Recent years have shown the emergence of numerous local energy initiatives (prosumer communities) in the Netherlands. Many of them have set the goal to establish a local and sustainable energy provision on a not-for-profit basis. In this study we carried out exploratory case studies on a number of Dutch prosumer communities. The objective is to analyse their development process, to examine the barriers they encounter while organising their initiative, and to find how ICT could be applied to counteract these barriers and support communities in reaching their goals. The study shows that prosumer communities develop along a stepwise, evolutionary growth path, while they are struggling with organising their initiative, because the right expertise is lacking on various issues (such as energy technology, finance and legislation). Participants stated that, depending on the development phase of their initiative, there is a strong need for information and specific expertise. With a foreseeable growing technical complexity they indicated that they wanted to be relieved with the right tools and services at the right moment. Based on these findings we developed a generic solution through the concept of a prosumer community shopping mall. The concept provides an integrated and scalable ICT environment, offering a wide spectrum of energy services that supports prosumer communities in every phase of their evolutionary growth path. As such the mall operates as a broker and clearing house between 2 prosumer communities and service providers, where the service offerings grow and fit with the needs and demands of the communities along their growth path. The shopping mall operates for many prosumer communities, thus providing economies of scale. Each prosumer community is presented its own virtual mall, with specific content and a personalised look-and-feel.
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Poster session on the Science Day of the Erasmus Energy Forum 2016. Subject of conference: Redefining the energy landscape: digital innovation as key enabler for the energy transitionDate: 18 and 19 May, 2016. Location: Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
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Rapid convergence of utility and mobility solutions enabled by data and the Internet of Things is future-proofing economies around the world, delivering liveability, sustainability and resilience, and importantly decreasing pressure on utility bills and infrastructure costs. Australians cannot miss out on the many benefits brought to families and businesses by the digitisation of infrastructure and services, not just reduced household bills but also the ability to generate income as prosumers, not consumers. Localised sustainable Next-Gen infrastructure and services are growing from within communities, creating a new class of consumer-the prosumer: where customers are more than consumers but also producers. Prosumers have the ability to generate free energy from the sun at home or office and sell the excess, recycle water and waste reaping the financial benefit, avoid the second largest household expense of a car by sharing mobility, and access shared data networks to plug in and play at little cost. Planning frameworks play a critical role in enabling a new utility prosumer future in Australia and reform of planning gateway processes is essential. This article highlights Sydney’s Central Park as a best practice urban infill development showcasing how the flows of water and energy are organised to provide enhanced sustainability, liveability and resilience for the local and neighbouring communities. Central Park proves the benefits of taking a precinct approach to utility and mobility services. It shows how these benefits can grow and be exported to neighbouring buildings and existing communities, in this case University of Technology driving inclusion and affordability. Central Park also demonstrates the opportunities to drive deeper socio/environmental benefits by enabling prosumer services through low-cost access to utility services and circular resource flows. Importantly, this article demonstrates that Central Park’s phenomenal sustainability benefits can be replicated at scale in land release communities, but planning reform is required.
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In this project I will examine models of local energy production and management, comparing the nine Zero emission neighbourhoods, as developed and monitored by the ZEN research centre at NTNU with the Friesian towns that are part of a new research project in the Netherlands (see above). Secondly, connected to this empirical part, I aim to examine and compare the policies and opportunities for prosumers and small and/ or cooperative businesses in Norway and The Netherlands. In this project I will examine models of local energy production and management, comparing the nine Zero emission neighbourhoods, as developed and monitored by the ZEN research centre at NTNU with the Friesian towns that are part of a new research project in the Netherlands (see above). Secondly, connected to this empirical part, I aim to examine and compare the policies and opportunities for prosumers and small and/ or cooperative businesses in Norway and The Netherlands.
In dit project zullen de benodigde ontwikkelingen en praktijktests worden uitgevoerd om een nieuw type ‘hybride’ coöperatieve aggregator op te zetten voor het aggregeren van collectieve met lokale decentrale flexibiliteit en collectieve met lokale decentrale duurzame opwek, e.e.a. tussen en binnen twee energiegemeenschappen De projectpartners willen in dit pilotproject aantonen dat het mogelijk kan worden om vanuit een coöperatieve aggregator geautomatiseerd flexibiliteit ontsluiten bij de deelnemende prosumers en bedrijven in meerdere communities en naar meerdere markten in combinatie met een collectieve opwek-opslag faciliteit Activiteiten: Hanze zal zich richten op de techno-economische aspecten van portfoliomanagement, (sub)pooling en value stacking. Tevens zal Hanze gesprekken met de eindgebruikers faciliteren en voeren voor, tijdens en na het project voor een hogere slagingskans door een gestructureerde sociale inbedding onder (potentiële) deelnemers in de coöperatie.
