TILOS Project Shortlisted in EU Sustainable Energy Awards 2017

The TILOS project, carried out on the Greek island of Tilos, has been shortlisted among 12 nominees in the EU Sustainable Energy Awards 2017 that recognise outstanding innovation in energy efficiency and renewables. The Greek nomination is one of the three finalists for the award in the “Energy Islands Category”.

The Awards are a major part of the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW), back for its 12th edition on June 19-25. The nominees have been selected from a pool of applicants across Europe, each project demonstrating initiatives to support the transition to clean, secure, efficient energy. Winners will be announced at a prestigious awards ceremony in Brussels on June 20, at the EUSEW high-level Policy Conference, a leading European conference dedicated to sustainable energy policy issues.

TILOS project

A renewable energy revolution is happening on the remote Greek island of Tilos, near Rhodes, where the country’s first hybrid, renewable energy-based battery station and smart microgrid will begin construction this summer.

This represents the centrepiece of the TILOS project, which aims to demonstrate how islands can move away from relying on expensive and polluting oil-based energy imports, avoid power cuts and contribute towards renewable energy growth.

With a population of around 400, Tilos is currently supplied with oil-based electricity from neighbouring Kos via an undersea cable that is however vulnerable to faults. To address this, the TILOS project has designed a battery-based storage system that will in effect turn the island into a resilient RES-based microgrid using only wind and solar power. A smart energy management system will be able to isolate the island in the event of a cable fault and reconnect it to Kos as soon as the fault is restored.

Once up and running (planned for early 2019) the TILOS system will cover approximately 70 percent of local demand in stand-alone operation, with the vision being to get close to 100 percent in the near future. The commercial potential of this model could be significant given the number of Greek islands that currently depend on oil-based energy imports. The project has created a platform involving Pellworm, La Graciosa and Corsica to share implementable results with other European islands.

Led by the Soft Energy Applications & Environmental Protection Laboratory of the Piraeus University of Applied Sciences (PUAS), the TILOS project engages a total of 13 partners from seven different European countries. From the Greek side of the consortium, the local grid operator HEDNO is also involved, together with experienced energy companies, like Eunice and Eurosol, and the Greek branch of the world-famous environmental NGO, WWF.

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