REELCOOP project: developing renewable energy technologies for electricity generation

REELCOOP stands for REnewable ELectricity COOPeration and is a recently approved EU-FP7 project under the Energy 2013 call to develop renewable energy technologies for electricity generation. The REELCOOP project will address different technologies: photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, solar thermal and bioenergy. The impacts on the grid due to electricity generated by these technologies will also be assessed. Three REELCOOP prototypes using the different technologies will be built and tested,, representing both micro-scale (distributed) and large-scale (centralised) approaches to electricity generation. The decentralised systems will be a Building Integrated PV (BIPV) system - using ventilated façades to improve cell efficiency, and an ORC-CHP system driven by solar thermal and biomass. The centralised electricity generation system will be a small-size Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plant, running with hybrid energy sources (solar/biomass). REELCOOP also aims to reinforce cooperation between EU and MENA countries.