Closing ceremony of the prestigious National Centre for Energy
Representatives of research teams from a dozen Czech universities, research organisations and sixteen companies belonging to the top of the energy sector made a ceremonial end to the four-year project of the National Centre for Energy (NCE). The project, with a budget of more than CZK 370 million and 30 sub-projects, aimed to connect academia with application sphere and deepen long-term cooperation between researchers and key players in the field of advanced energy. Invited guests included members of the Centre Council and representatives of foreign research organisations such as the Fraunhofer Institute and Technische Universiteit Delft, representatives of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic, the Energy Regulatory Office, the Moravian-Silesian Region and the Czech Energy Employers' Association. Researchers from leading Czech universities, the Academy of Sciences, and major energy players such as CEZ a.s., Veolia Energie CR, a.s. or Doosan Skoda Power, s.r.o. also attended the event. The primary invitees were TA CR representatives and project opponents Ladislav Bělovský and Jan Holub, project rapporteur Milan Mušák and consultant Rút Bízková.
"The three hundred achieved outputs, which will be implemented and put into practical use, serve as evidence of the NCE’s successful fulfillment of its primary mission and the optimal utilisation of the support provided by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic," agreed in their opening statement the project’s principal investigator and director of CEET Stanislav Mišák and the chairman of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic Petr Konvalinka, who joined the event via online broadcast. "At the same time, we are honoured to be able to build on these achievemnts in the following six-year project, the National Centre for Energy II, which was supported in the 2nd public competition of the National Centres of Competence Programme and started this January," Mišák thanked.
During the Final Project Evaluation, Daneš Burket, the expert guarantor of the application segment from the Research Centre Rez, presented on the collaboration’s focus on the efficiency, reliability, and safety of power units. "The National Centre for Energy proved that it fulfilled the basic requirement of the tender and was a real centre of competence. It can be called a centre because the mutual cooperation of all involved members was at the core of its operation. It deserves the title of competence, above all because it has helped us to further develop these competences," Dr. Burket explained in his presentation. Furthermore, he emphasized that aside from its primary benefits, the center’s accomplishments have a significant economic and social impact and can enhance the competitiveness of businesses.
Jarmila Dedková from ATEKO a.s. provided a comprehensive summary of activities related to research in the field of hazardous waste treatment and disposal during the Final Evaluation. "Within the framework of our research, we have discovered new potential of the technologies used for the disposal of hazardous substances by flameless incineration and through the National Centre for Energy, we have been given the chance to verify the new technology in practice," Dedková explained the innovative potential of the project outputs. Her presentation on the topic of alternative sources and waste was complemented by Stanislav Mišák in the role of expert guarantor, and the issue of the usage of industrial waste heat employing ORC technologies was summarised by Jaroslav Frantík from the Centre for Energy and Environmental Technologies at VSB-TUO.
"The prospect of converting the project’s outcomes into tangible business opportunities and revenue, the trust of our industrial partners highlighted by their eagerness to invest their resources in our joint activities, and the support granted by the TA CR for two Centres of Competence over the forthcoming six-year span are the three main reasons behind the success of the project,“ summarised Zdeněk Peroutka, the expert guarantor of the centre. The topic of the Energy Networks application segment was complemented by practical demonstrations by researchers from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, the CEET and IT4I institutes at VSB-TUO and representatives of CEZ Distribuce, a.s.
Mišák ensured international overlap through the application of European or international intellectual property rights. He concluded his speech by thanking the participants for their attention, quoting the famous English scientist Michael Faraday’s motto: "The secret is comprised in three words: Work. Finish. Publish."
Text: Mgr. Sylva Krčmářová
Photo: Ing. Petr Havlíček
