REN helps build the car of the future”

Developing an urban vehicle entirely powered by hydrogen is the challenge of a team of 24 students from IST who, with the support of REN as Protium Energy Partner, seek to revolutionise the landscape of efficient and sustainable mobility in Portugal. 

The prototype of a modern, sustainable, and highly efficient electric car, whose electricity is produced from hydrogen using a fuel cell, will be ready in 2022, and with it the Técnico Fuel Cell (TFC) team intends to participate in international competitions in which the vehicle and its technological and engineering solutions can be tested. The first - and considerably important - test is the Shell Eco-marathon, one of the world's largest student engineering competitions, which focuses on energy optimisation and efficiency: 'One of the team's major goals is to participate in the European competition in 2022 and as a result gain a spot in the world competition', confirmed Team Leader Duarte Lopes Soares.

Técnico Fuel Cell (TFC) is a multidisciplinary team from Instituto Superior Técnico, with students from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Industrial Engineering and Management. The team's motto is 'All different but focused on the same goal', which also includes, according to Duarte Lopes Soares, 'asserting TFC as a renowned IST team, a source of inspiration and pride inside and outside our institution, by promoting the creation and exchange of knowledge not only among fellow students from a wide range of courses, teachers, and researchers, but also with our industrial partners'. (Get to know the team and follow this project on the social networks)
 
'This project is completely in line with REN's sustainability strategy and with our commitment to support innovation and academic research', said Margarida Ferreirinha, REN's Head of Communication and Sustainability. 'In addition to directly addressing the challenges of energy transition, it is a good example of a project that contributes to goals that, among the 17 SDGs created by the United Nations in 2015, are priorities for REN (specifically SDGs 9, 11, 13, and 17)'.