Launch of the Greek-Turkish Solar Energy Excellence Hub to Advance European Green Deal, SolarHub

George Karagiannakis as head of the Greek partners and main CERTH representative

During the kick-off meeting in Constantinople

The emblematic Excellence Hub SolarHub "A Greek-Turkish Solar Energy Excellence Hub to Advance European Green Deal", aims to strengthen the connections and scale-up 5 Greek and Turkish solar energy innovation ecosystems as a single, hybrid, cross-border, and interconnected Solar Energy Excellence Hub with an emphasis on agriculture applications. Among 19 project partners from Greece and Turkey and 2 from Central and Northern Europe, Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH) has the critical role of coordinating the Greek ecosystem that consists of quadrupole helix representatives; i.e the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES), the Regional Development Fund of Central Macedonia (RDFCM), the social cooperative Electra Energy, the farmers cooperation Venus Growers and the companies Brite Hellas S.A. and Sammler B. Michalopoulos S.A.

On the 23^rd of January 2023 in Istanbul, Turkey, CERTH’s representatives participated in the SolarHub Kick-Off meeting. The meeting launched by Dr. Derek Baker on behalf of the project coordinator ODTU-GUNAM Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications, Dr.  George Karagiannakis as head of the Greek partners and main CERTH representative, and Dr. Rasit Turan as head of the Turkish partners. European Commission representatives, Mr Christopher Niehaus, Project Officer of the European Research Executive Agency, and Mr Stefan Weiers, Head of Sector and Director General for Research and Innovation, Widening, ERA, & Research Infrastructure Programming, participated in person and highlighted the emblematic cooperation among project partners. Afterwards, the objectives and initial planning of actions in the framework of the project’s Work Packages were defined and analysed among the project partners involved.

CERTH is looking forward to an essential collaboration among the partners of the two neighboring countries and to the effective achievement of the SolarHub project objectives during its 4-year duration and beyond as the initiative ultimately aspires to become a sustainable and reference collaborative structure for solar thechnologies in Southeast Europe.