PEPR TASE
PEPR TASE aims to accelerate the deployment of innovative solutions to increase the share of renewable energies in the energy mix.
In 2021, the French government approved the establishment of a Priority Research Program and Equipment on Advanced Energy Systems Technologies (PEPR TASE), and entrusted CEA and CNRS with its management. It includes the “Energy Systems & Renewable Energies” research program.
With funding of €45 million between now and 2029, TASE supports research into energy networks and photovoltaic solar energy. The program will also study the environmental, economic, social and technological consequences of the transformation of the energy system.
Main objectives
To support France’s reindustrialization and sovereignty plan, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, a number of key objectives have been identified:
- Massively integrate renewable energies (photovoltaics, wind power) into the electricity system
- Innovate for efficient, environmentally-friendly photovoltaics
- Innovate for greater flexibility and resilience in the energy system
- Managing the growing complexity of the energy system
- Preparing for a truly green transition
- Relocating strategic activities and reducing dependence on critical materials
- Assessing the paradigm shift for users and suppliers.
Research fields
Two sectors have been identified as having strong potential for transforming our economy and society, and the ability to become robust drivers of economic growth for our country. These are photovoltaics and energy networks. Moreover, for these two sectors, as well as for the emerging floating wind energy sector, consideration of environmental and societal impact will be a crucial factor in the program’s success.
Photovoltaics
Against a backdrop of massive deployment on both a European and global scale, photovoltaics represent an opportunity for the French industry, which possesses world-renowned technological know-how and can aspire to position itself on fast-growing markets, particularly in Europe, but also in countries that are beginning to develop their industries. The development of the French industrial sector will depend in particular on its ability to innovate and position itself on its domestic market.
Until now, industrial players in the sector have concentrated on encapsulating photovoltaic modules using imported cells. However, new generations of high-efficiency cells could emerge, with interesting prospects in higher value-added markets such as ingot and cell production, the integration of solar tiles into buildings, agrivoltaics to combine solar power and agricultural production, floating solar power… Cell technologies, which are still dominated by silicon, are evolving very rapidly indeed. Innovations in cell passivation and heterojunction technology currently appear to be penetrating markets, and could well replace most current technologies within the next few years. Other innovations concern silicon ingot and wafer manufacturing technologies (mono-cast silicon). Another advantage of these new approaches is that they use manufacturing processes with a much smaller carbon footprint than current standards.
By 2025-2030, tandem cells using different materials in combination with silicon could also become widespread. The aim of all these innovations is to improve cell efficiency, which is a key factor in the profitability of projects, thanks to the reduction in installation costs (land, modules, structures, cabling, etc.). Technical developments are also taking place in module design, with a trend towards greater bifaciality, larger cell sizes, the use of half-cells, and in general, the implementation of all innovations that increase the unit power of modules.
In addition to the design and manufacture of photovoltaic modules, the industry’s future development will also involve the manufacture of inverters, which are becoming increasingly important due to their integration with control systems for managing storage systems and, more broadly, energy management. Other panel components, notably glass and frames, are also growth segments. Finally, the development of innovative French solutions such as building integration, technical solutions dedicated to agrivoltaics, floating photovoltaics, photovoltaics on flexible substrates, or design, supervision and predictive maintenance tools, will also represent new industrial challenges and could constitute tools for international differentiation.
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Energy networks
Energy networks are set to undergo significant changes in the coming decades. The essential decarbonization of the French energy system will result in the strengthening of networks, particularly for heat and electricity, with certain uses, such as mobility, set to intensify. At the same time, the ever-increasing incorporation of renewable sources into these networks (wind and solar power for electricity, biogas for gas, biomass, geothermal energy, and waste heat recovery for heating networks), coupled with the need to constantly balance supply and consumption on these networks, are creating increasingly complex technical challenges.
To enable a secure, carbon-free energy supply while optimizing the total cost of the energy system, networks will need to adapt to flexible production, integrate energy storage and coupling between energy fluids in order to absorb variations in production, and finally promote demand flexibility. This requires combining energy system technologies with digital and telecommunications technologies, and greater standardization and interoperability of data and communication protocols to effectively integrate the actions of different users, consumers, and/or producers.
The French network industry, which includes some of Europe’s largest contractors, is present across the entire value chain (network equipment, energy storage, downstream consumption equipment and management, network management, telecom infrastructure, data processing, engineering, and consulting). It has the capacity to establish itself internationally by offering complementary or integrated solutions. It is able to facilitate initial industrial deployments of a sufficiently significant size to create credible international references and thus support French solutions for export.
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Environmental and social impact
The growing penetration of renewable energies in multiple forms (electricity, gas, heat, etc.) is significantly changing the energy landscape. As such, new areas of consideration in terms of environmental impact and societal acceptance deserve to be explored, beyond purely technological considerations of energy production, transmission, and consumption.
The energy transition involves the widespread deployment of innovative technologies. It can only be envisaged on the basis of solutions with a controlled environmental impact, which requires the implementation of approaches that take into account entire life cycles and the pursuit of R&D in environmental sciences to improve our understanding of interactions with the environment.
Furthermore, the issue of behavioral change, and more generally, the evolution of our lifestyles, is also a key challenge. While individuals do have some room for maneuver, it is nonetheless limited, and forward-looking exercises show that only by combining individual and collective levers can we achieve the energy savings needed to meet France’s targets.
Therefore, a thorough understanding of societal expectations, obstacles, and even apprehensions regarding the implementation of new technologies is essential and requires close collaboration between the academic worlds of energy research and the humanities and social sciences, in partnership with industry stakeholders.
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Governance
The program has put in place a transparent, neutral and high-quality governance structure to steer and coordinate the program as a whole. It liaises with the French government, pilot organizations and representatives of institutional partners. It coordinates the projects financed. It coordinates the program with maturation/upgrading facilities and socio-economic partners. It communicates regularly with other related research programs.
Program governance is based on 3 bodies:
- a Steering Committee (COPIL), whose mission is to define the program’s strategy and validate its orientations
- a Program Director (DP), responsible for taking all decisions required to ensure the smooth running of the Program, in accordance with the terms of reference conferred on it by the COPIL, and in close collaboration with the Program’s Project Managers
- a Program Committee (COPROG), made up of the Program Management, a group of experts, and an ANR representative, whose main mission is the ongoing management of the Program.
The Program also relies on a Socio-Economic Partners Club, made up of representatives from the industry and local authorities, whose role is to assess the potential for value-added and propose R&D topics. In addition, an Institutional Advisory Committee (IAC), made up of representatives of public research bodies heavily involved in the Program, is consulted annually on the progress of the Program, and every 2 years on changes to its roadmap.
The consortium
