One of the objectives of Finland is to support research and development activities focusing on clean energy solutions. VTT's first research opening focuses on electricity storage and accelerating clean energy production, the second on improving industrial energy efficiency and the third on renewable hydrogen economy solutions. VTT has been granted €22.8 million to develop clean energy solutions.
"The research projects of €17.8 million just launched will not only aim at significant reductions of emissions and improvements in energy efficiency, but also create opportunities for new types of business and business models. The aim is to develop solutions for both domestic use and export," said Jussi Manninen, Executive Vice President of VTT's Carbon Neutral Solutions business area.
Increasing production of clean energy goes hand in hand with a fundamental change in heavy industry. Improvements are required in both energy and material efficiency and decarbonisation of processes as such. This is why the research themes are cross-cutting and cover value chains.
"For example, carbon capture and industrial reuse are linked to the hydrogen economy, which in turn is linked to energy storages. The production of raw materials for renewable plastics or fuels requires hydrogen with carbon. Hydrogen, on the other hand, can be produced by electricity when there's an excess of renewable energy production," saod Tua Huomo, Executive Vice President of VTT's Sustainable Products and Services business area.
VTT has already carried out pioneering research and development to promote renewable energy solutions. The aim is now to increase expertise and develop solutions to address bottlenecks related to the green transition, such as the adequacy of electricity storage capacity, availability of critical materials and safety challenges in the use of hydrogen. This requires new expertise, which is why the research openings include an extensive postdoc programme. The programme is used to hire top experts from both Finland and abroad, and €3.4 million has been reserved for this purpose.
"With REPowerEU funding, we deepen our energy research and develop solutions that accelerate the commercial adoption of key clean energy technologies in Finland. The postdoc programme also helps us to attract top foreign researchers to Finland," Jussi Manninen said.