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’.
