Project i-STENTORE: Innovative storage systems to fight climate change

The i-STENTORE  project is investigating innovative energy storage solutions that will lead to different patterns in the use of green energy sources such as solar, wind power and hydro power.

Sustainability and challenges of climate change are directly related to innovation, as an indispensable resource to find new strategies and solutions for the common problems that are causing tangible and immediate consequences.

Innovation plays a central role in introducing sustainable solutions across different sectors and fields, while at the same time decreasing the inevitable footprint related to the usage of energy for all kinds of purposes. The environmental, economic and societal dimensions are, for example, directly affected by innovative approaches that can minimise the impacts of climate change.

Through innovation, i-STENTORE plays an important role in these three different vectors.

i-STENTORE - innovative Energy Storage TEchnologies TOwards increased Renewables integration and Efficient Operation, is exploring this value proposition through examining the integration of diverse energy storage solutions and their combinations, thereby introducing stand-alone and hybrid energy storage systems.

Read more about:
EU-Funded energy projects
Energy storage
Renewable energy

In the journey of empowering a sustainable future, energy storage has emerged as a crucial pillar of energy systems. Energy storage technologies are the answer to bridging the gap between energy production and consumption, enabling a reliable and resilient power supply while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency, of course, also plays a key role in this paradigm. Renewable energy sources - such as solar and wind - improve energy efficiency and sustainability, as well as reduce reliance on fossil fuels and lower carbon emissions.

This is where the i-STENTORE values stand up and make this journey even more urgent. The relationship between innovation, green energy, and sustainability is intricate and mutually reinforcing.

Building a framework

The i-STENTORE storage-enabling framework is deploying a technological, operational, business, and regulatory framework which consists of:

• A Technological Reference Implementation
• A set of diverse pilots integrated in the i-STENTORE framework
• A business enabler focusing on designing and validating novel storage-centric business models
• A regulatory assessment
• An effective and targeted promotion of its proposed innovative and interoperable solutions reaching all relevant stakeholders.

The mobility, agricultural, industry, household, heating and other sectors are covered through diverse pilots featuring versatile storage solutions, as this project intends to produce valuable outputs to the day-to-day activities of different targets. The project focuses on reliability, the power quality, the cost-efficient operation and the maximization of the assets’ lifetime as end-goals.

The decentralisation of the power sector is one of the program keys, as i-STENTORE aims to generate a technological soft solution through creating a level playing field for intelligent energy storage based applications involving multiple energy stakeholders and systems. The future energy market configuration will be impacted by the developments of i-STENTORE, namely through the introduction of novel stand-alone and hybrid energy storage systems.

Five Demos and one Living Lab are being monitored and evaluated to assess the potential to scale and replicate the results achieved in the demo, already producing results in six countries: Slovenia, Portugal (Madeira Island), Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and Greece.

The data management and IPR protection procedures that will be followed during the course of the project can already be consulted in the Data Management Plan.

Coming back to the role of innovation for the renewable energy sector development, I STENTORE is investing in innovation not only in terms of novel technologies and state-of the-art materials, but also in terms of optimal management and coordination of storage assets.

Contributing for the development of new business models

The project will first identify existing marketing options for energy storage, as well as economic hurdles for wide-scale storage penetration.

Upon this, i-STENTORE will gather possible single-use applications of storage systems on markets, for congestion management, as well as for the provision of grid-supporting services.

For these different applications, i-STENTORE will develop business models based on the costs and potential revenue streams.

i-STENTORE intends to generate real and valuable outputs, turned into something tangible, capable of being worked on and placed into the market. The project will provide strong evidence of the opportunities and benefits offered by innovative regulation frameworks to ease the integration of renewable energies.

The project will provide a comprehensive guide and recommendations for policy makers and regulators, showing the pros and cons of different approaches to the integration of energy storage.

Since consumer acceptance of the solution is a prerequisite to increase participation in electricity markets, i-STENTORE will contribute to reduce regulatory barriers for the participation of behind the meter storage in local electricity markets and limitations on data exchange among stakeholders.

The recommendations will contribute to addressing real-life issues encountered by the demo developers of the i-STENTORE project. Each of the demo leaders will face unique challenges due to country-specific policy regulations (or lack of).

Since market for storage is in its infancy in all aspects of the value chain, from regulation to the technology supply, troubleshooting installed equipment, connecting and operating the technology, and participating in markets, i-STENTORE project recommendations will pave the way to enable an economically feasible and harmonized growth of the storage market.