With an investment of approximately €10M over the next four years, the project will contribute to the decarbonisation of the industrial sector, promoting the use of renewable resources and minimising CO2 emissions. Moreover, SINNOGENES will meet European decarbonisation policies – where energy storage, in its different vectors, plays a key role in supply security and systems’ operation.

“In this project, INESC TEC is responsible for developing management applications for energy storage systems, considering economic, technical and environmental operating objectives. The applications developed will support CapWatt in controlling the industrial microgrid, installed in the SONAE industrial park (Maia), which will integrate different types of energy storage solutions – including an innovative thermal storage prototype developed by the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP)”, explained Clara Gouveia, head researcher of the project at the Centre for Power and Energy Systems (CPES). “The application under development will also facilitate the replication of solutions in other industrial installations”, she added.

The solutions developed by the partners, from software to new storage technologies, will be tested in a real scenario to demonstrate the relevance of energy storage for decarbonisation processes. “In Portugal, the solutions developed will contribute to the decarbonisation of the industry sector and demonstrate the relevance of energy storage systems in reducing energy costs and CO2 emissions, while enabling new services for the power grid”, said Clara Gouveia.

The project will consider electrochemical storage solutions and thermal and hydrogen storage solutions, promoting not only technological solutions for their operation, but also for life cycle and economic analysis. These will be demonstrated in six pilots installed in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Greece, and Switzerland. In the case of the Portuguese pilot, the solutions developed target industries that consume electricity and heat.

This project features INESC TEC, CAPWATT and the University of Porto, as Portuguese partners – part of a consortium composed of 23 international partners and three associates.

The project partners attended the kick-off meeting of the project on January 26 and 27, in Brussels (Belgium).

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC.