CETPartnership 2026 partners sought — modular climate-energy assets for urban, coastal and greenhouse demonstrations

About the project

Carlos H Betancourth SLU — The Climate Assets Company, based in Barcelona, is developing Climate Assets, a modular system designed to transform underused urban and rural objects, structures and spaces into distributed climate-energy assets.

The project integrates three challenges:

• adaptation to heat waves and thermal stress;

• distributed renewable-energy generation, storage and flexibility;

• and support for electric mobility.

Two priority technologies are proposed for R&D and experimental validation.

Solar Patio

A lightweight, modular and potentially deployable climate-energy node integrating photovoltaic generation, local storage, energy management, lighting, sensors and outdoor thermal-comfort services.

Provisional TRL progression: TRL 3–4 to TRL 6–7.

Solar Digital Skin

A lightweight, flexible or deployable photovoltaic surface for greenhouses, pergolas, terraces and lightweight structures. It combines renewable generation with dynamic solar-radiation and thermal-stress management.

Provisional TRL progression: TRL 3 to TRL 6.

Proposed R&D activities

The proposed project would include:

• system requirements, architecture and performance indicators;

• lightweight structural and deployment engineering;

• comparison and integration of rigid, semi-flexible and glass-free flexible photovoltaic surfaces;

• integration of storage, power electronics, EMS, sensors and controls;

• prototype manufacture and controlled pre-validation;

• installation of instrumented demonstrators;

• validation of energy, thermal-comfort, reliability, safety and operational performance;

• and development of a replication methodology for different Mediterranean environments.

Potential demonstration environments

Potential Spanish demonstrators include:

• a Solar Patio for a coastal hospitality venue in Sant Vicenç de Montalt;

• a Solar Patio or Solar Garden demonstrator in Vilassar de Mar;

• a Solar Digital Skin greenhouse demonstrator in Premià de Mar;

• and possible public or regional validation environments in Vilassar de Mar or Badalona.

We are open to exploring a complementary coastal, urban or hospitality demonstrator elsewhere in the Mediterranean, in collaboration with potential local and regional partners.

All demonstration sites remain subject to host confirmation, engineering, consortium agreement and funding approval.

Partners sought

We are seeking:

• universities and research organisations specialising in integrated regional energy systems;

• distributed-energy-resource, microgrid, EMS and VPP specialists;

• flexible or lightweight photovoltaic manufacturers;

• lightweight-structure and deployment-mechanism engineers;

• storage, power-electronics, sensing and control providers;

• greenhouse-climate and agrivoltaic researchers;

• municipalities, Living Labs and demonstration hosts;

• structural, electrical and thermal-performance validation organisations;

• life-cycle and techno-economic assessment experts;

• and an experienced CETPartnership project coordinator.

Contribution of Carlos H Betancourth SLU

The Spanish SME can contribute:

• the Climate Assets concept and background intellectual-property framework;

• the Solar Patio and Solar Digital Skin design briefs;

• Spanish pilot opportunities and stakeholder contacts;

• physical-system architecture and service integration;

• spatial and climate-energy design;

• coordination of Spanish demonstration hosts;

• and the replication logic from Solar Patio to Solar Garden, Solar Forest and Solar Landscape.