Project description
Eco-industrial parks for reduced energy consumption
The industry sector represents 25 % of all energy demand – and 50 % of the total cooling and heating demand in Europe; yet, only 16 % comes from renewables. By focusing on collective measures and clustering, the efficiency of industry's energy consumption can be drastically increased. The focus of the EU-funded R-ACES project is to turn high-potential, high-impact industrial clusters into ecoregions that achieve at least a 10 % reduction in emissions. An ecoregion is a geographic area where energy and information exchanges occur between various companies and actors to reduce waste and energy consumption. They do so by exchanging surplus energy, making extensive use of renewables and tying everything together with smart energy management systems.
Objective
R-Aces means a step-change in the contribution of European Industry to the climate targets of the EU. The sector after all represents 25% of all energy demand – and 50% of all cooling and heating - on the continent; yet only 16% comes from renewables. By focusing on collective measures and clustering, the efficiency of industry can be drastically increased.
The focus of R-Aces therefore is to turn high-potential, high-impact industrial clusters into Ecoregions that achieve at least a 10% reduction in emissions. An Ecoregion is an area where energy, material and information exchanges occur between various companies and actors to reduce waste and energy/material consumption. Each region is centered on an (eco-)industrial park or (eco-)business park, linked to its surroundings by a 4th/5th generation district heating/cooling network.
The consortium sees this project as a capping stone, condensing the knowledge and experience gathered throughout H2020 into a set of three focused tools embedded in selected support actions. The tools consist of an assessment tool; legal decision support for joint contracts; and a smart energy management platform for clusters. The support actions are built around peer-to-peer learning, more formal coursework and serious games.
Together they enable a cluster to really become an EcoRegion and set up meaningful energy collaboration.
The entire package of tools and support is aimed at the high-potential clusters identified in the European Thermal Roadmap. It will be validated in three of them (all are part of the consortium); actively deployed in another seven; and disseminated to ninety of them. In addition, the tools and support methodology will be made available to third parties in a sustainable way after the end of this two-year project.
The project consortium consists of the entire value chain needed for energy collaboration – suppliers, ESCO, cluster managers, support – and represents many years of proven experience in this field.
Fields of science
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinator
3818 JN Amersfoort
Netherlands