Launch of the 5th SFERA-III transnational access campaign

With SFERA-III, benefit from free access to top research infrastructures in Concentrated Solar Thermal power across Europe!

The 5^th SFERA-III access campaign has been launched on 1^st December 2022. This call for projects provides free access to 18 installations of 8 state-of-art research infrastructures in Concentrated Solar Thermal power in 6 countries:

FRANCE

• CEA – ESTHER: LHASSA (Latent Heat Storage with PCM)
• CEA – DURASOL: Opti-Lab and Indoor
• PROMES-CNRS: MSSFs

GERMANY

• DLR: Synlight (High-flux solar simulator)
• Fraunhofer ISE: WT Lab, TES-LAb, CD-Lab (Durability testing of materials for concentrated solar thermal), C-Lab Field and CD-Lab

PORTUGAL

• University of Evora: CER (Renewable Energies Chair), PECS (Solar Concentrators Testing Platform), INIESC (National Research Infrastructure in Solar Energy Concentration) and DNI-N

SPAIN

• IMDEA: HTPU-CDL (Computational Design Lab for High Temperature Processes), HTPU-LAB, KIRAN42 (42kWe High Flux Solar Simulator) and VHCST (Very High Concentration Solar Tower)

SWITZERLAND

• ETH Zurich: HFSS (High flux solar simulator) and CHEM (Chemical Laboratory)

TURKEY

• METU/ODAK: GunSolSim (High flux solar simulator)

The campaign offers access to a wide spectrum of experiments such as:

• Solar thermal electricity generation
• Solar fuels production
• Cycles for chemical storage of solar energy
• Solar water treatment
• Solar heating and cooling of buildings to improve energy efficiency
• Modelling and controlling of concentrating solar technologies for power plants and for industrial processes
• High value material synthesis and/or coatings deposits
• High-flux photochemistry and photo-physics
• Characterisation of materials behaviour and properties under extreme conditions

The 5^th SFERA-III campaign is open until 31 January 2023. The selected projects will benefit from 1 to 4 weeks of free access to the chosen facilities for a team of up to 2 persons. Moreover, travel, accommodation, and subsistence costs are reimbursed by the project’s budget.

Timetable and useful links

1st December 2022: Call open and submission of the project proposals – Check conditions for application

31st January 2023: Deadline for submission

Until April 2023: Selection process of the projects to be hosted at the different CSP Research Infrastructures

May 2023: Announcement of the results

June 2023 – December 2023: Hosting of the user projects

📹Watch the replay of our previous free webinar and download the PPT presentation to get more detailed information HERE!

📝To submit your project, fill in the User Research Proposal Form here or download it here.

List of the selected projects:

• First campaign (2019)
• Second campaign (2020)
• Third campaign (2021)
• Fourth campaign (2022)

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DISCLAIMER

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, SFERA-III cannot guarantee that all its services will be performed. In exceptional situations, consortium partners are entitled to regulate, suspend or terminate an access or activity without prior notice and without any refunds or compensation for the damage suffered by the Users. Users are therefore recommended to take out appropriate insurance. You can follow the latest information on the EU Member States restriction of free movement at https://reopen.europa.eu/en.