Sustainable Places 2024

The BDTA is an international initiative aiming to facilitate coordinated decision-making among stakeholders in the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operation, and Ownership sectors by digitally replicating the European Union's building stock. The initiative aims to create an open and ethical technoeconomic ecosystem that supports the full implementation of Building Digital Twin environments, including all stakeholders and lifecycle phases of smart and connected real estate and infrastructure assets. The Fifth Building Digital Twin International Congress is scheduled for May 13-15, 2025 in Kaunas. The BDTA focuses on developing and publishing research, certifications, and specific assets to advance the Building Digital Twin sector. The organization is made up of companies and individuals collaborating to shape the future of the industry. https://buildingdigitaltwin.org/

The EU-funded ACCEPT project aims to develop a digital toolbox for energy communities to offer innovative digital services and access revenue streams that can support their functions and ensure sustainability. The project aims to address the challenges of grid integration of variable renewable energy sources, which present challenges in matching their non-deterministic output to electricity demand. The ACCEPT framework will be demonstrated and validated in four pilot sites in Greece, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland, involving over 3,000 people and 750 residences. The project aims to fill the gap by providing a digital toolbox that allows energy communities to offer desired digital services and access revenue streams to support their operations. https://www.accept-project.eu/

The EU-funded SENDER project aims to transform energy consumers into collaborators in the energy sector by promoting co-creation. The project will develop energy service applications for proactive demand response (DR), home automation convenience, and security mechanisms. By engaging customers in a co-creation process, the project will shift DR from a reactive to a proactive approach. Consumer data will be collected and processed using artificial intelligence technologies to identify consumption patterns and aggregate supply/demand characteristics. Grid operators will benefit from increased efficiency and hosting capacity of distribution networks. The project envisions business models that allow interoperability with legacy systems and third-party applications, with consumers receiving a fair share of DSOs profit from flexibility use. https://www.sender-h2020.eu/

The EU-funded HESTIA project aims to develop a cost-effective solution for next-generation demand-side response services, leveraging consumer engagement, energy and non-energy services, and engaging residential consumers. The project aims to encourage flexibility sharing and grid balancing, laying the foundation for an open marketplace and a new grid reality. HESTIA will exploit energy demand flexibility by engaging consumers in demand-side management activities and valorising energy efficiency in multi-carrier energy dispatching and optimal building system operation. The project will involve residents in the design process, create community engagement methodology, and provide tailored tools for a broader rollout. User-personalized services will be delivered via a service-oriented, flexible ICT platform, underpinned by agent-based concepts, consumer digital twin, and non-intrusive data analytics. https://hestia-eu.com/

The EU-funded SmartSPIN project aims to improve energy efficiency and flexibility in commercial buildings by developing a new business model that combines performance-based contracting with energy monitoring, management, and measurement and verification technologies. This approach aims to increase the uptake of Smart Energy Services (SES) in the commercial rented sector, which has significant potential for energy efficiency and flexibility. The project will develop a SmartSPIN business model toolkit, which includes technical resources like data-based M&V tools and predictive algorithms for building operation and control, as well as non-technical resources like best practice guides, contractual templates, case studies, and infographics. The toolkit will be validated through extensive stakeholder engagement and demonstrated effectiveness in three pilot regions (Spain, Greece, and Ireland). To maximize impact, SmartSPIN will train 350 stakeholders on the business model's key features through pan-European exploitation workshops and webinars, who will become early adopters beyond the project's end. https://www.smartspin.eu/