Concept

ROBINSON aims to help decarbonise islands through developing an intelligent, flexible and modular Energy Management System (EMS), better integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), biomass and wastewater valorisation, industrial symbiosis, and the optimisation and validation of innovative technologies (e.g. energy storage via hydrogen, CHP, AD+BES, wind turbines).

The integrated ROBINSON energy system will ensure a reliable, cost-efficient and resilient energy supply contributing to the decarbonisation of the European islands by helping to decrease CO2 emissions.

ROBINSON’s EMS, supported by cutting edge digital technologies such as blockchain, will optimise the use of local renewable energy sources by integrating energy and storage technologies across different energy vectors (electricity, heat and gas). It will also ensure an efficient and smart integration of all Distributed Energy Resources (DER), energy surpluses, and storage capacities available on the island, while considering demand-side response, power balancing, weather forecast and market-related costs.

To support islands’ decarbonisation, ROBINSON’s EMS will integrate newly developed and/or adapted technologies, such as a small gas turbine based Combined Heat and Power unit (CHP); Anaerobic Digester assisted by BioElectrochemical Systems (AD+BES) to enable the conversion of liquid waste into biomethane; a mobile innovative wind turbine; a gasifier to covert bio-waste; and hydrogen-related technologies (electrolyser and storage system).

The system will be demonstrated on the island of Eigerøy (Norway) and lab-scale level replication studies will be conducted for the island of Crete (Greece) and the Western Isles (Scotland). The user-friendliness and high modularity of the system ensure a great potential for replication on other islands, as well as in remote areas in Europe and beyond. The project will also encourage business opportunities for local communities and open up markets for the developed technologies.CO2

 

SPECIFIC CHALLENGE​

Energy production costs on geographical island are up to ten times higher than on the mainland; therefore the large-scale deployment of local renewable energy sources and storage systems brings economic benefits and, at the same time, contributes to decarbonising the energy system of the island, reducing greenhouse gases emissions and improving, or at least not deteriorate, air quality.

Objectives
Expected impacts
Structure
Technologies
Consortium
Flag of Europe This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 957752.
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