Supported in part by the EU-funded INTERACTION and CONSTRAIN projects, a study published in (‘Nature Communications’) claims the scenarios are incompatible with Paris Agreement goals. Using a novel technique developed to directly compare such energy scenarios, an international research team analysed four of these and two by France’s International Energy Agency (IEA) published between 2020 and mid-2021. Results showed that five weren’t consistent with the Paris Agreement aims.
The EU-funded EuropeWave project is helping to transition to commercial viability by gathering about EUR 20 million to procure the most promising wave energy technology solutions from developers in Europe and beyond. To do so, it has adopted a pre-commercial procurement approach based on the one pioneered by Wave Energy Scotland.
A novel, integrated treatment service uses a smart dispenser to simultaneously multiply, preserve and dose the number of microorganisms necessary for the bioremediation of industrial waste water.
Meeting growing global demand for protein in a sustainable manner represents a huge challenge for the fishing industry. The EU-funded BGF project set out to overcome these limitations. This was achieved by designing a multifunctional offshore aquaculture platform that combines modern automated fish production with renewable energy generation from wind, waves and solar.
The EU-funded ROMEO project has delivered a decision support system to reduce operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, leveraging condition monitoring, big data, machine learning and cloud-based analytics.Thanks its innovation, offshore wind turbines are harnessing big data, machine learning, cloud computing and edge devices to streamline operations and maintenance and slash costs, enhancing deployment.
Monitoring and management of water systems and leakage detection are pivotal to save water today. WATERSIGN, an EU-funded project developed a platform with multiple applications for real-time management of water usage. The innovation consists of the marker – a mechanical device installed at each user inlet to create a unique signal operated by the water flow – and a digital pressure sensor connected to the controller. The sensor reads the flow fluctuations of all markers simultaneously, and the controller sends the information to the cloud.
European Commission has adopted its proposal for fishing opportunities for 2023 for the Baltic Sea. Based on this proposal, EU countries will determine the maximum quantities of the most important commercial fish species that can be caught in the sea basin. The Commission proposes to increase fishing opportunities for central herring and plaice, while maintaining the current levels for salmon and the levels of by-catch of western and eastern cod, as well as western herring.
While the EU works to detangle itself from economic dependence on Russia, exponential increase in demand for raw materials is creating supply risks due to high dependency on China, industry and experts have warned. The demand for critical raw materials is about to skyrocket until 2050, according to projections from the World Bank. This development is, for the most part, driven by the Green transition: electrical cars, for instance, require over six times as many minerals as conventional vehicles, the international energy agency said in this report.
Firefighter clothing, spacecraft insulation, and coatings for deep-buried detectors could all benefit from a novel thermally-insulating material. The scientists team has demonstrated that its ceramic aerogel exhibits superior thermal insulation over the materials currently used for these applications. Ceramic aerogels are ultra-porous materials, comprised of thin layers of ceramic separating tiny air pockets. A typical ceramic aerogel is 99% air.
Thanks to the TANGO project and funding from the EU Innovation Fund, the 3Sun factory is on its way to become Europe’s largest factory producing highly innovative next-generation solar panels, or photovoltaics, which will be placed in Sicily. It’s the first of its kind in Europe to mass produce bifacial panels with heterojunction technology (HJT), which means that panels can capture sunlight from their back surface, too, which means they are far more efficient than traditional ones because more clean energy is produced without major additional cost.
Spain receives an additional €274.9 million from the 2022 tranche of REACT-EU. These resources will support the economic recovery of Spanish regions, help workers and jobseekers acquire skills necessary for the digital and green transition, and improve the access to and functioning of social systems. €137 million are added to the Spanish operational programme of the Fund for Aid to the Most Deprived, and The remaining resources, €137.9 million, are added to the European Social Fund.
The Commission has presented a list of headline indicators for monitoring progress towards the EU's environment and climate goals to 2030, as well as the 2050 long-term vision to ‘live well, within planetary boundaries'. Resulting from intense consultations with stakeholders and Member States, the new Monitoring Framework under the 8th Environment Action Programme aims to foster transparency and inform Europeans about the impact of EU climate and environmental policy.
