Business-led approaches to accessing energy in development countries are becoming key factors to sustainable market development. Given the major challenges in this market, companies will blend commercial and donor-funded activities, while simultaneously finding innovative ways to bring renewable energy technologies beyond the energy grid. Collaborative approaches by companies and public actors focused on private sector development seem crucial at this stage to further upscale emerging business models in this market.
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The increasing share of renewable production like wind and PV poses new challenges to our energy system. The intermittent behavior and lack of controllability on these sources requires flexibility measures like storage and conversion. Production, consumption, transportation, storage and conversion systems become more intertwined. The increasing complexity of the system requires new control strategies to fulfill existing requirements.The SynergyS project addresses the main question how to operate increasingly complex energy systems in a controllable, robust, safe, affordable, and reliable way. Goal of the project is to develop and test a smart control system for a multi-commodity energy system (MCES), with electricity, hydrogen and heat. In scope are an industrial cluster (Chemistry Park Delfzijl) and a residential cluster (Leeuwarden) and their mutual interaction. Results are experimentally tested in two real-life demo-sites scale models: Centre of Expertise Energy (EnTranCe) and The Green Village (TU Delft) represent respectively the industrial and residential cluster.The result will be a market-driven control system to operate a multi-commodity energy system, integrating the industrial and residential cluster. The experimental setup is a combination of physical demo-site assets complemented with (digital) asset models. Experimental validation is based on a demo-scenario including real time data, simulated data and several stress tests.In this session we’ll elaborate more on the project and present (preliminary) results on the testing criteria, scenarios and experimental setup.
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Door COVID-19 crisis zijn er extra uitdagingen om de verdere doorontwikkeling van het praktijkgerichte onderzoek en de onderliggende infrastructuur en professionalisering kwalitatief en kwantitatief te realiseren. De Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (HAN) zet de IMPULS 2020 middelen in om de rol van het praktijkgericht onderzoek hierin te bestendigen en versterken. Het betreft een academie overstijgende aanvraag. Het beschikbare budget vanuit de regeling bedraagt 550.000 euro en zal in 2021 via twee lijnen worden ingezet: 1. Netwerk- en visievorming Dit richt zich op de versterking van de strategische netwerkvorming en samenhang overstijgend aan de zwaartepunten als focus gebieden voor de samenwerking onderwijs, onderzoek en werkveld (deels is hier aandacht voor de ontwikkeling en samenwerking bij regelingen als SPRONG of MMIP). Dit moet leiden tot het ontwikkelen van een meerjarige roadmap SLIM, SCHOON & SOCIAAL (S3). De regie ligt bij dit deel bij het zwaartepunt management. (Sustainable Energy & Environment (SEE), Smart Region en Health). 2. Professionalisering onderzoeksondersteuning Dit gedeelte betreft het vervolg op het project professionalisering onderzoeksondersteuning en richt zich (in lijn met het nationale project DCC) op de doorontwikkeling van: datastewardship, FAIR data & open access, ICT kennisinfrastructuur en communicatie rondom onderzoek en ondersteuning, verdere ontwikkeling van een Open Science Platform en voorbereiding op een HAN Open Access Fonds. Dit deel zal vanuit Services Onderwijs, Onderzoek en Kwaliteitszorg gecoördineerd worden. Middels deze inzet geeft de HAN een extra stimulans aan de strategische samenwerking en de verdere ontwikkeling van een consistente en herkenbare onderzoeksprogrammering en -ondersteuning.
Cities, the living place of 75% of European population, are crucial for sustainable transition in a just society. Therefore, the EU has launched a Mission for 100 Climate-Neutral Smart Cities (100CNSC). Construction is a key industry in making cities more sustainable. Currently, construction consumes 50% resources, uses 40% energy, and emits 36% greenhouse gasses. The sector is not cost-efficient, not human-friendly, and not healthy – it is negatively known for “3D: dirty, dangerous, demanding”. As such, the construction sector is not attractive for educated and skilled young professionals that are needed for the sustainable transition and for resolving the housing crisis. In contrast with the non-circular designs, materials and techniques that are still common in the construction industry, some other industries and fields have cultivated higher standards for sustainable products, especially in clean and efficient assembly and disassembly. Examples can be found in the maritime and off-shore industry, smart manufacturing, small electronics, and retail. The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS) aims to become the leader of a strong European consortium for preliminary research to develop knowledge that is needed for the upcoming Horizon Europe proposal (within Cluster 4, Destination 1 - Re-manufacturing and De-manufacturing technologies) in relation with the EU Mission 100CNSC. The goals of this preliminary research are: (a) to articulate new concepts that will become an input for a new research proposal and (b) to organize a high-quality European consortium with high-quality partners for a lasting collaboration. This preliminary research project focuses on the question: How can the construction sector adopt and adapt the best practices in assembly and disassembly from other industries –including maritime, manufacturing and retails– in order to enhance circular urban construction and renovation with an active involvement of educated and skilled young professionals?
We live in a time of radical changes in Europe. The climate crisis, the war in Ukraine, energy crisis, the pandemic, increasedprice levels and interest rates, digitalization, robotization, reduced birth rates, an aging population, migration, a decliningdemocracy index and increasing friction level between continents and powerful states makes us uncertain about tomorrow.Deglobalization, shorter production lines, changed export models, bloc formations and sovereignty might be results of someof the large challenges we see today. We see tendencies towards increasing poverty and a declining middle class. It isperhaps more important than ever in recent times to show optimism on behalf of young people and future generations.European cooperation and the link between the right skills for the right future seems to be more actual and important thanever. A report from McKinsey Global Institute (2017) about future work life, competence development and digitalization,shows that approximately 50 % of todays jobs can disappear in the nearest future caused digitalization, robotization and AI.MGI’s in-dept report have covered more than 20 countries and 30 industries (mckinsey.com). We have also a commonEuropean challenge reagarding too many youth outside the working life. The NEET index (Not in Employment, Education orTraining) was 14 % totally for the EU countries, 9.6 % for Germany, 6.3 % for Netherlands and also 6.3 % for Norway in2021 (ssb.no).This is a challenge we have to solve as we need to increase the work participation as welfare costs willincrease as a consequence of more immigration and several older people.
