Last 24 November 2022,  CIRCUSOL Project Officer from the European Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) and the external reviewer, organised the initiative to  visit to the sites of the CIRCUSOL demonstrators located in Belgium. Following the final event at the European Parliament last 15 November 2022, the project raised a lot of interest within different stakaholders of the solar value chain, and some members of the European Commission DG Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) and Directorate-General for the Environment (DG ENV) accompanied them during this visit.

The day started with the trip to the Waasland co-housing, in the town of Sint-Niklaas. This demonstrator led by the CIRCUSOL consortium partner DAIDALOS Peutz hosts a community of 22 families that enjoy a circular and sustainable energy system. At the site, a representative from DAIDALOS and one of the Waasland inhabitants explained the visitors the concept of the co-housing and why they chose a service contract approach for their energy organisation. After this presentation, the group had a guided tour around the property.

Later that day, they headed to Cloverleaf demonstrator led by Futech in the town of Heusden-Zolder. This demonstrator consists of a truck stop and an electric vehicle (EV) charging site that is primarily powered by PV and second-life batteries, these last, provided by another one of our partners, SNAM. Representatives from Futech explained the visitors how the use of the energy-as-a-service model was upgraded with a storage service that is beneficial, both for the trucks top and for the service provider. Similarly to what happened in Waasland, the group had the chance visit the premises.