On 25 September 2025, the SOLARX project successfully hosted its final workshop in Almeria, Spain, during the International SolarPACES Conference, the world’s leading conference on concentrating solar power, thermal and chemical energy systems, to leverage the attendance of the conference by specialists in the sector and gather all relevant industrial stakeholders. Project partners presented in person or online to discuss the final results, the relevance of the project and its importance in the development and implementation of commercial solutions.
With the project concluding at the end of October 2025, the consortium demonstrated the technical and economic reliability as well as the social value of the synergetic production of heat, electricity, and hydrogen from solar resources in a single facility. This demonstration considered real-time energy demands and market prices for various locations and application scenarios. During the event, Dr. Jérôme Barrau, the coordinator of the SOLARX project, answered a question from a conference participant about the integration of the modules and offered some materials afterwards to contribute to knowledge sharing and better understanding of the results on the CPV receiver’s implementation.
Workshop Highlights and Expert Presentations
The two-hour session attracted more than 50 participants of whom 20 attended in-person and 30 joined online. The audience raised questions about heliostat controllers and hydrogen reactors while those attending in-person enjoyed various discussions while listening to the following speakers:
- Dr. Jérôme Barrau, professor and researcher from the University of Lleida (UdL) in Spain, presented the results of WP2 with a focus on the design and development of a high-efficiency concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) receiver.
- Dr.-Ing. Gregor Bern from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) in Germany presented the results of WP1 with a focus on creating a smart solar resource management system and control strategies to align solar management and energy production with an adaptive and dynamic supply and demand strategy.
- Prof. Luc Fréchette from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS) in Canada presented the results of WP3 with a focus on the development of the bi-energy H2 receiver driven by renewable electricity or direct solar energy for the transformation (Dual Methane Reforming) of renewable energy biogas.
- Dr. Anders N. Andersen from EMD International in Denmark presented the results of WP4 with a focus on the delivery of a roadmap towards system integration and technology commercialisation.
- Dr. Matti Koivisto from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) presented the results of WP5 with a focus on the analysis of the entire system from a global point of view, including environmental, economic, and social aspects, to guide technical choices and developments during the project.
- Dr. Kypros Milidonis from The Cyprus Institute (CYI) presented the results of WP8 with a focus on the significant enhancement of the first key technological element of the SOLARX project (the smart solar resource management algorithm).
- Dr. Enrique Pascual from ACCIONA discussed unavoidable thermal losses in concentrating solar power plants from real data to modelling.
Below you will find some captures from the session. A recording of the workshop will be made available shortly on the SOLARX website and social media channels. Stay tuned for the video and more updates from the last months of our collaborative journey toward a more resilient and sustainable energy future!
