The EU Energy Projects Podcast
Pantera is a Horizon 2020 project that aims at setting up a European forum composed of Research & Innovation stakeholders active in the fields of smart grids, storage and local energy systems.
The name itself is an acronym standing for PAN European Technology Energy Research Approach and the vision behind the project is to create, through the EIRIE (European Interconnection for Research Innovation & Entrepreneurship) a multi-functional collaborative platform.
According to Venizelos Efthymiou, who is the Project Coordinator “the Pantera project attempts to bridge the gaps that currently exist in the energy field in Europe, between member states regarding research and innovation, and a foot and financial commitment for achieving the strategic objectives of Europe for 2030 and 2050, leading to a low carbon economy in support of them environmental aspirations of humanity”.
“Digitalization highly depends on communication infrastructure and related technologies”
Venizelos Ethymiou, project coordinator
The project is targeting specific areas of smart grids storage and local energy systems. Key objectives in this process is the development of a multifunctional platform to connect the EU research and innovation community and to enhance collaboration. “All contributing entities will benefit through the enhanced connectivity and wider range of services leaving no one behind” says Venizelos.
And as far as the diversity of the continents is concerned, the various grades and the peculiarities of each EU member state, securing fair and competitive research and innovation in a Pan European level is one of the objectives of the project.
“Diversity is actually a main objective of our project” says the Project Coordinator “and, it is true that we have diversity in the detail of the evolution of systems supporting the energy needs of Europe. And that is both natural and desirable.
But that diversity can at times be an obstacle, especially when it comes to rules and regulations. Policy according to Venizelos “is not responding to technology developments fast enough” and in addition “faster adoption of maturing technologies in research and development requires regulations to go a bit faster too”.
And Pantera, as a forum, will help unite the various voices of the industry and give them an opportunity not only to be heard, but to collaborate too.
Listen to the full discussion and find out also how Pantera assists the EU Commission and the stakeholders of the sector in connecting the dots so as to accelerate the energy transition.