The climate agreements of the past years have led to legislation and policies that aim to reduce energy used for space heating and ultimately abolish the use of natural gas. However, many housing cooperations have a portfolio of houses built before 1990 with limited insulation to make this possible. Adapting these houses for the energy transition is currently very costly - costs that eventually add up to the bill of inhabitants and the society as a whole.
Together with our partners in the Flex-Go project we develop a novel systematic innovation concept centred around the principles of system integration to reduce such costs. Flex-go is an integral renovation concept for buildings that leverages the power of collectively joining forces to share energy and assets. The concept combines sharing of renewable energy generation, storage, and intelligent coordinated usage of energy. Sharing energy usage leads to increased utilization of assets, local green energy usage, and possibilities to reduce costs through combined efficiency. Algorithms will be developed in this project to allow for such energy sharing between houses and apartment buildings. These algorithms have to dynamically adapt to changing user lifestyles and inhabitants. Next to this, the project will also research financial models for business cases, and energy sharing between inhabitants and buildings, such that the benefits are shared fairly and societal costs are reduced. Through this concept and business case, Flex-Go enables housing cooperation and private house owners to reach the climate agreement goals at lower societal costs.
Involved partners next to the Decentral Energy Management research group:
- Faculty of Behavioural and Management Sciences (UT), Waarwonenen (housing company), Zebra (sustainable energy developer), Hefas (safety), Ventimon (installation company), and Installatiebedrijf de Leeuw (installation company).
Time period: 2021-2023
This project is made possible in part by a contribution from the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union.
