Highlighting Stronghouse successes
On submitting the consortium's latest progress report, Stronghouse's overall successes have become increasingly apparent - our numbers are pretty impressive!
Highlights include:
- The support of 20.187 energy renovations throughout the Northsea Region,
- A saving of 35,5 kilotons of CO2
- A homeowners energy renovation investment of a staggering 230 million euro.
These positive developments partially result from the increased enthousiasm shared during live partner meetings in the past half year - underlining the importance of these opportunites to inspire each other through a more intensive exchange.
Danish frontrunners
In Sonderborg, Denmark, the partners learned how ProjectZero has become a frontrunner in terms of energy renovation and how the organization continues to hold a leading position in the European energy transition. By sharing their extensive experience with district heating, together with the joint efforts of Gate21 and ProjectZero to enlarge these networks, the Danish partners approach was motivational and energizing.
Stronghouse results so far show the number of energy renovations implemented and CO2 emissions reduced
Targeted support measures
During the lasest partner meeting in Aberdeen (UK) in January, the focus was on the technical challenges homeowners potentially face at the end of their Customer Journey. There are many ways to renovate, not all of them equally effective and some with questionable side-effects. The consortium learned that targeted support should be based on homeowners’ wishes, technical possibilities and effective public (financial) support. Here, the great technical expertise and research capabilities of the Robert Gordon University was especially valuable.
Another source of inspiration was the shared attention for Energy Poverty, a subject which has become increasingly important. The gap between policy makers, advisors, and professionals on the one hand, and homeowners at risk of energy poverty on the other, is large. Here, the methodoly of Stronghouse Personas is urgently needed. Transnational exchange already established extra awareness and helped to develop more targeted and more effective support locally.
Enabling instruments
Meanwhile, the development and improvement of enabling instruments continued. E.ON's digital instruments, giving homeowners ‘agency’ over their consumption, deserves a special mention - as does the overview of the (ever growing) grant and subsidy schemes developed by NMFD. Meanwhile, Drenthe continues to work on combining data from different stakeholders with a view to increasing efficiency and improving the learning culture among public and private partners.
Inspiring neighbourhood approaches
In terms of Stronghouse's neighbourhood approach, the Danish district heating examples mentioned earlier, inspired new, long-term plans for many partners. Meanwhile in Roeselare and Noordenveld, increased community awareness regarding consumption and renovation options was powered by thermographic pictures, following the best practices developed by Flemish partner IGEMO. And then there's the development of the Hoogeveen hydrogen neighbourhood which really is next level. This provides not only relevant learnings about the implementation of hydrogen heating, but also about the position of neighbourhoods in large-scale renewable energy production networks and markets.
The latest Stronghouse report illustrates the staggering investments generated.
SMEs & market access
After three years, Stronghouse now sees that market-access is not the main challenge facing SMEs and other enterprises in the field of energy renovation. Currently, the greatest challenge is finding enough skilled professionals to do the work and using human and material resources more efficiently. Here the Stronghouse customer journey approach and culture of cooperation informed shared learning in Drenthe, with FORS, and elsewhere. IGEMO’s work on an online quota tool is set to increase efficiency for homeowners and SMEs, while training courses designed by Linnaeus University, Vives and ProjectZero increase knowledge and expertise.
Adopting measures for succes
Finally, the success of all these efforts and their results depends on adopting measures - a constant factor in everything Stronghouse partners do. The lessons learned, tools used (such as Personas and the Customer Journey) and our many best practices are shared through the Stronghouse website and, increasingly, through the growing number of e-learning courses which follow the stages of the Stronghouse customer journey.