Project duration:

October 2024 - September 2024

Background:

Recent disasters like the cross-border flooding in central/eastern Europe, wildfires in Greece, and the earthquake in Turkey have led to large-scale emergency rescue operations. As critical infrastructure is often damaged, emergency responders rely on mobile diesel generators for mobile energy supply. The use of diesel leads to greenhouse gas emissions: E.g. during the Turkey-Syria earthquakes in February 2023, 25,000 emergency responders were deployed for search and rescue missions lasting approximately 10 days. For this, the necessary bases of operations needed ~3,500,000 L of diesel and produced an estimated ~9250 t of CO2 emission. Further these generators lower air quality in the direct vicinity, produce heat, vibrations and sounds, and pose safety threats for the emergency responders and sheltered people. Currently, there is no operational technology for green, mobile power supply that meets the needs of emergency responders.

Objectives:

POWERBASE aims to address this technology gap and provide the basis for future procurement of promising renewable energy technologies by emergency response organisations. Working from an end-user perspective, POWERBASE will analyse the needs of emergency operations for different disaster situations, including wildfires in very hot climatic conditions, cross-border flooding with a high number of displaced people, and an earthquake scenario in a rural mountainous region. The project will also map the available technologies and potential new innovations, which can meet these needs in future. This will help emergency response organisations to bridge this gap and channel the investment in low-emission, reliable, self-sufficient, mobile power supply for emergency shelters and bases of operations.

More information on the project website: https://www.powerbaseproject.eu/.

Project partner:

POWERBASE wird von der Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk (THW) koordiniert und vereint die europäischen Katastrophenschutzorganisationen Österreichisches Rotes Kreuz, Schwedische Behörde für Zivilschutz, Ministerium des Innern Frankreichs, Ministerium des Innern Italiens, Ungarischer Wohltätigkeitsdienst des Malteserordens, Slowenische Samaritervereinigung und die niederländische Feuerwehr. Ihre Expertise wird durch führende Forschungsinstitute, Beschaffungsorganisationen und Rechtsexperten ergänzt: Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (Deutschland), Zentrum für Sicherheitsforschung (Griechenland) und Vieira Costa Gomes – Sociedade de Advogados RL (Portugal) sowie durch die Managementberatung und Disseminierungsexperten – ARTTIC Innovation GmbH (Deutschland).

Funded by:

POWERBASE is supported by the EU in the framework of the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme with 1 million €. GA number 101167787