Neubiberg, Germany –– For the next three years, 26 partners from five European countries will conduct research on environmental sensors and sensor networks for energy efficient solutions. Under leadership of Infineon Technologies the research project “Environmental Sensors for Energy Efficiency” (ESEE) will help to further reduce energy consumption with seamlessly connected sensors for energy management systems in buildings or passenger cabins. The project will strengthen the European position in technologies for reduction of green house gas emissions. For this reason, ESEE is supported by the European Union through its ENIAC Joint Undertaking as well as by national and regional funding of the participating nations. Among others, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) supports the ESEE project under its “Information and Communication Technology 2020” program. 

Innovative and connected sensor systems are an essential component for the detection of air quality in modern building management systems. The focus of the ESEE project is the development of new low-power connected sensor systems, based on semiconductors and heterogeneous 3D integration for the detection of environmental parameters such as CO2, CO or humidity. ESEE targets applications that require highly reliable information about environmental conditions in order to deduct measures that help to reduce the use of energy. In combination with solutions for air quality management, the potential to save energy inside buildings is more than 30 percent, for airplanes the potential is around 5 percent of the whole energy balance. Further market potential is foreseen for other indoor air control, for example in electric cars. 

In its “Europe 2020” initiative, the European Commission has set ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve energy efficiency. Sensor and energy management systems that are developed, designed and manufactured at competitive cost in Europe are part of the key enablers. ESEE was set up to make a significant contribution to achieve these targets. ESEE was started in April 2013 and will finish in March 2016. This European collaborative project has a budget volume of Euro 27 million. Nearly half of the total budget is financed by the project partners of the consortium and the remaining cost is funded by the national authorities of the participating countries Finland, France, Germany, and Netherlands, with additional support of the ENIAC Joint Undertaking. 

Further information on ESEE is available athttp://www.eniac.eu/web/downloads/projectprofiles/2012_1_esee.pdf