BioMatNet Item: FP6 - ETI-CT-2005-023395 - SYNERGY+ Expanding the Competitive Intelligence in the European Distributed Energy Resources sector

FP6 - ETI-CT-2005-023395
SYNERGY+ Expanding the Competitive Intelligence in the European Distributed Energy Resources sector

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Website: www.sme-innova.com/synergy_plus/index.jsp
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Electricity : Sustainable Development and Renewable Energy

SYNERGY+ Workshops

RESULTS FROM 20 SME WORKSHOPS HELD IN 2006 AND 2007: innovation trends from 200 European SMEs of the DER sector.

Download Report (2152Kb PDF)

Throughout 2006 and early 2007, the SYNERGY+ consortium has performed training/workshop sessions in six countries (Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Poland and Spain) dedicated to SMEs, in order to:

deliver the required knowledge and know-how to build competitive project proposals, eligible to the Energy Calls;
collect SME feedback (on opportunities and barriers faced in DER markets) , from their day-to-day work in this growing market.

The results from these training/workshop sessions, involving more than 200 SMEs, are reported in the publication indicated above, the content of which are as follows:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

GLOSSARY

TABLE OF CONTENT

1. INTRODUCTION

2. Why RTD at EU level in the DER sector?

3. SMEs' RTD NEEDS

₂

4. CONCLUSIONS

ANNEX 1: LIST OF WORKSHOPS PERFORMED

Executive Summary

This document aims at picturing SMEs' innovation trends in the DER sector based on workshops held throughout Europe in 2006 and 2007. They are described in such a way that they can feed

DG Research and DG TREN future calls for proposals according to the FP7 strategic orientations
the Strategic Research Agenda (SRA) of the DER-related European Technology Platforms (ETP) with new RTD routes.

The present paper describes, within obvious confidentiality constraints, the specific contributions of 200 interviewed SMEs', leading to RTD needs that are presented along three dimensions: technology, market and regulations. These interviews reveal that Public European support is searched for by SMEs for four main reasons:

The potential growth of the DER sector in Europe requires that innovation is based on a European competitive analysis, thus avoiding lone regional or national analysis: EC-funded programs require that SMEs have made that competitive analysis PRIOR to submitting RTD proposals. Hence, if selected, the SME growth perspectives will be reinforced into its European market potential right away.
funded projects require collaborative approaches involving whenever possible a value chain of competences: hence SMEs are introduced to partners beyond their national markets through EC-funded RTD, which in turn should speed up their European development. In particular, thay can better address via RTD tasks the regulatory constraints regarding DER that are still highly country dependent.
The convergence of IT technologies with energy technologies gives rise to innovative business models in regional markets (metering, communication, control, etc) : SMES are probably more prone to pioneer on innovative uses, being helped through EC funding to gain both technology and market expertise
EC funding sends positive signals to investors, because the selection process leads to potential champions, provided that the expected knowledge is gained through efficient RTD performance and the implementation of this knowledge reaches market applications.

By expanding the participation of European SMEs of the DER sector to research and development projects funded by the European Commission in the 6th and 7th Framework Programmes., SYNERGY+ has therefore collected a series of innovation trends coming from SMEs. They are compiled in this report and will be sent to DER-related ETPs.