#User involvement

🌍✨ Join Us in Making a Difference! ✨🌍
We're excited to launch a groundbreaking project aimed at transforming e-waste into educational opportunities! 🚀📚 As part of our commitment to sustainability and digital literacy, we're collecting smartphones, laptops, and other electronics to support vibrant educational workshops in Rwanda.
Why join us? By participating, you'll:

• 🌱 Support environmental sustainability by helping reduce e-waste.
• 📖 Contribute to enhancing digital literacy among underserved communities.
• 🤝 Be part of a global movement advocating for responsible technology use.
• 🎓 Help provide essential skills that can transform lives and foster long-term growth.

We're looking for individuals and organizations to donate devices, share expertise, or sponsor our efforts. Every contribution makes a real difference, and together, we can create a more sustainable and inclusive future. 🌟
Let's reshape the future, one device at a time. Join us in this exciting journey and be credited in our upcoming documentary that highlights the collective efforts of our incredible partners from Germany, Latvia, and the Netherlands. 🎥🌍
CONTACT US THROUGH EMAIL - madaralace1999@gmail.com

Greetings Trailblazing Visionaries,
Get ready for a seismic shift in sustainability! We're ByeBye Bed Limited, a force of innovation since 2019, experiencing a staggering 900% growth, and now we're inviting you to be part of our electrifying journey - Reborn Products.
The Powerhouse Behind ByeBye Bed Limited: Meet Paul Beckett, the maverick entrepreneur who saw a goldmine in recycling. His vision isn’t just about mattresses; it’s about transforming waste into a treasure trove of sustainable, retail-worthy products. The world is ready for this revolution, and we're leading the charge.
Dazzling Growth, Unstoppable Momentum: From a modest 6,000 sq. ft. to our current 60,000 sq. ft. facility, we've supersized our operation to revolutionise recycling on a grand scale. Brace yourself for a dedicated manufacturing facility that will catapult our capabilities into the stratosphere.
Reborn Products: Where Sustainability Meets Luxury: Our 'Reborn' products aren't just eco-friendly; they're a testament to style, comfort, and sustainability. From avant-garde mattresses to chic futon chairs and everything in between, we’re turning waste into opulence. Currently, 96% of our materials are recycled, making us the pinnacle of green innovation.
Crushing the Landfill Crisis: We're not just talking the talk; we're walking it, stomping on the UK landfill crisis that swallows almost 5,000,000 mattresses each year. We're not just recycling; we're redefining waste, turning it into a jaw-dropping spectacle of sustainability.
Financial Dynamo: Fueling the Future: Hold on tight because the next phase is a financial thunderstorm. We're not just enhancing the use of our recycled materials; we're rewriting the rules of industry, starting with furniture making. Imagine a world where our waste stream becomes the lifeblood of innovation.
Revolutionary Padding Material: Unleashing the Future: Introducing our game-changing padding material, birthed from our waste streams. It's not just 100% recyclable; it's a disruptor, challenging the status quo and reshaping the very fabric of eco-friendly living.
Invest in Tomorrow: ByeBye Bed Limited is the Future: This isn’t just a crowdfunding opportunity; it’s your ticket to invest in the future of sustainability. Join the movement, fuel the revolution, and be part of a success story that will be told for generations.
Social Impact: Building Lives, Breaking Chains: But wait, there's more! Our initiative with HMP isn’t just about recycling materials; it's about recycling lives. We're rehabilitating prisoners, re-skilling them for a triumphant return to society. And the best part? They potentially become integral members of our powerhouse workforce.
Your Invitation to Greatness: Investing in ByeBye Bed Limited and Reborn Products isn’t just about returns; it’s about being part of a seismic shift. This is your opportunity to be on the ground floor of something monumental.
Interested in More Details? Ignite the Revolution - Join Us Now: Email us for more details and become part of a future where recycling isn’t just responsible; it’s a lifestyle. Let's redefine waste, together.
Thank you for daring to dream big with ByeBye Bed Limited and Reborn Products.

Grid congestion is becoming increasingly significant and will start to pose a problem in the low-voltage network in the coming years. This will prevent homeowners from transitioning away from gas, result in low efficiency for their solar panels, and could make it impossible to have a charging station at their doorstep. Alliander does not want to hinder the energy transition. Therefore, they are looking for a way to involve homeowners in the issue of grid congestion and provide solutions that are still feasible with a crowded grid.

In the energy work session on the 14th of December, Wouter van Rooijen (Alliander) discussed the challenges related to grid congestion. From 2030 onwards, it is expected that a significant portion of the low-voltage network will experience both over- and under-voltage. While the network will be reinforced as quickly as possible, the lack of labour capacity is also prompting the consideration of alternative solutions.

The solution that emerged from Wouter's co-creation process was WijkWise. In this work session, Wouter aimed to validate the WijkWise concept and find parties that could contribute to its development and market implementation. Dave van Loon from Kennisland moderated the session.

WijkWise – Understanding the neighbourhood's grid situation

The WijkWise concept focuses on three problems:

• The growth of grid congestion at low-voltage
• Homeowners' uncertainty about making sustainable investments. For instance, because they may not know if their solar panels will yield a good return.
• Homeowners' lack of awareness regarding the impact their choices have on the stability of the grid.

The proposed solution:
"With WijkWise, Alliander continues to facilitate homeowners in making their homes more sustainable. Alliander does this by providing insight into the neighbourhood's grid situation and recommending the best investment. Residents can make informed choices that contribute to payback time, comfort, and certainty. A good choice benefits both the homeowner and the grid operator."

The idea is to provide more insight into the neighbourhood's grid situation and offer tailored advice for home sustainability. This way, homeowners can determine whether they should invest in insulation, a heat pump, or solar panels.

Alliander does not want to develop this concept alone, but is seeking partners to bring this concept to market.

Discussion

After the concept presentation, a brief discussion followed. The main questions raised were:

• Can providing insight into the neighbourhood's grid situation have (negative) effects on the housing market?
  → They don't know yet; further investigation is needed.
• Can this data be shared freely?
  → The data shared will be at the neighbourhood level (transformer level) and not in real-time (monthly). If there is user data involved, consent must be obtained.
• What behaviour change do you expect?
  → That, during the investment moment, consideration will be given to the grid situation for the most advantageous investment.

After the discussion, we worked in groups with the Empathy Canvas from Kennisland to view the WijkWise concept from the perspective of the homeowners. This tool helped us really view the problems from the perspective of a homeowner.

Empathy Mapping

In three groups, we delved into the homeowner's situation. The recurring themes in the empathy maps were:

• A sense of unfairness for the homeowner. They invest in sustainability and are rewarded with grid congestion problems.
• A feeling of uncertainty for the homeowner. They want assurance that their investment will yield results.
• Little trust in the grid operator and the government. First, everyone had to get solar panels, and now suddenly it doesn't fit, and net metering is being discontinued (or not?)
• Limited understanding by homeowners because they find it very complicated and don't want to delve into it. It's not an urgent problem for them.
• Collaboratively seeking solutions can be very positive, but can also lead to friction.

Alliander plans to take the next steps with this concept in 2024. In 2024, they are planning to do the follow-up research, make the minimal viable product, and launch the first version of the product at the end of the year.

Do you know of any stakeholders that absolutely need to be involved, or would you like to be involved in the implementation of the WijkWise concept? Please contact Noor at noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com. Special thanks to Wouter and Dave for this interesting session.

Kom op 29 november naar de KL Brouwerij, laat je inspireren door het theaterstuk ‘De zaak Shell’ en ontrafel samen met ons – midden in de buurt – de wirwar aan verantwoordelijkheden bij het aanpakken van de klimaatcrisis.

Een aantal keer per jaar organiseert Kennisland de KL Brouwerij. Dan laten we ons werk even voor wat het is en brouwen we samen nieuwe ideeën voor maatschappelijke uitdagingen. We brengen leven in de brouwerij door te ontdekken, smeden, broeden, fantaseren en borrelen. Dit doen we met partners, experts, ervaringsdeskundigen en betrokkenen bij het vraagstuk dat centraal staat, en waar we meer over willen leren. De derde KL Brouwerij staat in het teken van de klimaatrechtvaardige samenleving: hoe zorgen we ervoor dat iedereen op een eerlijke manier verantwoordelijkheid neemt in het aanpakken van de klimaatcrisis?

Hoe ziet een klimaatrechtvaardige samenleving eruit?

De klimaatcrisis is niet eerlijk. Rijke mensen, bedrijven en landen veroorzaken de meeste schade, terwijl vooral arme mensen de gevolgen voelen. Als we de klimaatcrisis willen stoppen, moeten we deze cirkel doorbreken. Maar wiens verantwoordelijkheid is dat eigenlijk en wie is er het eerst aan zet? De consument die zijn eigen klimaatvoetafdruk moet verkleinen? Vervuilende bedrijven die steeds meer winst maken en ondertussen profiteren van fossiele subsidies? Of de overheid die met wetten, regels en beleid belangrijke koerswijzigingen kan realiseren, maar dat te weinig doet? Tijdens deze KL Brouwerij ontrafelen we samen die wirwar. Dat doen we met theater, inspirerende buurtinitiatieven en vooral veel ruimte voor uitwisseling en gesprek.

De zaak Shell

We starten met live theater uit het prijswinnende stuk De zaak Shell. Regisseurs Anoek Nuyens en Rebekka de Wit bezochten Shells aandeelhoudersvergaderingen, ploegden door beleidsnota’s van de overheid en schreven mee met opmerkingen van familieleden aan het kerstdiner. In dit stuk komen alle stemmen in het klimaatdebat samen en zien we hoe elke partij de verantwoordelijkheid naar de ander doorschuift.

Klimaatrechtvaardigheid in de wijk

Na het theaterstuk brengen we dit gigantische onderwerp terug tot het niveau van de wijk. Hoe kunnen we ervoor zorgen dat de klimaatmaatregelen in wijken op een rechtvaardige manier vorm krijgen? We verhuizen voor deze editie van de KL Brouwerij naar buurthuis De Witte Boei, in het hart van de Oostelijke Eilanden, niet ver van het Marineterrein, midden in de buurt.

Kom ook en praat mee!

Deze KL Brouwerij vindt plaats op woensdag 29 november van 16.30-18.30 uur in buurthuis De Witte Boei op Kleine Wittenburgerstraat 201 in Amsterdam. Er is een beperkt aantal plaatsen, dus meld je snel aan via onderstaande link! Stuur voor vragen een mailtje naar Nina Sandford via ns@kl.nl.

 
Ik heb de laatste jaren honderden posts geschreven over stedelijke ontwikkeling, innovatie en organisatie. Vele daarvan hebben op deze website gestaan. Ik verschuif mijn schrijfactiviteiten geleidelijk naar het thema waarvan mijn hart sneller gaat kloppen, namelijk muziek.  In mijn nieuwe Nederlandstalige blog 'Expeditie muziek' (zie de link hieronder) verken ik wekelijk een ander facet.  Deze week is dat de geschiedenis van de blues, vorige week heb ik een top tien samengesteld van de in mijn ogen mooiste Nederlandstalige liedjes 'ooit'. Neem eens een kijkje.

The ground is full of cables, pipes, and other assets but we don’t always know exactly where they are located. Digging is the most common practice to look for assets, however, this has many negative impacts. It can lead to damage to assets, it costs time and money to dig, and it is often an inconvenience to the direct surroundings.

Therefore, it would be extremely convenient if we could find methods to locate assets without having to dig. We are looking for start-ups, research groups, and knowledge institutions that have developed or can develop a technology that can scan, detect, or sense, underground assets without digging.

Are you the person we are looking for, or do you know the person or organisation we are looking for? Please let us know by sending a message to noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com or leaving a comment below.

Op 31 oktober organiseren FAN en TKI Urban Energy de tweede fysieke netwerkbijeenkomst van de Smart Energy Community, in het testlab van ElaadNL, Arnhem, met als onderwerp:
 
Domotica en Home Energy Management Systems in de praktijk
 
Eindgebruikers aan het woord
Hoe weerbarstig is de praktijk? Sommige eindgebruikers zijn zelf al aan de slag gegaan met domotica om hun energiegebruik slim aan te sturen. Wij laten drie van deze enthousiastelingen aan het woord: Jan Kerdel, Michiel Damoiseaux & Harm van den Brink. Wat zijn hun ervaringen? Waar liepen ze tegenaan?
 
Setting the scene: HEMS & Domotica
Jasmijn Kleij van TKI Urban Energy gaat in op de vraag of Domotica ook kansen op voor slim energiemanagement biedt, of dat het nu nog vooral een oplossing voor de enthousiaste knutselaars.
 
Praktische lessen uit Belgie
Giovanni Oorthuizen van Xemex zal een presentatie geven over de nieuwe wet- en regelgeving in België, hoe zij daarop inspelen met energiediensten, en hun ervaringen met eindgebruikers.
 
En verder
* Paneldiscussie over Domotica, energiemanagement en de rol van de eindgebruiker
* Speeddaten & netwerken
 
Aanmelden
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/subscribe
 
Volledige programma ochtendsessie:
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/wiki/924116/ochtendprogramma
 
Volledige programma middagsessie: 'Smart Energy Day 2.0', georganiseerd door TKI Urban Energy, Dutch Power, Connectr, RVO en ElaadNL
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/part_program

Op 31 oktober organiseren FAN en TKI Urban Energy de tweede fysieke netwerkbijeenkomst van de Smart Energy Community, in het testlab van ElaadNL, Arnhem, met als onderwerp:
 
Domotica en Home Energy Management Systems in de praktijk
 
Eindgebruikers aan het woord
Hoe weerbarstig is de praktijk? Sommige eindgebruikers zijn zelf al aan de slag gegaan met domotica om hun energiegebruik slim aan te sturen. Wij laten drie van deze enthousiastelingen aan het woord: Jan Kerdel, Michiel Damoiseaux & Harm van den Brink. Wat zijn hun ervaringen? Waar liepen ze tegenaan?
 
Setting the scene: HEMS & Domotica
Jasmijn Kleij van TKI Urban Energy gaat in op de vraag of Domotica ook kansen op voor slim energiemanagement biedt, of dat het nu nog vooral een oplossing voor de enthousiaste knutselaars.
 
Praktische lessen uit Belgie
Giovanni Oorthuizen van Xemex zal een presentatie geven over de nieuwe wet- en regelgeving in België, hoe zij daarop inspelen met energiediensten, en hun ervaringen met eindgebruikers.
 
En verder
* Paneldiscussie over Domotica, energiemanagement en de rol van de eindgebruiker
* Speeddaten & netwerken
 
Aanmelden
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/subscribe
 
Volledige programma ochtendsessie:
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/wiki/924116/ochtendprogramma
 
Volledige programma middagsessie: 'Smart Energy Day 2.0', georganiseerd door TKI Urban Energy, Dutch Power, Connectr, RVO en ElaadNL
https://www.aanmelder.nl/smartenergyday/part_program

ATELIER is an EU funded project about AmsTErdam and BiLbao cItizen drivEn smaRt cities, aiming to create and replicate Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) within eight European cities. ATELIER showcases innovative solutions that integrate buildings with smart mobility and technologies to create rather than consume energy in its two Lighthouse Cities Amsterdam (Netherlands) and Bilbao (Spain). The Fellow Cities of ATELIER, Bratislava (Slovak Republic), Budapest (Hungary), Copenhagen (Denmark), Krakow (Poland), Matosinhos (Portugal), and Riga (Latvia), will replicate and adapt the successfully implemented solutions and thus serve as testbeds for future smart cities. Overall, ATELIER will thus generate an energy surplus of 1340 MWh of primary energy and save 1,7 kt of CO2 and 23 t of NOx-emissions.
To achieve successful implementations of energy saving measures, ATELIER puts citizens at the centre of all its activities: residents (<9000), local initiatives and energy communities will be included in decision-making processes and activities and will be strongly engaged in the development of the technical solutions throughout the project. Citizens will be involved in the Innovation Ateliers to create a maximum impact for the PEDs.
30 partners from 11 countries are working in 10 work packages.

Learn more about ATELIER at its public website (http://www.smartcity-atelier.eu/) or via the ATELIER Twitter and LinkedIn channels. Sign up here (link follows) for the ATELIER newsletter. Follow the project virtually and don’t miss an opportunity to come talk to its partners at events to learn more about how ATELIER will improve the life of its citizens and the liveability in its cities!

Ben je een ondernemer met een duurzaam product of duurzame dienst en wil je écht impact maken? Dinsdag 10 oktober organiseert de gemeente Amsterdam in samenwerking met gemeente Haarlem het matchmaking-evenement voor het unieke aanbestedingstraject Scale Up Toekomstbestendige kunstgrasvelden. Elke ondernemer die bij kan dragen aan innovatieve en duurzame toepassingen op en onder kunstgrasvelden, is welkom!
 
Tijdens deze middag maak je kennis met het project 'Scale Up Toekomstbestendige Kunstgrasvelden' en word je geïnspireerd en uitgedaagd  hoe jouw bedrijf bij kan dragen aan deze revolutie. Je ontmoet andere waardevolle en gedreven ondernemers met dezelfde visie, die bereid zijn samen te werken aan de toekomst van sportvelden. Wie weet vind jij wel de perfecte samenwerkingspartner! Meld je direct aan.
 
Datum: dinsdag 10 oktober 2023
Tijd: 13.30 – 18.00 uur
Locatie: Johan Cruijff ArenA, Amsterdam
 
Programma
13.30 - 14.00              Inloop
14.00 - 14.45              Welkom en keynote spreker
14.45 - 15.30              Presentatie Scale Up aanbesteding
15.30 - 15.50              Pauze
15.50 - 17.30              Speeddating & marktplein
17.30 - 18.00              Netwerkborrel
 
Wie zoeken ze?
Amsterdam en Haarlem zoeken verschillende partijen, die samen (in consortia), innovatieve oplossingen ontwikkelen voor de verschillende ambities. Het doel: duurzame kunstgrasvelden van circulaire materialen, die bijdragen aan een verbeterde waterhuishouding, een betere aanpak van hittestress en een algemene positieve bijdrage aan het energievraagstuk. Denk bijvoorbeeld aan een systeem voor wateropslag of composteerbare materialen. Dus ook voor bedrijven en innovators die momenteel niet actief zijn in de kunstgrasbranche kan deze opgave interessant zijn! 
 
Samen maken we impact
Dat is het motto! Benoemde gemeentes willen, in samenwerking met marktpartijen, een positieve verandering teweegbrengen in de negatieve effecten van kunstgras. En met meer dan 200 sportvelden in Amsterdam en Haarlem, kan er veel impact gemaakt worden bij het verduurzamen van de stad en andere steden.
 
Lees meer over dit project op: kunstgrasvelden.innovatiepartners.nl 
 
Disclaimer: Het is niet verplicht om deel te nemen aan het matchmaking event om mee te kunnen doen met de aanbesteding. Het project wordt deels gefinancierd door het LIFE Programme van de Europese Unie. De weergegeven standpunten en meningen zijn echter uitsluitend die van de auteur(s) en weerspiegelen niet noodzakelijkerwijs die van de Europese Unie of CINEA. Noch de Europese Unie, noch de subsidieverlenende autoriteit kan hiervoor verantwoordelijk worden gehouden. Aan deze artikelen kunnen geen rechten worden ontleend, de aanbestedingsstukken bij de publicatie van de aanbesteding zijn leidend. 

This is the 8th episode of a series 25 building blocks to create better streets, neighbourhoods, and cities. The question is whether a distribution of services over the whole area contributes to the quality of the urban environment.
 
The central parts of cities like Siena, Amsterdam and Barcelona are overrun by visitors and tourists. Partly because Airbnb has increased its overnight capacity by withdrawing homes from their actual destination. As a result, these cities see their real estate prices rise ans residents leave, making room for expensive apartments, boutique hotels and corporate headquarters. Eventually, old city centers will become amusement parks that offer twenty-four hours of entertainment.

The need for distributed centers

There are no objections against visiting nice cities. The underlying problem is that many of these cities have few other places of interest left, partly due to destruction in the Second World War and their rapid expansion afterwards. Therefore, some cities are in urgent need to create additional attractive places and become polycentric. This aligns with the intention of cities to become a 15-minute city. The figure above is a model developed for this purpose by the council of Portland (USA).
Because of this policy, the prospect is that residents can buy their daily necessities close to home. At the other hand, tourists will be spread. What attractive neighborhood centers look like will be discussed in a subsequent post.

Ancillary centers

Cities without an inordinate number of tourists and visitors also observe a steady grow in the number of events, all competing for the same locations. For this reason, it is advisable that cities have a few ancillary centers each with one or two crowd pullers that divide the stream of visitors. An example is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and its newly developed public space around. In world cities such as London and New York, such centers have existed for years, but they are sometimes difficult to find because they are spread over a large area.
Amsterdam too urgently needs one or more ancillary centers. The area between Leidseplein and the Rijksmuseum has potential but lacks unity due to the chaotic intersections of roads and tram lines. The presence of a train or metro station is an advantage, that is why the area near Station Zuid also has potential.

Peripheral centers

Next decade, many visitors will still arrive by car and the best policy is to seduce them to leave their cars at safe transfer points to continue their journey by public transport. For visitors who intend to stay longer, this solution is not optimal. Many will dismiss the perspective of carrying their luggage to the hotel by public transport, although taking a cab is an alternative, albeit expensive. The alternative is the presence of a couple of affordable hotels next to the car park and the development of these areas into attractive public space, with shops, cafes, and restaurants, as a starting point to visit places of interest in the city. These centers can also accommodate major events, such as a football stadium, a music hall, cinemas and open-air festivities, because of the presence of large scale parking facilities. The Amsterdam Arena district is developing in this direction. It used to be a desolate place, but it's getting better. There are excellent train and metro links.

And what about the old 'old' city center?

The public spaces in the old city centers must meet the same requirements as the whole city to prevent becoming an amusement park for tourists. Aside from its carefully maintained and functionally integrated cultural legacy, centers should provide a mix of functions, including housing, offices, spaces for craft and light industry and plenty of greenery dedicated to its inhabitants. The number of hotels should be limited and renting out by Airbnb prohibited. There will be shops for both residents and tourists, rents must be frozen, and the speculative sale of houses curbed. Space over shops must be repurposed for apartments.
 
Follow the link below to find an overview of all articles.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/x39qvzkw687rxsjvhsrzn/overzicht-blogposts-Eng.docx?rlkey=vpf7pwlfxkildpr9r062t5gf2&dl=0

Waar je woont en hoe je leeft, heeft invloed op je gezondheid. Hoe kunnen we de leefomgeving inrichten om de gezondheid van bewoners te bevorderen en gezondheidsachterstanden te verminderen? Tijdens deze KL Brouwerij gaan we samen op buurtsafari op het Marineterrein in Amsterdam.

Het Marineterrein is een prachtige leefomgeving, waar veel geëxperimenteerd wordt met creatieve innovaties die de leefomgeving en publieke ruimte van de toekomst voorbereiden. Op 28 september gaan we samen op safari over het terrein. We ervaren zelf hoe een aantal van deze experimenten onze leefomgeving verbeteren. Daarna vertelt Annick Mantoua, directeur van De Gezonde Stad over hoe zij samen met bewoners en de gemeente een initiatief hebben opgestart dat leidt tot aanpassingen in de fysieke leefomgeving en de bevordering van de gezondheid in de buurt.

We laten ons inspireren door de leefomgeving van de toekomst. We zoeken naar inspiratie voor wat er allemaal mogelijk is en zal zijn in de openbare ruimte, en ontwerpen vervolgens onze eigen ideeën. Kom ook!

De KL Brouwerij wordt georganiseerd door Kennisland. Een aantal keer per jaar laten we ons werk even voor wat het is en brouwen we samen nieuwe ideeën voor maatschappelijke uitdagingen. We brengen leven in de brouwerij door te ontdekken, smeden, broeden, fantaseren en borrelen. Dit doen we met partners, experts, ervaringsdeskundigen en betrokkenen bij het vraagstuk dat die middag centraal staat, en waar we meer over willen leren.

Deze KL Brouwerij vindt plaats op <strong>28 september van 16.30-18.30 uur</strong>. Meer informatie en aanmelden kan via onderstaande link. Via e-mail houden we je op de hoogte over het programma. Heb je vragen? Stuur dan een mailtje naar Faduma Mukhtar via fm@kl.nl. 

Thursday, the 30th of August, we had the first follow-up session about Local Energy Systems (LES) since the Transition day session in June. Over the summer Omar Shafqat (HvA, ATELIER), dr. Renée Heller (HvA), and Lennart Zwols (municipality of Amsterdam), have worked on finding a solution to the barriers to scaling up LES. They focused on the barrier of sharing information and learnings of LES projects. In this session, Omar presented a framework that could help overcome this barrier.

A barrier to scaling up LES: Lack of knowledge
In the previous session, we discussed how the difficulty with starting a new LES project is often that the information on how to do this is not readily available. Many pilots have been done, or are still ongoing, and there are definitely reports on the learnings of these pilots. Unfortunately, these learnings are not always available to everyone, and if they are, quite difficult to find and aggregate.
Lennart therefore proposed to make a framework in which we can gather all the information on LES pilots and projects, so we have a central place for the collecting and sharing of information. Omar and Renée have created this framework, which Omar presented in this session. The framework has three objectives:

1.     Collecting the learnings of the pilots in one place.
2.     Defining the gaps in our knowledge.
3.     Creating a starting point for people who want to create their own LES.

Definition of a Local Energy System
To properly create a framework in which various information of relevant LES projects can be collected, it was necessary to have a good definition of a LES. Omar presented the definition as follows:
A local energy system is an interactive, non-linear system that must contain:

• Local generation
• Controllable demand
• Storage
• Energy Management Systems
• Energy communities

IMAGE DEFINITION LES

Hans Roeland Polman (AMS) commented that he was missing the infrastructure in this definition. Omar clarified that the lines between these five entities symbolize the infrastructure and that it is indeed an important component of LESs.
When we speak of LES it is always a balancing act. Different stakeholders have different objectives for implementing a LES, maximizing renewables, minimizing costs, flexibility/congestion, grid dependence, etc. This implies that the aspects of a LES are of differing importance to stakeholders, which is important to take into account with information gathering and sharing.

The first version of the framework for collecting information
After discussing the definition of LES, we dived into the framework. The goal of this framework is to have one format in which we collect information and learnings from all the LES pilots and projects (starting with the ones in our own network). This will allow us to speak a common language, easily compare projects, identify stakeholders and their interests, see where the knowledge gaps are, and more easily find specific information about LES.

Note: This framework is not the interface for the end-user. The framework should be used to catalogue information and learnings so that we have the information on all the different projects in the same format. We can then use this to build a user interface that end-users can interact with. How to best do this is still a topic of discussion.
The framework is presented below. On the x-axis, you can see the time scale. On the left you have the long-term (planning) phase, and on the right the short-term (management) phase.

On the left side, you can see the four areas in which the framework is divided:

• Policy
• Energy markets
• Energy systems
• Community/user aspects

The colour-coded third dimensions show which blocks relate to certain topics of interest, and should have information added on this topic. The topics of interest that have been added now are:

• Congestion
• Energy balance

It might be interesting to add others as well.

IMAGE LES FRAMEWORK

It was suggested by the group that electricity/heating might also be an interesting topic to add. Hans (AMS) also suggested that it would be interesting to add information about local infrastructure, such as a local heat network.

Discussion and questions
After the presentation of the framework a discussion followed. Many questions were raised which require further examination. A few of the key questions were:

• What should the scope be of this framework? Are we just looking at our own region, or do we want it to be used on a much larger scale?
• How do we connect to the other organizations and projects to this framework, and refrain from doing double work?
• Who is the owner of this framework and will keep it up to date?
• To make this framework usable for project managers, it should have a clear template that can be filled in. Who is going to make this, and how do we ensure that project managers of LES projects fill this in?

Next steps and call to action:
There are still many questions that need to be answered, and we will continue the research and learn by doing. We will start with the ATELIER and the LIFE project, to see if we can put them into this framework. This will be done by Omar (HvA, ATELIER), and Hans (AMS, LIFE). They will also create the first version of a template in which the information can be collected so that project managers can fill out this information. This will then be tested with the project managers of the LIFE project to see if the template and framework are indeed workable.

This will give a good starting point to see if the framework is suitable for the collection of information and learnings of LES projects. However, it will be far from complete. The ATELIER and LIFE projects don’t contain all the topics to properly test the framework and create templates for everything. We therefore need more partners with LES projects that can help test and develop this framework.

So if you are working on a Local Energy System project, and you would like to help further develop the framework, by giving feedback on the framework itself or using your project to validate the effectiveness of the framework, please let us know.

KNX and FLEXCON2023 are hosting an in-depth KNX IoT development workshop. Are you a developer who wants to build Smart Energy applications? Bring your RPi’s and other Linux devices and come to Les Brigittines in Brussels on September 20th ! Connect heatpumps, EV's, Solar systems, smart meters, sensors, batteries etc to the smartgrid

In this workshop, you will get to understand the KNX IoT development approach. You will get your hands om a state-of-the-art test bench, equipped with a virtual KNX installation featuring actuators with load control and real-time current detection, providing instant power consumption insights.

The workshop is free of charge. We have only 8 spots available, so apply now! For more information and subscription to the KNX IoT workshop on September 20th:
https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7460981/FLEXCON-2023-KNX-IoT-Workshop

For information on the #FLEXCON2023 event:
https://flexcon.energy

Energetic for energy

The technology is here. People and organizations are there. We have a lot of learnings from innovation pilots like Live and Atelier: we're all set. And yet, scaling up local energy systems like Live and Atelier seems to be incredibly difficult. What are the obstacles and barriers to scaling up these initiatives? These questions were the focus of the working session "local energy systems, scale up, scale up, scale up”.   The partners unanimously recognized the issue of scaling up as it affected all of them, and enthousiastically engaged in the work session.

Barrieres for upscaling

Together we searched for the actual challenges where local energy systems can be a solution, and the barriers for upscaling. We looked at the first actionable follow-up steps to achieve the required upscaling.

We chose a <em>chair battle</em> as work format and had an open and honest conversation about the challenges we face. It was fascinating to see that sometimes the different stakeholders, despite having the same goal, cannot come to an agreement and this can lead to considerable frustration.   

What we learned?

A lot! The picture report says more than a thousand words, but  in short:
·      We can only solve this challenge together; and that’s difficult
·      Citizens and companies often do not know where to go and often do not know the existing possibilities
·      We have the same goal, but there are many different interests
·      The solutions are already there

And now?

We will continue the topic with great energy in the coming period and try to set up a fixed program structure to keep the development up to speed. 

Do you want to know more about this challenge? Please let me know. patricia@amsterdamsmartcity.com

The transition towards a circular economy and the energy transition are both needed to reach a sustainable economy and society. The two are intertwined, as the materials needed for the energy transition (such as solar panels) are enormous and the speed of the energy transition is very dependent on the availability of sustainable raw materials, scarce earth metals and biomass. An integral approach is needed in the Metropolitan Region Amsterdam.

Metropolitan Region Amsterdam (MRA), City of Amsterdam, Province of North Holland (PNH) and Amsterdam Economic Board commit to actively stimulating this integral approach. In the session on the Transition day, we explored what the current connection or disconnection is between the two transitions in order to define the best next step.

Insights of the session

Led by Marielle de Bloois of Royal HaskoningDHV, all participants drew the current situation of both transitions. By explaining our drawings to each other, we all got new insights into the current situation and barriers between the two transitions. The main findings, visualised by Thomas van Daalen of Flatland are:

• There is enormous attention for the energy transition in terms of money, people and communication;
• There is only little attention for circular economy whilst the urgency is nothing less;
• People working on the transitions are working in separate teams with little connection whilst they are working on the same societal challenges;
• The circular economy is unknown and complex. If people want to connect the transitions they don’t know where to start;
• We have to rethink and link our narrative and connect people working on both transition and connect solutions.

The next steps

The session has led us to valuable new insights, and the participants are ready to take the next steps. For now, we have agreed on the following:

• The participants from the municipality of Haarlemmermeer will internally make a connection with their colleagues working on the energy transition.
• Eurofiber will dive deeper into available knowledge within their organisation.
• Edwin from the MRA will take the lead in setting up an approach with Province of North Holland, City of Amsterdam and Amsterdam Economic Board to make sure the topic of the circular energy transition will be part of the MRA agenda 2024.
• Amsterdam Smart City will keep the topic on the agenda and connect the right people around it.

To mitigate climate changes and reduce CO2 emissions, the transition of the current energy system to a more sustainable and decentralized one is needed. In Amsterdam, the Buiksloterham demonstration project from ATELIER is paving the way for this transition. Buiksloterham is a Positive Energy District (PEDs) in practise, in which a local smart energy system and P2P trading governed by a citizen’s energy cooperation is implemented. The ambition of ATELIER/Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences is to research how to upscale and replicate this PED. For the Demo Day on the 16th of May, the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences asked the Amsterdam Smart City network to discuss how we can learn from the Buiksloterham project to support replication and upscaling. Read through the most valuable outtakes from this session below.

What learnings to focus on?

Starting off, the participants pointed out that it would be most important to learn which choices have been made and why. Therefore, we need to keep track of these decisions and their outcomes. It was suggested to write down all the arguments for the choices made and create a matrix that shows what works or doesn’t work.

It would also be useful to make an impact assessment that shows how much CO2 and electricity is being saved a year. Another great source of information would be around collaboration, specifically with the network operator for example. How did the connection of the PED to the grid go and what learnings are to be gained from that collaboration wise?

Drivers for community involvement

Gathering the insights around community involvement would also be helpful. Danijela and Renée, from the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, explained how it has been difficult to get the community involved in the project. Based on the experience of the worksession participants, we concluded this is an issue in other local energy system projects as well. It would be great to investigate why this is the case and what the residents need/desire.

The participants suggest looking at the project from the (possible) resident’s point of view; Why would I want to live in a PED building? What’s in it for the residents?
There is a lot of focus on getting people on board with economic benefits, but is that actually what people want? This could also be connected to comprehensive wellbeing. What else can people benefit from by living in a PED and/or being involved in the community?

Local CO2 reduction vs national grid relief

The issue of getting people on board by promising lower energy costs brings up another question; Is this way of trading energy beneficial for the energy grid capacity? How would it work if we would all start trading energy?

A battery can be very useful for an energy community, for example. But batteries can actually put more load on the energy grid than needed and are therefore not always desirable when you look at it from the municipalities point of view. Local solutions for CO2 reduction and/or economic benefit could burden the national grid.

It is important to keep this in mind when creating the targets for a local energy system. In order to scale up the ATELIER project, it is therefore key to not only maximise economic value but also include other values. If the main focus is on creating economic benefit in order the gain the interest of the community, it is important to keep the effects on the national grid in mind.

New energy law

Finalizing the discussion, we shortly discussed the new energy law. This law says that you cannot own your own grid. Only the network operator can be the owner at the moment. This creates less flexibility and possibility since these network operators are obliged to provide a high certainty for the availability of electricity. The group suggested that the learnings from ATELIER might be helpful in influencing the change of this energy law. This would create more grid connection flexibility which would contribute to upscaling.

The discussion and collaboration around local energy systems and energy communities will be continued in the Amsterdam Smart City “Local energy systems” challenge. This article is written by Jessica van der Plas, former Programme Manager Energy & Circularity at Amsterdam Smart City.

From mid-june 2023, Noor Veenhoven joined the team as our new Programme Manager Energy & Circular. Want to know more about the local energy systems challenge? Reach out to Noor via noor@amsterdamsmartcity.com or leave a comment below!

Het Actienetwerk GasTerug zet zich in om zoveel mogelijk energiebesparingen te realiseren in de metropool Amsterdam. Want je bent het meest duurzaam door de energie die je niet gebruikt.

Het netwerk bestaat uit een groeiende groep van mensen die zich op verschillende gebieden hiervoor willen inzetten - en jij kunt ook meedoen!

Op 22 juni is de volgende netwerkbijeenkomst. Wil je hierbij zijn, meld je dan aan via:
https://ikzetookdeknopom.nl/2023/05/27/7e-netwerkbijeenkomst/

On June 6, Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) and TKI Urban Energy are hosting the second webinar in the 2023 series of the Smart Energy Community: "Energy Communities and other collective solutions" (in Dutch).

Opening
Opening and update on the activities of Flexiblepower Alliance Network (FAN) by Adriaan van Eck, chairman of FAN.

Starting an Energy community, but how?
If you want to set up an energy community, where should you start? How do you organise an energy cooperation? Thijs Huls from the energy community Agem, in the Achterhoek, discusses what it takes to start an Energy community in terms of data, agreements and platforms and will explain how you can make an energy community really smart about their energy.

Power pitch: Groendus
Energy communities are not just for consumers, energy cooperations can also benefit businesses and entrepreneurs. René Raaijmakers of Groendus will tell us more about the opportunities for businesses to engage collectively in energy communities.

Power pitch: BAM
Within the innovation project TROEF, BAM is developing an energy-as-service concept. Marco Thijssen of BAM will explain more about the community platform that is part of TROEF and how they use gamification to encourage users to pursue their common goal.

Guide to Smart Energy Systems
Richard de Bruin of Rebel Group presents the Smart Energy Systems Guide, a report the Rebel Group developed on behalf of TKI Urban Energy. Richard will take us through the approach and considerations involved, taking three perspectives: energy hubs, business parks and energy communities.

Register:
https://cdn.flxml.eu/f-0411e667dc269719

Website:
https://topsectorenergie.nl/nl/agenda/smart-energy-community/

As DRIFT, we’re noticing that changemakers in the energy transition are currently facing challenges that we could only dream of years ago – or that kept us up at night. In this question hour, you get to ask transition experts Gijs Diercks and Noortje Flinkenflögel all sorts of questions about the energy transition in general and our course Versnelling van de Energietransitie in particular.