Presenting the energy transition, the ACCESS way!
The ACCESS project organised a workshop to explain the challenges and steps Flemish cities need to go through to achieve energy transition at city level. And what role can smart mobility play in this? This session was part of the Inspiration Day 'Behaviour in Change' on Thursday September 22, 2021 in Lamot, Mechelen.
In the session, the participants explained the challenges and steps that Flemish cities must take in order to realise the energy transition at city level. How much must their energy consumption decrease and the production of renewable energy increase in order to evolve towards a climate neutral city? And what role can smart mobility play in this?
The ACCESS pilot project in Mechelen is investigating how the new Keerdok parking building can be more autonomous. During the session the pilot was presented and discussed covering questions such as; Can we use locally produced energy to charge electric cars smartly? Can the energy from solar panels be optimised and are there ways to store surplus energy? What added value does sharing energy with the supermarket and offices in the parking tower have?
The day kicked off with VITO researcher Evi Lambie giving the audience an introduction to the broader ACCESS project. Including the ACCESS approach to the energy transition and an overview of the different pilots and project partners within the project. Evi explained the methodology used in order to map energy consumption and renewable energy production and how to determine the goals for a roadmap towards a climate positive city. VITO’s planning tool The Urban Energy Pathfinder (UEP) was briefly presented a tool which allows the development of local energy roadmaps on district and city-level.
With the support of ACCESS, the city of Mechelen is developing an innovative mobility hub linked to sustainable energy in the new Keerdok car park. Ann Vandeurzen and Veerle De Meyer explained how the Keerdok project fits into Mechelen's overall climate ambitions, the process itself, which steps the city has completed and the challenges they identified along the way alongside the lessons learned.
To close the event Emmanuel Vierstraete from Ingenium, gave shape to the vision on charging infrastructure, smart charging and energy sharing in Parking Keerdok. Emmanuel highlighted why an efficient Energy Management System is needed in order to maximize the potential of the Keerdok car park and later determined the sense and nonsense of Energy Sharing in general, and the opportunities it creates for the Keerdok car park. To learn more about the Mechelen pilot you can watch their explainer video here.
Thank you to all participants for this insightful event, ACCESS is looking forward to more events to come early next year to showcase our project and energy transition!