Smart-BEEjS — Human-Centric Energy Districts: Smart Value Generation by Building Efficiency and Energy Justice for Sustainable Living

Results in brief

Human-Centric Energy Districts: Smart Value Generation by Building Efficiency and Energy Justice for Sustainable Living

Smart-BEEjS presents a balanced consortium of beneficiaries and partners from different knowledge disciplines and different agents of the energy eco-system. The project trains at PhD level an initial generation of transformative and influential champions in policy design, techno-economic planning and business model innovation in the energy sector, mindful of the individual and social dimensions, as well as the nexus of interrelation between stakeholders in energy generation, technology transition, efficiency and management. Our aim is to boost knowledge sharing across stakeholders, exploiting a human-centric and systemic approach to design Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) for sustainable living for all. PEDs have a better than zero net energy balance (excluding grey energy) across their lifetime, producing more energy from renewable sources than they consume, while achieving desirable comfort levels for end users. The project explores a human-centric and systemic approach to design PEDs for sustainable living for all with the following objectives: • To develop a practical tool that popularises the evidence-based knowledge of the relationships between socio-economic factors and citizens’ practices, enabling citizens to become active promoters of PEDs (WP3 – D3.3); • To develop strategies that can positively influence citizens towards sustainable behaviour patterns, which will be used to advise at city/town council level (WP3 – D3.5); • To develop a methodology for systemic planning of infrastructure investments that can be recommended at city/town level in order to transition towards PEDs, by designing a systemic modelling approach combining techno-economic aspects and pathways toward the creation and sustainability of PEDs (WP4 – D4.3 and D4.4); • To identify an evidence-based policy and incentives pathway for tackling energy injustice and poverty, by an effective design of policy implementation at PED level (WP5 – D5.3, D5.4); • To develop a user-based value generation tool that initiates user-centric BMs and value proposition designs exploring PEDs, without the need for subsidies (WP6 – D6.5 and D6.6).

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The EU has used the Strategic Energy Technology Plan to transfer power to consumers, by decentralising the energy eco-system by establishing “100 positive energy districts by 2025 and 80% of electricity consumption to be managed by consumers in 4 out of 5 households”. The SMART-BEEjS recognises that this requires the systemic synergy of the different stakeholders, balancing attention towards technological and policy oriented drivers, citizens and society needs, providers and technology capabilities and value generation system synergies in order to deliver the transition without leaving large parts of the population behind. Smart-BEEjS covers all angles of this eco-system, to train a generation of transformative and influential champions in policy design, techno-economic planning and business model innovation in the energy and efficiency sectors, mindful of the personal and social dimensions, as well as the nexus of interrelation between stakeholders in energy generation, efficiency and management. Five objectives have been set to develop:•a practical tool that popularises the evidence based knowledge of the relationships between socio-economic factors and citizens’ practices, enabling citizens to become active promoters of PEDs;•strategies that can positively influence citizens towards sustainable behaviour patterns, which will be used to advise at city/town council level;•a methodology for systemic planning of infrastructure investments that can be recommended at city/town level in order to transition towards PEDs, by designing a systemic modelling approach combining techno-economic aspects and pathways toward the creation and sustainability of PEDs;•an evidence-based policy and incentives pathway for tackling energy injustice and poverty, by an effective design of policy implementation at PED level;•a user-based value generation tool that initiates user-centric business models and value proposition designs exploring PEDs, without the need for subsidies

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

THE NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY · NOTTINGHAMCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
ACCADEMIA EUROPEA DI BOLZANO · BolzanoItaly
AGENZIA PER L'ENERGIA ALTO ADIGE -CASACLIMA · BolzanoItaly
CENEX - CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR LOW CARBON AND FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGIES · Loughborough LeicestershireUnited Kingdom
CONSULTA EUROPA PROJECTS AND INNOVATION SL · LAS PALMAS DE GRAN CANARIASpain
Greenvision Energy Ltd · NottinghamUnited Kingdom
INNOGY SE · EssenGermany
INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE CANARIAS,S.A. · Las Palmas De Gran CanariaSpain
Independent Transport Commission · LondonUnited Kingdom
Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa · LisboaPortugal
MUNICIPIO DE TORRES VEDRAS · Torres VedrasPortugal
National Energy Action · Newcastle Upon TyneUnited Kingdom
Nottingham City Council · NottinghamUnited Kingdom
POLITECNICO DI MILANO · MilanoItaly
REGIONE LOMBARDIA · MilanoItaly
RUHR-UNIVERSITAET BOCHUM · BochumGermany
RWI - LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR WIRTSCHAFTSFORSCHUNG e.V. · EssenGermany
STADT FRANKFURT AM MAIN DER MAGISTRAT · Frankfurt Am MainGermany
STADT WIEN · WienAustria
STICHTING AMSTERDAM INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED METROPOLITAN SOLUTIONS · AMSTERDAMNetherlands
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN · WienAustria
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI TRENTO · TrentoItaly
UNIVERSITAT BASEL · BaselSwitzerland
WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY · WageningenNetherlands

Smart-BEEjS · Human-Centric Energy Districts: Smart Value Generation by Building Efficiency and Energy Justice for Sustainable Living

Results in brief

Human-Centric Energy Districts: Smart Value Generation by Building Efficiency and Energy Justice for Sustainable Living

Project objective

Participants

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