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Proposal APERTURES. PART B Priority6.1.3.1.1.2 - FP6-2005-TREN-4 p 12 of 49
In Italy the Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) had funded RES research projects to one of
the partners involved in APERTURES. The APERTURES project impinges on more general themes associated
with sustainable development e.g:-

The hydrogen economy

On-going research in this field looks to optimise the use of hydrogen as an energy store – indeed there is
currently a large amount of research funding invested in this area both in the USA and in Europe. The
conversion of hydrogen based energy to electricity is usually via fuel cells or combustion engines. These
devices therefore act as embedded generators, and as such require intelligent power electronic interface
technology similar to that developed for RES in this project. The tools techniques and equipment developed
in this project relate directly to those used in hydrogen based equipment.

The nuclear option

On-going research into fusion (and fission) will probably mean that one of these energy sources will be
used to maintain the high baseline source that is presently produced by fossil fuels. Recent announcements
by the UK government suggest that nuclear technology will be seriously considered as a future replacement
for coal and gas fired plants. The coordination of the operation of embedded RES in conjunction with a
stiff transmission system will use the intelligent (autonomous) interface techniques developed in this
project.

A project scope highly relevant to the priority thematic area and European Era policies:
It can therefore be clearly seen that the goals and objectives of the APERTURES project will touch more areas of
commercial and industrial life than mention in the thematic area, and as such provide a most important contribution
to the development of intelligent power electronic systems.

The APERTURES project aims to disseminate the results of the work to both consortium members, and the wider
research/development community so as to extend to larger grids the ideas, the design guidelines developed. This
will lead to a positive impact with regard to the development opportunities at a regional and local level: spin-offs,
take-up activities, exchange of personnel, meetings and conferences will be considered during the project, as
explicitly stated by the European Directive n°2001/77/CE. This is particularly important for SME’s and small
producers of energy.

The project also will contribute to the recommendation of the European Parliament that recently called for
an integrated approach to energy policies that will give renewables a 25% share by 2020.