Research and Innovation (R&I) in Concentrating Solar Thermal (CST) technologies promises global impacts through new and sustainable solutions to societal challenges. CST technologies include 1) Solar Thermal Electricity (STE/CSP), 2) Solar Heat for Industrial Processes (SHIP), 3) Solar Fuels, and 4) Clean and Fresh Water. The Goal of SolarTwins is to Step-Up the Scientific Excellence and Innovation Capacity of METU-GÜNAM's CST research laboratory through Twinning with the Internationally Leading CST Institutions PSA-CIEMAT (Spain) and DLR (Germany). SolarTwins contains: 1) External Training to strengthen local, regional and national R&I capacities; 2) two summer schools for METU graduate students taught be experts from PSA-CIEMAT and DLR; 3) exchange of METU graduate students to PSA-CIEMAT and DLR for training and research mentoring; and 4) activities for METU-GÜNAM personnel to develop joint research lines with PSA-CIEMAT and DLR that target large joint funding opportunities. The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 856619.
SolarTwins is strongly aligned with our on-going H2020 CST projects 1) INSHIP, 2) SFERA-III, 3) HORIZON-STE and 4) GeoSmart, and with our role as the scientific representative for Turkey in the EU-SOLARIS European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC), which will become a European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) landmark in the fall 2019. METU's budgets for these activities exceeds 1 M€. From Mechanical Engineering, the following faculty members are contributing to these projects: Derek Baker, İlker Tarı, Özgür Bayer, Feyza Kazanç, Tuba Okutucu Özyurt, and Sezer Özerinç.