Since June 2023, the work within the StoRIES project has progressed notably in all of its Work Packages. Here is a summary of what has been achieved since the last update:
In WP1, the structure of the 4 Working Groups has been enhanced by introducing an open call for experts on the project's website, complemented by internal procedures for admitting new members. These groups are assembling experts from both industry and research to offer valuable insights into the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) and the Roadmap for Hybridisation of Energy Storage. Additionally, experts collaborate within the framework of Transnational Access calls, evaluating the outcomes and creating a closed feedback loop. Another outcome of the Working Groups will be a report aimed at identifying the needs of energy storage actors. It will focus on technical deficiencies in the European grid, highlight various revenue streams, and provide an overview of legislative and socio-economic challenges in hybridised energy storage technologies, accompanied by case studies across European markets.
One of the most noteworthy recent results of WP1 lies in the domain of FAIR data. A self-assessment methodology has been developed to pinpoint the specific needs and challenges faced by researchers in the energy storage field concerning FAIR data. The result showed most laboratories are not prepared to embrace the FAIR principles, otherwise a small group energy storage laboratory has made strides in the field of open science and FAIR data. This group of laboratories could serve as the nucleus from which to develop best practices and standards within the energy storage community. Further, the results underscore a clear need for intervention and education within the energy storage research community to promote the adoption of FAIR data principles. By addressing the identified challenges and raising awareness of the benefits of FAIR data, researchers can be empowered to derive advantages from sharing their data, ultimately accelerating research and innovation in the field of energy storage.
Internationally, StoRIES partners have closely collaborated with Canadian counterparts (NRCan, University of Toronto, etc.) in various areas, including co-organising a workshop with Canadian colleagues in the domain of Materials Industry and participating in international training schemes. Lastly, efforts have been made to enhance StoRIES coordination with other energy storage initiatives through meetings with R&I projects (HybridPlus, MeBattery, AGISTIN, ECHO, and ThumbsUp), paving the way for potential future collaborations on information exchange and synergy identification.
In WP2, the first Transnational Access (TNA) was successfully finalised (2 accesses), while the second TNA is about to be closed (10 accesses granted). The applications submitted within the third TNA call (opened from April-August 2023) were evaluated by the experts of the Selection Panel and 8 user projects from RTOs/universities, namely Politecnico di Torino (IT), TU Wien (AT), The University of Edinburgh (UK), University of Bristol (UK), İzmir Institute of Technology (TR), Northumbria University of Newcastle (UK), Austrian Institute of Technology (AT) and Kaunas University of Technology (LT) as well as 2 from industry UMICORE (BE) and Strojírny Bohdalice, a.s. (CZ) were granted.
WP3 released in June 2023 the first drafts of the Roadmap and the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda as an internal milestone. The roadmap, developed and revised with the support of the experts from WG1 and WG4, identifies five categories of applications where hybrid energy storage can offer support: i) Industrial Grid: Generation, ii) Off-grid and Energy Islands, iii) Grid: Transmission and Distribution, iv) Smart Solutions for Mobility and Transportation, v) Smart Buildings. A variety of use cases were finally identified, with the goal of establishing case studies with clear definitions and frameworks, that consists of: 1) technology neutral system requirements for application, 2) how hybrid energy storage can meet the identified needs, 3) what are the drivers for installing the system (e.g. increasing resiliency, sustainability, etc.), 4) technical-economic and sustainability analysis for identification of the costs of the system and the benefits accrued, 5) time of deployment and challenges to implementation. The identified case studies were discussed and confirmed at the “Hybrid Energy Storage Days” in Vienna in December 2023. A number of case studies will be selected for benchmarking and demonstration of the KPI calculation framework developed in T3.2. Finally, T3.1 submitted in October 2023 the report “Suite of methods, tools, infrastructures in data management and modelling-based analytics defined, as well validation with test data sets” as a deliverable.
On 6 December 2023, as part of the StoRIES project Work Package 4, an interactive workshop titled Setting-up a common base for sustainability assessment to unlock the potential applications for hybrid energy storage systems took place at the Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna. The goal of the Workshop was to define and prioritise sustainability impacts and related key performance indicators (KPIs) for energy storage technologies and to identify hybridisation potentials within different application fields.
In the framework of WP5, an Exploitation Workshop was organised to build upon the D5.6 “Exploitation Strategy and Plan”, which will aim to ensure that commercial and non-commercial results will increase the medium and long-term impact of the project and maximise opportunities for future exploitation.
Within WP6, the 3-days event “Hybrid Energy Storage Days” was held on 4-6 December 2023 in Wien (AT). The first two days were dedicated to networking between the European Energy Research Alliance (EERA) Joint Programme Energy Storage (JP ES), StoRIES project partners, industry, including their advisory board members, and Industry. On the third day, the interactive StoRIES workshop on the sustainability assessment of KPIs for hybrid energy storage systems took place at Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT, AT), where there was also the opportunity to present AIT’s research infrastructure offered for the TNA access to Stories project to a wide audience. The KIT project coordination team presented the StoRIES project at several events, namely in September at the EERA JP ES Event ‘Open electrochemical reactors for long duration energy storage’ in Capri and the EURACTIV - EUdebate, 'What role will storage play in the Europe's future energy system?', in October at Scientific Conference – KIT Science Week in Karlsruhe and Gachon University (Seoul, KR) as well as in November at the SET-Plan conference 2023 in Barcelona, Battery Innovation Days 2023 in Bordeaux (FR) and AIV XXVI Conference in Rome (IT).