Call: Highly flexible and efficient fossil fuel power plants

Programme	Horizon 2020 - Societal Challenges
Type of Fund	Action programme
Description of programme "Horizon 2020 - Societal Challenges "	A challenge-based approach will bring together resources and knowledge across different fields, technologies and disciplines, including social sciences and the humanities. This will cover activities from research to market with a new focus on innovation-related activities, such as piloting, demonstration, test-beds, and support for public procurement and market uptake. Funding focuses on the following challenges: Health, demographic change and wellbeing; Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy; Secure, clean and efficient energy; Smart, green and integrated transport; Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials; Europe in a changing world - inclusive, innovative and reflective societies; Secure societies - protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens.
Link	Link to Programme
Description of programme "Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy"	This Sub-Programme is structured around seven specific objectives and research areas: Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint Low-cost, low-carbon electricity supply Alternative fuels and mobile energy sources A single, smart European electricity grid New knowledge and technologies Robust decision making and public engagement Market uptake of energy and ICT innovation.
Call	Highly flexible and efficient fossil fuel power plants
Description of call "Highly flexible and efficient fossil fuel power plants"	The share of energy produced from renewable resources is growing rapidly. The output of wind and solar power is highly variable, and depends of factors such as weather conditions and time of day. With this growing share of renewable power, in particular when having priority access to the grid, fossil fuel power plants will have to increasingly shift their role from providing base-load power to providing fluctuating back-up power to meet unpredictable and short-noticed demand peaks, in order to control and stabilise the grid. Plants should be able to run both at the lowest part load possible at the highest possible efficiency. Moreover, plants will be required to operate across the entire load range with high load-change velocities, and even operate in start/stop mode with full turndown and very fast re-start, all at minimal (lifetime) fuel consumption. This forces base-load plants to operate through significantly more thermal cycles, leading to increased rate of wear on plant components. Operational flexibility therefore presents a significant challenge for fossil fuel power (and combined heat and power (CHP)) plants. Projects should lead to innovative and cost-effective solutions to improve the ability of new and/or existing dispatchable thermal power plants to meet fast load changes, in order to better support the grid.
Link	Link to Call
Thematic Focus	Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy, Research & Innovation, Technology Transfer & Exchange, Capacity Building, Cooperation Networks, Institutional Cooperation, Circular Economy, Sustainability, Natural Resources
Funding area	EU Member States Candidate Countries Bosnia and Herzegovina Iceland / Ísland Moldova Norway / Norge Switzerland / Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera Ukraine / Україна Oukraïna Others
Origin of Applicant	EU Member States Albania / Shqipëria Bosnia and Herzegovina Iceland / Ísland Moldova Montenegro / Crna Gora/Црна Гора North Macedonia / Северна Македонија Norway / Norge Serbia / Сpбија Switzerland / Schweiz / Suisse / Svizzera Turkey / Türkiye Ukraine / Україна Oukraïna Others
Eligible applicants	Education and Training Centres, Research Institution, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises, SMEs (between 10 and 249 employees), NGO / NPO, Start Up Company, University, Enterprise (more than 250 employees or not defined), Association
Project Partner	Yes
Project Partner Details	At least three legal entities. Each of the three must be established in a different EU Member State or Horizon 2020 associated country. All three legal entities must be independent of each other.
Recurring Call	No
Type of Funding	Grants
Financial details	The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU in the range of 3 to 6 million € would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts. EU funding rate: 100%.
Submission	Electronic application here.
Contact Details	Link to the National Contact Point Finder.