http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/wind/eu-invests-e1-2bn-in-alternative-energy-infrastructure-research-canvasses-e22bn-by-2020.html

The European Union (EU) is to invest €1.2bn in three new pan-European alternative energy research infrastructure projects as part of the roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI).

The EU said it may also invest up to a further €22bn in key new energy infrastructure projects and major upgrades over the next ten to 20 years that have been identified by the ESFRI as priority projects, in a statement released yesterday. The ESFRI has identified 50 new research infrastructures and major upgrades in its updated 2010 roadmap, which will be primarily financed by the EU member states, with the support of other European programmes.
The recipients of the latest round of EU funding include a wind research facility in Denmark, a concentrated solar power installation in Spain, together with a nuclear research reactor in Belgium. The WindScanner project in Denmark, which is expected to cost between €45m and €60m, will have the capacity to produce detailed maps of wind conditions, which it is hoped will lead to lighter and more efficient wind turbines. Due to come online around 2013, the project will be operated by a consortium of European partners at the Risø DTU National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy.
The EU-Solaris solar research infrastructure at the Advanced Technological Centre for Renewable Energy in Almeria in Spain will cost around €80m to construct, and will be complemented by smaller research projects at several European laboratories in solar-rich countries such as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Turkey, as well as Germany.
The EU said that energy research infrastructures are playing an increasingly important part in realising the European Strategic Energy Technology (SET) – Plan.
European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, said, ‘Developing world-class research infrastructure in Europe, by pooling resources at EU level, is an important objective of the Innovation Union.
‘These facilities will enable ground-breaking research and innovation and ultimately they could help to secure the EU’s future energy supply. We need to bring research, technology, industry and market implementation closer together and that is the purpose of the European SET Plan.’
A key objective of the EU Innovation Union concept is to launch the construction of 60 per cent of key priority European research infrastructures, according to the EU.
The EU’s seventh Framework Programme for Research has a budget of € 1.7bn for research infrastructure. A further €10bn in funds area available to infrastructure projects through the EU Structural Funds.