Sustainable infrastructure developer Acciona has announced that it is now part of the European SOLARX project, funded by the European Commission’s (EC’s) Horizon Europe program. The project started in 2022 and is expected to be completed within three years. It is intended to address issues that prevent the current energy infrastructures to better handle large volumes of intermittent renewable energy.

The SOLARX project would integrate three high-concentration solar technologies and intelligent AI-based resource management into a dispatchable renewable energy system (RES). This includes:

• An intelligent solar resource management algorithm that can instantly respond to local energy demands.
• A high efficiency concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) receiver.
• A hydrogen (H2) bi-energy receiver with negative carbon emissions.

Acciona claims that, with its partners, it can demonstrate a single facility that produces process heat, electricity, and hydrogen (H2) from the solar resource. Taking into account energy demand and market prices, this facility can then drive economies and redefine the rules to create an efficient system that facilitates the creation of a carbon negative energy future, according to the company.

This project addresses the challenges related to the management of solar resources and technological challenges. It also explores ways to manage the entire innovation process along the entire value chain. Acciona is contributing its industrial experience in solar thermal technology and its techno-economic know-how.