Our partner DBT, the Danish Board of Technology, is organizing a stakeholder-oriented workshop for our project, aiming to connect business, academia, and public and civil sectors in a quadruple helix approach to explore and define future pathways for the front-running LICROX solar-to fuel technology.

The workshop will take place next 29 and 30^th of September in Copenhagen. It will be divided in two sessions (afternoon-day 1 and morning-day 2 sessions) going through a critical analysis of the current state of affairs, a future-looking discussion with working groups and a conclusions and course of action, including aspects as the environmental impacts, social acceptance and innovation and commercial opportunities.

The sustainable transition requires massive systemic change. While renewable energy sources increasingly provide electricity to the global society, transportation, heating, and industrial processes are still dominated by fossil fuels. While these sectors may partly be electrified, fuel will be necessary in the sustainable transition. In other words, we need to be able to store sustainably produced energy.

This is where LICROX comes into the picture. Plants store solar energy every day through the natural process of photosynthesis. In LICROX, a team of field-leading researchers is mimicking this very process to achieve artificial photosynthesis. Through the development of a photoelectrochemical cell (PEC), the abundant resources of sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide may be converted into ethylene. In other words, LICROX researchers are at the forefront of synthesizing solar fuels sustainably and efficiently.

The LICROX workshop will be following the overall approach of a future workshop, with integrated elements of SWOT analyses, to formulate concrete action proposals with a group of participants based on their own experiences and potential scenarios for solar to fuels, as those collected in the EC, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation study on ‘Solar Fuels Research & Invest: Defining and developing the global solar fuel value chain: techno-economic analysis and pathways for sustainable implementation’. Throughout the two days, participants will get a unique insight in the current development of a new and promising solar to fuels technology. Through their participation, stakeholders can shape the future of LICROX, pointing to potential drivers and barriers for the technology, and recommending courses of action. The workshop is thus not only an exclusive opportunity to discuss an emerging technology with interesting and knowledgeable stakeholders, but to have a say about the future energy landscape of Europe.

Up to 30 stakeholders will be selected to participate in the workshop, ensuring target groups, gender and nationality representation within European members. For those, travel expenses, accommodation and catering will be covered by the project.

Would you like to join us? Please register here. Registration deadline August 15th.

Tentative agenda:

Day 1, 29 September: The current landscape of solar fuels (Afternoon session)

• Introduction by DBT
• Current pathways for solar fuels (LICROX partners)
• SWOT analysis (Groups)
• Building visions of a future (Groups)
• Sharing perspectives (Plenary)

Day 2, 30 September: Bridging today with a sustainable future (Morning session)

• Introduction by DBT
• Identifying agency (Groups)
• Developing roadmaps (Groups)
• Sharing recommendations (Plenary)