The Johan Cruijff ArenA (JC ArenA) is a big events location in Amsterdam, where national and international football matches, concerts and music festivals take place for up to 68,000 visitors. The JC ArenA is already one of the most sustainable, multi-functional stadia in the world and is realizing even more inspiring smart energy solutions for the venue, it’s visitors and neighbourhood. The JC ArenA presents a complex testbed for innovative energy services, with a consumption of electricity comparable to a district of 2700 households. Thanks to the 1 MWp solar installation on the roof of the venue, the JC ArenA already produces around 8% of the electricity it needs, the rest is by certified regional wind energy.Within the Seev4-City project the JC ArenA has invested in a 3 MW/2.8 MWh battery energy storage system, 14 EV charging stations and one V2G charging unit. The plan was to construct the 2.8 MWh battery with 148 2nd life electric car batteries, but at the moment of realisation there were not enough 2nd life EV batteries available, so 40% is 2nd life. The JC ArenA experienced compatibility issues installing a mix of new and second-life batteries. Balancing the second-life batteries with the new batteries proved far more difficult than expected because an older battery is acting different compared to new batteries.The EV-based battery energy storage system is unique in that it combines for the first time several applications and services in parallel. Main use is for grid services like Frequency Containment Reserve, along with peak shaving, back-up services, V2G support and optimization of PV integration. By integrating the solar panels, the energy storage system and the (bi-directional) EV chargers electric vehicles can power events and be charged with clean energy through the JC ArenA’s Energy Services. These and other experiences and results can serve as a development model for other stadiums worldwide and for use of 2nd life EV batteries.The results of the Seev4-City project are also given in three Key Performance Indicators (KPI): reduction of CO2-emission, increase of energy autonomy and reduction in peak demand. The results for the JC ArenA are summarised in the table below. The year 2017 is taken as reference, as most data is available for this year. The CO2 reductions are far above target thanks to the use of the battery energy storage system for FCR services, as this saves on the use of fossil energy by fossil power plants. Some smaller savings are by replacement of ICEby EV. Energy autonomy is increased by better spreading of the PV generated, over 6 instead of 4 of the 10 transformers of the JC ArenA, so less PV is going to the public grid. A peak reduction of 0.3 MW (10%) is possible by optimal use of the battery energy storage system during the main events with the highest electricity demand.
Energy transition is key to achieving a sustainable future. However, in this transition, an often neglected pillar is raising awareness and educating individuals on the benefits, complexities, and urgency of renewable energy supply and energy efficiency. This paper exemplifies an educational practice to create awareness on sustainable energy transition by playing a “serious” game, the We Energy Game. Concretely, this qualitative study aims to analyze communicational and educational aspects of the game by making use of a validated framework for serious games analysis, and to expose the opinion of players after maintaining group discussions. The analysis reveals a detailed insight of narrative elements, messages, and gameplay mechanisms, but also educative aspects to be considered by teachers if they are interested in putting the game into practice in their classes. The group discussion reveals that the game has been more successful in achieving cognitive (understanding/knowledge) and affective (emotion/interest and concern) engagement than in motivating attitudinal or behavioral engagement.
A large council building in Leicester, its central HQ called City Hall, aims to link on site renewable energy (PV) generation to electric vehicles (EVs) used by the Council staff. Leicester City Hall based staff are utilising four EVs for their work and charging these, when possible, from local renewable energy (PV) generation. This study presents the analysis of the use of four such EVs and their charging profiles that take place at the City Hall.
Vanuit het bedrijfsleven is vraag naar het ontwikkelen van coatings met specifieke hoogwaardige eigenschappen. Een technisch haalbare en kosten efficiënte methode om dit te doen is door het inmengen van nanodeeltjes in coatings of in polymeren. Op dit moment is de beschikbaarheid (op grotere schaal) van hoogwaardige nanodeeltjes (grootte en deeltjesgrootte distributie) echter nog een knelpunt. Microreactortechnologie kan hiervoor een goede uitkomst bieden. In een microreactor kunnen reactiecondities zeer goed gecontroleerd worden en daardoor zal de reproduceerbaarheid goed zijn. Ook is het eenvoudig om een reactie in een microreactor op te schalen naar een groter volume. In het RAAK-MKB project Flow4Nano worden 2 sleutel technologieën van het lectoraat Material Sciences van Zuyd Hogeschool bij elkaar gebracht: nanotechnologie en microreactor technologie. In dit project zal de focus liggen op de toepassing van nanodeeltjes in optische coating voor zonnecellen en voor glastuinbouw. De toepassing in zonnecellen is een focus van het lectoraat Zonne Energie in de Gebouwde Omgeving van Zuyd. De toepassing in de glastuinbouw is een focus van de Hogeschool Arnhem Nijmegen in het lectoraat duurzame energie. De onderzoekvraag voor dit project is: “Can we produce nanoparticles with high specificity for use in advanced coatings and polymers with tailored functionalities for application in greenhouses and solar cells using (micro)flow?” De consortiumleden Zuyd Hogeschool / lectoraat material sciences (microreactor technologie / nanotechnologie), TNO/brightlands Material Centre (nanomaterialen voor energietoepassingen), Kriya Materials (producent nanodeeltjes) en Chemtrix (microflow apparatuur) zullen TiO2 en ZnO nanodeeltjes maken en karakteriseren. De consortiumpartners Zuyd / lectoraat Zonne-energie in de duurzaam gebouwde omgevingen HAN (lectoraat duurzame energie) zullen de geproduceerde nanodeeltjes testen in optisch actieve coatings voor toepassingen in zonne-energie en glastuinbouw respectievelijk. De consortiumpartner NanoHouse zal het stuk disseminatie op zich nemen.
In line with the ‘Natuur- en milieubeleidsplan Caribisch Nederland 2020-2030 (NMBP)’ the consortium intends with this research proposal to contribute to a prosperous society with a resilient population and healthy natural environment. The Caribbean Netherlands are dealing with a situation where imported vegetables and fruits are mostly imported and hardly affordable. This leads to consuming unhealthy food and high obesities rates as a consequence. A lack of good agricultural practices with regard to water-smart and nature inclusive agriculture, as well as limited coping capacities to deal with hazards and climate change, results in very limited local production and interest. Initiatives that focused only on agrotechnological solutions for food resilient futures turned out to be ineffective due to a lack of local ownership, which jeopardizes sustainability. Moreover, the ‘green’ and ‘blue’ domains are not seen as attractive career perspectives among youth, hampering a bright future for those domains. The aim of this research is to contribute to water-smart and nature inclusive food resilience embedded in a local participatory perspective in the Caribbean Netherlands. To address the above challenges, a living lab approach is adopted, where youth will be trained as (co)-facilitators (WP1) who will contribute to a participatory envisioning process and an articulation of food resilient futures (WP2). Finally, based on the envisioning process local stakeholders will select and implement experiments for food resilient futures followed by dissemination of results among key stakeholders as well as children and youth at the BES islands (WP3). This project strategy will lead to a network of a living lab where professionals and youth work together on food resilient futures. Training manuals and the results of experiments with regard to water and food system alternatives will be used actively to encourage youth to be involved in sustainable agriculture and consumption.
A fast growing percentage (currently 75% ) of the EU population lives in urban areas, using 70% of available energy resources. In the global competition for talent, growth and investments, quality of city life and the attractiveness of cities as environments for learning, innovation, doing business and job creation, are now the key parameters for success. Therefore cities need to provide solutions to significantly increase their overall energy and resource efficiency through actions addressing the building stock, energy systems, mobility, and air quality.The European Energy Union of 2015 aims to ensure secure, affordable and climate-friendly energy for EU citizens and businesses among others, by bringing new technologies and renewed infrastructure to cut household bills, create jobs and boost growth, for achieving a sustainable, low carbon and environmentally friendly economy, putting Europe at the forefront of renewable energy production and winning the fight against global warming.However, the retail market is not functioning properly. Many household consumers have too little choices of energy suppliers and too little control over their energy costs. An unacceptably high percentage of European households cannot afford to pay their energy bills. Energy infrastructure is ageing and is not adjusted to the increased production from renewables. As a consequence there is still a need to attract investments, with the current market design and national policies not setting the right incentives and providing insufficient predictability for potential investors. With an increasing share of renewable energy sources in the coming decades, the generation of electricity/energy will change drastically from present-day centralized production by gigawatt fossil-fueled plants towards decentralized generation, in cities mostly by local household and district level RES (e.g PV, wind turbines) systems operating in the level of micro-grids. With the intermittent nature of renewable energy, grid stress is a challenge. Therefore there is a need for more flexibility in the energy system. Technology can be of great help in linking resource efficiency and flexibility in energy supply and demand with innovative, inclusive and more efficient services for citizens and businesses. To realize the European targets for further growth of renewable energy in the energy market, and to exploit both on a European and global level the expected technological opportunities in a sustainable manner, city planners, administrators, universities, entrepreneurs, citizens, and all other relevant stakeholders, need to work together and be the key moving wheel of future EU cities development.Our SolutionIn the light of such a transiting environment, the need for strategies that help cities to smartly integrate technological solutions becomes more and more apparent. Given this condition and the fact that cities can act as large-scale demonstrators of integrated solutions, and want to contribute to the socially inclusive energy and mobility transition, IRIS offers an excellent opportunity to demonstrate and replicate the cities’ great potential. For more information see the HKU Smart Citieswebsite or check out the EU-website.
