ESPOO, Finland, May 27, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- With European Union funding, VTT
launches research openings and a postdoc programme supporting
sustainable growth in Finland and
invests in clean energy infrastructure.
The EU aims to reduce its dependency on Russian
fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy. To take
concrete actions, the EU has launched the REPowerEU plan, which is
part of the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). VTT has just
launched three strategic research openings and a postdoc programme
as part of the implementation of the REPowerEU chapter of
Finland's Recovery and Resilience
Plan.
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 EUR 22.8 million
to develop clean energy solutions.
"The research projects of EUR 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," says Jussi
Manninen, Executive Vice President of VTT's Carbon
Neutral Solutions business area.
Increasing in 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," says Tua Huomo, Executive
Vice President of VTT's Sustainable Products and Services business
area.
Postdoc programme recruits top experts in
energy sector
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
EUR 3.4 million has been reserved for
this purpose.
"With REPowerEU funding, we deepen our
cutting-edge 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 says.
VTT invests in clean energy pilot infrastructure
and builds process development facilities in Bioruukki as well as
research and product development services. The EUR 5 million granted from the REPowerEU envelope
to extend the pilot infrastructure is part of VTT's total
investment (EUR 21.3 million) in
Bioruukki. The REPowerEU funding covers part of the hydrogen and
emission-free transport infrastructure and research equipment. The
clean energy testing and piloting infrastructure will be used for
research and development projects important to industry, such as
hydrogen technologies, reducing industrial carbon footprint,
transport and energy storage.
The three strategic research openings
launched: Electricity storage and accelerating clean energy,
industrial energy efficiency and low-carbonisation, as well as
renewable hydrogen economy, the postdoc programme and the
development of the Bioruukki piloting infrastructure are part of
the additional chapter of the REPowerEU investment and reform
programme for sustainable growth in Finland prepared by the Ministry of Economic
Affairs and Employment, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of
the Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, for
which Finland has reserved
EUR 127 million in total. From the
RePowerEU funding allocated to research institutes, a total of
EUR 22.8 million has been allocated
to VTT's research openings. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and
Employment acts as the ministry responsible for the project towards
the European Commission.
Inquiries
Jussi
Manninen, Executive Vice President of Carbon Neutral
Solutions business area, VTT, jussi.manninen@vtt.fi,
+358405355947
Tua Huomo, Executive Vice President of Sustainable Products and
Services business area, VTT, tua.huomo@vtt.fi, +358405644146
Siina Lepola-Lång, Senior Specialist, Ministry of Economic Affairs
and Employment of Finland,
siina.lepola-lang@gov.fi, +358 50 596 6560
Further information on VTT:
Pepita Wakkola
Manager, Communications
+358 50 360 7242, pepita.wakkola@vtt.fi
www.vtt.fi
This information was brought to you by Cision
http://news.cision.com
https://news.cision.com/vtt-info/r/vtt-to-increase-finland-s-expertise-in-developing-clean-energy-solutions,c3986692
View original
content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vtt-to-increase-finlands-expertise-in-developing-clean-energy-solutions-302155860.html
SOURCE VTT Info