Interreg 2 Seas region: the Solarise project

For the first time Flux50 cooperates as a partner in a European project. The European Solarise project is to be run in the Interreg 2 Seas region.Interreg 2 Seas is a European Territorial Cooperation Programme covering England, France, the Netherlands and Flanders. The programme is financed by the European Regional Development Fund and by the participating regions and Member States (incl. Flanders). It finances projects on low carbon technologies, adaptation to climate change, .... 

The European Solarise project is to be run in the Interreg 2 Seas region. With numerous partners from the business world, academic and public sectors involved, the project aims to facilitate large-scale development of solar electricity and heat generation.

Driven  by the EU in its strive to derive 20% of energy consumption from renewables by 2020, there have been major steps forwards in solar electricity generation. Despite this, and the fact that it is the most abundant of all renewable energy sources, solar electricity is seen as being extremely expensive and problematic. This is due to the time it takes to achieve a return on the investment and due to the variability of solar energy. Solutions such as solar photovoltaic batteries have not been adequately deployed despite rises in consumer energy prices. As such, solar energy has not been adequately embraced in the 2 Seas region and is not fulfilling its potential.

The Solarise project will test and demonstrate various solutions on historical public buildings and even domestic households in urban and rural settings, aiming to reduce the costs associated with solar energy, and implement innovations in storage technology to increase efficiency and encourage use at the point of generation.  

Technology demonstration projects will be evaluated and reviewed by partners based on their potential for wide-scale deployment and replicability, providing a framework for commercialisation of the technology throughout the 2 Seas region.

Within Solarise, Flux50 will take up the dissemination role and, in addition will act as the contact for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP).  With the insights gained from within this project, the members of Flux50 will be able to achieve higher penetration of solar power in Flanders.