IREC - Catalonia Institute for Energy Research

 

The Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) was created to contribute to the objective of creating a more sustainable future for energy usage and consumption, keeping in mind the economic competitivity and providing society with the maximum level of energy security.

This contribution will be done through scientific and technological development. The research requires a long-term vision which allows the identification of future challenges in energy. The Institute also works with practical research which allows businesses to implement innovative solutions immediately.

The project is framed in the Catalan, Spanish and global economic systems, and for that reason the institutional and business patrons have singularly and significantly joined forces for one common objective: the creation of value by means of scientific knowledge and technological development in the energy sector, a sector with global consequences with brings the IREC to an international arena, and becoming a point of reference in several of these areas.

The IREC is a project in which there are people participating who know that through the Institute they can contribute to a more sustainable future of energy production and consumption, in an environment of excellence.

As is already well known, it is necessary to find the equilibrium between sustainable energy development, economic competitivity and safe and secure energy supply. Each country and each situation requires a different point of equilibrium, but there are common objectives: reduce carbon emissions below 500 ppm before the year 2050.

In any case, the Institute was born within the framework of energy policies and technological research in Catalonia, Spain and the European Union, which design their strategies for a long term basis.

The IREC must help to develop and put into action the new opportunities of the energy sector, while still engaging the present and future social reality.

For more information visit the webpage

Enviaments recents

  • The influence of different wind and wave conditions on the energy yield and downtime of a Spar-buoy floating wind turbine 

    Lerch, Markus; Prada Gil, Mikel de; Molins i Borrell, Climent (2019-06)
    Article
    Accés restringit per política de l'editorial
    Floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) have been extensively proven in model tests and are reaching currently a pre-commercial phase where large scale demonstrators are being built offshore. This transition increases the ...

  • Solar vanadium redox-flow battery powered by thin-film silicon photovoltaics for efficient photoelectrochemical energy storage 

    Urbain, Félix; Murcia López, Sebastián; Nembhard, Nicole; Vázquez Galván, Javier; Flox Donoso, Cristina; Smirnov, Vladimir; Welter, Katharina; Andreu, Teresa; Finger, Friedhelm; Morante Lleonart, Joan Ramon (Institute of Physics (IOP), 2018-11-15)
    Article
    Accés obert
    Solar-powered vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRFB) have emerged as an attractive method for large-scale and efficient energy storage and conversion. However, due to the stringent charging voltage requirements of vanadium-based ...

  • A wind farm control strategy for power reserve maximization 

    Siniscalchi Minna, Sara; Bianchi, Fernando Daniel; Prada Gil, Mikel de; Ocampo-Martínez, Carlos (Elsevier, 2019-02-01)
    Article
    Accés obert
    Nowadays, in many countries wind energy is responsible for a significant part of the electricity generation. For this reason, Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are now demanding the wind power plants (WPPs) to contribute ...

  • P-type c-Si solar cells based on rear side laser processing of Al 2O 3/SiC x stacks 

    Ortega Villasclaras, Pablo Rafael; Martín García, Isidro; López Rodríguez, Gema; Colina Brito, Mónica Alejandra; Orpella García, Alberto; Voz Sánchez, Cristóbal; Alcubilla González, Ramón (2012-11)
    Article
    Accés restringit per política de l'editorial
    In this work, we further investigate a new strategy to passivate and contact the rear side of p-type c-Si solar cells based on the laser processing of aluminum oxide (Al2O3)/amorphous silicon carbide (SiCx) stacks before ...

  • Graphene-supported palladium phosphide PdP2 nanocrystals for ethanol electrooxidation 

    Liu, Junfeng; Luo, Zhishan; Junshan, Li; Yu, Xiaoting; Llorca Piqué, Jordi; Nasiou, Déspina; Arbiol, Jordi; Meyns, Michaela; Cabot, Andreu (2019-03-01)
    Article
    Accés restringit per política de l'editorial
    We present a procedure to produce single-phase PdP2 nanocrystals (NCs). The approach involves the reaction of palladium(II) acetylacetonate and hexamethylphosphoroustriamide to nucleate defective Pd5P2 nanoparticles that ...

  • A simplified model for the dynamic analysis and power generation of a floating offshore wind turbine 

    Lerch, Markus; Prada Gil, Mikel de; Molins i Borrell, Climent (EDP Sciences, 2018)
    Text en actes de congrés
    Accés obert
    This paper presents a simplified model for the dynamic analysis of a floating off-shore wind turbine (FOWT), which can be suitable for early feasibility and pre-engineering studies, where the complete system has to modeled ...

  • Comparison of the state of Lithium-Sulphur and lithium-ion batteries applied to electromobility 

    Benveniste Pérez, Gabriela; Rallo, Héctor; Canals Casals, Lluc; Merino, Antonio; Amante García, Beatriz (2018-11-15)
    Article
    Accés obert
    The market share in electric vehicles (EV) is increasing. This trend is likely to continue due to the increased interest in reducing CO2 emissions. The electric vehicle market evolution depends principally on the evolution ...

  • Role of tungsten doping on the surface states in BiVO4 photoanodes for water oxidation: tuning the electron trapping process 

    Shi, Qin; Murcia López, Sebastián; Tang, Pengyi; Flox Donoso, Cristina; Morante, Joan Ramon; Bian, Zhaoyong; Wagn, Hui; Andreu, Teresa (2018-03-09)
    Article
    Accés restringit per política de l'editorial
    The nanostructured BiVO4 photoanodes were prepared by electrospinning and were further characterized by XRD, SEM, and XPS, confirming the bulk and surface modification of the electrodes attained by W addition. The role of ...

  • High-power positive electrode based on synergistic effect of N- and WO3 -decorated carbon felt for vanadium redox flow batteries 

    Hosseini, Mir; Mousavihashemi, Seyedabolfazl; Murcia López, Sebastián; Flox Donoso, Cristina; Andreu, Teresa; Morante, Joan Ramon (2018-09)
    Article
    Accés obert
    Although Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries (VRFB) are suitable for grid-scale applications, their power-related cost must be reduced in order to boost the use of this technology in the market, allowing their widespread ...

  • A wind farm operational strategy for primary frequency support optimization 

    Siniscalchi Minna, Sara; Bianchi, Fernando Daniel; Ocampo-Martínez, Carlos; Prada Gil, Mikel de (2017)
    Comunicació de congrés
    Accés obert
    With the aim of distributing the total power required at the wind farm control level for each wind turbine, we proposed a multi-objective model predictive control scheme able to (i) ensure the tracking of the power demanded ...

  • A wind-lidar buoy for offshore wind measurements: first commissioning test-phase results 

    Gutiérrez Antuñano, Miguel Ángel; Tiana Alsina, Jordi; Rocadenbosch Burillo, Francisco; Sospedra, Joaquim; Aghabi, Rajai; González Marco, Daniel (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 2017)
    Comunicació de congrés
    Accés restringit per política de l'editorial
    This paper presents the development of a new commercial floating lidar system aimed to measure the wind resource and other environmental variables at candidate wind farm locations. This work describes this new lidar system ...

  • A prototype reactor for highly selective solar-driven CO2 reduction to synthesis gas using nanosized earth-abundant catalysts and silicon photovoltaics 

    Urbain, Félix; Tang, Pengyi; Carretero González, Nina Maga; Andreu, Teresa; Gerling Sarabia, Luis Guillermo; Voz Sánchez, Cristóbal; Arbiol Cobos, Jordi; Morante Lleonart, Joan Ramon (2017-10)
    Article
    Accés obert
    The conversion of carbon dioxide (CO2) into value-added chemicals and fuels, preferably using renewable energy and earth-abundant materials, is considered a key priority for future energy research. In this work, a bias-free ...

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