COOPERATION SCHEMES BETWEEN SMES AND APPLIED RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS: A REGIONAL PV DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAM

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1 COOPERATION SCHEMES BETWEEN SMES AND APPLIED RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS: A REGIONAL PV DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAM W. Sparber 1, M. Armani 1 1 Institute for Renewable Energy, EURAC research, Viale Druso 1, Bolzano (BZ), Italy * Phone: +39 (0) ; Fax: +39 (0) ; wolfram.sparber@eurac.edu ABSTRACT: Within this paper the cooperation scheme center of competences between more than 5 companies and a research institution is presented. Such a scheme has been implemented in a region in northern Italy in 2006 in order to support local innovation and development processes in specific technological areas. The overall program, the cooperation scheme and a concrete cooperation among more than 6 companies operating in different fields of the PV value chain plus an applied research institution is shown. Further the results of the program and the PV cooperation CoPES will be presented and the efficiency and difficulties are discussed. Keywords: Financing, Monitoring, R&D Cooperation 1 INTRODUCTION In South Tyrol, a province in Northern Italy, in June 2006 a novel financing scheme has been introduced in order to support local innovation development processes and enhance strong and medium term cooperation among SMEs and research institutions. Utilizing the EU-Project ASM - Applied Spatial Management (presented under the Regional Program of innovative Actions ERDF ) as a starting point and a novel innovation law as follow up, the regional office for innovation, research and development introduced three different financial support schemes for cooperation activities among enterprises, especially SMEs, and research institutions and invited these bodies to present project proposals in several calls in In the field of PV, 6 companies, 3 external partners and one research institution submitted a program and started their activities in autumn The target of this paper is to present the actual financing scheme as the bases for the follow up financing within the following 5 years. Further the concrete cooperation program in the field of PV and the activities are presented. The results are presented from the ASM program and the cooperation CoPES. Finally in the conclusions the efficiency and difficulties of such cooperation schemes are discussed. 2 APPLIED SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (ASM) 2.1 ASM - Program The ASM Program is a 3 years project co-financed by the European Union General Direction for Regional Policy, the Italian State and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano. The main target of the project is to enhance innovation processes within the regional economy and thus achieve a regional turn-around for South Tyrol and to transform it into a site for innovation [1]. In order to reach this goal the program concentrates on the application of the following measures: 1. The development of a system for managing change processes on a regional level. 2. The development of networks and alliances in future-oriented areas (High-Potential Areas). In this context, R&D institutes, companies, and public agencies are integrated in a network. 3. The development in these areas of innovative network projects relevant to research. 4. The development into a Learning Region, with the involvement of all participants from the educational realm, including service-providers, associations and federations, R&D institutes, schools, and consultancies. The goal of this last measure is to fortify alreadyexistent human potential and to develop and disseminate new knowledge. The implementation of the Learning Organization in the corresponding companies should implement the new knowledge and its management in the companies [2]. In the following the program targets for the beginning implementation phase are listed: Development of Centers of Competence, Clusters and R&D Networks in the High-Potential Areas Development of a team of experts to supervise and support the projects Elaboration of a regional innovation management concept Creation of a foundation for the professional management of innovation, technologies and knowledge Development of an innovation culture and motivation, by means of projects and incentives, in order to enhance the private sector and R&D institutions to work together Some numeric targets set for the program are listed in Table /5 -

2 Table 1: Set Numerical targets of the ASM Program for the support of regional innovation [3] Target Number of Innovative Network 15 Number of Centre of Competences 4 Number of Clusters 2 Number of companies cooperating 300 within the ASM program Number of created new job 200 opportunities Number of R&D institutions 4 allocated in the region 2.2 Cooperation schemes within the ASM program The three mentioned cooperation schemes are defined in the program as follows: 1. Innovative Network : in the field of future oriented technologies (High-Potential Areas) Cooperation of at least three companies and an internationally recognized research or higher education institution 2. Centre of Competence in High-Potential Areas. Centre of Competence intends a structure that is in charge of persons, instruments and knowledge and deals with specific demands of the applied sciences aimed to convert technical-scientific knowledge into products or services for the market. Centres of Competence must have the following requisites: Constitution in a legal body Cooperation of at least five companies and an internationally recognized research or higher education institution They are active in technology sectors where there is interest in cooperation as well from research institutions as well as from the business actors 3. Cluster Cooperation of at least 15 companies or other organizations Requirement of an existing cluster management Elaboration of relevant themes for the region (High-Potential Areas) The realization of a centre of competence is not comparable with conventional cooperation project. In fact the target of the ASM program is not merely the support of single project activities but of the constitution process of a joint legal body in order to create a basis for a closer sustainable relationship and cooperation between science and economy. Therefore of primary importance are the organizational and legal aspects and the foundation of a self sufficient legal body lasting further as the ASM program by delivering business models and financing it self through national and European R&D programs (Figure 1). Centre of competence or cluster Business plan Organisation development Applied Spatial Management R&D Support Figure 1: Organization scheme of the activities supported by the ASM program [3] 3 CoPES CENTRE FOR PHOTOVOLTAIC ENERGY SYSTEMS With the target of foundation of a centre of competence following the ASM Program criteria s, different actors from the field of PV or with interest to enter the field of PV elaborated a working program for the first 18 month and started their cooperation within September CoPES - Partners In order to reduce direct competition among the partners, companies where searched whose core business lies in different fields, but which could provide a high degree of synergy if working together. Therefore companies being active in different sectors of the PV value chain, such us silicon and wafer production, PV system design and installation, system integration in buildings and electricity production and trading, where chosen. The partners are the silicon and wafer producing company MEMC (external partner), the PV components trading companies Tecnospot and Gremes Distribution, the PV systems designing and installing company Leitner, the architecture and steal construction company Stahlbau Pichler, the utility companies Azienda Energetica and Pubbliservizi di Brunico, the project consulting company Syneco and the project development company Enexon - Babcock Brown (external partner). The applied research institution Eurac research is delivering scientific support to the companies especially in the field of PV system simulation and monitoring and is leading the cooperation. A further external partner is the department for renewable energy within the local innovation office TIS Renertec, with various experiences within financing schemes of PV systems. - 2/5 -

3 3.2 CoPES - Targets The main target of CoPES is to enhance the national PV Market, assure high quality system solutions to the market with accurate information on possibilities and limits of the single technologies and support the integration of PV technology in the built environment. Through the simulation and the monitoring of a relevant number of PV Systems, experience should be made especially with less diffused technologies and with building integrated systems. Through the cooperation a fast know how access to the companies and there for the market should be granted. Further the project should support a fast regional development in the field of PV, permitting to acquire a leading position within the degree of application of this technology on a national level. Herewith the region could establish next to the high degree of application in solar thermal (average of 214 kw th /inhabitant against the national average of 6,2 kw th /inhabitant installed solar thermal collector surface in 2005 [5] [6]), biomass (with 25 out of 41 biomass district heating systems being set in operation till 2003 in the region and on Italian national level respectively [7][8]. and energy efficiency in buildings (first region introducing a buildings energy certification system in 2002, in 2006 the share of low energy buildings (heating demand below 50 kwh/m²y) was 20% of the overall new buildings [9]) another leading sustainable energy sector. Such a development should provide economic support to regional companies in the sector and attract the settlement of new actors within the region. 3.3 CoPES - Activities The activities of CoPES can be subdivided in two major fields: 1. Formal aspects and market development activities 2. Technical and research activities Within the formal and commercial field the main planned activities are: Organization of the cooperation and elaboration of the cooperation contract Foundation of the consortium as a legal body Elaboration of a business plan Organization of commercial activities Project development with relevant public and private actors for market development reasons Especially the legal aspect, of the foundation of a consortium, turned out to be quite critical and many meeting and discussions have been spent on this topic. Within the technical, scientific field the main planned activities are: Simulation of PV systems and comparison of different software simulation tools Outdoor measurement of single PV modules Measurement of installed PV systems Survey of net stability aspects Elaboration of a concept for a PV test and education laboratory 4 RESULTS 4.1 ASM program - results The ASM program is a still running program and therefore only preliminary results can be given. Final results will be presented in At the moment several competence centers and innovation projects are in the implementation phase. In the following Table 2 are listed, in comparison to Table 1, some of the actual reached values within the single categories. Table 2: Reached results of the ASM Program for the support of regional innovation within the time frame May 2006 August 2007 [4] Result Number of Innovative Network 2 Number of Centre of Competences 5 Number of Clusters 2 Number of companies cooperating > 100 within the ASM program Regarding the collaboration with research institution the following can be stated: More than 14 research institutions are cooperating with the companies involved within the ASM program. This cooperation can be as well a project related cooperation as well as a legal cooperation by joining a consortium or a newly founded company, as legal entity from a centre of competence. Further results are [4]: 1. the organization of three master courses 2. the elaboration of a innovation concept of South Tyrol 3. the elaboration of a project evaluation process 4. the arrangement of a project & products development congress with the participation of more than 420 entrepreneurs, universities and R&D institutions. 4.2 PV Cooperation CoPES - results The constitution of a joint legal person, a major aspect characterizing centers of competence within the ASM program, did not take place. Nevertheless the constitution is foreseen to take place within On the commercial side a strong development could be noticed within several fields. The CoPES partners could install more than 3 MWp of capacity within the last 12 month (examples Figure 2), a relevant number considering that in 2006 on national Italian level an overall of 6 MW where installed and set in operation [10]. - 3/5 -

4 Figure 2: Examples of PV installations realized by the CoPES partner Leitner (Eurac 4 kwp and Naturno 19,3 kwp respectively) The external partner MEMC invested over 15 million in a new poly-silicon production line in Merano, leading to more than double the production in 2008 in respect to 2005 of the Merano site. The utility companies started a PV program in order to cover their own buildings and certain community buildings with PV systems. As well the steal construction company covered some roofs with PV Systems leading to a cumulated installation of over 600 kwp (see Figure 3); with 6 further systems within the planning phase. With the public administration, discussions are under way in order to elaborate a strategy to cover of all possible roofs of 540 public buildings present in South Tyrol [11] with PV systems. Herewith a list of the most interesting roofs from the irradiation, accessibility, visibility and static stability side should be elaborated. Further more the two main possibilities for financing and maintenance by the utilities or by public participating schemes should be studied. Figure 3: PV System installed on the industry roof of the CoPES partner Stahlbau Pichler (285 kwp) On the scientific side activities have been carried out mainly within simulation and monitoring of PV systems. Simulations with the software tools PV Sol, PV Pro, Greenius and PV Gis have been carried out and compared to first measured data of installed PV systems. On the monitoring side the activities are only in very preliminary phase, as many systems have been installed within the last month and the permission to connect the system to grid leaded to further delays. Only four systems have been evaluated in more detail [12]. On the regional development side, a strong interest in PV systems could be noticed. This leaded to a total installation of 3554 kwp of PV capacity in the region Trentino South Tyrol, and herewith positioning the region 2 nd in a national ranking after the region Lombardia with 4086,7 kwp installed PV capacity. Considering not the absolute numbers but the installed capacity per inhabitant, Trentino South Tyrol is with 3,6 Wp/inhabitant installed PV capacity, the leading Italian region. All data are referred to systems being set in operation before 1 st August 2007 within the Italian feed in law Conto Energia (See ) [13]. Figure 4: Installed PV Systems on Italian national level since 1st August 2008 [13] 4 CONCLUSIONS The cooperation of the partners within CoPES leaded to a confrontation with this technology from different point of views. The commercial development and the rise of installations since the start of the cooperation can clearly be seen. In the same time frame in Italy the second feed in law has been presented leading to a strong market interest and growth on national level. Therefore and because of the global market growth a clear correlation between the cooperation and the commercial development can not be stated. On the scientific side several results could be elaborated, but only limited relevant achievements could be made within this relatively short time frame; on the other hand many individual discussions and consultancies among the partners and with external users, leaded to a direct know how transfer. From the cooperation side, the ASM program definitely enhanced direct contacts and cooperation between companies and the scientific partner, leading to a very close cooperation in some cases. The fact that the partners are working in different fields leaded to th desired effect of very reduced internal competition aspects, on the other hand in several cases it is difficult to identify the common needs and problems. To which degree the foundation of a joint legal body enhances the success of medium term cooperation can only be seen within the next years. - 4/5 -

5 The regional development within the acceptance and application of PV technology is in line with the stated target, showing as well positive effects on the regional economic development (such as the foundation of several new PV companies within the region). Within the new regional innovation law, being under discussion at present, the support of centre of competences for up to 5 years and up to 5 million is foreseen [14]. Within CoPES a base has been set, for a further cooperation within the PV sector in such a perennial project including hardware investment. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to gratefully thank the European Union- Direction for Regional Policy, the Italian Government and the Autonomous Province of Bolzano Office for Innovation, Research and Development for their support. 6 REFERENCES [1] ASM Program, program summary [2] ASM Program, program content [3] ASM Program, program presentation 28 th Nov [4] ASM Program, Progress report 2006 [5] Office for Energy Savings of the province of Bolzano, [6] W. Weiss et al, Solar Heat World Wide, Markets and contribution to the energy supply 2005, IEA SHC, April 2007 [7] Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, Ufficio risparmio energetico, report - legno, energia locale, [8] Intalian Ministery for Environment Land and Sea, Itabia, Le biomasse per l energia e l ambiente, report 2003 [9] Y. Schmitt et al, KlimaHaus CasaClima a regional energy certification system stimulates low energy architecture, PLEA Conference Singapore 2007 [10] GSE, Report from 11th Jan 2007, [11] Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, Ripartizione Edilizia e Servizio Tecnico [12] M. Armani et al, Performance monitoring of different PV systems installed in northern Italy, 22 nd EU PVSEC [13] GSE, AtlaSole, [14] Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, criteri di esecuzione sulla promozione dell innovazione, articolo 16, - 5/5 -