Nest allocates 15.7 million from Pnrr to fund research projects in Italy: from hydrogen to solar panel recycling
Among the most recently published is the cascade call promoted by Nest's Spoke 6, co-ordinated by the Politecnico di Torino, which funds €1,205,000 for research projects on energy storage, from alkaline ion rechargeable batteries with highly concentrated aqueous electrolytes to the study of battery module degradation and material recovery
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Nest, the only Extended Energy Transition Research Partnership funded with PNRR resources, and the largest in Italy in the energy field ever funded, has allocated through 12 cascading calls, 15,765,000 euro to finance industrial research, fundamental research and experimental development projects.
Among the latest calls for proposals published is the one coordinated by the Politecnico di Bari, lead partner of NEST Spoke 2 specialising in off-shore renewables, which provides EUR 1,500.000 to be allocated to universities, public bodies, research organisations, innovative start-ups, enterprises and foundations, for the development of a digital platform for access to data relevant to the installation of renewable energy conversion technologies from marine sources, with a particular focus on the Mediterranean; for the design of scale models of marine energy conversion systems for the development and calibration of digital twins; and for research on magnetic tunnel effect junctions for the development of electromagnetic energy harvesting for applications in 'green IoT'.
Energy storage
.Among the latest publications is the cascade call promoted by NEST's Spoke 6, coordinated by the Politecnico di Torino, which funds €1,205,000 for research projects on energy storage, from alkaline ion rechargeable batteries with highly concentrated aqueous electrolytes to the study of battery module degradation and material recovery; from innovative methods for sizing electrochemical storage systems to prototype storage systems based on hydrogen production for application with renewable energy systems.
Photovoltaic reuse
.NEST, with Spoke 1 coordinated by the University of Palermo, which carries out research on solar energy, also financed public and private research projects on the 'end of life' of photovoltaic plants in Southern Italy, through circular economy strategies, and on innovative systems with Thin Film PV technology for resilient agricultural activities, with EUR 1,200,000.
Integration between systems
.The largest cascade call issued by NEST to date concerns Spoke 7, on smart sector integration, coordinated by the University of Naples Federico II. This is a €2,350,000 call for proposals, now closed, that has financed research projects for the development of hardware/software solutions for the simulation and digital twinning of complex multi-commodity energy systems; the development of tools and devices for smart coupling in multi-carrier energy contexts; and the development of tools to support technical-economic, regulatory and environmental impact analyses of energy systems in multi-commodity contexts.
