Materials are fundamental to economic, social and industrial development. They form the basis for the functionality of the built environment, products and technologies that are vital to modern society. This means that they can be the key innovative trigger in the development of many new products and technologies.
The intention is for this report to be an integral part of the European Commission’s continuous assessment of developments of, and needs for, materials in energy technologies. The objective of this report is to identify possible material priorities for emerging energy technologies. Such solutions would have longer term (up to 2050) commercial prospects.

The Materials Unit of the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation, Directorate „Industrial Technologies“) organised a workshop in Brussels on the 28th of October 2011 entitled „Forward Looking Workshop on Materials for Emerging Energy Technologies“. The aim of the workshop was to identify research and development of new materials that support emerging low carbon energy technologies for market deployment by 2050. The objective was also to identify possible priorities, bottlenecks and synergies in the field of emerging energy technologies (with the potential for industrial development) and to gather ideas on how to progress on the successful deployment of materials with improved performance. Mindful of the importance to maintain the complementarities to previous workshops and technology assessments, 12 distinguished experts were invited from a variety of fields; artificial photosynthesis, thermoelectrics, piezoelectrics, salinity gradients, osmotic power, thermoacoustic power, structural power materials, materials based design, low energy nuclear reactions and high altitude wind power.
The morning was devoted to short presentations of the materials and technologies. In the afternoon there were discussions and agreements on the technical & non-technical needs followed by synergies and common themes. The workshop closed with drawing up conclusions and recommendations. The workshop provided a learning opportunity and a fruitful exchange of ideas among a highly qualified interdisciplinary group of people. This report contains summaries of the discussed technologies and materials. The report identifies many of the key issues related to research on, and development of, new materials in support of emerging low carbon energy technologies for market deployment by 2050. A conclusion of key issues and themes, gleaned from the presentations and discussions, is contained in this report.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial_technologies/pdf/emerging-materials-report_en.pdf