3. SECURE, CLEAN AND EFFICIENT ENERGY

The energy sources and consumption patterns of Europe's industries, transport systems, buildings, districts, towns and cities are largely unsustainable, leading to significant environmental and climate change impacts. Real-time energy management for new and existing near-zero-emission, near-zero-energy and positive energy buildings, retrofitted buildings as well as active buildings, highly efficient industries and mass take-up of energy-efficient approaches by companies, individuals, communities, cities and districts will require not only technological advances, but also non-technological solutions such as new advisory, financing and demand management services and input from the behavioural and social sciences while at the same time taking into account questions of public acceptance. In this way improved energy efficiency may provide one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy demand, thereby enhancing security of energy supply, reducing environmental and climate impacts and boosting competitiveness. To meet these challenges the further development of renewable energies and the tapping of energy efficiency potentials are important. Reducing energy consumption and eliminating energy waste, while providing the services that society and economy need, requires not only that more efficient, cost-competitive, environmentally friendly and smarter equipment, products and services are brought to mass market but also the integration of components and devices in such a way that they cooperate to optimise the overall energy use of buildings, services and industry. To ensure full adoption and full benefits for consumers (including the possibility for them to monitor their own consumption), energy performance of these technologies and services needs to be customised and optimised for and in their application environments. This requires researching, developing and testing innovative ICT and monitoring and control techniques as well as demonstration projects and pre-commercial deployment activities to ensure interoperability and scalability. Such projects should aim to contribute to significantly reducing or optimising the overall energy consumption and energy costs by developing common procedures to collect, collate and analyse energy consumption and emissions data to improve the measurability, transparency, public acceptability, planning and visibility of energy use and its environmental impacts. Security and privacy by design to protect monitoring and control techniques should be safeguarded in these processes. Developing platforms and applying them for verifying the stability of such systems will help to ensure reliability. A substantial share of energy is consumed for heating or cooling purposes across the Union, and the development of cost-effective and efficient technologies and system integration techniques, such as network connectivity with standardised languages and services in this area, would have a major impact in reducing energy demand. This requires research and demonstration of new design techniques and systems and components for industrial, commercial and residential applications, for example in decentralised and district supply of hot water, space heating and cooling. This should encompass different technologies, such as solar, thermal, geothermal, biomass, heat pumps, combined heat and power, and recovery of waste energy, and meet the requirements of near-zero-energy buildings and districts and support smart buildings. Further breakthroughs are needed, in particular, in storage for thermal energy from renewable energy sources and to foster the development and deployment of efficient combinations of hybrid heating and cooling systems, for centralised and de-centralised applications. Urban areas are one of the largest consumers of energy in the Union and emit a correspondingly large share of greenhouse gases, while generating a substantial amount of air pollutants. At the same time, urban areas are affected by decreasing air quality and climate change and have to develop their own mitigation and adaptation strategies. Finding innovative energy solutions (e.g. energy efficiency, electricity and heating and cooling supply systems, and integration of renewables in the built environment), integrated with transport systems, smart construction and urban planning solutions, waste and water treatment as well as ICT solutions for the urban environment is therefore crucial in the transformation towards a low-carbon society. Targeted initiatives in support to the convergence of industrial value chains of the energy, transport and ICT sector for smart urban applications need to be envisaged. At the same time, new technological, organisational, planning and business models need to be developed and tested at full scale according to the needs and means of cities and communities and their citizens. Research is also needed to understand the social, environmental, economic and cultural issues that are involved in this transformation. Electricity will play a central role in the establishment of an environmentally sustainable low-carbon economy. Renewable energy sources lie at the core of this development. The uptake of low-carbon electricity generation is too slow due to the high costs involved. There is a pressing need to find solutions that reduce costs significantly, with enhanced performance, sustainability and public acceptance to accelerate the market deployment of low-cost, reliable and low-carbon electricity generation. Activities shall focus on research, development and full scale demonstration of innovative renewables, including small and micro-scale energy systems, efficient, flexible and low-carbon emission fossil power plants and carbon capture and storage, or CO_(2) re-use technologies. The objective for wind energy is to reduce the cost of electricity production of onshore and offshore wind by up to about 20 % by 2020 compared to 2010, to increasingly move offshore, and to enable proper integration in the electricity grid. The focus will be on the development, testing and demonstration of next generation wind energy conversion systems of larger scale (including innovative energy storage systems), higher conversion efficiencies and higher availabilities for both on- and offshore (including remote locations and hostile weather environments) as well as new serial manufacturing processes. Environmental and biodiversity aspects of wind energy development will be taken into account. The cost of solar energy, covering photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar power (CSP), should be halved by 2020 compared to 2010, if it is to substantially increase its share of the electricity market. For PV, this will need further research on, inter alia, novel concepts and systems as well as demonstration and testing of mass production with a view to large-scale deployment and building integration of PV. For CSP, the focus will be on developing ways to increase efficiency while reducing costs and environmental impact, enabling industrial up-scaling of demonstrated technologies by building first-of-a-kind power plants. Solutions to efficiently combine the production of solar electricity with water desalination will be tested. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key option that has to be widely deployed on a commercial scale at global level to meet the challenge of a decarbonised power generation and low-carbon industry by 2050. The objective is to minimise the extra-cost of CCS in the power sector for coal-fired, gas-fired and oil-shale fired power plants compared to equivalent plants without CCS and energy intensive industrial installations. Support will be given, in particular, to demonstrate the full CCS chain for a representative portfolio of different capture, transport, storage and re-use technology options. This will be accompanied by research to further develop these technologies and to deliver more competitive capture technologies, improved components, integrated systems and processes, safe geological storage and rational solutions and public acceptance for the re-use of captured CO_(2) to enable the commercial deployment of CCS technologies for fossil fuel power plants and other carbon-intensive industries going into operation after 2020. Support will also be given to clean coal technologies as technologies complementary to CCS. Geothermal, hydro, and marine energy as well as other renewable energies can contribute to the decarbonisation of the European energy supply while enhancing its flexibility to variable production and use of energy. The objective is to further develop and bring to commercial maturity cost-effective and sustainable technologies, enabling large-scale deployment at an industrial scale including grid integration. Enhanced geothermal systems is a technology that should be further researched, developed and demonstrated notably in the fields of exploration, drilling and heat production. Ocean energies such as tidal, current or wave energy and osmotic power offer zero-emission and predictable energy and can also contribute to the development of the full potential of offshore wind energy (combination of marine energies). Research activities should include laboratory scale innovative research into low-cost reliable components and materials in a high corrosion, biofouling environment as well as demonstrations under the varied conditions found in European waters. Meeting Europe's energy and CO_(2) reduction goals also requires the development of new fuels and mobile energy sources. This is particularly important to meet the challenge of smart, green and integrated transport. Value chains for these technologies and alternative fuels are not sufficiently developed and must be accelerated to demonstration scale. The objective for bioenergy is to bring to commercial maturity the most promising technologies, to permit large-scale, sustainable production of advanced biofuels of different value chains in a bio-refinery approach for surface, maritime and air transport, and highly efficient combined heat and power and green gas from biomass and waste, including CCS. The aim is to develop and demonstrate the technology for different bioenergy pathways at different scales, taking account of differing geographical and climate conditions and logistical constraints, while minimising negative environmental and social impacts linked to land use. Longer term research will support the development of a sustainable bioenergy industry beyond 2020. These activities will complement upstream (e.g. feedstock, bio-resources) and downstream (e.g. integration into vehicle fleets) research activities carried out in other relevant specific objectives of the priority "Societal challenges". Fuel cells and hydrogen have a great potential to contribute to addressing energy challenges facing Europe. Bringing these technologies to market competitiveness will require significant cost decrease. As an illustration the cost of fuel cell systems for transportation will have to be reduced by a factor of ten over the next 10 years. To do so, support will be given to demonstrations and pre-commercial deployment activities for portable, stationary and micro-stationary, transport applications and the related services, as well as long-term research and technology development to build up a competitive fuel cell chain and a sustainable hydrogen production and infrastructure across the Union. Strong national and international cooperation is needed to enable market breakthroughs of a sufficient scale, including the development of appropriate standards. There is a range of new options with long term potential, such as powdered metal fuel, fuel from photosynthetic micro-organisms (in water and land environments) and from artificial photosynthesis mimics and solar fuels. These new paths may offer potential for more efficient energy conversion and more cost-competitive and sustainable technologies. Support will be given notably to bring these new and other potential technologies from laboratory to demonstration scale size in view of pre-commercial demonstration by 2020. Electricity networks have to respond to three interrelated challenges to enable a consumer-friendly and increasingly decarbonised electricity system: creating a pan-European market; integrating a massive increase of renewable energy sources; and managing interactions between millions of suppliers and customers (where increasingly households will be both), including owners of electrical vehicles. Future electricity networks will play a key role for the transition to a decarbonised energy system, while providing additional flexibility and cost benefits to the consumers. The overriding goal by 2020 is to transmit and distribute about 35 % Commission Staff Working Document SEC(2009) 1295 accompanying the Communication on "Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET-Plan)" (COM(2009) 519 final). of electricity from dispersed and concentrated renewable energy sources. A strongly integrated research and demonstration effort will support the development of new components, technologies, and procedures which will respond to the particularities of both the transmission and distribution side of the grid, as well as flexible energy storage. All options to successfully balance energy supply and demand must be considered to minimise emissions and costs. New smart energy grid technologies, back-up and balancing technologies enabling higher flexibility and efficiency, including conventional power plants, new grid components to improve the transmission capacity and quality as well as the reliability of grids have to be developed. New power systems technologies and a bi-directional digital communication infrastructure must be researched and integrated into the electricity grid as well as used to establish smart interactions with other energy grids. This will contribute to better planning, monitoring, control and secure operation of networks, including standardisation issues, in normal and emergency conditions as well as to managing the interactions between suppliers and customers and to transporting, managing and trading energy flow. For the deployment of future infrastructure, indicators and cost benefit analysis should take into account energy system-wide considerations. In addition, synergies between smart grids and telecommunication networks will be maximised in order to avoid duplication of investments, to increase safety and to accelerate the take up of smart energy services. Novel energy storage means (including both batteries and large scale storage means such as power-to-gas) and vehicle systems will provide the required flexibility between production and demand. Improved ICT technologies will further increase the flexibility of electricity demand by providing customers (industrial, commercial and residential) with the necessary automation tools. Security, reliability and privacy are important issues here as well. New planning, market and regulatory designs need to drive the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the electricity supply chain and interoperability of infrastructures as well as the emergence of an open and competitive market for smart energy grid technologies, products and services. Large-scale demonstration projects are needed to test and validate solutions and assess the benefits for the system and for individual stakeholders, before deploying them across Europe. This should be accompanied by research to understand how consumers and businesses react to economic incentives, behavioural changes, information services and other innovative opportunities provided by smart grids. Novel, more efficient and cost-competitive as well as clean, safe and sustainable energy technologies will be required for the long term. Progress should be accelerated through multi-disciplinary research and joint implementation of pan-European research programmes and world-class facilities to achieve scientific breakthroughs in energy-related concepts and enabling technologies (e.g. nano-science, material science, solid state physics, ICT, bio-science, geosciences, computation and space). Safe and environmentally sustainable unconventional gas and oil resources exploration and production as well as the development of innovations in future and emerging technologies will also be supported, where appropriate. Advanced research will also be needed to provide solutions to adapt energy systems to changing climatic conditions. Priorities may be adjusted to new scientific and technological needs and opportunities or newly-observed phenomena which could indicate promising developments or risks to society and which may emerge during the course of implementation of Horizon 2020. Energy research should support and be strongly aligned with the energy policy. Extensive knowledge and research on the uptake and use of energy technologies and services, infrastructure, markets (including regulatory frameworks) and consumer behaviour is required to provide policy makers with robust analyses. Support will be given, in particular in the frame of the Commission's Information System for the SET-Plan (SETIS), to develop robust and transparent theories, tools, methods, models and forward-looking and perspective scenarios to assess the main economic and social issues related to energy; to build databases and scenarios for an enlarged Union and for the assessment of the impact of energy and energy-related policies on the security of supply, consumption, the environment, natural resources, climate change, society and competitiveness of the energy industry; and to carry out socio-economic research activities as well as science in society studies. Taking advantage of the possibilities offered by web and social technologies, and consumer behaviour, including that of vulnerable consumers such as persons with disabilities and behavioural changes, will be studied in open innovation platforms such as living labs and large-scale demonstrators for service innovation as well as through panel surveys, while ensuring privacy. Innovative market uptake and replication solutions are essential for the roll-out of new energy technologies in time and through a cost-effective implementation. In addition to technology-driven research and demonstration, this requires actions with clear Union added value aiming to develop, apply, share and replicate non-technological innovations with a high leverage factor in the Union's sustainable energy markets across disciplines and levels of governance. Such innovations will focus on creating favourable market conditions at regulatory, administrative and financing level for low-carbon, renewable and energy-efficient technologies and solutions. Support will be given to measures facilitating the energy policy implementation, preparing the ground for roll-out of the investments, supporting capacity-building and acting on public acceptance. Attention will also be given to innovation for the smart and sustainable use of existing technologies. Research and analysis repeatedly confirm the crucial role of the human factor in the success and failure of sustainable energy policies. Innovative organisational structures, the dissemination and exchange of good practices and specific training and capacity-building actions will be encouraged. The priority setting for the implementation of the activities in this societal challenge is led by the need to strengthen energy research and innovation at the European level. A main aim will be to support the implementation of the research and innovation agenda of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) COM(2007) 723. to achieve the objectives of the Union's energy and climate change policy. The SET Plan roadmaps and implementation plans will therefore provide a valuable input for the formulation of the work programmes. The SET Plan governance structure will be used as a principle basis for strategic priority setting and the coordination of energy research and innovation across the Union. The non-technological agenda will be guided by the Union's energy policy and legislation. 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 the development and roll-out of energy efficiency and renewable energy investments. In the field of market uptake, activities shall build upon and further enhance those undertaken within the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme. Partnering with European stakeholders will be important to share resources and implement joint activities. It may be envisaged, on a case-by-case basis, that existing European Industrial Initiatives (EIIs) of the SET Plan are turned into formalised public-private partnerships, if considered appropriate, to increase the level and coherence of funding and to stimulate joint research and innovation actions among both public and private stakeholders. Consideration will be given to provide support, including with Member States, to alliances of public research performers, in particular the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) established under the SET Plan to pool public research resources and infrastructures to address critical research areas of European interest. International coordination actions shall support the SET Plan priorities according to the variable geometry principle, taking account of countries' capabilities and specificities. Appropriate links with the actions of relevant European Innovation Partnerships and the relevant aspects of the research and innovation agendas of European Technology Platforms will also be established. Consideration may be given to support relevant Joint Programming Initiatives (JPIs) and relevant public-public and public-private partnerships. Activities shall also focus on increasing the support and promoting the involvement of SMEs. The Commission's Information System for the SET Plan (SETIS) will be mobilised to develop, together with stakeholders, key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor the progress of implementation. These KPIs will be revised on a regular basis to account of the latest developments. More broadly, implementation under this societal challenge will seek to improve the coordination of relevant Union programmes, initiatives and policies, such as cohesion policy, in particular through the national and regional strategies for smart specialisation, and the emission trading schemes (ETS), for example concerning support to demonstration projects.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.