Sustainability has become an important blueprint to achieve a better future for all, and as part of this process, nations are called to accelerate an energy transition towards clean energy solutions. However, an often-neglected pillar is educating individuals on the benefits and challenges of energy efficiency and renewable energy, especially among young people. Their support and willingness to use clean energies will be a significant driver in short, medium and long term. However, reality shows that attention from youth on these issues has not been sufficient yet. Formal education settings become therefore a key place to educate youth in the energy transition. In search of innovative approaches, game-based learning is gaining popularity among scholars and practitioners; it can contribute to content development of complex issues by integrating insights from different disciplines in an interactive, fun and engaging manner.In this context, we would like to present “the We-Energy Game” as an innovative educational strategy which makes use of game-based learning to create understanding on the challenges in the provision of affordable energy from renewable sources for an entire town. During the game, players negotiate, from their respective roles, which energy source they want to employ and on which location, with the goal to make a village or city energy neutral. The game has been played by students in higher education institutions in The Netherlands.In addition to introducing the game, a study is presented on the effects of the game on students´ awareness on the energy transition, self-efficacy -the feeling that they can contribute to a sustainable energy transition in their towns by themselves- and collective efficacy -the feeling that they can contribute to a sustainable energy transition in their towns together with their community-. For that purpose, we conducted a survey with 100 bachelor (Dutch and international) students aged between 18 and 30 years old, at Hanze University of Applied Sciences, before and after playing the game. We also conducted a group discussion with a smaller group of students to understand their opinion about the game. From the survey, results reveal an increase in awareness about the energy transition, as well as (slightly higher) collective efficacy compared to self-efficacy. From the group discussion, findings reveal that the game makes students reflect on the complexity of the process and need for collaboration among different stakeholders. It also shows how educational games have still a long way to go to achieve the high levels of engagement of commercial games, despite the fact that students still preferred to have this type of interactive practice rather than a traditional class characterized by a unidirectional transmission of information. Different implications must be taken into account for educators when interested in implementing game-based learning in class, including immediate feedback, appropriate length of gameplay during class, and time for a reflection and critical thinking after playing the game.
The project STORE&GO aims to investigate all the aspects regarding the integration of large-scale Power-to-Gas (PtG) at European level, by exploiting it as means for long term storage. One of the aspects that should be properly addressed is the beneficial impact that the integration of PtG plants may have on the electricity system.In the project framework, WP6 devoted its activities to investigate different aspects of the integration of PtG in the electricity grid, with the previous delivered reports.This deliverable focused in particular on how integrate the information about the facilities replicating the real world condition into a simulation environment. For doing this, the concept of remote Physical Hardware-in-the-Loop (PHIL) has been used and exploit.Remote simulation with physical hardware appears to be an effective means for investigating new technologies for energy transition, with the purpose of solving the issues related to the introduction of new Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into the electricity system. These solutions are making the overall energy systems to be investigated much more complex than the traditional ones, introducingnew challenges to the research. In fact:• the newly integrated technologies deal with different energy vectors and sectors, thus• requiring interoperability and multidisciplinary analysis;• the systems to be implemented often are large-scale energy systems leading to enormously complicated simulation models;• the facilities for carrying out the experiments require huge investments as well as suitable areas where to be properly installed.This may lead to the fact that a single laboratory with limited expertise, hardware/software facilities and available data has not the ability to secure satisfactory outcomes. The solution is the share of existing research infrastructures, by virtually joining different distant laboratories or facilities.This results in improvement of simulation capabilities for large-scale systems by decoupling into subsystems to be run on distant targets avoidance of replication of already existing facilities by exploiting remote hardware in the loop concept for testing of remote devices.Also confidential information of one lab, whose sharing may be either not allowed or requiring long administrative authorization procedures, can be kept confidential by simulating models locally and exchanging with the partners only proper data and simulation results through the co-simulation medium.Thanks to the realized method it is possible to real time analyse renewable devices at remotepower plants and place them in the loop of a local network simulation.The results reported show that the architecture developed is strong enough for being applied also atnew renewable power plants. This opens the possibility to use the data for research purposed, butalso to act in remote on the infrastructure in case of particular test (for example the acceptance test).
The future energy system could benefit from the integration of independent gas, heat and electricity infrastructures. Such a hybrid energy network could support the increase of intermittent renewable energy sources by offering increased operational flexibility. Nowadays, the expectations on Natural Gas resources forecast an increase in the application of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), as a means of storage and transportation, which has a high exergy value. Therefore, we analyzed the integration of decentralized LNG regasification with a Waste-to-Energy (W2E) plant for a practice-based case to get an idea on how it might affect the balancing of supply and demand, under optimized exergy efficient conditions. We compared an independent system with an integrated system that consists of the use of the LNG cold to cool the condenser of the W2E plant, as well as the expansion of the regasified LNG in an expander, using a simplified deterministic model based on the energy hub concept. We use the hourly measured electricity and heat demand patterns for 200 households with 35% of the households producing electricity from PV according to a typical measured solar insolation pattern in The Netherlands. The results indicate that the integration affects the imbalance for electricity and heat compared to the independent system. If the electricity demand is met, both the total yearly heat shortage and heat excess are reduced for the integrated system. If the heat demand is met, the total yearly electricity shortage is also reduced (with 100 MWh). However, the total yearly electricity excess is then increased (with 300 MWh). We observed that these changes are solely due to the increase in exergy efficiencies for heat and electricity of the W2E Rankine cycle. The efficiency of the expander is too low to offer a significant contribution to the electricity demand. Therefore, future research should focus on the affect that can be obtained by to other means of integration (e.g. Organic Rankine Cycle and Stirling Cycle).
“Being completely circular by 2050” that is the goal for the Dutch economy. The transition towards the circular and biobased economy for energy and materials is essential to reach that goal. Sustainably produced materials based on renewable sources like biomass should be developed. One of the industries which recognizes the need for transition is the building industry. Currently, there are a couple of biobased building concepts available which claim to be more than 95% biobased. Since the current resins and adhesives, used to produce panel boards (like cross laminated timber (CLT)), are all produced synthetically, one of the missing links for the building industry to become 100% biobased are biobased resins and adhesives (and binders). In literature, there are several solutions described for resins/adhesives/binders which are based on the biomolecules lignin and cellulose which are abundantly present in fibrous biomass, but these products are not (yet) available on the market. At the same time, there are several fibrous biomass side streams available for which higher added value applications are demanded. These side streams are perfect sources of lignin and cellulose and are, therefore, very suitable sources to form the basis for biobased resins/adhesives/binders. However, they need modification to obtain the desired functionalities. The problem statement of this project, based on the request for valorization of fibrous side streams and the need for biobased building materials, is “How can we valorize fibrous biomass (side streams) into biobased building applications.” This problem statement is translated into the research goal. The aim of this research is to develop a biobased resin, adhesive or binder for the production of panel boards based on the side streams of fibrous/lignocellulosic biomass which meets the requirement of the building industry with respect to VOC emissions, and water resistance so that it contributes to a healthy living environment.
Designing with the Sun is a KIEM-GoCI explorative research project on the theme Energy Transition and Sustainability. The project is aimed at network and agenda building and design research that explores new (cultural) practices of renewable energy consumption, based on a shift from ‘energy blindness’ to ‘energy awareness’. Up until now the solar industry has been propelled forward by technical innovations, offering mostly pragmatic, economic benefits to consumers. Innovation in this field mostly concerns making solar panels more efficient and less costly. However, to succeed, the energy transition also needs new cultural practices. These practices should reflect the ways renewables are different from fossil fuels. For solar, this means using more direct solar energy, when the sun is there, and being able to adapt to periods of low energy. Currently, consumers are mostly ‘blind’ to the infrastructure behind fossil-based energy. However, for energy sources such as solar and wind ‘awareness’ of their availability becomes more important. What could such an awareness look or feel like? How can it be enacted? And how can a change in practice that is more attuned to availability be experienced positively? Solar companies see opportunities in using design to help build motivating practices and narratives within the solar field, enabling awareness through personal relationships between consumer and solar energy. However, the knowledge of how to get there is lacking. In a research-through-design trajectory, and together with partners from the Creative Industries, Designing with the Sun aims to explore new ways of relating citizens to solar energy. Ultimately, these insights should enable the newly emerging field of solar design to contribute to the emergence of more sustainable and rewarding energy awareness and practices.
The integration of renewable energy resources, controllable devices and energy storage into electricity distribution grids requires Decentralized Energy Management to ensure a stable distribution process. This demands the full integration of information and communication technology into the control of distribution grids. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is used to communicate measurements and commands between individual components and the control server. In the future this control is especially needed at medium voltage and probably also at the low voltage. This leads to an increased connectivity and thereby makes the system more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. According to the research agenda NCSRA III, the energy domain is becoming a prime target for cyber-attacks, e.g., abusing control protocol vulnerabilities. Detection of such attacks in SCADA networks is challenging when only relying on existing network Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs). Although these systems were designed specifically for SCADA, they do not necessarily detect malicious control commands sent in legitimate format. However, analyzing each command in the context of the physical system has the potential to reveal certain inconsistencies. We propose to use dedicated intrusion detection mechanisms, which are fundamentally different from existing techniques used in the Internet. Up to now distribution grids are monitored and controlled centrally, whereby measurements are taken at field stations and send to the control room, which then issues commands back to actuators. In future smart grids, communication with and remote control of field stations is required. Attackers, who gain access to the corresponding communication links to substations can intercept and even exchange commands, which would not be detected by central security mechanisms. We argue that centralized SCADA systems should be enhanced by a distributed intrusion-detection approach to meet the new security challenges. Recently, as a first step a process-aware monitoring approach has been proposed as an additional layer that can be applied directly at Remote Terminal Units (RTUs). However, this allows purely local consistency checks. Instead, we propose a distributed and integrated approach for process-aware monitoring, which includes knowledge about the grid topology and measurements from neighboring RTUs to detect malicious incoming commands. The proposed approach requires a near real-time model of the relevant physical process, direct and secure communication between adjacent RTUs, and synchronized sensor measurements in trustable real-time, labeled with accurate global time-stamps. We investigate, to which extend the grid topology can be integrated into the IDS, while maintaining near real-time performance. Based on topology information and efficient solving of power flow equation we aim to detect e.g. non-consistent voltage drops or the occurrence of over/under-voltage and -current. By this, centrally requested switching commands and transformer tap change commands can be checked on consistency and safety based on the current state of the physical system. The developed concepts are not only relevant to increase the security of the distribution grids but are also crucial to deal with future developments like e.g. the safe integration of microgrids in the distribution networks or the operation of decentralized heat or biogas networks.
