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Schieoevers: Mapping the Potential for Smart Business Parks

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Exploring a Future Without Net Congestion

Unfortunately, business owners still experience barriers in transitioning to smarter, more sustainable ways of operating. At Schieoevers business park, we collaborated with local businesses to deepen our understanding of those barriers to transitioning to a more sustainable park. We identified the issues and proposed a futureproof plan to overcome these. The results won’t just help the entrepreneurs at Schieoevers, but will be useful to everyone who’s looking to make business parks more sustainable. This is a Grid Edge Consulting project.

Date:

August 2021 - April 2022

Client(s):

Partner(s):

1

Challenge

The entrepreneurs at business park Schieoevers in Delft are eager to be more sustainable, but face lots of hurdles. Some businesses have solar panels, for example, but are having a hard time sharing the excess produced energy with their neighbors. Current legislation is making it complicated, and the financial benefits are slim. How can we help these businesses combat their location-specific challenges with regard to the energy transition? How can they become more sustainable collectively?

2

Approach

This is a Grid Edge Consulting project. We examined how a local energy market could help the businesses. It was vital to analyze the issue thoroughly, so we combined an energy, legal and financial point of view, to make sure we could get entrepreneurs on board. Two enthusiastic students from the local Haagse Hogeschool conducted interviews with 13 companies in the Schieoevers area. From those interviews, we retrieved information on the business owners’ perceived challenges related to the energy transition and collective sustainability and their vision for the future. Besides that, most of the companies interviewed provided insight into their energy data. This combination of interviews and market knowledge provided a detailed view of the case.

3

Outcome

Based on insight from local business owners, we were able to determine the energetic and financial gains of a local energy market. Our efforts resulted in a plan for the future. We advised the municipality to help businesses start their own energy service company and to take further steps on the road to sustainability with a shared solar park or shared mobility in the form of electrical vehicles.

This case has provided us with insight and a roadmap for the future. Now, BKS, the City of Delft, the metropole region of Rotterdam/The Hague, and the province of South Holland know what it takes to get to a smart energy system that works for our particular situation. We know the steps to take, how much time to set aside, and who to collaborate with.

Ronald Dijkgraaf, Projectleider Energiebesparing

Questions? Contact us!

Nienke van der Werf

Energy Consultant

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