Envisioning and Testing New Models of Sustainable Energy Cooperation and Services in Industrial Parks

Project Information

S-PARCS

Grant agreement ID: 785134

DOI

10.3030/785134

Project closed

EC signature date 27 January 2018

Start date 1 March 2018

End date 30 June 2021

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 997 325,00

EU contribution

€ 1 997 325,00

Coordinated by

ENERGIEINSTITUT AN DER JOHANNES KEPLER UNIVERSITAT LINZ VEREIN
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - S-PARCS (Envisioning and Testing New Models of Sustainable Energy Cooperation and Services in Industrial Parks)

Reporting period: 2019-09-01 to 2021-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The European industry sector is responsible for about one-third of the EU’s total energy and process-related Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions , which makes it a central factor in the EU’s climate and energy strategies.
In the recent past, progress has been made regarding increasing primary energy intensity and overall resource efficiency, which led to a reduction of GHG emissions of 31 % between 2008 and 2019. Yet, significant additional climate change mitigation efforts are needed to achieve the Paris Agreement Goals as well as the EU’s Fit for 55 strategy. For example further increasing the share of renewables in the total energy mix as well as improvements of energy efficiency in all industrial sectors.

Within this context, industrial energy cooperation, i.e. the mutualized generation, use and/or acquisition of energy by at least two companies as well as know-how sharing and networking, have the potential of significantly supporting the policy goals outlined above. Yet, establishing energy cooperation solutions not only requires overcoming existing barriers to industrial energy efficiency but also overcoming barriers to cooperation itself, which adds an additional layer of complexity to their implementation.
S-PARCS focused on cooperative energy efficient solutions within the framework of industrial parks, thus enabling higher energy savings and the subsequent increase of competitiveness of the companies located in the parks. For this aim, the S-PARCS consortium systematically analysed technical, economic, regulatory, legal, organisational, environmental and social barriers to energy-efficient park design and operation on all levels and provided innovative, market-ready solutions to overcome them. The four specific objectives of S-PARCS therefore addressed the fundamental components required to implement these new and innovative concepts and to facilitate timely actions, to raise widespread awareness and to foster their swift replication.
Increase the competitiveness of enterprises by developing, testing and deploying replicable instruments for energy cooperation in real-world environments
Develop, test and deploy replicable business models for joint contracting of energy services for industrial parks
Contribute to the creation of legal and regulatory frameworks that accelerate and facilitate the adoption of innovative instruments for energy cooperation and feed insights into political debates
Build capacities and increase the skills and competencies of players from the EU industrial environment.

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

To achieve these objectives, a holistic methodology was designed to analyse the current situation regarding energy cooperation solutions of industrial parks and the barriers they face. The analysis started with the identification of 41 potential energy cooperation solutions (D1.1) which were then matched with potential barriers to their implementation. (D1.2). A further analysis consisted in designing and identifying suitable instruments to overcome the above mentioned barriers (D2.1).
The analysis showed that especially in a cooperative set-up, social/managerial and information barriers become crucial, especially at early stages of cooperation. Communication is also crucial in the identification of potential energy cooperation solutions, as companies do not necessarily have any existing communication channels, business relations, let alone knowledge, about the energy and resource use of their neighbouring companies (D4.3). Also, energy provision and energy cooperation are not the core business of industrial companies which results in a lack of know-how about technical possibilities, potential cooperation partners and possible business models (D1.3 D2.2 D.6.4).
From a social point of view, the unfamiliarity with energy cooperation as well as neighbouring companies also lead to less tangible barriers like mistrust and inadequate communication strategies, which can prevent the uptake of otherwise beneficial energy cooperation solutions (D5.6). In this context, a meaningful role is attached to (external) facilitators (such as the research partners in the project) as they can remove such barriers by guiding the companies through the development process and support them with their expertise.
This is particularly true for less technical but networking and contractual energy cooperation solutions that require reviews, adjustments, and confirmation and, case-dependent, may include the exchange of money. The final category were economic barriers, which turned out to be a less dominant barrier category than assumed ex-ante. The feasibility studies elaborated in the project (D5.3 and D5.4) also highlighted that some renewable energy solutions owe their (increased) economic feasibility mainly to the cooperative aspects, e.g. as utilization rates are increased, or economies of scale come into play. Consequently, in some cases economic barriers of energy measures in general can be resolved by energy cooperation.
This concept was then used for the identification of energy cooperation solutions in five industrial parks (D5.1 D5.2 D5.3 D5.4 D5.5). For each park instruments to overcome the barriers faced by the parks were identified to support the actual implementation of a solution (D1.1 D1.2 D2.1). Finally, and in order to provide the companies and industrial park with a quantitative measurement to assess a single solution or compare different solutions among each other, key performance indicators (KPI) were designed (D4.1 and D4.2). All these analytical steps where then integrated in a decision-making tool, the S-PARCS Initial Assessment Tool (IAT), in order to help industrial parks via tailor-made advice (D2.2 D3.1 D3.2 D3.3 D3.4).

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)

S-PARCS provided a holistic methodology for assessing solutions and contextual condition for implementing energy cooperation in industrial parks. It was shown that technical and economic attractiveness, and an enabling legal and policy context, are not always enough. For promising energy cooperation solutions to flourish, historical, cultural, organisational, social and behavioural factors also play a significant role. Likewise, findings show that external facilitators are helpful to pool efforts to achieve greater engagement. Therefore, park managers should assume the role of negotiator between companies located within the industrial park and these external facilitators to identify tailor-made solutions. Indeed, effective initial analysis of peculiarities of each industrial park is crucial for overcoming potential barriers and the successful implementation of energy cooperation solutions.

S-PARCS made significant impact in a range of categories:
Dissemination: more than 33 articles, among them 4 peer-reviewed articles were published and a large audience of over 17,000 people were reached in conferences, workshops, webinars and via social media. Two further articles are currently under review.
Energy & Investments: the feasibility studies conducted in S-PARCS show the significant energy saving potential that cooperative solutions entail. Our calculations show that by implementing the most-promising solutions, the five Lighthouse parks in S-PARCS could achieve primary energy savings of about 100 GWh/year, trigger renewable energy production of about 110 GWh/year and their GHG emissions by about 21,000 tCO2eq/year. In order to implement these solutions, a total investment of about 17 mio. € is needed.

Logo of the project