Why islands ?
High energy prices, dependency on fossil fuels and/on mainland grid, seasonal peaks related to tourism fluxes: those are just few of the energy challenges the European islands have to face every day. However, despite all those difficulties, the European islands have a huge potential to play an essential role in Europe’s energy transition: from optimization of the use of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and efficient use of local resources (and local waste), to innovative energy management to different energy vectors, islands have the potential to become forerunners in the decarbonisation of the energy systems.
However, implementing the energy transition on islands is not an easy task: the uniqueness of each island is its strength, but also its curse: there is no silver bullet solution that works on each islands. Every island needs tailored-made and adapted solutions that could provide them clean, cost-efficient and reliable solutions tailored to fit their geographical situation, the fluctuating population and the local economy.
ROBINSON’s aims to help islands by being highly flexible and adaptable: its modularity will allow for replicability on different (European) islands and support them in their quest for energy transition and decarbonisation.
To cover their energy needs, islands are still dependent on supply from mainland provided either by costly interconnections or boat imports (which increase CO2 emissions).
Energy prices on islands are on average 2 to 10 higher than the cost on the mainland.
The combination of variable RES and batteries as storage system is not always sufficient for industrialized islands, which often need high amount of electricity, heat and steam
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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 957752.