End of 2005, the ETH Board founded the Competence Center Energy and Mobility managed by the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI). Since January 2009 Novatlantis is associated to the CCEM.

CCEM and their research work want to enhance technical innovation for sustainable energy supply and consolidation of Swiss economy.

The new center unifies research competences of Swiss universities and research institutes – in particular PSI, ETH Zurich and Lausanne, Empa and the the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland.

Together with participating industry partners, CCEM is an important center of energy and mobility research in Switzerland.

The Competence Center Energy and Mobility contributes to the development of a more sustainable energy system. Research focuses on the efficient provision of energy services, efficient and "zero-emission" energy conversion and on the substitution of fossil energy carriers by low-CO2 primary energies.

CCEM-CH contributes to the lowering of CO2-emissions, increasing security of supply, decelerating the depletion of non-renewable resources, and reducing dependence on imported fossil energy carriers.

The challenges to fulfil these goals create the following research themes:

Energy carriers from renewables
> Low-carbon fuels from biomass
> Renewable electricity (hydro, geothermal, photovoltaic)
> Transition pathways to hydrogen

Transportation
> "zero emission" efficient diesel trucks for road freight
> clean, large diesel engines for ship freight
> pushing the efficiency limits of hybrid passenger vehicles
> advancing low T-fuel cell technology by in situ diagnostics and system design

Heat and buildings
> Innovation in new construction (towards 2000 W homes)
> Advanced techniques for building renovation

Electricity generation
> Highest efficiency gas turbines with lowest NOx emissions
> Biogas cofiring in gas turbines
> High temperature materials for next generation fission and fusion reactors
> Efficient small scale energy converters, including solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC)