Periodic Reporting for period 1 - oPEN Lab (Open innovation living labs for Positive Energy Neighbourhoods)
Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2023-03-31
The European Union aim is to be climate-neutral by 2050, which requires a full decarbonisation of the existing building stock. One priority must be to redesign and retrofit our existing buildings and neighbourhoods, making them future-proof with no adverse impact on climate change and with a minimised environmental footprint, while having a positive impact on society. Positive Energy Neighbourhoods (PEN) are highly energy-efficient and flexible urban neighbourhoods, in which buildings, energy systems and mobility infrastructure work in harmony to achieve a surplus production of renewable energy. A full decarbonisation of the building sector will require a broad penetration of PEN and related innovations.
The main objective of oPEN Lab is to upgrade the existing buildings and district facilities in specific neighbourhoods in the cities of Tartu, Pamplona and Genk to fully operational Positive Energy Neighbourhoods and operate them as Positive Energy Neighbourhood Living Labs. The oPEN Lab project will demonstrate the feasibility of promising technologies, processes and social innovations, leading towards Positive Energy Neighbourhoods and paving the way for wider replication.
The oPEN Lab objective is based on the following principles:
To engage and involve the neighbourhoods’ communities in the creation of a vision for their oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhood, by using participatory approaches.
To test innovation in an integrated approach combining the sustainable design tailored to the local context, the seamless industrial renovation workflow as well as the generation of renewable energy combined with storage systems.
To accelerate the spread of oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhoods by upscaling and replicating the solutions tested within the regions and countries of the Living Labs and across Europe.
To showcase how the innovative technologies and participatory processes applied in oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhoods can best contribute to the implementation of the Renovation Wave and its objective of doubling the renovation rate in the EU.
The main objective of oPEN Lab is to upgrade the existing buildings and district facilities in specific neighbourhoods in the cities of Tartu, Pamplona and Genk to fully operational Positive Energy Neighbourhoods and operate them as Positive Energy Neighbourhood Living Labs. The oPEN Lab project will demonstrate the feasibility of promising technologies, processes and social innovations, leading towards Positive Energy Neighbourhoods and paving the way for wider replication.
The oPEN Lab objective is based on the following principles:
To engage and involve the neighbourhoods’ communities in the creation of a vision for their oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhood, by using participatory approaches.
To test innovation in an integrated approach combining the sustainable design tailored to the local context, the seamless industrial renovation workflow as well as the generation of renewable energy combined with storage systems.
To accelerate the spread of oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhoods by upscaling and replicating the solutions tested within the regions and countries of the Living Labs and across Europe.
To showcase how the innovative technologies and participatory processes applied in oPEN Lab Positive Energy Neighbourhoods can best contribute to the implementation of the Renovation Wave and its objective of doubling the renovation rate in the EU.
The main achievements of the first reporting period (1/10/2021 to 31/03/2023) include:
Set up and operation of the PEN living labs: a Living Lab approach is used, as a means to create, stimulate and sustain ‘open innovation practices for positive energy’, on a building and district level. Implementation plans for the oPEN living labs have been developed in close collaborations between project partners (local government, industrial partners, research organisations, citizens representatives) and strong relationship with local stakeholders in the project area. A capacity building programme for the creation of positive energy neighbourhoods, based on the open innovation and living lab methodology, is available.
Co-creation, community and value chain engagement for user-centric PENs: through the implementation of social innovations, increased levels of engagement throughout the quadruple helix – and particularly citizens – was obtained. This has created a strong sense of involvement and ownership amongst the participants, which is highly valuable.
Decision-support tools for design, construction and operation of PENs: to optimise the design of buildings (both new and existing) and their optimal integration into a PEN, existing digital tools and data (BIM, GIS and monitoring data) were integrated in a seamless process, particularly during the design and planning phase. Digital twins are being developed to accurately represent energy systems at neighbourhood level and their control, comprising all relevant elements and systems involved in the generation, transformation, transfer, and consumption of energy.
Industrial construction and renovation workflows: Industrialised renovation workflows with modular renovation concepts have already been successfully developed and implemented in other innovation projects. oPEN Lab is building further on these and demonstrates off-site prefabricated modular renovation solutions in real-life environment in the oPEN Labs.
Building and districts energy systems in PEN environment: the operation of a PEN requires coordinated design and operation of various energy assets including RES, storage and dispatching systems. The activities during this first reporting period were focused on coordinated design of technical specifications for public procurement and competitive calls, including tender preparation at building level, publication and start of evaluation. Great effort has been made in the decision-taking to accept the oPEN Lab innovative technologies, facing the challenges due to the consequences of the war and the increase in the price of energy.
Monitoring and performance evaluation: after implementation of the PEN technologies, we will monitor the relevant parameters of the living labs and documents the actual performance, including data on technical systems (e.g. energy consumption and delivered comfort), as well as user behaviour and acceptance; and environmental impacts over the entire planned life cycle of the buildings and systems. To do so, data monitoring protocols were defined, worked out jointly and released. The pre-renovation monitoring campaigns have started in all living labs.
Exploitation – steering market uptake and PENs roll-out: during the first project phase, oPEN Lab started building the foundation for enabling a wide-scale replication of the oPEN Lab innovations and solutions to other urban environments across Europe. Besides the policy uptake, oPEN Lab partners are analysing how PEN investments can become attractive across the EU, and are tailoring innovative business models to the complexity of PEN projects.
Communication and dissemination: dedicated dissemination and communication strategies as well as activities that support the projects ambitions by sharing the lessons learnt have been undertaken. These were for example communication actions such as ‘Spread the word’, ‘oPEN Lab Goes Local Campaign’ and ‘oPEN Lab joins Forces’.
Set up and operation of the PEN living labs: a Living Lab approach is used, as a means to create, stimulate and sustain ‘open innovation practices for positive energy’, on a building and district level. Implementation plans for the oPEN living labs have been developed in close collaborations between project partners (local government, industrial partners, research organisations, citizens representatives) and strong relationship with local stakeholders in the project area. A capacity building programme for the creation of positive energy neighbourhoods, based on the open innovation and living lab methodology, is available.
Co-creation, community and value chain engagement for user-centric PENs: through the implementation of social innovations, increased levels of engagement throughout the quadruple helix – and particularly citizens – was obtained. This has created a strong sense of involvement and ownership amongst the participants, which is highly valuable.
Decision-support tools for design, construction and operation of PENs: to optimise the design of buildings (both new and existing) and their optimal integration into a PEN, existing digital tools and data (BIM, GIS and monitoring data) were integrated in a seamless process, particularly during the design and planning phase. Digital twins are being developed to accurately represent energy systems at neighbourhood level and their control, comprising all relevant elements and systems involved in the generation, transformation, transfer, and consumption of energy.
Industrial construction and renovation workflows: Industrialised renovation workflows with modular renovation concepts have already been successfully developed and implemented in other innovation projects. oPEN Lab is building further on these and demonstrates off-site prefabricated modular renovation solutions in real-life environment in the oPEN Labs.
Building and districts energy systems in PEN environment: the operation of a PEN requires coordinated design and operation of various energy assets including RES, storage and dispatching systems. The activities during this first reporting period were focused on coordinated design of technical specifications for public procurement and competitive calls, including tender preparation at building level, publication and start of evaluation. Great effort has been made in the decision-taking to accept the oPEN Lab innovative technologies, facing the challenges due to the consequences of the war and the increase in the price of energy.
Monitoring and performance evaluation: after implementation of the PEN technologies, we will monitor the relevant parameters of the living labs and documents the actual performance, including data on technical systems (e.g. energy consumption and delivered comfort), as well as user behaviour and acceptance; and environmental impacts over the entire planned life cycle of the buildings and systems. To do so, data monitoring protocols were defined, worked out jointly and released. The pre-renovation monitoring campaigns have started in all living labs.
Exploitation – steering market uptake and PENs roll-out: during the first project phase, oPEN Lab started building the foundation for enabling a wide-scale replication of the oPEN Lab innovations and solutions to other urban environments across Europe. Besides the policy uptake, oPEN Lab partners are analysing how PEN investments can become attractive across the EU, and are tailoring innovative business models to the complexity of PEN projects.
Communication and dissemination: dedicated dissemination and communication strategies as well as activities that support the projects ambitions by sharing the lessons learnt have been undertaken. These were for example communication actions such as ‘Spread the word’, ‘oPEN Lab Goes Local Campaign’ and ‘oPEN Lab joins Forces’.
At the heart of oPEN Lab is the ambition of accelerating the retrofitting of existing buildings as zero-emission/zero-pollution, positive energy-houses in sustainable neighbourhoods, providing momentum to the ‘renovation wave’. By making the urban environment energy positive and climate neutral through approaching every single building separately to positive energy level, we would miss many opportunities for technical and financial optimisation, for scale advantages, the use of district energy systems, energy flexibility services and collective energy production and storage. In a similar vein and from the non-technical point of view, a neighbourhood is neither a mere accumulation of buildings. The goal of integrated urban functioning is of utmost importance, regardless of the chosen perspective. Positive Energy Neighbourhoods are thus the next logical evolutionary step following energy efficient buildings.
oPEN Lab has the ambition to implement both an integrated and aggregated energy solution approach on neighbourhood level, upgrading the existing buildings and district facilities in Genk (BE), Pamplona (ES) and Tartu (EE) towards fully operational Positive Energy Neighbourhood living labs.
The oPEN Lab cluster analysis will lead to designs and implementation of most optimal renovation and technology pathways towards a decarbonised building stock, and this from an integrated system perspective.
oPEN Lab has the ambition to implement both an integrated and aggregated energy solution approach on neighbourhood level, upgrading the existing buildings and district facilities in Genk (BE), Pamplona (ES) and Tartu (EE) towards fully operational Positive Energy Neighbourhood living labs.
The oPEN Lab cluster analysis will lead to designs and implementation of most optimal renovation and technology pathways towards a decarbonised building stock, and this from an integrated system perspective.