A consortium of 8 companies launches the “Regenera” project to advance efficient storage in renewables.

  • The consortium is made up of DAM, ENGIE, Sorigué, Hidroquimia, Tyris AI, H2B2, AIGUASOL and Exolum
  • The project has a duration of 40 months and is part of the State Program of R+D+I “Science and Innovation Missions” of the CDTI

The REGENERA project – formed by a consortium of eight companies made up of the DAM Group, ENGIE, Sorigué, Hidroquimia, Tyris AI, H2B2, AIGUASOL and Exolum-, seeks to develop innovative technologies to efficiently and economically store surplus renewable energy and its use in industrial processes for the production of green fuels, hydrogen, methane and hitane. These may be used to generate heat, electricity, use as precursors to other chemicals and/or use in transport to drive forward sustainable mobility. All this using Artificial Intelligence models to optimize the use of energy resources.

The research, which lasts 40 months, starts from the perspective that by 2050 energy from renewable sources is expected to grow from the current 25%, up to 86%.

AIGUASOL participates in the implementation, operation and monitoring of the demonstration facilities of the project, and puts its experience in the analysis of the feasibility and competitiveness of their techno-economic potential at national level.

“The main characteristics of renewable energies (wind, solar) is that they depend on nature, therefore its production may experience some variations, daily and monthly, which makes it necessary to strengthen its security of supply not only with fossil fuels but also with energy storage systems that are key to the development and enhancement of this sustainable energy”, explain the companies participating in the project.

In this context, the integration of storage systems to balance generation and demand, both in the short and long term, is essential to accelerate the decarbonisation of the energy system and achieve the objectives set by the European Commission in the Green Deal, and comply with the Paris Agreements.

 

REGENERA wants to help the transformation of the Spanish energy system by reducing dependence on fossil fuels, improving the integration and management of renewable energies. It is possible to reduce CO2 emissions and have greater energy independence, and therefore a less dependent, more competitive and climate-neutral economy in 2050,” say the project partners.

Lowering the cost and increasing the competitiveness of renewable fuels

During its implementation, the REGENERA project will investigate two innovative strategies that will increase sustainability in the future through two main drivers: lowering the cost of storage and increasing the economic competitiveness of renewable fuel production.

“The first strategy is three types of electricity storage technologies with the capacity to store large amounts of energy in the long term and through the production of renewable fuels (H2, CH4 and Hitane). The second is an intelligent energy optimization/management system based on Machine Learning models to be implemented in industrial processes to adapt, on the one hand, the energy demand of industries to the production of renewable energies and, on the other hand, the valorisation of part of their waste (water and/or CO2) for the production of renewable fuels through surplus renewable energies,” say the partners involved in the project.

The REGENERA project, “Research on hybrid storage technologies and predictive models to transform industries into offshore renewable energy management points”, is financed with funds from the ‘NextGenerationEU’ recovery plan for Europe” and is part of the State R&D&I Program “Science and Innovation Missions” of the Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI).

Within this multisectoral consortium, 6 research centres of excellence with experience and capacity in the management of disruptive projects participate, which will seek to scale the results of this project to new international programs, such as the Technological Centre Leitat, the Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ), the Technological Institute of Energy (ITE), the Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications (iTEAM), the Institute of Energy Research of Catalonia (IREC) and the Institute IMDEA Water.