A central activity of CIRCUSOL is to validate circular solar service models in five large-scale demonstrators. The demonstrators are selected to represent different market segments (residential, commercial and utility), different European countries (Germany, Belgium and Switzerland), and different scale (from single sites to the entire region). Together they will validate three key success factors of circular service business models:
- Environmental benefits. The demonstrators will deploy second-life PV and batteries in different market applications. Net environmental impacts will be evaluated using life cycle methods. As an additional outcome, the demonstrators will also show that solar PSS models can speed up the transition towards renewable energy.
- Market competitiveness. The demonstrators will co-create value propositions addressing end-user needs in different market segments and different countries. The value propositions will be first tested and improved in single-site demonstrators, and later offered in regional demonstrators to validate market attractiveness at large scales.
- Financial health. All demonstrators are real-life, meaning that capital investments will be paid by the CIRCUSOL service provider partners (and eventually through payments by the clients) under commercial agreements without subsidy.
Cloverleaf (Heusden-Zolder, Belgium; Demo lead FUTECH).
This demonstrator site is at an existing EV charging facility in Belgium. The facility already has a PV installation, provided by FUTECH under Power Purchase Agreement.
The objective is to demonstrate both the economic and technical feasibility of a storage-as-a-service model using second-life batteries for a commercial end-user. The leader is FUTECH.
Waasland Co-housing (Sint-Niklaas, Belgium; Demo lead DAIDALOS)
The Waasland co-housing complex has 22 households in a mix of apartments and terraced dwellings, with a large proportion of shared space and facilities. This demo has installed a second-life PV system (potentially also with batteries) at the co-housing complex, and test new service propositions co-created with the residents, such as energy consumption feedback and optimization.
This demo, lead by DAIDALOS, aims to demonstrate solar PSS value propositions for the Belgian residential market, a segment which has been dominated by conventional ownership. It also aims to evaluate technical feasibility and market potential of second-life PV (and batteries) for residential applications.
Scaling PSS (Wohlen bei Bern and LaGoule, Switzerland; Demo lead BKW)
This demo will roll out solar power services in subsequent steps at different geographic scales in Switzerland:
- Neighbourhood level: 30 individual home owners living in a neighbourhood.
- Village level: 1000 individual homes owners living in the community of Wohlen bei Bern.
- Region level: 30,000 individual home owners living in the region of LaGoule.
The operational path to scale up from a single site to a whole region is complex and highly challenging. Each home is privately owned and each owner has individual preferences and individual investment possibilities. It is important to coordinate and synchronize stakeholders in a way that services (e.g. installation and maintenance) can be offered in a cost-efficient way.
The goal of this demo lead by BKW is to establish an economical geographical scaling path of solar PSS models in the residential segment, enabled by cost-efficient operational processes with innovative software.
REScoop PV (Flanders, Belgium; Demo lead ECOPOWER)
In this demo, ECOPOWER will launch the solar PSS offer to its member base of 50,000 Flemish citizens. The PSS will then be implemented in the households signed up for the offer.
This demonstrator is a large-scale market replication experiment for 1) residential market acceptance of solar PSS value propositions; 2) operational process for scaling up solar PSS in individual households at the regional level.
MICRO E-MOBILITY CHARGING HUBS (BERLIN, GERMANY; DEMO LEAD SUNCRAFTER)
The demo site lead by SunCrafter will demonstrate that second life solar can also be a business case in an urban environment. There is a growing electricity demand in cities due to the increased presence of light electric vehicles like eBikes and eScooters. Charing these vehicles is still a big issue and electricity access in a city can be very difficult because of complex regulations. With our off-grid solution, it is way easier to provide charging infrastructure.
Go to next topic.