Renewable Energy

• Solar

- Development of advanced technologies and applications and of innovative photovoltaic components and plants - including concentration photovoltaic modules - all targeted at cost reduction. - Development of new types of high-efficiency solar cells with innovative, low-cost techniques and processes and the use of new and more efficiency cell design. - Creation of innovative production processes for crystalline silicon cells thanks to high-efficiency techniques that can be scaled up to the industrial level. - Development of concentration photovoltaic modules; creation of thin-film cells of polychrystalline silicon, grown by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) on ceramic and ribbon substrates. - The PhoCUS (Photovoltaic Concentrators to Utility Scale) project seeks to prove the technical feasibility of concentration photovoltaic systems and its greater potential compared with traditional (flat) systems with the aim of making it economically competitive with other energy sources.

Sustainable Development

• General

Research, development and demonstration of innovative combustion processes in turbines, boilers and industrial furnaces fired by various fuels: fossil fuels (normally natural gas), gaseous mixes of low heat capacity (biomass derivatives, syngas, waste) and new fuels (eg. hydrogen). Of particular interest are mild-combustion technologies (moderate and intense low oxygen dilution), which marry high combustion efficiency at high temperatures with low emissions of GHGs (-30% CO2) and other pollutants such as NOx and CO (reduction of one order of magnitude).