Hosted by the project partner Fraunhofer institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fh-ISE), SEArcularMINE partners gathered for the 7^th SEArcularMINE General Assembly (GA) meeting on Wednesday 21^st and Thursday 22^nd of June 2023 in Freiburg, Germany.

This meeting marked the close of the second phase of the project which focussed on with ‘Advanced Research: Component testing, modelling and optimisation’ and excitingly signals the start of the final project phase ‘Integrated Prototype: Integrated system simulation platform, design, assembly and testing with real brines/in real environment’.

The consortium members were able to share and reflect on the overall progress of the project and celebrate the many successes to date, including all the timely outputs of deliverables and milestones despite the challenges of COVID restrictions at project start in June 2020. 

A highlight of activities within the last six months of the project has been the opportunity for staff mobility between partner research laboratories to facilitate pilot unit construction and testing. Universita degli Studi di Palermo (UNIPA) sent staff to Universitat Politecnica de  Catalunya (UPC), and Fraunhofer institute for Solar Energy Systems (FhISE) welcomed staff from 3 project partners UNIPA, UPC and iBET (Instituto de Biologia Experimental e Tecnologica). These have been very successful and more interdisciplinary interactions are expected.

Importantly the focus was also on plans for the upcoming months as the project enters its final year of action.  Technical discussions concerned prototype assembly, and the simulation platform alongside wider discussions around environmental, economic, and ecological market assessment activities, and knowledge transfer plans for research outputs.