System of production and delivery self-assembly, carbon neutral, energy positive and income generating house which reduces housing overburden declining inequality gap.

Project Information

SOLACE Housing

Grant agreement ID: 763146

DOI

10.3030/763146

Project closed

EC signature date 22 January 2017

Start date 1 February 2017

End date 31 July 2017

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

SOLACE SPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ODPOWIEDZIALNOSCIA
Poland

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SOLACE Housing (System of production and delivery self-assembly, carbon neutral, energy positive and income generating house which reduces housing overburden declining inequality gap.)

Reporting period: 2017-02-01 to 2017-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

According to the “State of Housing in the EU 2015” there are not enough affordable homes available in European countries to meet the increasing demand. Moreover according to Matthew Rognlie (MIT) studies housing is one of the main sources of inequality. Over 15% of Europeans lives in a housing overburden, having no chance to escape from the poverty trap. There is a burning need to create a new innovative approach that changes the way of financing lives of those who can not afford decent conditions. This approach is SOLACE.

The objective of SOLACE is to bring first own house that allows Europeans in need to escape the poverty trap. It is a system of delivery of Basic and Sustainable Housing that generates income for owners and stimulates local economies in poor European regions. Energy needs are being met by renewable energy generated by solar panels while energy surpluses will be sold to the grid generating income for the owner. All building elements are transported in one container to final location makes it effortless and efficient from an energy standpoint. The prefabricated house can be assembled within 72 hours. It's European cheapest house of high quality priced 25.000 €, emission-less, carbon neutral, energy positive and self-sufficient while being 80% recyclable. With those features, we believe we can effectively change lives of poor Europeans freeing them from housing overburden in the regions where no commercial investors want to operate.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Main focus was directed to answer the question whether the end to end structure of the venture is a viable business. Work was performed in two streams - Technological and Business. The feasibility study was to highlight all risks and opportunities for the SOLACE plc. The Technical analysis was to determine final parameters of the SOLACE house with the listing of full supply chain for the production. The final result determined the necessity to change planned thermal insulation to more flexible material ready to use during the SOLACE assembly while exchanging the hardwood to plywood to lighten the construction and shorten the assembly time. Taking this as input to the Business stream we have prepared detailed plan of production phase of SOLACE ouse with the end to end viability check, risk management, sourcing, PnL and finally the investment sum.
The analysis was supported by the macroeconomic analyses like legal european legislation concerning construction regulations, Energy efficiency, Market potential, IPR protection analysis and zoning plan for the company.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The most important achievements beyond the state of the art are:
1. End to end process of delivery of all elements in one container
2. Innovative thermo insulating method to produce houses on the site
3. Energy efficiency and energy balance to 0, allowing family to not to cover any additional costs of living in SOLACE house
4. Material and design optimisation using best in class software to determine the saving potential
5. Product pipeline for future with the new IP potentials emerging from the current study

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