Topics

This Societal Challenge covers the following lines of activity:

1. Reducing Energy Consumption and Carbon Footprint by Smart and Sustainable Use

Activities shall focus on research and full-scale testing to allow real-time energy management for new and existing near-zero-emission, near-zero-energy and positive energy buildings, retrofitted buildings, cities and districts, renewable heating and cooling, highly efficient industries and mass take-up of energy efficiency and energy saving solutions and services.

2. Low-cost, low-carbon electricity supply

Activities shall focus on research, development and full scale demonstration of innovative renewables, efficient, flexible and low carbon emission fossil power plants and carbon capture and storage, or CO2 re-use technologies, offering larger scale, lower cost, environmentally safe technologies with higher conversion efficiency and higher availability for different market and operating environments.

3. Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources

Activities shall focus on research, development and full scale demonstration of technologies and value chains to make bioenergy and other alternative fuels more competitive and sustainable for power and heat and for surface, maritime and air transport, with potential for more efficient energy conversion, to reduce time to market for hydrogen and fuel cells and to bring new options showing long-term potential to maturity.

4. A single, smart European electricity grid

Activities shall focus on research, development and full scale demonstration of new smart energy grid technologies, back-up and balancing technologies enabling higher flexibility and efficiency, including conventional power plants, flexible energy storage, systems and market designs to plan, monitor, control and safely operate interoperable networks, including standardisation issues, in an open, decarbonised, environmentally sustainable, climate-resilient and competitive market, under normal and emergency conditions.

5. New knowledge and technologies

Activities shall focus on multi-disciplinary research for clean, safe and sustainable energy technologies (including visionary actions) and joint implementation of pan-European research programmes and world-class facilities.

6. Robust decision making and public engagement

Activities shall focus on the development of tools, methods, models and forward-looking and perspective scenarios for a robust and transparent policy support, including activities on public engagement, user involvement, environmental impact and sustainability assessment improving the understanding of energy-related socio-economic trends and prospects.

7. Market uptake of energy innovation

Activities shall build upon and further enhance those undertaken within the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme. They shall focus on applied innovation and promotion of standards to facilitate the market uptake of energy technologies and services, to address non-technological barriers and to accelerate the cost-effective implementation of the Union's energy policies. Attention will also be given to innovation for the smart and sustainable use of existing technologies.

8. Specific implementation aspects

A main aim will be to support the implementation of the research and innovation agenda of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan). The enabling environment for mass deployment of demonstrated technological and service solutions, processes and policy initiatives for low-carbon technologies and energy efficiency across the Union shall be supported. This may involve support to technical assistance for development and roll-out of energy efficiency and renewable energy investments.

More detailed information on the individual areas can be found in the Specific Programme of Horizon 2020.