PRESS RELEASE BY VICE MINISTER-PRESIDENT INGRID LIETEN,
FLEMISH MINISTER FOR INNOVATION, GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT, MEDIA AND POVERTY PREVENTION
17 december 2009
FLANDERS FRONT RUNNER IN EUROPE IN THE FIELD OF SUSTAINABLE ENERGY
Flemish Minister for Innovation, Ingrid Lieten: “Flanders is a front runner in Europe in the field of innovation in sustainable energy. Yesterday Europe recognised a Flemish-Netherlands project as the European innovation hot-spot for sustainable energy use in buildings and cities. This project is part of a wider European consortium that has been identified by Europe to become a leader in the field of sustainable energy.”
Europe wants to work on developing a knowledge-based society and simultaneously address major social challenges. Thus Europe established the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) in order to bundle European innovative forces, which had been too fragmented up to that point. The EIT focuses on the three aspects of the knowledge triangle: higher education, research and industry or entrepreneurship.
In practice, this is done by establishing KIC’s (Knowledge and Innovation Community). Thus a KIC is responsible for practically implementing the research efforts of various leading international knowledge institutions. The first three themes on which Europe focuses are: climate change, information & communication-society and sustainable energy. At the start of April 2009, the EIT launched an appeal to consortiums that wanted to be recognised as a KIC. Yesterday, the EIT decided which consortiums would be recognised.
The decision was particularly favourable to Flanders. The InnoEnergy consortium was selected to form the KIC for ‘Sustainable energy’, and Flanders plays a key role in this consortium.
InnoEnergy will become the innovation hot-spot for sustainable energy in Europe. The consortium consists of six co-location centres, with each centre researching a specific topic in greater detail. The Flemish-Dutch section of the consortium is constructed around the universities K.U.Leuven and TU Eindhoven, the two research centres TNO and VITO and Eandis (operator of distribution network in Flanders). Imec, Elia, Philips, ECN, NXP and Energy Delta Institute are also part of the consortium.
The Flemish-Netherlands consortium will specifically focus on the theme of 'Intelligent and energy-efficient buildings and cities'. It will be based in Genk (Waterschei) and Eindhoven. The efficient use of available energy is crucial for buildings, office spaces and transport within cities. Decentralised generation by civilians and companies (via sun panels, small windmill parks and micro CHP) must be optimally implemented. Energy facilities and the use of energy must be continuously evaluated and managed. This will require a fundamentally new approach. Thus, for example, the various energy flows (gas, electricity, sun energy...) must be optimally combined, whereby it is necessary to quickly and efficiently switch between the various energy sources depending on availability and/or cost price and/or ability to adjust demand and/or to storage energy (for example, there is no sun at night and other energy sources will need to be implemented).
The other co-location centres are Scandinavia (Stockholm), Alps region (Grenoble), Germany (Karlsruhe), Iberia (Barcelona) and Poland (Krakow).
Europe provides 8.67 million Euros to each KIC and gives each KIC a starting subsidy of 3 million Euros. The remaining amount will be released as soon as an agreement is signed between EIT and the KIC.
Flemish Minister of Innovation, Ingrid Lieten: “With the selection of InnoEnergy, Europe has clearly opted to consolidate energy policy in Europe, and a key role will be played by Flemish and Dutch partners. This demonstrates that Flanders is one of the front runners in energy research. The project in Waterschei will be very appealing to foreign companies (and investors) and researchers. It will also help Flanders to further enhance its research capacities. It will result in many new jobs, also for people with fewer qualifications – it is well known that highly technological jobs lead to jobs for people with lower-level education.”
The Flemish government has already provided 9.8 million Euros of co-financing to the joint project between KU Leuven and VITO.
Gerrit Jan Schaeffer, Energy director at VITO: "This is fantastic news. It means that the leading European centre for education, research and innovation in green cities, smart grids and related sustainable mobility, will be based in Flanders."
Ronnie Belmans, professor at the K.U.Leuven: “Education, research and innovation in advanced energy techniques lie at the heart of many new products and services. They help to lay the foundations for future export from Flanders to Europe and beyond. Flanders will thus be able to operate in the market for energy systems in the coming decade – this market is estimated to be worth several hundred billions of Euros. All this helps to establish the basis for intelligent networks, ‘smart grids’.”
In the coming months, all participating partners will sign an agreement with the EIT. The aim is to effectively make a start in mid-2010.
Press info: Robbie Scaut, spokesperson vice minister-president Ingrid Lieten
Tel: +32 476 32 73 54
Email: robbie.scaut@vlaanderen.be
