Over 17-19 February, representatives from Energy Agency Fukushima followed a tight schedule of meetings to identify partnership opportunities between Basque and Japanese companies, with the aim of preparing for the upcoming roll-out of renewable energies and hydrogen techniques in Japan.

The European project “Digitalization Of Critical Components in OFFshore wind turbines” (lead by the Basque Energy Cluster) aims to demonstrate the impact of sensing and remote monitoring in the optimization of the design, the increase of the performance and the reduction of maintenance costs of critical subsystems in offshore wind turbines. The project kicked off last 21st of January at HINE facilities in Olaberria and has a budget of €1M and it is financed by the European Union´s Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

INNTERESTING, coordinated by the Technological Research Centre IKERLAN, has a budget of €4.75M and it is financed by the European Union´s H2020 Research and Innovation Program. The project kick-off meeting took place last 15th and 16th of January 2020 at KU Leuven facilities (Belgium).

The magazine Wind Energy Network, in collaboration with the Basque Energy Cluster, has published in its first issue of 2020 a special article on R&D projects in the wind energy sector in the Basque Country, focusing on the strategic Hazitek IOENERGY and MODEOL projects (pages 30-31).

Traditional manufacturers of renewable components are experts in many technical fields. However, in general they face more difficulties when dealing with digitalisation processes of their systems, in aspects such as sensoring, communication, data processing and analysis. The aim of IOENERGY has specifically been to connect suppliers with a more traditional profile with companies in the digital world to implement effective cooperation in value generation and data-based services as a main source of competitive advantage.

The second Consortium Meeting was held on 4th December at the headquarters of SENER in Getxo (Bizkaia) with the aim of continuing to promote the collaborative research and development of technologies and solutions for offshore wind power structures, towers and auxiliary systems for the new generation of high power wind turbines (10 MW+). The project has a budget of €5.3M for the 2019-2021 period and is funded by the Basque Government's Hazitek Programme, with the support of the European Regional Development Fund.

The European SHAR-Q project “Storage capacity over virtual neighbourhoods of energy ecosystems”, led by Atos and with the participation of the Basque Energy Cluster to coordinate the communication and dissemination activities, concluded its work after three years with an outstanding event in Brussels, having successfully met the objectives.

(Digital Magazine elEconomist Basque Country) Jose Ignacio Hormaeche during the interview explains some future challenges of the Basque Energy Cluster, such as the design of the new strategic plan 2019-2022 and the maintenance of the multinational driving capacity such as Iberdrola and Siemens-Gamesa within the Basque sector. “We count on international leaders, therefore we have to take advantage of it. Our approach as a Cluster is to proportionate good reasons for these types of companies, so that these international companies will rely on the Basque industry and all of that just can be achieved with a competitive territory and competitive companies.

The opening of the event, which was held on 24th January 2019 in the Auditorium on the Bizkaia Technology Park (Zamudio) from 9am to 1.45pm, was presided over by the Basque Government's Deputy Minister for Technology and Innovation, Estíbaliz Hernáez. In addition to presenting the results obtained by the Hazitek SecureGrid project in the three years since it was launched, it was attended by Asier Martínez, Head of CSIRT Services at the Basque CyberSecurity Centre (BCSC), and representatives of leading electricity grid operators, such as Red Eléctrica de España (REE), Iberdrola, EDP and Endesa.