will come close to 14M€uro.

The University has also signed an MoU with the Fraunhofer Institute  (ISE-Freiburg) to explore another facility at Herdade da Mitra, PECS - 2-axis tracking platform for concentrator modules testing, also an unique facility in Europe and already open to the industry for prototype testing at temperatures up to 400ºC

The effort of CER in the last 5 years is recognized at the highest levels of R,D&D in this area,  in Europe and in the rest of the World, not just because of the competence of its researchers and training provided to its students , but also for the conditions (including the solar resource) that CER can provide.

The Chair participated and participates in a large number of FP7, H2020 projects (one even as coordinator) and it is often coordinator in other projects financed by national, regional and interregional (Spain) programs, extending its activity to many other topics including the important one of industrial process heat from solar energy.

In the universe of its projects, the Chair counts 39 companies and 40 other R&D institutions.

It has 20 members, with the creation of scientific employment. Besides the Chairman, CER counts 8 new contracts - three at the level of researcher - and 8 scholarships.  (At present it has two scholarships at Ph. D. level from FCT and one from BCP- Millennium.)

Évora, 2018/03/15

Manuel Collares Pereira (Chairman)

Published in 29.03.2018