The EU has used a Strategic Energy Technology Plan to empower consumers via decentralisation of the energy ecosystem establishing 100 positive energy districts in 2025 and achieving 80% of electricity consumption to be administered by consumers in 4 out of 5 households.
The Smart-BEEjS project acknowledges this requires systematic synergy of the different interested parties, balancing attention among the technological drivers and related policies, citizens and society’s needs, suppliers and technological capacities; and synergies of the value generation system to achieve transition without excluding a large part of the population.
Smart-BEEjS covers all angles of this ecosystem, to train a generation of transformer citizens with influence on policy design, economic-technical and innovation planning of business models within the energy and efficiency sectors, bearing in mind personal and social dimensions, likewise the inter-relation among the interested parties within energy generation, efficiency and management.
- THE NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY (TNTU). Reino Unido. Líder
- ACADEMIA EUROPEA DI BOLZANO (Eurac Research). Italia. Socio
- TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET WIEN (TU WIEN). Austria. Socio
- INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO DE CANARIAS, S.A. (ITC). España. Socio
- UNIVERSITAT BASEL (UNIVERSITAT BASEL). Suiza. Socio
- WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITY (WU). Holanda. Socio
- Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung e.V. (RWI). Alemania. Socio
The project receives funding under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA): 440.315,70 €
Main objective:
The long-term vision of the Smart-BEEjS project is to design transformation channels tackling poverty and energy justice, providing evidence and using the decentralised nature of the Positive Energy Districts and District Networks as a central transformation platform while acknowledging the economic, social and environmental challenges said platform faces.
Specific objectives:
To train the 15 students using an innovative doctoral training programme that incorporates deep individual training in their individual subjects, with the ability to understand and engage with the needs of citizens and communities, the needs and opportunities available from scientists in different disciplines, including those who produce the technologies necessary for PEDs, and work with the policymakers who can facilitate these new and exciting opportunitiesfunding and co-supervising 15 full-time PhD students.
The project will also promote the development of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs). PEDs are local developments and networks of homes, workplaces and traffic systems which, together, generate more energy than is consumed. This is achieved through a combination of lower energy usage and the local generation of renewable energy. Individual buildings can both generate and share energy, with design and materials ensuring less energy is needed. Any spare energy can then be supplied back into the grid, for others to benefit from.