04/05/2022
The European Experience Exchange project, led by the FIIAPP, resumes study visits with the mobilisation of Cuban university professors to universities and research centres in three European countries specialised in renewable energy sources and energy efficiency
The Delegation with the fusion reactor during their visit at KTH. Photographer: Fredrik Persson
Professors from the seven main Cuban universities that make up the National Group of Universities for Renewable Energy Sources (GNUFRE) have travelled to Europe through the Cuba-Renewables Project.
The main objective has been to establish coordination with actors in the academic, industrial and technological fields and to learn about good practices and European experiences that will help them strengthen their research networks in universities and industry in the field of renewable energies.
The Cuban representatives have visited six universities and technological research centres in Spain, Belgium and Sweden and have been able to observe how platforms specialised in renewable energies are managed at university level, their multidisciplinary approaches, and their relations with relevant actors. In this way, they have established contact with European counterparts, with whom they will be able to continue the exchange of experiences in the future.
The visit have taken place in two groups, one group started their trip in Spain and the other in Belgium. The Group 1 visited the Renewable Energy Research Institute of the University of Castilla-La Mancha, where they have seen laboratories and facilities for biofuels and their hydrogenation, industrial electronics and energy quality, and solar concentration. At the CARTIF Technology Centre in Valladolid, they have visited the solar absorption refrigeration installation, a hybrid collector test bench and various photovoltaic installations.
On the other hand, the Group 2 have visited the Belgian EnergyVille initiative for research and innovation in sustainable energy and smart energy systems: an example of university-industry collaboration to promote the energy transition. They also have met Green Energy Park, a project that develops and operates a research campus on energy transition and mobility, hospitals of the future and smart regions.
Both groups finally met in Sweden, where they have visited the Stockholm University of Technology (KTH) and Uppsala University. During the visit to KTH, several examples of collaboration with industry and international exchanges were presented, three current research projects were seen, and the fusion reactor was visited.
In Uppsala, the week have ended with a visit to the StandUp for Energy research programme, a collaboration between Swedish universities to promote research and innovation in the field of renewable energy.
