Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is a public corporation pursuing the tasks of a Baden-Wuerttemberg state university and of a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. The KIT mission combines the three core tasks of research, higher education, and innovation. With about 9,400 employees and 24,500 students, KIT is one of the big institutions of research and higher education in natural sciences and engineering in Europe.
The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA) is mainly called upon: to promote and carry out basic and applied research and innovation technology; to disseminate and transfer technologies, encouraging their use in productive and social sectors; to provide high-tech services, studies, tests and evaluations to both public and private bodies and enterprises. The activities on new Technologies for Energy, Renewable Sources and Energy Conservation are conducted by around 400 employees, 90% of which is made up of highly specialised and experienced researchers and technicians.
The Institute was founded in 1946 as the LAS Institute of Energetics and Machine-Building. As a result of the reorganization of the recent years, 12 laboratories function at the Institute, and the Latvian Technological Centre was founded in 1993 embracing 32 firms, mainly connected with the scientific research areas of the Institute of Physical Energetics.
Fraunhofer IEE (new name since 2018; formerly Fraunhofer IWES) was founded at the start of 2009 from the merger of the former Fraunhofer Center for Wind Energy and Maritime Engineering CWMT in Bremerhaven and the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Technology ISET e.V. in Kassel. The research activities of the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology IIEE cover the integration of renewable energies into energy supply structures in technical and economic regard.
The European Commission`s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has a significant activity in the field of photovoltaics, which takes place in the Renewable Energy unit of the Institute for Energy. A major feature is the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI), which is a European reference laboratory for the verification of the power and energy generation of photovoltaic devices. Within the SOPHIA project, JRC is leading the networking sub-task on energy prediction and participate in the joint research activity on module lifetime, as well as offering access to its facilities.
ECN is the main institute for energy research in The Netherlands. ECN develops high-quality knowledge and technology for the transition to a sustainable energy supply, and introduces this technology to the market. ECN’s focus is on energy conservation, renewable energy and an efficient and clean use of fossil fuels.evelops high-quality knowledge and technology ECN Solar Energy, with its staff of 85 experts, offers a wide range of R&D activities on PV materials and -processing technologies, cell- and module design. These are available for transfer and implementation on laboratory-, pilot- and production scale. Our extensive facilities for solar cell processing and characterisation are well suited to study almost all R&D issues currently relevant for the PV industry.
Ingegneria e Ricerca S.p.A (EII) manages for Enel S.p.A all the engineering processes relevant to the design and construction of power plants as well as research studies devoted to requirements of Enel Group and third parties. Enel Ingegneria e Ricerca S.p.A. participates to the Sophia project through its Advanced Solar PV Laboratory one of test site of its Research Area. The PV laboratory is located in Catania and is the Enel site devoted to the analysis, qualification and modeling of PV technologies. The laboratory has a total area of 10 hectares and thanks to its optimal weather conditions and exposure to the sun, allows all year round field evaluations of innovative cells, modules and photovoltaic systems such as combined systems using crystalline silicon cells as high efficiency active devices and multi-junction cells, or thin film photovoltaic systems
The National Solar Energy Institute INES is France’s center of reference in the field of solar energy. Based at Savoie Technolac on the shores of Lake Bourget, the institute was set up with the backing of Savoie Départemental Council and Rhône-Alpes Regional Council, and includes research and development teams from the CEA, CNRS, University of Savoie and CSTB.
