Gabriela Espinosa

The Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC) is a publicly funded institution created in 2009 based in Barcelona that conducts innovative research over a wide range of disciplines within the science and technology energy field. IREC contributes to sustainable development via development of new technological solutions, promotion of scientific and technological know-how related to clean energy and its efficient use as well transfer of solution and expertise to market actors. Activities include regional, national and international projects as well as direct cooperation with leading industrial partners. The institute also supports the promotion of renewable energy technologies and assists political decision-makers. IREC has participated in more than 60 projects, with a portfolio of more than 7M€, it is founding member of the Catalonia Energy Efficiency Cluster (CEEC) and KIC InnoEnergy. Additionally, IREC published more than 500 peer-reviewed papers, holds more than 30 patents and has supported the creation of 2 spin-off companies. IREC is formed by 2 main research areas: Energy Efficiency for Systems, Buildings and Communities area (ECOS) and Advanced Materials for Energy (M2E). Topics of interests include Renewable energy sources (e.g., PV, wind, heat recovery, fuel cells, hydrogen), Circular economy (e.g., carbon conversion, catalyst), Smart energy Management and Systems (for systems, buildings, and communities), Energy Systems Analytics (e.g., Internet of Energy) and Energy Storage (e.g., electrochemical batteries, redox flow batteries)