The EDF-2021-INDY project presentation
Presentation of the EDF-2021 "INDY, Energy Independent and Efficient Deployable Military Camps" project
- Details

The »INDY, Energy Independent and Efficient Deployable Military Camps« represents one of the first strategic projects supporting the green energy transition and improved energy efficiency in the military infrastructure, approved for co-financing by the European Commission (EC) at the first European Defence Fund (EDF) call in 2021.
The project lasts 26 months and is being implemented between December 2022 and January 2025.
More than 31 partners and subcontractors from 13 European countries are collaborating on the project. More than 9 Ministries of Defence also support the INDY. The project is coordinated by the Slovenian partner TECES, Green Tech Cluster, with the support of the Slovenian Ministry of Defence (Si MoD), which is also responsible for coordinating and directing the involved representatives of the Ministries of Defence in the project.
About the INDY project
Both at national and international levels, energy transition is high on the priority list. According to the “Green Deal”, the greening of military forces is necessary to reach the ambition defined by EU Member States. At the moment, deployable military camps are almost 100% dependent on fossil fuel. This not only means that the environmental footprint is high, but it also represents a weak point and vulnerability for the armed forces regarding logistics and dependence on fossil fuels. Given the growing energy needs for military equipment, this is becoming even more challenging.
The INDY project addresses the current problems of the military camps and their dependence on fossil fuels.
INDY’s expected outcome is a strategic road map to develop and implement solutions for future energy-independent and efficient deployable military camps.
The roadmap will propose a paradigm shift towards:
- a new approach to energy production, conversion, storage, transport, distribution and final use,
- top-of-the-edge planning and simulation tools to develop new technologies, energy products and energy management systems for deployable military camps, also using experience from the civilian sector and applications.
The INDY project will be the first step to increase the security of energy supply and autonomy of deployable military camps and support their complete transition towards implementation of renewable energy sources with the use of new disruptive technologies and solutions for future military camps. The roadmap shall seek to reduce the usage of fossil fuel by 40% in 2030 compared to the present situation and to reach 100% fossil fuel independency in 2050.
By strengthening collaboration between civil and defence representatives, the INDY project will further strengthen the participation of countries in the “Permanent Structured Cooperation – Energy Operational Function (PESCO-EOF) project, which includes the countries of France (coordinator), Belgium, Spain, Italy, Slovenia and the Netherlands as members, and Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Hungary as observer countries.
TECES’ role and the involvement of Slovenian partners in key energy efficiency projects
In the past years, together with the Slovenian Ministry of Defence (Si MoD), also under the auspices of the SiEnE partnership, TECES has been strategically involved in various European Defence Agency (EDA) working groups and initiatives aiming to address energy and environmental challenges in defence.
Particularly for us very important the Energy and Environment Capability Technology Group (EnE CapTech), the Consultation Forum for Sustainable Energy in the Defence and Security Sector (CF SEDSS) and, more recently, the Incubation Forum for Circular Economy in European Defence (IF CEED).
Thus, we managed to establish high-quality international connections with various civil and defence entities.
With a more active approach, we proposed many new projects to above initiatives, which also co-create thematic areas for tenders of the European Defence Fund (EDF). The importance of the topic of energy efficiency and energy management was recognised and included in the first tender (EDF-2021-ENERENV-D)”, namely in three areas for which 133 million € were dedicated.
- Energy independent and efficient systems for military camps| ✔️✔️
- Next generation electrical energy storage for military forward operation bases| ✔️
- Alternative propulsion and energy systems for next generation air combat systems
Together with national and international partners, in accordance with the strategic directions and guidelines of the SiEnE partnership and the Slovenian MoD, we focused on the first two topics. The topics are extremely related to the content of the Slovenian strategic programme of smart energy-efficient deployable camps for dual-use, which determines the thematic areas to steer the development of advanced technologies, products and services over next 10 years, for both fixed and deployable infrastructure for defence and civil purposes (dual-use).
We are particularly proud of TECES’ coordinator role in the INDY project, where TECES, together with the Slovenian Ministry of Defence (Si MoD), takes over a leading role in the coordination of partners and defence ministries of the involved countries.
We successfully included 4 Slovenian companies and research organisations, KOLEKTOR, University of Ljubljana (UL FS in UL FE) and University of Maribor (UM FERI) as partners of the INDY project, as two additional Slovenian partners (DOMEL and ZAG) as subcontractors. With all of them we will have the possibility of finding new forms of cooperation of Slovenian partners and partners abroad.
The project topic is directly related to the Slovenian strategic programme of smart energy-efficient deployable camps for dual-use, which we are co-creating together with Si MoD under the auspices of the SiEnE partnership.
With the INDY project, the Slovenian strategic programme of Smart camp for dual-use has already begun to realise, focusing on fostering the development and transfer of civil solutions for the defence purposes (dual-use).
Additional information
For more information about your participation in the SiEnE activities and involvement in international activities, projects, or supply chains, contact us.
Goran POTOČNIK ČERNE – TECES .:. +386 2 333 13 53 .:.