IMDEA Energía

IMDEA is a Research initiative driven by the Regional Government of Comunidad de Madrid and formed by a network of 7 independent R&D centres, which operate as not-for-profit foundations. IMDEA Network is gathering more than 375 researchers (220 of them are PhD) of which 47% are foreigners of over 30 nationalities. IMDEA Energía was created in November 2006, and in a short period of time has achieved a staff of 70 researchers and engineers with solid expertise in the energy field. IMDEA Energía focuses its research on high temperature solar concentration systems and technologies, the sustainable production of fuels, and the development of electrochemical energy storage systems coupled to renewable energy.

Role in the project

The role of IMDEA in the project can be organized in three different fields: LCA and environmental system analysis in WP1 and WP6; development and testing at solar 50kW heliostat field in WP2, WP3 and WP8 and the characterization of advanced metal oxides at solar simulator scale in the lab in WP4. IMDEA will participate in the economic, environmental and social assessment of the technology developed with a life cycle perspective in WP1, the assessment methodology will be applied to the specific case of the MW-scale concept plant (developed in WP5). This activity will be led at IMDEA by Prof. Javier Dufour. IMDEA will contribute with its expertise in optical engineering of solar heliostat fields to coordinate development and characterization of the experimental 50kW facility in WP2 and all on-sun tests in WP3. The facility will be used for internal training of partners and also offered for educational courses in WP8. Dr. Manuel Romero has experience in development and operation of solar tower projects since 1985 and will lead this activity at IMDEA. The contribution for characterization of advanced materials in WP4 will be led by Dr José Gonzalez-Aguilar.

Personnel involved

Dr. Manuel Romero is Deputy Director and Principal Researcher of the High Temperature Processes R&D Unit at IMDEA Energía. M. Romero received the “Farrington Daniels Award” in 2009, a primary award in the field of solar energy research for his dedication to CSP research since 1982 with relevant participation in early commercial implementation of solar central receiver power plants like PS10 and Gemasolar. He has been Director of the Plataforma Solar de Almería, largely recognized R&D facilities for testing and development of solar concentrating technologies, and Director of the Renewable Energy Division of CIEMAT (Spain’s energy R&D national lab). During his career he has participated in 55 collaborative R&D projects in energy research, 20 of them financed by the European Commission, with special emphasis on CSP technologies like PS10, SOLAR TRES (now Gemasolar), ECOSTAR, SOLGATE, SOLAIR, COLON SOLAR, SOL-GAS, TCSPower, CSP2 and STAGE-STE. He is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Energy Research of Wiley Pub. Manuel has been ExCo Member of the Solar Heating and Cooling Implementing Agreement of the IEA and ExCo Member of the Solar Power and Chemical Energy Systems (SolarPACES). At present he is Vice-President of the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) based in Freiburg, Germany.
Dr. José Gonzalez-Aguilar is Senior Researcher in the Unit of High Temperature Processes at IMDEA Energia. He received his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches from the University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse (France) in 2007. Between 2000 and May 2006 he worked as R&D engineer – Project manager at the Center for Energy and Processes – MINES ParisTech. In September 2006 he became associate professor at MINES ParisTech (ENSMP). He was awarded with a Ramón y Cajal grant in 2009. His competences include high-temperature processes engineering; optical design of solar concentrators and process simulation from systems analysis (flow sheeting) to computational fluid dynamics. José González has participated in 24 national and international research projects.
At present he is involved in the EC projects TCSPower, CSP2, ADEL and STAGE-STE, all of them including important activities on thermal and thermochemical storage for CSP plants. He has been actively involved in a project on thermal storage with PCM for CSP within the E.ON, International Research Initiative 2009. Dr. Gonzalez-Aguilar is coordinating a national project on solar-driven high-temperature reactions. He is Associate Editor of the Solar Energy Journal of Elsevier.
Prof. Javier Dufour is the Head of the Energy Systems Analysis Unit at IMDEA Energy and Associate Professor at the Chemical Engineering Group of Rey Juan Carlos University. His areas of expertise are systems modelling, life cycle assessment and management of processes and products, simulation and optimization of processes, economic and social studies. He is author of 60 papers published in international journals, more than 100 contributions to conferences and 3 patents. He has collaborated in 47 research projects (5 international), being the responsible researcher in 22 of them. Currently, he is Coordinator of the PhD Programme on Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Chairman of Energy Management Commission, both at the Rey Juan Carlos
University, Chairman of the Spanish Network for Life Cycle Assessment and Opertaing Agent of Task 36 “Life cycle sustainability assessment of hydrogen energy systems” of HIA-IEA.