The Lehendakari and the Diputada General of Bizkaia present the EIC Foundation, Energy Intelligence Center
Representatives of the Basque Energy Board (EVE), the Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C), the Energy Advanced Engineering Nortegas Foundation, Petronor and the Provincial Council of Bizkaia, whose President, Elixabete Etxanobe, is also the President, form part of the EIC Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
The Lehendakari Imanol Pradales and the Provincial Councillor of Bizkaia, Elixabete Etxanobe, have presented the EIC Foundation, Energy Intelligence Center, at the Abanto Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park. The Foundation will manage the centre, a collaborative R&D&I platform to promote the energy transition and position Bizkaia and the Basque Country as an international benchmark in this field. The Foundation combines the fight against climate change with industrial and technological development, promoting projects that strengthen the value chains of a decarbonised industry. It coordinates highly qualified talent, generates knowledge and collaborates closely with all the agents involved in this key transition.
Members of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees are Mikel Amundarain, Director General of the Basque Energy Agency (EVE); José Ignacio Zudaire, President of the Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH2C); Leire Colomo, President of the Energy Advanced Engineering Foundation; Juan Villar, CEO of Nortegas; José Luque, CEO of Petronor and Elixabete Etxanobe, Deputy General of Bizkaia, who chairs the Foundation.
‘Only through an intelligent decarbonisation strategy will we make our industry more competitive in global markets and combat the climate emergency we are experiencing’, said Etxanobe, who also stated that ’progress along these lines will reduce the risk of relocation and job losses in industry in Bizkaia and the Basque Country. EIC will contribute to developing decarbonisation technologies with high added value, such as those linked to renewable fuels, which are a great opportunity for our territory and which will contribute to achieving climate neutrality in 2050’.
The Lehendakari Imanol Pradales closed the presentation ceremony of the EIC Foundation. ‘In the Basque Country, the energy transition and decarbonisation are a shared challenge. Although we are a small and highly dependent country, we have unique capacities to lead new industrial and technological projects. We need to increase the capacity of our electricity grid, make intelligent use of our strengths and take balanced decisions to achieve an orderly, fair and rapid transition. This effort requires the active involvement of all institutions, companies and society as a whole,’ he said.
Technologies for efficient decarbonisation
The EIC Foundation will articulate actions for the development and evolution of technologies that facilitate efficient decarbonisation. It will also focus on the design and advanced manufacturing of subsystems and components for the energy sector, focusing on processes that are difficult to decarbonise, such as heavy or long-distance transport, high-temperature industrial processes and the production of energy with a low carbon footprint. The aim is to generate new activities and maintain the international leadership of companies in Bizkaia and the Basque Country.
To this end, the EIC Foundation will carry out technology watch; create initiatives to develop, attract and retain talent; actively work on international positioning with the aim of attracting investment and innovative projects; and promote collaborative R&D&I among the companies in the EIC ecosystem. This activity will take place at the EIC, located on the Abanto Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park, which has spaces available for collaborative research and development projects, such as offices and R&D&I laboratories for companies in the energy sector, a specialised laboratory and a large area where full-scale testing machines for the energy transition will be installed.
Technology roadmap
The EIC Foundation was presented during an event in which Ainara Basurko, Deputy for Economic Promotion of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia; Jose Luis Elejalde, director of the Energy, Climate and Urban Transition Unit of Tecnalia and Laura Barrio, professor and researcher at the Department of Environmental Chemical Engineering of the UPV/EHU and Eva Gutiérrez, director of the Plasma Coating Technologies Unit of Tekniker, analysed the technological roadmap for renewable fuels, a fundamental element to promote collaboration between the technological offer of the Basque Country and the demand of companies with specific decarbonisation projects. This roadmap will form the basis of the Renewable Fuels Hub, a key element for accelerating industrial technological development in the Basque Country in relation to the challenge of decarbonisation, which will be managed by the EIC.
Iván Martén, President of Orkestra, also took part in the event, stressing the positive impact that technological innovation and decarbonisation solutions will have on industrial development in the Basque Country. Martén is one of the members of the foundation’s advisory board, which includes experts who have advised the Energy Intelligence Center Foundation in defining its value proposition and identifying the first projects to be developed.
